She returned presently. There are no horses,' she said. .

. When they are ready the gentleman will let you know.'

• They have sent for some?'

'Sent for some,' repeated Mrs. Olney, and nodded, but whether in assent or imbecility it was hard to say.

After that Julia troubled her no more, but rising from her meal had recourse to the window and her own thoughts. These were in unison with the neglected garden and the sullen pool, which even the sunshine failed to enliven. Her heart was torn between the sense of Sir George's treachery–which now benumbed her brain and now awoke it to a fury of resentment—and fond memories of words and looks and gestures, that shook her very frame and left her sick-love-sick and trembling. She did not look forward or form plans; nor, in the dull lethargy in which she was for the most part sunk, was she aware of the passage of time until Mrs. Olney came in with mouth and eyes a little wider than usual, and announced that the gentleman was coming up.

Julia supposed that the woman referred to Mr. Thomasson, and, recalled to the necessity of returning to Marlborough, gave a reluctant permission. Great was her astonishment when, a moment later, not the tutor, but Lord Almeric, fanning himself with a laced handkerchief and carrying his little French hat under his arm, appeared on the threshold, and entered simpering and bowing. He was extravagantly dressed in a mixed silk coat, pink satin waistcoat, and a mushroom stock, with breeches of silver net and white silk stockings; and had a large pearl pin thrust through his wig. But, unhappily, his splendour, designed to captivate the porter's daughter, only served to exhibit more plainly the nerveless hand and sickly cheeks which he owed to last night's debauch.

Apparently he was aware of this, for his first words were, . Oh, Lord! what a twitter I am in! I vow and protest, ma'am, I don't know where you get your roses of a morning. But I wish you would give me the secret.'

"Sir!' she said, interrupting him, surprise in her face. "Or—' with a momentary flush of confusion—'I should say, my lord, surely there must be some mistake here.'

None, I swear,' Lord Almeric answered, bowing gallantly. But I am in such a twitter'—he dropped his hat and picked it **** again—'I hardly know what I am saying. To be sure, I was

h cut last night! I hope nothing was said to-to-oh,

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Lord ! I mean I hope you were not much incommoded by the nightair, ma'am.

* The night-air has not hurt me, I thank you,' said Julia, who did not take the trouble to hide her impatience.

However, my lord, nothing daunted, expressed himself monstrous glad to hear it; monstrous glad. And after looking about him and humming and hawing, 'Won't you sit ?' he said, with a killing glance.

'I am leaving immediately,' Julia answered, and declined with coldness the chair which he pushed forward. At another time his foppish dress might have moved her to smiles, or his feebleness and vapid oaths to pity. This morning she needed her pity for herself, and was in no smiling mood. Her world had crashed round her; she would sit and weep among the ruins, and this butterfly insect flitted between. After a moment, as he did not speak, ‘I will not detain your lordship,' she continued, curtseying frigidly.

“Cruel beauty !' my lord answered, dropping his hat and clasping his hands in an attitude. And then, to her astonishment, 'Look, ma'am,' he cried, 'look, I beseech you, on the least worthy of your admirers and deign to listen to him. Listen to him while —and don't, oh, I say, don't stare at me like that,' he continued hurriedly, plaintiveness suddenly taking the place of grandiloquence. “I vow and protest I am in earnest.'

" Then you must be mad !' Julia cried in great wrath. You can have no other excuse, sir, for talking to me like that!'

* Excuse !' he cried rapturously. 'Your eyes are my excuse, your lips, your shape! Whom would they not madden, ma'am ? Whom would they not charm-insanitate-intoxicate ? What man of sensibility, seeing them at an immeasurable distance, would not hasten to lay his homage at the feet of so divine, so perfect a creature, whom even to see is to taste of bliss! Deign, madam, to— Oh, I say, you don't mean to say you are really of-offended?' Lord Almeric stuttered in amazement, again falling lamentably from the standard of address which be had conned while his man was shaving him. “You-you-look here—

You must be mad!' Julia cried, her eyes flashing lightning on the unhappy beau. 'If you do not leave me, I will call for some one to put you out ! How dare you insult me? If there were a bell I could reach'

Lord Almeric stared in the utmost perplexity; and fallen from his high horse, alighted on a kind of dignity. 'Madam,' he said

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with a little bow and a strut,* •'tis the first time an offer of marriage from one of my family has been called an insult! And I don't understand it. Hang me! if we have married fools, we have married high!'

It was Julia's turn to be overwhelmed with confusion. Having nothing less in her mind than marriage, and least of all an offer of marriage from such a person, she had set down all he had said to impudence and her unguarded situation. Apprised of his meaning, she experienced a degree of shame, and muttered that she had not understood ; she craved his pardon.

• Beauty asks and beauty has !' Lord Almeric answered, bowing and kissing the tips of his fingers, his self-esteem perfectly restored.

