, to the brother.

'Yes, slightly. What an amusing fellow he is!'

'There is something very bright, very unlike other people about him,'
said Miss Alston.

'How does he get on? Is he liked?'

'Why, yes, I should say so, on the whole; but it is rather as my sister
says, he is not like other people.'

'In what respect?'

'Oh I can hardly tell. He is a very pleasant person, but he ought to
have been at school. He is a man of crotchets.'

'Hard-working?'

'Very; he makes everything give way to that. He is a capital companion
when he is to be had, but he lives very much to himself. He is a man of
one friend, and I don't see much of him.'

Another dance began, Mr. Alston went to look for his partner, Philip and
Amy moved on in search of ice. 'Hum!' said Philip to himself, causing
Amy to gaze up at him, but he was musing too intently for her to venture
on a remark. She was thinking that she did not wonder that strangers
deemed Guy crotchety, since he was so difficult to understand; and then
she considered whether to take him to see King Charles, in the library,
and concluded that she would wait, for she felt as if the martyr king's
face would look on her too gravely to suit her present tone.

Philip helped her to ice, and brought her back to her mother's
neighbourhood without many more words. He then stood thoughtful for some
time, entered into conversation with one of the elder gentlemen, and,
when that was interrupted, turned to talk to his aunt.

Lady Eveleen and her two cousins were for a moment together. 'What is
the matter, Eva?' said Amy, seeing a sort of dissatisfaction on her
bright face.

'The roc's egg?' said Laura, smiling. 'The queen of the evening can't be
content--'

'No; you are the queen, if the one thing can make you so--the one thing
wanting to me.'

'How absurd you are, Eva--when you say you are so afraid of him, too.'

'That is the very reason. I should get a better opinion of myself!
Besides, there is nobody else so handsome. I declare I'll make a bold
attempt.'

'Oh! you don't think of such a thing,' cried Laura, very much shocked.

'Never fear,' said Eveleen, 'faint heart, you know.' And with a nod, a
flourish, of her bouquet, and an arch smile at her cousin's horror,
she moved on, and presently they heard her exclaiming, gaily, 'Captain
Morville, I really must scold you. You are setting a shocking example
of laziness! Aunt Edmonstone, how can you encourage such proceedings!
Indol