She continued silent.

"I dare say, in domestic life, he's as amiable as he is hospitable, and
it must be a daily gratification to see him in his Court suit."

"I have not seen him in his Court suit."

"That is his coyness."

"People talk of those things."

"The common people scandalize the great, about whom they know nothing,
you mean! I am sure that is true, and living in Courts one must be
keenly aware of it. But what a splendid sky and-sea!"

"Is it not?"

Annette echoed his false rapture with a candour that melted him.

He was preparing to make up for lost time, when the wild waving of a
parasol down a road to the right, coming from the town, caused Annette
to stop and say, "I think that must be Mrs. Cavely. We ought to meet
her."

Fellingham asked why.

"She is so fond of walks," Anisette replied, with a tooth on her lip

Fellingham thought she seemed fond of runs.

Mrs. Cavely joined them, breathless. "My dear! the pace you go at!" she
shouted. "I saw you starting. I followed, I ran, I tore along. I feared
I never should catch you. And to lose such a morning of English scenery!

"Is it not heavenly?"

"One can't say more," Fellingham observed, bowing.

"I am sure I am very glad to see you again, sir. You enjoy Crikswich?"

"Once visited, always desired, like Venice, ma'am. May I venture to
inquire whether Mr. Tinman has presented his Address?"

"The day after to-morrow. The appointment is made with him," said Mrs.
Cavely, more officially in manner, "for the day after to-morrow. He is
excited, as you may well believe. But Mr. Smith is an immense relief
to him--the very distraction he wanted. We have become one family, you
know."

"Indeed, ma'am, I did not know it," said Fellingham.

The communication imparted such satiric venom to his further remarks,
that Annette resolved to break her walk and dismiss him for the day.

He called at the house on the beach after the dinner-hour, to see
Mr. Van Diemen Smith, when there was literally a duel between him and
Tinman; for Van Diemen's contribution to the table was champagne, and
that had been drunk, but Tinman's sherry remained. Tinman would insist
on Fellingham's taking a glass. Fellingham parried him with a sedate
gravity of irony that was painfully perceptible to Anisette. Van
Diemen at last backed Tinman's hospitable intent, and, to Fellingham's
astonishment, he found that he had been supposed by these two men to be
bashfully retreating fro