as
perfectly unreserved and friendly.

She asked the name of the lady whose box I had quitted, and after
bending her opera-glass on it for a moment, said, with a certain air of
satisfaction, 'She is young'; which led me to guess that Lady Edbury was
reputed to be Anna's successor; but why the latter should be flattered
by the former's youth was one of the mysteries for me then. Her aunt was
awakened from sleep by the mention of my name. 'Is the man here?' she
exclaimed, starting. Anna smiled, and talked to me of my father, saying,
that she was glad to see me at his right hand, for he had a hard battle
to fight. She spoke of him with affectionate interest in his fortunes;
no better proof of his generosity as well as hers could have been
given me. I promised her heartily I would not be guilty of letting our
intimacy drop, and handed the ladies down to the crush-room, where I saw
my father leading Lady Edbury to her carriage, much observed. Destrier,
the young marquis, coming in to meet the procession from other haunts,
linked his arm to his friend Witlington's, and said something in
my hearing of old 'Duke Fitz,' which provoked, I fancied, signs
of amusement equivalent to tittering in a small ring of the select
assembly. Lady Sampleman's carriage was called. 'Another victim,' said a
voice. Anna Penrhys walked straight out to find her footman and carriage
for herself.

I stood alone in the street, wondering, fretting, filled with a variety
of ugly sensations, when my father joined me humming an air of the
opera. 'I was looking for Jorian, Richie. He had our Sampleman under his
charge. He is off to the Chassediane. Well! And well, Richie, you could
not bear the absence from your dada? You find me in full sail on the
tide. I am at home, if our fortunes demand it, in a little German
principality, but there is,' he threw out his chest, 'a breadth in
London; nowhere else do I breathe with absolute freedom--so largely: and
this is my battlefield. By the way, Lady Edbury accounts you complete;
which is no more to say than that she is a woman of taste. The instance:
she positively would not notice that you wear a dress-coat of a foreign
cut. Correct it to-morrow; my tailor shall wait on you. I meant to point
out to you that when a London woman has not taken note of that, the face
and the man have made the right impression on her. Richie, dear boy,
how shall I speak the delight I have in seeing you! My arm in yours, old
Richie! s