t.

"Sir Charles Pomander, I declare!" said the actress.

"I have just parted with an admirer of yours.

"I wish I could part with them all," was the reply.

"A pastoral youth, who means to win La Woffington by agricultural
courtship--as shepherds woo in sylvan shades."

"With oaten pipe the rustic maids," quoth the Woffington, improvising.

The diplomat laughed, the actress laughed, and said, laughingly: _"Tell
me what he says word for word?"_

"It will only make you laugh."

"Well, and am I never to laugh, who provide so many laughs for you all?"

_"C'est juste._ You shall share the general merriment. Imagine a
romantic soul, who adores you for _your simplicity!"_

"My simplicity! Am I so very simple?"

"No," said Sir Charles, monstrous dryly. "He says you are out of place
on the stage, and wants to take the star from its firmament, and put it
in a cottage."

"I am not a star," replied the Woffington, "I am only a meteor. And what
does the man think I am to do without this (here she imitated applause)
from my dear public's thousand hands?"

"You are to have this" (he mimicked a kiss) "from a single mouth,
instead."

"He is mad! Tell me what more he says. Oh, don't stop to invent; I
should detect you; and you would only spoil this man."

He laughed conceitedly. "I should spoil him! Well, then, he proposes to
be your friend rather than your lover, and keep you from being talked
of, he! he! instead of adding to your _eclat."_

"And if he is your friend, why don't you tell him my real character, and
send him into the country?"

She said this rapidly and with an appearance of earnest. The diplomatist
fell into the trap.

"I do," said he; "but he snaps his fingers at me and common sense and
the world. I really think there is only one way to get rid of him, and
with him of every annoyance."

"Ah! that would be nice."

"Delicious! I had the honor, madam, of laying certain proposals at your
feet."

"Oh! yes--your letter, Sir Charles. I have only just had time to run my
eye down it. Let us examine it together."

She took out the letter with a wonderful appearance of interest, and the
diplomat allowed himself to fall into the absurd position to which she
invited him. They put their two heads together over the letter.

"'A coach, a country-house, pin-money'--and I'm so tired of houses and
coaches and pins. Oh! yes, here's something; what is this you offer me,
up in this corner?"

Sir Charles inspec