sume to introduce my cousin, the young Master of
Ravenswood, to your favourable notice."

Lady Ashton could not choose but courtesy; but there was in her
obeisance an air of haughtiness approaching to contemptuous repulse.
Ravenswood could not choose but bow; but his manner returned the scorn
with which he had been greeted.

"Allow me," she said, "to present to your lordship MY friend."
Craigengelt, with the forward impudence which men of his cast mistake
for ease, made a sliding bow to the Marquis, which he graced by a
flourish of his gold-laced hat. The lady turned to her husband. "You
and I, Sir William," she said, and these were the first words she had
addressed to him, "have acquired new acquaintances since we parted; let
me introduce the acquisition I have made to mine--Captain Craigengelt."

Another bow, and another flourish of the gold-laced hat, which was
returned by the Lord Keeper without intimation of former recognition,
and with that sort of anxious readiness which intimated his wish that
peace and amnesty should take place betwixt the contending parties,
including the auxiliaries on both sides. "Let me introduce you to the
Master of Ravenswood," said he to Captain Craigengelt, following up the
same amicable system.

But the Master drew up his tall form to the full extent of his height,
and without so much as looking towards the person thus introduced to
him, he said, in a marked tone: "Captain Craigengelt and I are already
perfectly well acquainted with each other."

"Perfectly--perfectly," replied the Captain, in a mumbling tone, like
that of a double echo, and with a flourish of his hat, the circumference
of which was greatly abridged, compared with those which had so
cordially graced his introduction to the Marquis and the Lord Keeper.

Lockhard, followed by three menials, now entered with wine and
refreshments, which it was the fashion to offer as a whet before dinner;
and when they were placed before the guests, Lady Ashton made an apology
for withdrawing her husband from them for some minutes upon business of
special import. The Marquis, of course, requested her ladyship would lay
herself under no restraint; and Craigengelt, bolting with speed a second
glass of racy canary, hastened to leave the room, feeling no great
pleasure in the prospect of being left alone with the Marquis of A----
and the Master of Ravenswood; the presence of the former holding him in
awe, and that of the latter in bodil