'I think I meant Edmund Kean,' said Mr. Wendover.

'You make little mistakes of a century or two,' Laura Wing remarked,
laughing. She felt now as if she had known Mr. Wendover a long time.

'Oh, he was very clever,' said Lady Davenant.

'Very magnetic, I suppose,' Mr. Wendover went on.

'What's that? I believe he used to get tipsy.'

'Perhaps you don't use that expression in England?' Laura's companion
inquired.

'Oh, I daresay we do, if it's American; we talk American now. You seem
very good-natured people, but such a jargon as you _do_ speak!'

'I like _your_ way, Lady Davenant,' said Mr. Wendover, benevolently,
smiling.

'You might do worse,' cried the old woman; and then she added: 'Please
go out!' They were taking leave of her but she kept Laura's hand and,
for the young man, nodded with decision at the open door. 'Now, wouldn't
_he_ do?' she asked, after Mr. Wendover had passed into the hall.

'Do for what?'

'For a husband, of course.'

'For a husband--for whom?'

'Why--for me,' said Lady Davenant.

'I don't know--I think he might tire you.'

'Oh--if he's tiresome!' the old lady continued, smiling at the girl.

'I think he is very good,' said Laura.

'Well then, he'll do.'

'Ah, perhaps _you_ won't!' Laura exclaimed, smiling back at her and
turning away.

VIII

She was of a serious turn by nature and unlike many serious people she
made no particular study of the art of being gay. Had her circumstances
been different she might have done so, but she lived in a merry house
(heaven save the mark! as she used to say) and therefore was not driven
to amuse herself for conscience sake. The diversions she sought were of
a serious cast and she liked those best which showed most the note of
difference from Selina's interests and Lionel's. She felt that she was
most divergent when she attempted to cultivate her mind, and it was a
branch of such cultivation to visit the curiosities, the antiquities,
the monuments of London. She was fond of the Abbey and the British
Museum--she had extended her researches as far as the Tower. She read
the works of Mr. John Timbs and made notes of the old corners of history
that had not yet been abolished--the houses in which great men had lived
and died. She planned a general tour of inspection of the ancient
churches of the City and a pilgrimage to the queer places commemorated
by Dickens. It must be added that though her intentions were great her
adventures