ly. I
could not help drawing him out. Two days! Why, my dear, his French party
were a fortnight in the country. It was the marquise, you know--the old
affair; and one may say he's a constant man.'

'I have not heard Captain Beauchamp's cleverness much praised,' said
Cecilia. 'This is your room, Mrs. Grancey.'

'Stay with me 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. Doubl