s all an embarrassment? _I_ could not surely have
been able to condole with _him_, and how could he have congratulated
_me?_"

"Pardon me, Count, but the matter, so far as I learn, is precisely as
it was before. There is neither subject for condolence nor gratulation."

"So far as the verdict of the jury went, my Lady, you are quite right;
but what do you say to that larger, wider verdict pronounced by the
press, and repeated in a thousand forms by the public? May I read you
one passage, only one, from my lawyer Mr. Kelson's letter?"

"Is it short?"

"Very short."

"And intelligible?"

"Most intelligible."

"Read it, then."

"Here it is," said he, opening a letter, and turning to the last page.
"'Were I to sum up what is the popular opinion of the result, I could
not do it better than repeat what a City capitalist said to me this
morning: "I'd rather lend Count Pracontal twenty thousand pounds to-day,
than take Mr. Bramleigh's mortgage for ten."'"

"Let me read that. I shall comprehend his meaning better than by hearing
it. This means evidently," said she, after reading the passage, "that
your chances are better than his."

"Kelson tells me success is certain."

"And your cautious friend Mr.------; I always forget that man's name?"

"Longworth?"

"Yes, Longworth. What does he say?"

"He is already in treaty with me to let him have a small farm which
adjoins his grounds, and which he would like to throw into his lawn."

"Seriously?"

"No, not a bit seriously; but we pass the whole morning building these
sort of castles in Spain, and the grave way that he entertains such
projects ends by making me believe I am actually the owner of Castello
and all its belongings."

"Tell me some of your plans," said she, with a livelier interest than
she had yet shown.

"First of all, reconciliation, if that be its proper name, with all
that calls itself Bramleigh. I don't want to be deemed a usurper, but a
legitimate monarch. It is to be a restoration."

"Then you ought to marry Nelly. I declare, that never struck me
before."

"Nor has it yet occurred to me, my Lady," said he, with a faint show of
irritation.

"And why not, sir? Is it that you look higher?"

"I look higher," said he; and there was a solemn intensity in his air
and manner as he spoke.

"I declare, Monsieur de Pracontal, it is scarcely delicate to say this
to _me_."

"Your Ladyship insists on my being candid, even at the hazard of my
cou