ing, coat off
and cigar in mouth; while others waited their turn, with feet
distributed in various directions. Above, all was decorum; the second
story being appropriated to the ladies and their cavaliers. And very
fond of the game the ladies were, for it afforded them an opportunity of
showing off a handsome arm, and sometimes a neat ankle. Gerard was not
there; they had to wait some time for alleys: altogether Benson was a
little bored, and whispered to his friend that he meant to console
himself by making a little sensation.

"By your play?" asked Ashburner.

"No, but by taking off my coat."

"Why, really, considering the material of your coat, I think it might as
well be on as off. Surely you can't find it an impediment?"

"No, but I mean to take it off for fun,--just to give the people here
something to talk about; they talk so much about so little. They will be
saying all over by to-morrow that Mr. Benson was in the ladies' room
half undressed."

After an hour's rolling they turned hotelwards again, and as they did so
a very spicy phaeton, with gray wheelers and black leaders, drove up to
the door. A tall, handsome man, handed out a rather pretty and very
showily-dressed little woman; and Ashburner recognized Gerard Ludlow.

It was not the first time he had seen Gerard. They had travelled half
over Greece together, having accidentally fallen upon the same route. As
the Honorable Edward had all the national fear of compromising himself,
and Gerard was as proud and reserved as any Englishman, they went on
together for days without speaking, although the only Anglo-Saxons of
the party. At last, Ludlow having capsized, horse and all, on a
particularly bad road, Ashburner took the liberty of helping to pick him
up, and then they became very good friends. Gerard was at that time in
the full flush of youth and beauty, and the lion of the Italian capital
which he had made his headquarters, where it was currently reported that
a certain very desirable countess had made desperate love to him, and
that a rich nobleman (for there are _some_ rich noblemen still left on
the continent) had tried very hard to get the handsome foreigner for a
son-in-law. Knowing this and some other similar stories about him,
Ashburner was a little curious to see Mrs. Ludlow, and confessed himself
somewhat disappointed in her; he found her rather pretty, and certainly
not stupid; lively and agreeable in her manners, like most of her
countryw