ree-quarters, they said, and sure to be at sixty-four or five; and
they actually did rise to seventy, and then we sold--that is, Dunn
did--and remitted me twelve hundred and fifty-three pounds odd."

"I wish he could be equally fortunate with me. I don't mean as regards
money," said Lady Grace; and her cheek became crimson as she spoke.

"I have always said there's a fate in these things; and who knows if his
being here Just at this moment is not a piece of destiny."

"It might be so," said the other, sadly.

"There," said Lady Lackington, as she rapidly wrote a few lines on a
piece of note-paper, "that ought to do:--

"'Dear Mr. Dunn,--If you will accept of an early dinner,
with Lady Grace Twining and myself for the company, to-day,
you will much oblige

"'Your truly,

"'Georgina Lackington.'"

"To another kind of man I'd have said something about two _pauvres
femmes delaissees_, but he 'd have been frightened, and probably not
come."

"Probably," said Lady Grace, with a sigh.

"Now, let us try the success of this." And she rang a bell, and
despatched the note.

Lady Lackington had scarcely time to deliver a short essay on the class
and order of men to which Mr. Davenport Dunn pertained, when the
servant returned with the answer. It was a very formal acceptance of the
invitation, "Mr. Davenport Dunn presented his compliments,"--and so on.

"Of course, he comes," said she, throwing the note away. "Do you know,
my dear, I half suspect we have been indiscreet; for now that we have
caught our elephant, what shall we do with him?"

"I cannot give you one solitary suggestion."

"These people are not our people, nor are their gods our gods," said
Lady Lackington.

"If we all offer up worship at the same temple,--the Bourse," said Lady
Grace, something sadly,--"we can scarcely dispute about a creed."

"That is only true in a certain sense," replied the other. "Money is a
necessity to all; the means of obtaining it may, therefore, be common to
many. It is in the employment of wealth, in the tasteful expenditure of
riches, that we distinguish ourselves from these people. You have
only to see the houses they keep, their plate, their liveries, their
equipages, and you perceive at once that whenever they rise above some
grovelling imitation they commit the most absurd blunders against all
taste and propriety. I wish we had Spicer here to see about this dinner,
it is one of the very few t