re, that he might have the account, the
next morning, from a fresh and unprejudiced mind.

The next morning's question was, of course, 'How did you like your
party?'

'O, it was great fun.' Guy's favourite answer was caught up in the
midst, as Laura replied, 'It was just what parties always are.'

'Come, let us have the history. Who handed who in to dinner? I hope Guy
had Mrs. Brownlow.'

'Oh no,' said Laura; we had both the honourables.'

'Not Philip!'

'No,' said Guy; 'the fidus Achetes was without his pious Aeneas.'

'Very good, Guy,' said Charles, enjoying the laugh.

'I could not help thinking of it,' said Guy, rather apologising, 'when
I was watching Thorndale's manner; it is such an imitation of Philip;
looking droller, I think, in his absence, than in his presence. I wonder
if he is conscious of it.'

'It does not suit him at all,' said Mrs. Edmonstone; because he has no
natural dignity.'

'A man ought to be six foot one, person and mind, to suit with that
grand, sedate, gracious way of Philip's,' said Guy.

'There's Guy's measure of Philip's intellect,' said Charles, 'just six
foot one inch.'

'As much more than other people's twice his height,' said Guy.

'Who was your neighbour, Laura?' asked Amy.

'Dr. Mayerne; I was very glad of him, to keep off those hunting friends
of Mr. Brownlow, who never ask anything but if one has been to the
races, and if one likes balls.'

'And how did Mrs. Brownlow behave?' said Charles.

'She is a wonderful woman,' said Mrs. Edmonstone, in her quiet way;
and Guy with an expression between drollery and simplicity, said, 'Then
there aren't many like her.'

'I hope not,' said Mrs. Edmonstone.

'Is she really a lady?'

'Philip commonly calls her "that woman,"' said Charles. 'He has never
got over her one night classing him with his "young man" and myself, as
three of the shyest monkeys she ever came across.'

'She won't say so of Maurice,' said Laura, as they recovered the laugh.

'I heard her deluding some young lady by saying he was the eldest son,'
said Mrs. Edmonstone.

'Mamma!' cried Amy, 'could she have thought so?'

'I put in a gentle hint on Lord de Courcy's existence, to which she
answered, in her quick way, 'O ay, I forgot; but then he is the second,
and that's the next thing.'

'If you could but have heard the stories she and Maurice were telling
each other!' said Guy. 'He was playing her off, I believe; for whatever
she told, he capped it w