re is a rival in the field he will be down on his
knees, you mark my words, in two days' time at the furthest. I think I
ought to know what men are, my dear" (and to do Lady Scapegrace
justice, she had studied that variety of the creation to some purpose,
or she was much maligned). "I know that they can't, any of them, see
three yards before their noses, and that you can turn and twist them
which way you will if you only go upon this principle--that they are
full of vanity and self-conceit, and totally deficient in brains."

"But I'm sure Captain Lovell's a clever man," said I, not disposed to
come to quite such sweeping conclusions as those of my monitress;
"and--and--I don't mean to say that I _care_ about him, Lady
Scapegrace, but still it mightn't answer with _him_, and--and--I
shouldn't like to lose him altogether."

"Pooh! Lose him! Fiddlestick!" rejoined her ladyship. "You'll see. He
is to join our party at Greenwich this afternoon. By the way, when Sir
Guy heard you were coming, he proposed to drive us all down on that
horrid coach. But I told him we should be taken for the people that
_usually_ occupy it, and nothing should induce me to go; so that plan
was given up. But you and I will go down in the barouche, and I'll
call for you, and we'll take Mr. Jones with us. And mind you're very
civil to him, and only notice the other in a quiet, good-humoured
way--for he mustn't think you do it out of pique--and before the
whitebait is on the table you'll see he'll be a different man. But now
you must go--there's a dear. I'll call for you at five. It's too bad
to turn you out; but I'm never at home to any one between three and
half-past four. Good-bye, dear, good-bye."

And Lady Scapegrace kissed me most affectionately, and promised to
call for me punctually at five, till which hour I cannot make out why
her time was always engaged.

As I tripped downstairs, hoping to make my escape without being
attended by the whole establishment to open the house-door, whom
should I come across but odious Sir Guy, in a sort of scarlet fancy
dress, which I concluded was his morning "demi-toilette." He actually
had the effrontery to propose that I should accompany him to the
stable, and that he should then "show me _his_ boudoir--hey? You look
like a rose this morning, Miss Coventry. Should like to transplant
you. What?" And whilst he stood dodging and grinning on the stairs, I
managed to slip by him and get safe into the street.