o rapidly and so secretly had all this occurred, that Lizzy saw nothing
of it, all her attention being eagerly fixed on the stage. Not so
Beecher. He had marked it all, and now sat listening in terror to the
words of high altercation in the lobby. From sounds that boded like
insult and outrage, the noise gradually decreased to more measured
tones; then came a few words in whisper, and Davis, softly drawing the
curtain, stepped gently to his chair at his daughter's back. A hasty
sign to Beecher gave him to understand that all was settled quietly, and
the incident was over.

"You 'll not think me very churlish if I rob you of one act of the
opera, Lizzy?" said Davis, as the curtain fell; "but I have a racking
headache, which all this light and heat are only increasing."

"Let us go at once, dearest papa," said she, rising. "You should have
told me of this before. There, Mr. Beecher, you needn't leave this--"

"She's quite right," said Davis; "you must remain."

And the words were uttered with a certain significance that Beecher well
understood as a command.

It was past midnight when Annesley Beecher returned to the hotel, and
both Davis and his daughter had already gone to their rooms.

"Did your master leave any message for me?" said he to the groom, who
acted as Davis's valet.

"No, sir, not a word."

"Do you know, would he see me? Could you ask him?" said he.

The man disappeared for a few minutes, and then coming back, said, "Mr.
Davis is fast asleep, sir, and I dare not disturb him."

"Of course not," said Beecher, and turned away.

"How that fellow can go to bed and sleep, after such a business as
that!" muttered Beecher, as he drew his chair towards the fire, and
sat ruminating over the late incident. It was in a spirit of triumphant
satisfaction that he called to mind the one solitary point in which he
was the superior of Davis,--class and condition,--and he revelled in the
thought that men like Grog make nothing but blunders when they attempt
the habits of those above them. "With all his shrewdness," said he to
himself, half aloud, "he could not perceive that he has been trying
an impossibility. She is beyond them all in beauty, her manners are
perfect, her breeding unexceptionable; and yet, there she is, Grog
Davis's daughter! Ay, Grog, my boy, you 'll see it one of these days. It
's all to no use. Enter her for what stakes you like, she 'll be
always disqualified. There 's only one thing carries th