e was
a charming full-length glass, in which I could contemplate my whole
person from top to toe, without slanting it an inch off the
perpendicular. The lookout was into Lady Scapegrace's garden, a little
_bijou_ of a place, that bore ample witness to the good taste of its
mistress. Every shrub had been transplanted under her own eye, every
border filled according to her personal directions. She tied her own
carnations, and budded her own roses, like the most exemplary
clergyman's wife in England. I do believe she _would_ have been a good
wife to anybody but Sir Guy.

However, it was too dark for me to see anything of her ladyship's
garden. It was already getting dusk when we arrived, and although it
wanted three mortal hours of dinner, all the ladies, including the
hostess, had retired to their own rooms, to while away the time by
writing letters, reading novels, and going to sleep. I was much too
restless to embark in any of these occupations. It would have been a
relief to write, certainly--to pour out all one's thoughts and
feelings before some sympathizing correspondent; but I owned none
such. I could not have settled to read, no, not the most interesting
novel that was ever penned, although I might have left it off the day
before in an agony of uncertainty at the critical place which is
always to be found near the conclusion of the second volume; and as
for sleep--sleep, indeed!--I felt as if I should never sleep again.

When I am unhappy, and particularly when I am angry with myself, I
must always be doing something--no matter what--but I _must_ be
occupied, so I hurried Gertrude, and bustled about, and got myself
dressed, and found my own way to one of the drawing-rooms, where I
hoped to be at least secure from interruption, and to brood and worry
myself for an hour or two in unbroken solitude. I ought to have been
safe enough here. As I had wandered through unknown passages and
passed uncertain doors, I had heard the click of billiard balls, the
sound of many voices, and the harsh laugh of Sir Guy; I knew
consequently that the gentlemen were all busy at "pool," or some
equally intellectual pastime, and had not yet gone to dress. I was
sufficiently conversant with the habits of my own sex to be aware that
no lady would willingly tarnish the freshness of her dinner toilette
by coming down before the very last minute, and I anticipated
therefore no further interruption than a housemaid coming to put the
fire to