f adventure, suppose
him ignominiously to fail; suppose that after ten, twenty, or sixty
seconds of still uninterrupted silence, the lady should touch the
check-string and re-deposit him, weighed and found wanting, on the
common street! Thousands of persons of no mind at all, he reasoned,
would be found more equal to the part; could, that very instant, by some
decisive step, prove the lady's choice to have been well inspired, and
put a stop to this intolerable silence.

His eye, at this point, lighted on the hand. It was better to fall by
desperate councils than to continue as he was; and with one tremulous
swoop he pounced on the gloved fingers and drew them to himself. One
overt step, it had appeared to him, would dissolve the spell of his
embarrassment; in act, he found it otherwise: he found himself no less
incapable of speech or further progress; and, with the lady's hand in
his, sat helpless. But worse was in store. A peculiar quivering began to
agitate the form of his companion; the hand that lay unresistingly in
Somerset's trembled as with ague; and presently there broke forth, in
the shadow of the carriage, the bubbling and musical sound of laughter,
resisted but triumphant. The young man dropped his prize; had it been
possible, he would have bounded from the carriage. The lady, meanwhile,
lying back upon the cushions, passed on from trill to trill of the most
heartfelt, high-pitched, clear, and fairy-sounding merriment.

"You must not be offended," she said at last, catching an opportunity
between two paroxysms. "If you have been mistaken in the warmth of your
attentions, the fault is solely mine; it does not flow from your
presumption, but from my eccentric manner of recruiting friends; and,
believe me, I am the last person in the world to think the worse of a
young man for showing spirit. As for to-night, it is my intention to
entertain you to a little supper; and if I shall continue to be as much
pleased with your manners as I was taken with your face, I may perhaps
end by making you an advantageous offer."

Somerset sought in vain to find some form of answer, but his
discomfiture had been too recent and complete.

"Come," returned the lady, "we must have no display of temper; that is
for me the one disqualifying fault; and as I perceive we are drawing
near our destination, I shall ask you to descend and offer me your arm."

Indeed, at that very moment the carriage drew up before a stately and
severe m