. But,
no! the magnificence of her tomboyism caught his fancy. He enshrined her
at once as Diana, bayed the moon with hunting-songs, wrote a sonnet to
the chase, and then, with his own hands, twisted it into a _cigarette_,
with which her ladyship puffed it to the winds of heaven, while
wandering with the Lothario amid a grove of fragrant limes. The miracle
was, that at breakfast the next morning Lady Di' was subdued, voted
driving unfeminine, and asked Edward to take the reins for her after
lunch. You remember we left them there; and I next met him at Killarney,
giving his chestnut locks to the breeze, his arm to the oar, and his
eyes to a lady of blue-stocking celebrity, who, never having had many
lovers, was inclined to make the most of the present one. Circumstances
rendered me acquainted with some facts relating to his 'flirtations,' if
his soft and sentimental ways could be called by such a name. I had seen
poor Lelia at Baden-Baden; and I dare say you can recall what we heard
of another love of his nearer home. Well, I encountered my Hero of
Ladies that very evening, wandering amid the ruined aisles of Mucross
Abbey. I saw that his impressible nature had taken a thoughtful, if not
a religious tone, from the scene. And he commenced the conversation by
declaring, that 'He was a great fool.'"

"Knave, rather," said Mrs. Pierce Bradshaw.

"No," replied her husband; "not a knave, but a singular example of a man
whose feelings and susceptibilities never deepen into
affection--unstable as water--tossed hither and thither for want of
fixed principles, and suffering intensely in his better moods from the
knowledge of the weakness he has not the courage to overcome. I was not
inclined to let him spare himself, and did not contradict his opinion
that he was a 'fool,' but told him he might be what he pleased himself,
as long as he did not make fools of others."

"'I tell every woman I know that I am not a marrying man,' he replied.

"'That,' I said, 'does not signify as long as you act the lover, each
fair one believing you will revoke in her favor.'

"'I give you my honor,' he exclaimed, 'as a man and a gentleman, I never
entertained for twenty-four hours the idea of marrying any woman I ever
knew.'"

"The villain!" exclaimed the lady. "I hope, Pierce, you told him he was
a villain!"

"No; because I knew the uncertainty of his disposition: but I lectured
him fully and honestly, and yet said nothing to him so severe a