consider him one of
the most agreeable and best informed young men I have ever met."

"Is he?" said Lady Alicia, absently.

"I wonder, Alicia, you hadn't noticed it," her mother observed, severely;
"you talked with him most of the afternoon. I should have thought that no
observant, well-bred girl would have failed to have been struck with his
air and conversation."

"I--I thought him very pleasant, mamma."

"I am glad you had so much sense. He is _extremely_ pleasant."

As Lady Alicia made no reply, the Countess felt obliged to continue his
list of virtues herself.

"He is of most excellent family, Alicia, one of the oldest in Bavaria. I
don't remember what I heard his income was in pfennigs, or whatever they
measure money by in Germany, but I know that it is more than L20,000
a-year in English money. A very large sum nowadays," she added, as if
L20,000 had grown since she was a girl.

"Yes, mamma."

"He is considered, besides, an unusually promising and intelligent young
nobleman, and in Germany, where noblemen are still constantly used, that
says a great deal for him."

"Does it, mamma?"

"Certainly it does. Education there is so severe that young Englishmen are
beginning to know less than they ever did, and in most cases that isn't
saying much. Compare the Baron with the young men you meet here!"

She looked at her daughter triumphantly, and Alicia could only reply,
"Yes, mamma?"

"Compare them and see the difference. Look at the Baron's friend, Mr
Bunker, who is a very agreeable and amusing man, I admit, but look at the
difference!"

"What is it?" Alicia could not help asking.

"_What_ is it, Alicia! It is--ah--it's--er--it is, in short, the effect of a
carefully cultivated mind and good blood."

"But don't you think Mr Bunker cultivated, mamma--and--and--well-bred?"

"He has an amusing way of saying things,--but then you must remember that
the Baron is doubtless equally entertaining in his native language,--and
possibly a superficial knowledge of a few of the leading questions of the
day; but the Baron talked to me for half an hour on the relations of
something or other in Germany to--er--something else--a very important point,
I assure you."

"I always thought him very clever," said Lady Alicia with a touch of
warmth, and then instantly changed colour at the horrible slip.

"You always," said the Countess in alarmed astonishment; "you hardly spoke
to him yesterday, and--had you met him befo