the background? Is that it, my good lord?" he asked,
smiling.

"No," replied his father, who could not help smiling in return, "not at
all, John. Emily will not require to be brought out, nor paraded through
the debasing formalities of fashion. She shall not be excluded from
fashion, certainly; but neither shall I suffer her to run the vulgar
gauntlet of heartless dissipation, which too often hardens, debases,
and corrupts. But a truce to this; the subject is painful to me; let us
change it."

The last observation of Dunroe to his sister startled her so much that
she blushed deeply, and looked with that fascinating timidity which
is ever associated with innocence and purity from her brother to her
father.

"Have I said anything wrong, papa?" she asked, when Lord Cullamore had
ceased to speak.

"Nothing, my love, nothing, but precisely what was natural and right.
Dunroe's reply, however, was neither the one nor the other, and he ought
to have known it."

"Well now, Emily," said her brother, "I don't regret it, inasmuch as it
has enabled me to satisfy myself upon a point which I have frequently
heard disputed--that is, whether a woman is capable of blushing or not.
Now I have seen you blush with my own eyes, Emily; nay, upon my honor,
you blush again this moment."

"Dunroe," observed his father, "you are teasing your sister; forbear."

"But don't you see, my lord," persisted his son, "the absolute necessity
for giving her a course of fashionable life, if it were only to remove
this constitutional blemish. If it were discovered, she is ruined;
to blush being, as your lordship knows, contrary to all the laws and
statutes of fashion in that case made and provided."

"Dunroe," said his father, "I intend you shall spend part of the summer
and all the autumn in Ireland, with us."

"Oh, yes, John, you must come," said his sister, clapping her snow-white
hands in exultation at the thought. "It will be so delightful."

"Ireland!" exclaimed Dunroe, with well-feigned surprise; "pray where is
that, my lord?"

"Come, come, John," said his father, smiling; "be serious."

"Ireland!" he again exclaimed; "oh, by the way, that's an island, I
think, in the Pacific--is it not?"

"No," replied his father; "a more inappropriate position you could not
have possibly found for it."

"Is not that the happy country where the people live without food? Where
they lead a life of independence, and starve in such an heroic spirit?"