re his gifts that he
was able to be proud of that also. It had all been in the possession
of his family since the time of James I. And he was a man who knew
everything though only forty, and by no means old in appearance. But,
if you were to believe him, he had all that experience of the world
which nothing but unlimited years could have given him. He knew all
the Courts in Europe, and all the race courses,--and more especially
all the Jacks and Toms who had grown into notoriety in those
different worlds of fashion. He came to Exeter to stay with his
brother-in-law, the Dean, and to look after his property for a while.
There he fell in love with Cecilia Holt, and, after a fortnight
of prosperous love-making, made her an offer. This the young lady
accepted, averse as she was to lovers, and for a month was the
happiest and proudest girl in all Exeter. The happiness and pride of
a girl in her lover is something wonderful to behold. He is surely
the only man, and she the only woman born worthy of such a man. She
is to be the depository of all his secrets, and the recipient of
all his thoughts. That other young ladies should accept her with
submission in this period of her ecstasy would be surprising were it
not that she is so truly exalted by her condition as to make her for
a short period an object to them of genuine worship. In this way, for
a month or six weeks, did Miss Holt's friends submit to her and bear
with her. They endured to be considered but as the outside personages
of an indifferent outer world, whereas Cecilia herself with her lover
were the only two inhabitants of the small celestial empire in which
they lived. Then there gradually came to be a change. And it must
be acknowledged here that the change commenced with Cecilia Holt
herself.

The greater the adoration of the girl the deeper the abyss into which
she falls,--if she be doomed to fall at all. A month of imperfection
she can bear, even though the imperfections be very glaring. For
a month, or perhaps for six weeks, the desire to subject herself
to a newly-found superior being supports her spirit against all
trials. Neglect when it first comes is not known to be neglect.
The first bursts of ill-temper have about them something of the
picturesque,--or at any rate of the grotesque. Even the selfishness
is displayed on behalf of an object so exalted as to be excusable.
So it was with Cecilia Holt. The period of absolute, unmistaken,
unreasonable love l