Julia frowned. You cannot be in earnest,' she said.

Never more in earnest in my life!' he replied. "Say the word, say you'll have me,' he continued, pressing his little hat to his breast and gazing over it with melting looks, 'most adorable of your sex, and I'll call up Pomeroy, I'll call up Tommy, the old woman, too, if you choose, and tell 'em! Tell 'em all! '

'I must be dreaming,' Julia murmured, gazing at him in a kind of fascination.

* Then if to dream is to assent, dream on, fair love!' his lordship spouted with a grand air. And then, 'Hang it! that's—that's rather clever of me,' he continued. "And I mean it, too! Oh,

, depend upon it, there's nothing that a man won't think of when he's in love! And I am fallen confoundedly in love with-with

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you, ma'am.'

• But very suddenly,' Julia replied. She was beginning to recover from her amazement.

• You don't think that I am sincere ? 'he protested plaintively. *You doubt me! Then he advanced a pace towards her with hat and arms extended, let the eloquence of a—a feeling heart plead for me; a heart, too-yes, too sensible of your charms, and—and your many merits, ma'am! Yes, most adorable of your sex. But there,' he added, breaking off abruptly, 'I said that before, didn't I? Yes. Lord ! what a memory I have got ! I am all of a twitter. I was so cut last night, I don't know what I am saying.'

"That I believe,' Julia said with chilling severity.

“Eh, but--but you do believe I am in earnest ?' he cried anxiously, 'Shall I kneel to you? Shall I call up the servants

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and tell them? Shall I swear that I mean honourably? Lord ! I am no Mr. Thornhill! I'll make it as public as you like,' he continued eagerly. "I'll send for a bishop

"Spare me the bishop,' Julia rejoined with a faint smile,' and any farther appeals. They come, I am convinced, my lord, rather from your head than your heart.'

"Oh, Lord, no!' he cried.

'Oh, Lord, yes,' she answered with a spice of her old archness. 'I may have a tolerable opinion of my own attractions—women commonly have, it is said. But I am not so foolish, my lord, as to suppose

that on the three or four occasions on which I have seen you I can have gained your heart. To what I am to attribute your sudden-shall I call it whim or fancy-'Julia continued with a faint blush, 'I do not know. I am willing to suppose that you do not mean to insult me.'

Lord Almeric denied it with a woeful face,

•Or to deceive me. I am willing to suppose,' she repeated, stopping him by a gesture as he tried to speak, that you are in earnest for the time, my lord, in desiring to make me your wife, strange and sudden as the desire appears. It is a great honour, but it is one which I must as earnestly and positively decline.'

Why?' he cried, gaping, and then, 'O’swounds, ma'am, you don't mean it ?' he continued piteously. “Not have me? Not have me? And why?'

Because,' she said modestly, 'I do not love you, my lord.' '

• Oh, but—but when we are married,' he answered eagerly, rallying his scattered forces, 'when we are one, sweet maid--'

* That time will never come,' she replied cruelly. And then gloom overspreading her face, ' I shall never marry, my lord. If it be any consolation to you, no one shall be preferred to you.'

Oh, but, damme, the desert air and all that!' Lord Almeric cried, fanning himself violently with his hat. 'I-oh, you mustn't talk like that, you know. Lord ! you might be some queer old put of a dowager !' And then, with a burst of sincere feeling, for his little heart was inflamed by her beauty, and his manhoodor such of it as had survived the lessons of Vauxhall, and Mr. Thomasson-rose in arms at sight of her trouble, “See here, child,' he said in his natural voice, say yes, and I'll swear I'll be kind to you! Sink me if I am not! And, mind you, you'll be my lady. You'll go to Ranelagh and the masquerades with the best. You shall have your box at the opera and the King's House; you

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The tutor turned a shade paler, and his eyes sank slyly to the table. There'll-there'll be no violence, of course,' he said, his voice a trifle unsteady.

Violence? Oh, no, there will be no violence,' Mr. Pomeroy answered with an unpleasant sneer. And they all laughed; Mr. Thomasson tremulously, Lord Almeric as if he scarcely entered into the other's meaning and laughed that he might not seem outside it. Then, 'There is another thing that must not be,' Pomeroy continued, tapping softly on the table with his forefinger, as much to command attention as to emphasise his words, and that is peaching! Peaching! We'll have no Jeremy Twitcher here, if you please.'

'Of course not.' 'No peaching!'

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'No, no!' Mr. Thomasson stammered. 'No, damme!' said my lord grandly. 'No,' said Mr. Pomeroy, glancing keenly from one to the other, and by token I have a thought that will cure it. D'ye see here, my lord! What do you say to the losers taking five thousand each out of Madam's money? That should bind all together if anything will-though I say it that will have to pay it,' he continued boastfully.