."

"Mr. Spooner would be the stuff frock."

"No;--Mr. Spooner is shoddy, and very bad shoddy, too."

On the Saturday in the following week Gerard Maule did arrive at
Harrington Hall,--and was welcomed as only accepted lovers are
welcomed. Not a word of reproach was uttered as to his delinquencies.
No doubt he got the kiss with which Adelaide had herself suggested
that his coming would be rewarded. He was allowed to stand on the rug
before the fire with his arm round her waist. Lady Chiltern smiled on
him. His horses had been specially visited that morning, and a lively
report as to their condition was made to him. Not a word was said on
that occasion which could distress him. Even Lord Chiltern when he
came in was gracious to him. "Well, old fellow," he said, "you've
missed your hunting."

"Yes; indeed. Things kept me in town."

"We had some uncommonly good runs."

"Have the horses stood pretty well?" asked Gerard.

"I felt uncommonly tempted to borrow yours; and should have done so
once or twice if I hadn't known that I should have been betrayed."

"I wish you had, with all my heart," said Gerard. And then they went
to dress for dinner.

In the evening, when the ladies had gone to bed, Lord Chiltern took
his friend off to the smoking-room. At Harrington Hall it was not
unusual for the ladies and gentlemen to descend together into the
very comfortable Pandemonium which was so called, when,--as was the
case at present,--the terms of intimacy between them were sufficient
to warrant such a proceeding. But on this occasion Lady Chiltern
went very discreetly upstairs, and Adelaide, with equal discretion,
followed her. It had been arranged beforehand that Lord Chiltern
should say a salutary word or two to the young man. Maule began about
the hunting, asking questions about this and that, but his host
stopped him at once. Lord Chiltern, when he had a task on hand, was
always inclined to get through it at once,--perhaps with an energy
that was too sudden in its effects. "Maule," he said, "you ought to
make up your mind what you mean to do about that girl."

"Do about her! How?"

"You and she are engaged, I suppose?"

"Of course we are. There isn't any doubt about it."

"Just so. But when things come to be like that, all delays are good
fun to the man, but they're the very devil to the girl."

"I thought it was always the other way up, and that girls wanted
delay?"

"That's only a theoretical delicacy which