her brother) was her brother at all. Report pointed
to the Baron as a gambler at every 'table' on the Continent. Report
whispered that his so-called sister had narrowly escaped being
implicated in a famous trial for poisoning at Vienna--that she had been
known at Milan as a spy in the interests of Austria--that her
'apartment' in Paris had been denounced to the police as nothing less
than a private gambling-house--and that her present appearance in
England was the natural result of the discovery. Only one member of
the assembly in the smoking-room took the part of this much-abused
woman, and declared that her character had been most cruelly and most
unjustly assailed. But as the man was a lawyer, his interference went
for nothing: it was naturally attributed to the spirit of contradiction
inherent in his profession. He was asked derisively what he thought of
the circumstances under which the Countess had become engaged to be
married; and he made the characteristic answer, that he thought the
circumstances highly creditable to both parties, and that he looked on
the lady's future husband as a most enviable man.

Hearing this, the Doctor raised another shout of astonishment by
inquiring the name of the gentleman whom the Countess was about to
marry.

His friends in the smoking-room decided unanimously that the celebrated
physician must be a second 'Rip-van-Winkle,' and that he had just
awakened from a supernatural sleep of twenty years. It was all very
well to say that he was devoted to his profession, and that he had
neither time nor inclination to pick up fragments of gossip at
dinner-parties and balls. A man who did not know that the Countess
Narona had borrowed money at Homburg of no less a person than Lord
Montbarry, and had then deluded him into making her a proposal of
marriage, was a man who had probably never heard of Lord Montbarry
himself. The younger members of the club, humouring the joke, sent a
waiter for the 'Peerage'; and read aloud the memoir of the nobleman in
question, for the Doctor's benefit--with illustrative morsels of
information interpolated by themselves.

'Herbert John Westwick. First Baron Montbarry, of Montbarry, King's
County, Ireland. Created a Peer for distinguished military services in
India. Born, 1812. Forty-eight years old, Doctor, at the present
time. Not married. Will be married next week, Doctor, to the
delightful creature we have been talking about. Heir presumptive, his
lords