he star of her small but wonderfully select firmament. There were
suspicious whisperings and some scandal concerning what afterwards
took place between my lady and Bolt; but as scandal and diplomacy
seemed inseparable to an European atmosphere, we as noiselessly as
possible laid the charge at the door of a certain sin.' Here he would
fling down his crutch. 'The Countess's carriage was forever at the
door, waiting the pleasure of Mr. Secretary Bolt; he had a plate
reserved at her table; he was the Adonis of her drawing-room; there
was a seat for him in her opera-box. In the front of the latter,
facing the stately front of her ladyship, one of her sweetest smiles
forced over her hard face, sat the handsome Bolt, now playing with the
tassel of her fan, then passing upon the Cavatina a sort of rosewater
approval. He had a fund of small talk always at hand, and as her
mightiness was extremely fond of such wares, so also did Bolt become a
very agreeable person. The Countess, too, would smile so
condescendingly, and keep up such a conversation with her eyes, now
and then glancing at the Earl, who dozed at a respectful distance in
the rear. If unexpectedly he exhibited signs of consciousness, Bolt
would immediately divert the subject by passing some facetious
criticisms on the rotundity of the primadonna. And then my lady would
chime in, having enjoyed her laugh: 'Your lordship never did enjoy
anything.' The Earl's nap over, and the last act near its close (her
highness never condescended to remain for the vulgar ballet, and
generally retired at the close of the fourth act), our hero would
tenderly arrange her satin, make himself so polite! and then she took
his arm so condescendingly, and exchanged the sweetest glances! How
often I pitied the poor Earl, as in the mightiness of his gravity he
would bring up the rear, bearing her ladyship's perfumed cambric.
Several times a tingle of wrath came over me, and I could not resist
the thought, that had I been in the place of the poor Earl when my
lady hung so rolickingly on the arm of Secretary Bolt, and sailed with
such an affected youthfulness through the grand hall, to the no small
danger of all muslin dresses in the way, my crutch had served as a
means to separate them. The old man, with weeping eyes, would now
finger his bandanna and resume his crutch. And then Samuel, in the
full blaze of his livery, would stand conspicuously at the grand
entrance, and ere her highness's head lo