ent, Madame Cecile, why there is more propriety, in that
hobbedehoy, at least, more blushing in him, than in all the
bread-and-butter misses in the county!"

Adrian said nothing; but, when not turned towards the ground, his gaze
still sought the Countess, who now returned the look with a ripening
smile open to any interpretation.

"Surely," she remarked, glancing then at the elder for an instant with
some archness, "surely you English gentlemen, who have so much
propriety, would not rather ... there was young Mr. Bradbury, we heard
talked of yesterday, whom every farmer with a red-cheeked lass of his
own--"

"No, no!" hastily interrupted the baronet, with a blush himself, while
Adrian's cheek in spite of the recent indictment preserved its smooth
pallor--in truth, the boy, lost in his first love-dream, had not
understood the allusion. "No, I don't want a Landale to be a
blackguard, you know, but--" And the father, unable to split this
ethical hair, to logical satisfaction, stopped and entered another
channel of grumbling vituperation, whilst the Countess, very much
amused by her private thoughts, gave a little rippling laugh, and
resumed her indulgent contemplation of the accused.

"What a pity, now, school-boy Rupert is not the eldest; there would be
a country gentleman for you! Whereas, this successor that is to be of
mine is a man of books and a philosopher. Forsooth, a first-class
bookworm; by gad, I believe the first of our race! And he might make a
name for himself, I've been told, among that lot, though the pack o'
nonsense he treats us to at times cannot, I'm thinking, really go down
even among those college fuzzle-heads. But I am confounded if that
chap will ever be of any use as a landlord whenever he steps into my
shoes. He hates a gun, and takes more pleasure--what was it he said
last time he was here?--oh, yes, more pleasure in watching a bird dart
in the blue than bringing it down, be it never so neat a shot. Ho, ho!
did ye ever hear such a thing? And though he can sit a horse--I will
say that for him (I should like to see a Landale that could not!)--I
have seen this big boy of mine positively sicken, ay! and scandalise
the hunt by riding away from the death. Moreover, I believe that, when
I am gone, he will always let off any poaching scoundrel on the plea
that the vermin only take for their necessity what we preserve for
sport."

The little foreign lady, smiling no longer, eyed her big cousin with