ed negligently away.

CHAPTER IV. VISITORS

"I foretold all this," said Charles Heathcote, peevishly, as a servant
presented a number of visiting-cards with a polite request from the
owners to be allowed to visit the villa and its gardens. "I often warned
you of the infliction of inhabiting one of these celebrated places,
which our inquisitive countrymen _will_ see and their wives _will_ write
about."

"Who are they, Charley?" said May, gayly. "Let us see if we may not know
some of them."

"Know them. Heaven forbid! Look at the equipages they have come in;
only cast an eye at the two leathern conveniences now before the door,
and say, is it likely that they contain any acquaintances of ours?"

"How hot they look, broiling down there! But who are they, Charley?"

"Mrs. Penthony Morris,--never heard of her; Mr. Algernon
Mosely,--possibly the Bond Street man; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Rice
Morgan, of Plwmnwrar,--however that be pronounced; Mr. Layton and
friend,--discreet friend, who will not figure by name; Mr. Gorman
O'Shea, by all the powers! and, as I live, our Yankee again!"

"Not Quackinboss, surely?" broke in Sir William, good-humoredly.

"Yes. There he is: 'U. S. A., Colonel Leonidas Shaver Quackinboss;'
and there's the man, too, with his coat on his arm, on that coach-box."

"I'll certainly vote for my Transatlantic friend," said the Baronet,
"and consequently for any party of which he is a member."

"As for me!" cried May,--"I 've quite a curiosity to see him; not
to say that it would be downright churlishness to refuse any of our
countrymen the permission thus asked for."

"Be it so. I only stipulate for not playing cicerone to our amiable
visitors; and the more surely to escape such an indignity, I 'm off
till dinner."

"Let Fenton wait on those gentlemen," said the Baronet, "and go round
with them through the house and the grounds. Order luncheon also to be
ready." There was a little, a very little, irritation, perhaps, in his
voice, but May's pleasant smile quickly dispelled the momentary chagrin,
and his good-humored face was soon itself again.

If I have not trespassed upon my reader's patience by minute
descriptions of the characters I have introduced to him, it is in the
expectation that their traits are such as, lying lightly on the surface,
require little elucidation. Nor do I ask of him to bestow more attention
to their features than he would upon those of travelling acquaintances
with