o Mr. Weyburn in lieu of
the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon table
with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. "Just peeped in," she said as she
entered the library, "to see if all was comfortable;" and gossip ensued,
not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth description
of Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the
much-misunderstood lady. "She's one of the living women of the world."

"You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?" Mrs. Pagnell
rejoiced.

"She has to be known to be liked," he owned.

"And you were, one hears, among the favoured?"

"I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am."

"You were recommended."

"Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother."

Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. "How strange Lord Ormont is! One would
suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him,
admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board the
packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring mercy of
Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the passengers. I
could hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of him from my niece
ever since her return from a select establishment for the education of
young ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out of London, though
Dover was my residence. She had got a hero! It was Lord Ormont! Lord
Ormont! all day: and when the behaviour of the country to him became
notorious, Aminta--my niece the countess--she could hardly contain
herself. A secret:--I promised her--it's not known to Lord Ormont
himself:--a printed letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into the
provincial papers, upholding him for one of the greatest of our patriot
soldiers and the saviour of India, was the work of her hands. You would,
I am sure, think it really well written. Meeting him on deck--the outline
of the coast of Portugal for an introductory subject, our Peninsular
battles and so forth--I spoke of her enthusiasm. The effect was, to cut
off all communication between us. I had only to appear, Lord Ormont
vanished. I said to myself, this is a character. However, the very
mention of him to my niece, as one of the passengers on board--medicine,
miraculous! She was up in half an hour, out pacing the deck before
evening, hardly leaning on my arm, and the colour positively beginning to
show on her cheeks again. He fled, of coarse. I had prepared her for his
eccentricities. Next mornin