. I have not laid out much money here.
I built the conservatory, to be sure. Henrietta could not live without a
conservatory.'

'Miss Temple is quite right,' pronounced Ferdinand. 'It is impossible to
live without a conservatory.'

At this moment the heroine of their conversation entered the room, and
Ferdinand turned pale. She extended to him her hand with a graceful
smile; as he touched it, he trembled from head to foot.

'You were not fatigued, I hope, by your ride, Miss Temple?' at length he
contrived to say.

'Not in the least! I am an experienced horsewoman. Papa and I take very
long rides together.'

As for eating, with Henrietta Temple in the room, Ferdinand found
that quite impossible. The moment she appeared, his appetite vanished.
Anxious to speak, yet deprived of his accustomed fluency, he began to
praise Ducie.

'You must see it,' said Miss Temple: 'shall we walk round the grounds?'

'My dear Henrietta,' said her father, 'I dare say Captain Armine is at
this moment sufficiently tired; besides, when he moves, he will like
perhaps to take his gun; you forget he is a sportsman, and that he
cannot waste his morning in talking to ladies and picking flowers.'

'Indeed, sir, I assure you,' said Ferdinand, 'there is nothing I like so
much as talking to ladies and picking flowers; that is to say, when
the ladies have as fine taste as Miss Temple, and the flowers are as
beautiful as those at Ducie.'

'Well, you shall see my conservatory, Captain Armine,' said Miss Temple,
'and you shall go and kill partridges afterwards.' So saying, she
entered the conservatory, and Ferdinand followed her, leaving Mr. Temple
to his pasty.

'These orange groves remind me of Palmero,' said Ferdinand.

'Ah!' said Miss Temple, 'I have never been in the sweet south.'

'You seem to me a person born to live in a Sicilian palace,' said
Ferdinand, 'to wander in perfumed groves, and to glance in a moonlight
warmer than this sun.'

'I see you pay compliments,' said Miss Temple, looking at him archly,
and meeting a glance serious and soft.

'Believe me, not to you.'

'What do you think of this flower?' said Miss Temple, turning away
rather quickly and pointing to a strange plant. 'It is the most singular
thing in the world: but if it be tended by any other person than myself
it withers. Is it not droll?'

'I think not,' said Ferdinand.

'I excuse you for your incredulity; no one does believe it; no one can;
and yet it is q