time hath not run since you saw
your friends in King Street?"

"Oh no! not very long--at least not more than common--only about--"
Aubrey hesitated and flushed, as he realised that it was now the middle
of October, and his last visit had been paid early in June. "You see,
Sir, I am close tied by my duties here," he added in haste.

"So close tied that you may not even be away for an hour? Well, you
know your own duty; do it, and all shall be well. But I would beseech
you not to neglect this call any longer than till your earliest
opportunity shall give leave."

Mr Marshall bowed, and with an official "May God bless you!" passed out
of the hall door. Aubrey returned to his urgent duties in the
billiard-room.

"Who is your visitor, Louvaine?" asked the youthful Earl.

"If it please your Lordship, 'tis but a messenger from my grandmother."

"What would the ancient dame?" inquired one of the irreverent young
gentlemen-in-waiting.

"She would have me go and wait on her: what else I know not. I shall
find out, I reckon, when I go."

"When saw you her Ladyship, Mr Louvaine?" said an unexpected voice
behind him, and Aubrey turned to meet the Countess.

"Madam, in June last, under your Ladyship's pleasure."

"It scarcely is to my pleasure. Son Henry, cannot you allow this young
gentlemen to visit his friends more often?"

"Under your leave, Madam, he can visit them every day if he will. I
tarry him not."

"Then how comes it, Mr Louvaine, that you have not waited on my Lady
Lettice for four months?"

Aubrey mentally wished Mr Marshall in America, and himself anywhere but
in Oxford House. There was no escape. The wise Countess added no
unnecessary words to help him out, but having put her question in plain
terms, quietly awaited his reply. He muttered something not very
intelligible, in which "business" was the chiefly audible word.

"Methinks your duty to your mother and Lady Lettice should be your first
business after God," said the Countess gravely. "I pray you, Mr
Louvaine, that you wait on her Ladyship to-morrow even. The Earl will
give you leave."

Aubrey bowed, and as the Countess took her departure, for she had merely
paused in passing through the room, gave a vicious blow to the nearest
billiard ball.

"You are in for it now, Louvaine!" said his next neighbour.

"Poor lad! will his gra'mmer beat him?" suggested another in mock
compassion.

"He's been stealing apples, and the parson has