me
almost bellicose under the continual indifference of his lady-love;
and had it not been for the better sense of our hero--such better
sense may be expected from gentlemen who are successful--something
very like a quarrel would have taken place absolutely in the presence
of Miss Todd.

Perhaps Miss Waddington was not free from all blame in the matter.
It would be unjust to accuse her of flirting--of flirting, at least,
in the objectionable sense of the word. It was not in her nature to
flirt. But it was in her nature to please herself without thinking
much of the manner in which she did it, and it was in her nature also
to be indifferent as to what others thought of her. Though she had
never before known George Bertram, there was between them that sort
of family knowledge of each other which justified a greater intimacy
than between actual strangers. Then, too, he pleased her, while
Mr. M'Gabbery only bored. She had not yet thought enough about
the world's inhabitants to have recognized and adjudicated on the
difference between those who talk pleasantly and those who do not;
but she felt that she was amused by this young double-first Oxonian,
and she had no idea of giving up amusement when it came in her way.
Of such amusement, she had hitherto known but little. Miss Baker
herself was, perhaps, rather dull. Miss Baker's friends at Littlebath
were not very bright; but Caroline had never in her heart accused
them of being other than amusing. It is only by knowing his contrast
that we recognize a bore when we meet him. It was in this manner that
she now began to ascertain that Mr. M'Gabbery certainly had bored
her. Ascertaining it, she threw him off at once--perhaps without
sufficient compunction.

"I'll cut that cock's comb before I have done with him," said
M'Gabbery to his friend Mr. Cruse, as they rode up towards St.
Stephen's gate together, the rest of the cavalcade following them.
Sir Lionel had suggested to Miss Todd that they might as well return,
somewhat early though it was, seeing that there was cause why that
feast of reason and that flow of soul should no longer be continued
by them round the yet only half-emptied hampers. So the ladies had
climbed up into the tomb and there adjusted their hats, and the
gentlemen had seen to the steeds; and the forks had been packed up;
and when Mr. M'Gabbery made the state of his mind known to Mr. Cruse,
they were on their way back to Jerusalem, close to the garden of
G