. But a truce
to my complaints. Trevanion informs me you are going to Australia,--can
that be true?"

"Perfectly true."

"They say there is a sad want of ladies there."

"So much the better,--I shall be all the more steady."

"Well, there's something in that. Have you seen Lady Ellinor?"

"Yes,--this morning."

"Poor woman! A great blow to her,--we have tried to console each
other. Fanny, you know, is staying at Oxton, in Surrey, with Lady
Castleton,--the poor lady is so fond of her,--and no one has comforted
her like Fanny."

"I was not aware that Miss Trevanion was out of town."

"Only for a few days, and then she and Lady Ellinor join Trevanion
in the North,--you know he is with Lord N--, settling measures on
which--But, alas! they consult me now on those matters,--force their
secrets on me. I have, Heaven knows how many votes! Poor me! Upon my
word, if Lady Ellinor was a widow, I should certainly make up to her:
very clever woman, nothing bores her." (The marquis yawned,--Sir
Sedley Beaudesert never yawned.) "Trevanion has provided for his Scotch
secretary, and is about to get a place in the Foreign Office for that
young fellow Gower, whom, between you and me, I don't like. But he has
bewitched Trevanion!"

"What sort of a person is this Mr. Gower? I remember you said that he
was clever and good-looking."

"He is both; but it is not the cleverness of youth,--he is as hard and
sarcastic as if he had been cheated fifty times, and jilted a hundred!
Neither are his good looks that letter of recommendation which a
handsome face is said to be. He has an expression of countenance very
much like that of Lord Hertford's pet bloodhound when a stranger
comes into the room. Very sleek, handsome dog the bloodhound is
certainly,--well-mannered, and I dare say exceedingly tame; but still
you have but to look at the corner of the eye to know that it is
only the habit of the drawing-room that suppresses the creature's
constitutional tendency to seize you by the throat, instead of giving
you a paw. Still, this Mr. Gower has a very striking head,--something
about it Moorish or Spanish, like a picture by Murillo--I half suspect
that he is less a Gower than a gypsy!"

"What!"--I cried, as I listened with rapt and breathless attention to
this description. "He is then very dark, with high, narrow forehead,
features slightly aquiline, but very delicate, and teeth so dazzling
that the whole face seems to sparkle when he smile