gnificance, almost choked himself by gulping the
whole glass of wine at his lips in his confusion, and broke into a
perspiration at the attention of the company thus drawn to him. He
squeaked back an unintelligible acquiescence; and completed his own
torture by upsetting a compote of fruit upon his black knee-breeches.

Opposite the unhappy lawyer sat a lady of extraordinary beauty--a
haughty, cold, supercilious sort of beauty, remarkable mainly from
the consciousness of its display. Her profile might have been cut from
marble by a Greek; her neck and bust were perfect, but her shoulders,
more angular than was common in that time of bottle-shape, were carried
somewhat too grandly for a gentle nature. The cruelty of her
character betrayed itself in a faint irrestrainable smile at Petullo's
discomfiture, all the more cruel because his eyes were entreatingly on
hers as he mopped up awkwardly the consequences of his gaucherie. She
smiled, but that was not the strangest part of her conduct, for at the
same time she nudged with her knee the Chamberlain who sat next to her,
and who had brought her into the room. To cap the marvel, he showed no
surprise, but took her hint with a conspirator's enforced composure.
He looked at the little, dried-up, squeaking creature opposite,
and--refused the lady the gratification of a single sign of the
amusement she had apparently expected. She reddened, bit her nether
lip, and "Your poor man of business is in a sore plight," she whispered,
using the name Sim with significant freedom.

"My dear Kate," said he quietly, "as God's my judge, I can find nothing
to laugh at in the misery of a poor wretch like yon."

"That's the second time!" she whispered with well-concealed ill-humour,
a smile compelled upon her face but a serpent in her voice.

"The second time?" he repeated, lifting his eyebrows questioning, and
always keeping a shoulder to her--a most chilly exterior. "Your ladyship
is in the humour to give guesses."

She gave a swift reply to some only half-heard remark by her next-hand
neighbour, then whispered to him, "It's the second time you have been
cruel to me to-day. You seem bent on making me unhappy, and it is not
what you promised. Am I not looking nice?"

"My dear girl," said he calmly, "do you know I am not in the mood for
making sport of an old fool to prove my Kindness of heart to you."

"To me, Sim!" she whispered, the serpent all gone from her voice, and a
warm, dulcet,