a moment. It is the room I like. Are we to have him at
dinner?'

Cecilia did not suppose that Captain Beauchamp would remain to dine.
Feeling herself in the clutches of a gossip, she would fain have gone.

'I am just one bit glad of it, though I can't dislike him personally,'
said Mrs. Grancey, detaining her and beginning to whisper. 'It was
really too bad. There was a French party at the end, but there was only
one at the commencement. The brother was got over for a curtain, before
the husband arrived in pursuit. They say the trick Captain Beauchamp
played his cousin Cecil, to get him out of the house when he had made a
discovery, was monstrous--fiendishly cunning. However, Lady Romfrey, as
that woman appears to be at last, covered it all. You know she has one
of those passions for Captain Beauchamp which completely blind women to
right and wrong. He is her saint, let him sin ever so! The story's in
everybody's mouth. By the way, Palmet saw her. He describes her pale as
marble, with dark long eyes, the most innocent look in the world, and
a walk, the absurd fellow says, like a statue set gliding. No doubt
Frenchwomen do walk well. He says her eyes are terrible traitors; I need
not quote Palmet. The sort of eyes that would look fondly on a stone,
you know. What her reputation is in France I have only indistinctly
heard. She has one in England by this time, I can assure you. She found
her match in Captain Beauchamp for boldness. Where any other couple
would have seen danger, they saw safety; and they contrived to
accomplish it, according to those horrid talebearers. You have plenty of
time to dress, my dear; I have an immense deal to talk about. There are
half-a-dozen scandals in London already, and you ought to know them,
or you will be behind the tittle-tattle when you go to town; and I
remember, as a girl, I knew nothing so excruciating as to hear blanks,
dashes, initials, and half words, without the key. Nothing makes a
girl look so silly and unpalatable. Naturally, the reason why Captain
Beauchamp is more talked about than the rest is the politics. Your grand
reformer should be careful. Doubly heterodox will not do! It makes him
interesting to women, if you like, but he won't soon hear the last of
it, if he is for a public career. Grancey literally crowed at the story.
And the wonderful part of it is, that Captain Beauchamp refused to be
present at the earl's first ceremonial dinner in honour of his countess.
Now,