chance."

"Catherine will be very glad for others to win," said Mrs. Arrowpoint,
"she is so magnanimous. It was entirely her considerateness that made
us bring Herr Klesmer instead of Canon Stopley, who had expressed a
wish to come. For her own pleasure, I am sure she would rather have
brought the Canon; but she is always thinking of others. I told her it
was not quite _en regle_ to bring one so far out of our own set; but
she said, 'Genius itself is not _en regle_; it comes into the world to
make new rules.' And one must admit that."

"Ay, to be sure," said Lord Brackenshaw, in a tone of careless
dismissal, adding quickly, "For my part, I am not magnanimous; I should
like to win. But, confound it! I never have the chance now. I'm getting
old and idle. The young ones beat me. As old Nestor says--the gods
don't give us everything at one time: I was a young fellow once, and
now I am getting an old and wise one. Old, at any rate; which is a gift
that comes to everybody if they live long enough, so it raises no
jealousy." The Earl smiled comfortably at his wife.

"Oh, my lord, people who have been neighbors twenty years must not talk
to each other about age," said Mrs. Arrowpoint. "Years, as the Tuscans
say, are made for the letting of houses. But where is our new neighbor?
I thought Mr. Grandcourt was to be here to-day."

"Ah, by the way, so he was. The time's getting on too," said his
lordship, looking at his watch. "But he only got to Diplow the other
day. He came to us on Tuesday and said he had been a little bothered.
He may have been pulled in another direction. Why, Gascoigne!"--the
rector was just then crossing at a little distance with Gwendolen on
his arm, and turned in compliance with the call--"this is a little too
bad; you not only beat us yourself, but you bring up your niece to beat
all the archeresses."

"It _is_ rather scandalous in her to get the better of elder members,"
said Mr. Gascoigne, with much inward satisfaction curling his short
upper lip. "But it is not my doing, my lord. I only meant her to make a
tolerable figure, without surpassing any one."

"It is not my fault, either," said Gwendolen, with pretty archness. "If
I am to aim, I can't help hitting."

"Ay, ay, that may be a fatal business for some people," said Lord
Brackenshaw, good-humoredly; then taking out his watch and looking at
Mrs. Arrowpoint again--"The time's getting on, as you say. But
Grandcourt is always late. I notice in t