rming itself, with the studs inserted in
the front and the wristbands. On the bed the dress clothes were neatly
laid out; the patent-leather boots stood at attention on the hearth-rug;
hot water steamed from a japanned jug on the wash-hand stand; two wax
candles lit up the dressing-table; two more stood on another near the
fire, which had also writing materials on it. The room could not have
been prepared for a duchess, because a duchess would not wear a black
coat and trousers; and besides, they were certainly _his_ clothes.

Dressing took Crawley about ten minutes, and he had an hour for the
operation. So he looked hurriedly through the play, and marked the
parts allotted to Ensign Bellefleur. It did not seem very much, so he
felt a little encouraged, and taking Miss Clarissa's advice, set the
book open on the table and began learning what he would have to say,
while going on with his toilet. He had a really surprisingly retentive
memory, and picked up a good bit even in that little time.

He found Mr Gould in the drawing-room when he went down, and the old
gentleman asked him after his progress in study, and what profession he
intended to adopt, in a pompous and condescending way; but it was only a
few sentences, for there were other gentlemen there, who came up and
button-holed him seriously, and with whom he seemed to hold portentous
conversation, politics, perhaps, or shares, or something of that kind.
Then the ladies assembled, and the second gong boomed, and the people
paired off. Crawley timidly offered his arm to Miss Clarissa, rather
fearing he was doing wrong, and ought to go to someone else. But she
took it all right; and he quoted from the play he had been studying:

"`Here we escape then. Come, cousin! nay, your lips were set for pearls
and diamonds, and I'll not lose the promised treasure.'"

"`Well, good counsel is a gem,'" the young lady responded smartly.
"`But, George, I fear me you'll never carry the jewel in your ears.'
The quotation is not apt, though, for you evidently have carried my good
counsel in your ears, and been learning your part already. How good of
you!"

Here was a chance for Crawley to say something pretty; but he could not
think of what it should be till afterwards.

If the ladies' society was a little thrown away upon him he appreciated
the dinner, which was by far the most luxurious meal he had ever seen in
his life. A _table-d'hote_ at Scarborough had hitherto been