old Vernor,
I'm a Dutchman. Frank, you villain, you lucky dog, you've got it all
your own way this time; not a chance for me; I may as well shut up shop
at once, and buy myself a pair of pumps to dance in at your wedding."

"My dear fellow, how can you talk such utter nonsense?" returned I,
trying to persuade myself that I was not pleased, but annoyed, at his
insinuations.

"It's no nonsense, Master Frank, but, as I consider it, a very
melancholy statement of facts. Why, even putting aside your
'_antecedents_,' as the French have it, the roasted wrist, the burnt
ball-dress, and all the rest of it, look at your present advantages;
here you are, just returned from the university, covered with academical
honours, your cheeks paled by deep and abstruse study over the midnight
lamp; your eyes flashing with unnatural lustre, indicative of an
overwrought mind; a graceful languor softening the nervous energy
of your manner, and imparting additional tenderness to the ~256~~
fascination of your address; in fact, till you begin to get into
condition again you are the very beau ideal of what the women consider
interesting and romantic."

"Well done, Freddy," replied I, "we shall discover a hidden vein of
poetry in you some of these fine days; but talking of condition leads me
to ask what time your good mother intends us to dine?"

"There, now you have spoilt it all," was the rejoinder; "however, viewed
abstractedly, and without reference to the romantic, it's not such a bad
notion either. I'll ring and inquire."

He accordingly did so, and, finding we had not above half an hour to
wait, he proposed that we should go to our dressing-rooms and adorn
before we attempted to face "the enemy," as he rudely designated Miss
Saville.

It was not without a feeling of trepidation, for which I should have
been at a loss to account, that I ventured to turn the handle of the
drawing-room door, where I expected to find the party assembled before
dinner. Miss Saville, who was seated on a low chair by Mrs. Coleman's
side, rose quietly on my entrance, and advanced a step or two to meet
me, holding out her hand with the unembarrassed familiarity of an
old acquaintance. The graceful ease of her manner at once restored my
self-possession, and, taking her proffered hand, I expressed my pleasure
at thus unexpectedly meeting her again.

"You might have come here a hundred times without finding me, although
Mrs. Coleman is kind enough to invite m