room, slamming the
folding-doors after him. Godolphin lounged to the window looking on the
street, where he stood for five minutes, whistling A te, o cara. "The
devil! what's that fellow about?" he said, yawning. "How impatient
Bonbon's growing! Why don't that fool Roberts drive her up and down? By
Jove! come here, Tom. Who's that girl Falkenstein's now putting into a
cab? That's what he wanted his brace of seconds for! Confound that
portico! I can't see her face, and women dress so much alike now,
there's no telling one from another. What an infernal while he is
bidding her good-by. I shall know another time what his two seconds
mean. There, the cab's off at last, thank Heaven!--Very pretty,
Falkenstein," he began, as the Count entered. "That's your game, is it?
I think you might have confided in your bosom friend. Who is the fair
one? Come, make a clean breast of it."

Falkenstein shook his head. "My dear Harry, spare your words. Don't you
know of old that you never get anything out of me unless I choose?"

"Oh yes, confound you, I know that pretty well. One question,
though--was she pretty?"

"Do you suppose I entertain plain women?"

"No; never was such a man for the beaux yeux. It looked uncommonly like
little L'Estrange; but I don't suppose she could get out of the durance
vile of Lowndes Square, to come and pay you a tete-a-tete call. Well,
are you ready now? because Bonbon's tired of waiting, and so are we. A
man in love makes an abominable friend."

"A man in love with himself makes a worse one," said Waldemar; which hit
Harry in a vulnerable spot, Godolphin being generally chaffed about the
affection he bore his own person.

"That _was_ the little L'Estrange, wasn't it?" asked Godolphin, as they
leaned out of the window after dinner, apart from the others.

"Yes," said Waldemar, curtly; "but I beg you to keep silence on it to
every one."

"To be sure; I've kept plenty of your confidences. I had no idea you'd
push it so far. Of course you won't be fool enough to marry her?"

Falkenstein's dark eyes flashed fire. "I shall not be fool enough to
consult or confide in any man upon my private affairs."

Godolphin shrugged his shoulders with commiseration, and left Waldemar
alone in his window.

Falkenstein called in Lowndes Square the morning after and had an
interview with old Cash in the library of gaudy books that were never
opened, and told him concisely that he loved his niece, and--that ever I
sh