r look and
speech that he had advanced in her consideration to be no longer the mere
spinning stick, a young lady's partner. By which he humbly understood
that her friend approved him. A gentle delirium enfolded his brain. A
householder's life is often begun on eight hundred a year: on less: on
much less:--sometimes on nothing but resolution to make a fitting income,
carving out a fortune. Eight hundred may stand as a superior basis. That
sum is a distinct point of vantage. If it does not mean a carriage and
Parisian millinery and a station for one of the stars of society, it
means at any rate security; and then, the heart of the man being strong
and sound . . .

'Yes,' he replied to her, 'I like my experience of Ireland and the Irish;
and better than I thought I should. St. George's Channel ought to be
crossed oftener by both of us.'

'I'm always glad of the signal,' said Diana.

He had implied the people of the two islands. He allowed her
interpretation to remain personal, for the sake of a creeping
deliciousness that it carried through his blood.

'Shall you soon be returning to England?' he ventured to ask.

'I am Lady Dunstane's guest for some months.'

'Then you will. Sir Lukin has an estate in Surrey. He talks of quitting
the Service.'

'I can't believe it!'

His thrilled blood was chilled. She entertained a sentiment amounting to
adoration for the profession of arms!

Gallantly had the veteran General and Hero held on into the night, that
the festivity might not be dashed by his departure; perhaps, to a certain
degree, to prolong his enjoyment of a flattering scene. At last Sir Lukin
had the word from him, and came to his wife. Diana slipped across the
floor to her accommodating chaperon, whom, for the sake of another five
minutes with her beloved Emma, she very agreeably persuaded to walk in the
train of Lord Larrian, and forth they trooped down a pathway of nodding
heads and curtsies, resembling oak and birch-trees under a tempered gale,
even to the shedding of leaves, for here a turban was picked up by Sir
Lukin, there a jewelled ear-ring by the self-constituted attendant, Mr.
Thomas Redworth. At the portico rang a wakening cheer, really worth
hearing. The rain it rained, and hats were formless,' as in the first
conception of the edifice, backs were damp, boots liquidly musical, the
pipe of consolation smoked with difficulty, with much pulling at the stem,
but the cheer arose magnificently, and mul