your cousin, who, by the way, is very
pleasant. _I_ think I shall _take him up_ and improve him on my own
account; but as for you, my dear, I can see plainly it's all over with
you."

"And you _really_ leave town to-morrow?" said Frank as we walked arm
in arm up one of those shaded alleys which lead to the "Hermit," or
the "Gipsy," or some other excuse for a _tete-a-tete_ not too much
under the lamps. By the way, why is it that a party never can keep
together at Vauxhall? Lady Scapegrace and I had particularly
stipulated that we were not to separate under any circumstances.
"Whatever happens, do let us keep together," we mutually implored at
least ten times during the first five minutes, and yet no sooner did
we pair off arm in arm than the distance began gradually to increase,
till we found ourselves in "couples," totally independent of each
other's proceedings. In this manner we saw the horsemanship, and the
acrobats, and the man with the globe, and all the other eccentricities
of the circus. I really think I could have ridden quite as nicely as
Madame Rose d'Amour had I been mounted on an equally well-broken
animal with the one which curvetted and caracoled under that
much-rouged and widely-smiling dame. They do look pretty too at a
little distance those histrionic horsewomen, with their trappings and
their spangles and their costume of Francis I. I often wonder whether
people really rode out hawking, got up so entirely regardless of
expense, in the days of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. From the
horsemanship we went to see the people dance, which they did with a
degree of vigour and hilarity such as might be introduced in a
modified form with great advantage into good society; and here we came
across Cousin John and Lady Scapegrace just in time to witness a short
and abrupt interview between the latter and Sir Guy. Yes, there was
Sir Guy, with the flower in his mouth and all, dancing, actually
_dancing_--and he can't be much less than sixty--with a little smart
lady, wearing the most brilliant colour and the blackest eyelashes and
the reddest lips and the lightest eyes I ever saw upon a human being.
The little lady, whose hair, moreover, was dressed _a l'Imperatrice_,
thereby imparting additional boldness to a countenance not remarkable
for modesty, frisked and whisked round Sir Guy with a vivacity that
must have been of Parisian growth; whilst the Baronet laboured
ponderously along with true British determinatio