ontrived to make the tiger move, and imitated the hiss of the terribly
anaconda. All that he did had its grace, its charm; and the buzz of
admiration and the flattering glances of ladies' eyes followed him
wherever he moved.

However, there was a general feeling of relief when the mayor led the
way from the museum into the ballroom. In provincial parties guests
arrive pretty much within the same hour, and so few who had once paid
their respects to the apes and serpents, the hippopotamus and the tiger,
were disposed to repeat the visit, that long before eleven o'clock the
museum was as free from the intrusion of human life as the wilderness in
which its dead occupants had been born.

I had gone my round through the rooms, and, little disposed to be
social, had crept into the retreat of a window-niche, pleased to think
myself screened by its draperies,--not that I was melancholy, far from
it; for the letter I had received that morning from Lilian had raised my
whole being into a sovereignty of happiness high beyond the reach of
the young pleasure-hunters, whose voices and laughter blended with that
vulgar music.

To read her letter again I had stolen to my nook, and now, sure that
none saw me kiss it, I replaced it in my bosom. I looked through the
parted curtain; the room was comparatively empty; but there, through the
open folding-doors, I saw the gay crowd gathered round the dancers,
and there again, at right angles, a vista along the corridor afforded a
glimpse of the great elephant in the deserted museum.

Presently I heard, close beside me, my host's voice.

"Here's a cool corner, a pleasant sofa, you can have it all to yourself.
What an honour to receive you under my roof, and on this interesting
occasion! Yes, as you say, there are great changes in L---- since you
left us. Society has much improved. I must look about and find some
persons to introduce to you. Clever! oh, I know your tastes. We have
a wonderful man,--a new doctor. Carries all before him; very high
character, too; good old family, greatly looked up to, even apart from
his profession. Dogmatic a little,--a Sir Oracle,--'Lets no dog bark;'
you remember the quotation,--Shakspeare. Where on earth is he? My dear
Sir Philip, I am sure you would enjoy his conversation."

Sir Philip! Could it be Sir Philip Derval to whom the mayor was giving
a flattering yet scarcely propitiatory description of myself? Curiosity
combined with a sense of propriety in n