er low.

Mrs. Pagnell performed the offices of attention to Mr. Weyburn in lieu
of the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon
table with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. "Just peeped in," she said
as she entered the library, "to see if all was comfortable;" and gossip
ensued, not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth
description of Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the
much-misunderstood lady. "She's one of the living women of the world."

"You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?" Mrs. Pagnell
rejoiced.

"She has to be known to be liked," he owned.

"And you were, one hears, among the favoured?"

"I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am."

"You were recommended."

"Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother."

Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. "How strange Lord Ormont is! One would
suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him,
admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board
the packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring
mercy of Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the
passengers. I could hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of him
from my niece ever since her return from a select establishment for the
education of young ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out of
London, though Dover was my residence. She had got a hero! It was Lord
Ormont! Lord Ormont! all day: and when the behaviour of the country to
him became notorious, Aminta--my niece the countess--she could hardly
contain herself. A secret:--I promised her--it's not known to Lord
Ormont himself:--a printed letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into
the provincial papers, upholding him for one of the greatest of our
patriot soldiers and the saviour of India, was the work of her hands.
You would, I am sure, think it really well written. Meeting him on
deck--the outline of the coast of Portugal for an introductory subject,
our Peninsular battles and so forth--I spoke of her enthusiasm. The
effect was, to cut off all communication between us. I had only to
appear, Lord Ormont vanished. I said to myself, this is a character.
However, the very mention of him to my niece, as one of the passengers
on board--medicine, miraculous! She was up in half an hour, out pacing
the deck before evening, hardly leaning on my arm, and the colour
positively beginning to show on her cheeks again. He fled, of coa