o extinction. I think we will go to Baden, Joan."

"But papa is so anxious, dearest Alfred, that we should remain here at
present and see the neighbours a little."

"I might be induced to remain here to please your father, but as for
your neighbours I have seen quite enough of them. They are not a sort
of people that I ever met before, or that I wish to meet again. I do not
know what to say to them, nor can I annex an idea to what they say to
me. Heigho! certainly the country in August is a thing of which no one
who has not tried it has the most remote conception."

"But you always used to say you doted on the country, Alfred," said Lady
Joan in a tone of tender reproach.

"So I do; I never was happier than when I was at Melton, and even
enjoyed the country in August when I was on the Moors."

"But I cannot well go to Melton," said Lady Joan.

"I don't see why you can't. Mrs Shelldrake goes with her husband to
Melton, and so does Lady Di with Barham; and a very pleasant life it
is."

"Well, at any rate we cannot go to Melton now," said Lady Joan
mortified; "and it is impossible for me to go to the Moors."

"No, but I could go," said Mr Mountchesney, "and leave you here. I might
have gone with Eugene de Vere and Milford and Fitz-heron. They wanted
me very much. What a capital party it would have been, and what capital
sport we should have had! And I need not have been away for more than
a month or perhaps six weeks, and I could have written to you every day
and all that sort of thing."

Lady Joan sighed and affected to recur to the opened volume which during
this conversation she had held in her hand.

"I wonder where Maud is," said Mr Mountchesney; "I shall want her to
ride with me to-day. She is a capital horsewoman, and always amuses me.
As you cannot ride now, Joan, I wish you would let Maud have Sunbeam."

"As you please."

"Well I am going to the stables and will tell them. Who is this?" Mr
Mountchesney exclaimed, and then walked to the window that looking over
the park showed at a distance the advance of a very showy equipage.

Lady Joan looked up.

"Come here, Joan, and tell me who this is," and Lady Joan was at his
side in a moment.

"It is the livery of the Bardolfs," said Lady Joan.

"I always call them Firebrace; I cannot get out of it," said Mr
Mountchesney. "Well, I am glad it is they; I thought it might be an
irruption of barbarians. Lady Bardolf will bring us some news."

Lord and Lad