p out of
your breast; and it is not mere seeming either--for hearts have been
altogether lost in this way before now. Oh! it's a dangerous game, that
game of chess. But to return to my tale.

About a week after the expedition to Mrs. Muddles's had taken place,
Freddy and his father returned, just in time for dinner. As I was
dressing for that meal Coleman came into my room, anxious to learn "how
the young lady had conducted herself" during his absence; whether I had
taken any unfair advantage, or acted honourably, and with a due regard
to his interest, with sundry other jocose queries, all of which appeared
to me exceedingly impertinent, and particularly disagreeable, and
inspired me with a strong inclination to take him by the shoulders and
march him out of the room; instead, however, of doing so, I endeavoured
to look amiable, and answer his inquiries in the same light tone in
which they were made, and I so far succeeded as to render the amount
of information he obtained exceedingly minute. The dinner passed off
heavily; Miss Saville was unusually silent, and all Freddy's
sallies failed to draw her out. Mr. Coleman was very pompous, and so
distressingly polite, that everything like sociability was out of the
question. When the ladies left us, matters did not improve; Freddy,
finding the atmosphere ungenial to jokes, devoted himself to cracking
walnuts by original methods which invariably failed, and attempting to
torture into impossible shapes oranges which, when finished, were much
too sour for any one to eat; while his father, after having solemnly,
and at separate intervals, begged me to partake of every article of the
dessert twice over, commenced an harangue, in which he set forth the
extreme caution and reserve he considered it right and advisable for
young gentlemen to exercise in their intercourse with young ladies,
towards whom he declared they should maintain a staid deportment
of dignified ~275~~ courtesy, tempered by distant but respectful
attentions. This, repeated with variations, lasted us till the tea
was announced, and we returned to the drawing-room. Here Freddy made a
desperate and final struggle to remove the wet blanket which appeared to
have extinguished the life and spirit of the party, but in vain; it
had evidently set in for a dull evening, and the clouds were not to be
dispelled by any efforts of his;--nothing, therefore, remained for
him but to tease the cat, and worry and confuse his mother