tion merely to her insinuating tongue and unrivalled powers
of scampering, by which she had completely baffled the tactics of Lady
Amarantha.

Germain, who thought that a canvass was only a long morning call, and
might be achieved in a cashmere and a britzska.

The young Duke, who had seen little of his second since the eventful
day, greeted him with warmth, and was welcomed with a frankness which
he had never before experienced from his friend. Excited by rapid
travel and his present course of life, and not damped by the unexpected
presence of any strangers, Arundel Dacre seemed quite a changed man, and
talked immensely.

'Come, May, I must have a kiss! I have been kissing as pretty girls as
you. There now! You all said I never should be a popular candidate. I
get regularly huzzaed every day, so they have been obliged to hire a
band of butchers' boys to pelt me. Whereupon I compare myself to Caesar
set upon in the Senate House, and get immense cheering in "The County
Chronicle," which I have bribed. If you knew the butts of wine, the
Heidelberg tuns of ale, that I have drank during the last fortnight,
you would stare indeed. As much as the lake: but then I have to talk
so much, that the ardour of my eloquence, like the hot flannels of the
Humane Society, save me from the injurious effects of all this liquid.'

'But will you get in; but will you get in?' exclaimed his cousin.

''Tis not in mortals to command success; but---'

'Pooh! pooh! you must command it!' 'Well, then, I have an excellent
chance; and the only thing against me is, that my committee are quite
sure. But really I think that if the Protestant overseers, whom,
by-the-bye, May, I cannot persuade that I am a heretic (it is very hard
that a man is not believed when he says he shall be damned), if they
do not empty the workhouse, we shall do. But let us go in, for I have
travelled all night, and must be off to-morrow morning.'

They entered the house, and the Duke quitted the family group. About an
hour afterwards, he sauntered to the music-room. As he opened the door,
his eyes lighted upon May Dacre and her cousin. They were standing
before the fire, with their backs to the door. His arm was wound
carelessly round her waist, and with his other hand he supported, with
her, a miniature, at which she was looking.

The Duke could not catch her countenance, which was completely hid; but
her companion was not gazing on the picture: his head, a little turne