ot keeping myself an unsuspected
listener; I emerged from the curtain, but silently, and reached the
centre of the room before the mayor perceived me. He then came up to me
eagerly, linked his arm in mine, and leading me to a gentleman seated on
a sofa, close by the window I had quitted, said,--

"Doctor, I must present you to Sir Philip Derval, just returned to
England, and not six hours in L----. If you would like to see the museum
again, Sir Philip, the doctor, I am sure, will accompany you."

"No, I thank you; it is painful to me at present to see, even under
your roof, the collection which my poor dear friend, Dr. Lloyd, was so
proudly beginning to form when I left these parts."

"Ay, Sir Philip, Dr. Lloyd was a worthy man in his way, but sadly duped
in his latter years; took to mesmerism, only think! But our young doctor
here showed him up, I can tell you."

Sir Philip, who had acknowledged my first introduction to his
acquaintance by the quiet courtesy with which a well-bred man goes
through a ceremony that custom enables him to endure with equal ease and
indifference, now evinced by a slight change of manner how little the
mayor's reference to my dispute with Dr. Lloyd advanced me in his good
opinion. He turned away with a bow more formal than his first one, and
said calmly,

"I regret to hear that a man so simple-minded and so sensitive as Dr.
Lloyd should have provoked an encounter in which I can well conceive him
to have been worsted. With your leave, Mr. Mayor, I will look into your
ballroom. I may perhaps find there some old acquaintances."

He walked towards the dancers, and the mayor, linking his arm in mine,
followed close behind, saying in his loud hearty tones,--

"Come along, you too, Dr. Fenwick, my girls are there; you have not
spoken to them yet."

Sir Philip, who was then half way across the room, turned round
abruptly, and, looking me full in the face, said,--

"Fenwick, is your name Fenwick,--Allen Fenwick?"

"That is my name, Sir Philip."

"Then permit me to shake you by the hand; you are no stranger, and no
mere acquaintance to me. Mr. Mayor, we will look into your ballroom
later; do not let us keep you now from your other guests."

The mayor, not in the least offended by being thus summarily dismissed,
smiled, walked on, and was soon lost amongst the crowd.

Sir Philip, still retaining my hand, reseated himself on the sofa, and
I took my place by his side. The room was still de