e my cousin's
place, and show you Paris. We would have no such vulgar gastronomical
interruptions; we would go through it all perfectly. I would make you
hear the very whispers with which La Valliere, under the old oaks of St.
Germain, unknowingly, told her love to Louis. In the forest glades of
St. Cloud you should see Cinq-Mars and the Royal Hunt riding out in the
_chasse de nuit_; in the gloomy walls of the prisons you should hear
Andre Chenier reciting his last verses, and see Egalite completing his
last toilet. The glittering 'Cotillons' on the terraces of Versailles,
the fierce canaille surging through the salons of the Tuileries, the
Templars dying in the green meadows at the back of St. Antoine--they
should all rise up for you under my incantations."

Positively Ernest, bored and blase, accustomed to look at Paris through
the gas-lights of his _Lion's_ life, warmed into romance to please the
eyes that now beamed upon him.

"Ah! that would be delightful," said the girl, her eyes sparkling. "Mr.
Ruskinstone, you know, is terrible to me, for he goes about with
'Ruskin' in one hand, 'Murray' in the other, and a Phrase-book or two in
his pocket (of course he wants it, as he's a 'classical scholar'), and
no matter whatever associations cling around a place, only looks at it
in regard to its architectural points. I beg your pardon," she said,
interrupting herself with a blush, "I forgot he was your cousin; but
really that constant cold stone does tease me so."

At that moment the heavy father, as Ernest irreverently styled the tall,
pompous head of one of the first banks in London, who was worth a
million if he was worth a sou, entered, and the Rev. Eusebius after
him, who had been spending a lively morning taking notes among the
catacombs. He was prepared to be as cold as a refrigerator, and the
banker to follow his example, at finding this _bete noire_ of the
Chaussee d'Antin tete-a-tete with Nina. But Ernest had a sort of haughty
high breeding and careless dignity which warned people off from any
liberties with him; and Gordon remembered that he knew Paris and its
_haute volee_ so well that he might be a useful acquaintance if kept at
arm's length from Nina, and afterwards dropped. Unlucky man! he actually
thought his weak muscles were strong enough to cope with a _Lion's_!

Vaughan took his leave, after offering his box at the Opera-Comique to
Mr. Gordon, and drove to the Jockey Club, pondering much on this new