e.

"I won't believe it. Who told you, Mrs. Grayson?"

"Himself," replied Mrs. Grayson, calmly.

"He's crazy! He's been flighty these two years, with his long coats,
and fast-days, and confession," cried the dowager, fanning herself
violently, and snuffing the _sal-volatile_, until she grew purple in
the face. "As to the others, they are doting. I'll go this moment, if
you'll excuse me, Mrs. Jerrold, and make my coachman drive me there;
and if he has done so, I'll rouse him, as sure as I have a tongue in my
head. I knew him when he was a boy, and I protest against it," she
said, screaming like an angry macaw, as she fluttered out.

"The town's crazy about Mr. Baily's conversion. I am not surprised at
Mrs. Fanshaw's excitement. But let us make up a party, and go tonight,
Mrs. Jerrold. The gentleman who conducts this thing, and pulls the
wires, is a man of irresistible eloquence. He was one of us a few
years ago."

"It would be dangerous to venture, I should think," said Helen, with a
dim smile; "but if Mr. Jerrold has no other engagement--"

"Is it of the famous 'Mission' you are speaking, Helen?" interrupted
her mother-in-law, rustling in silk and jewels, "Yes; of course we must
go. We shall be quite out of the fashion, if we do not. The most
_distingue_ persons in town are to be there this evening."

"I fear the opera and assembly will have but a slim attendance," said
Walter Jerrold in his pleasant, sarcastic way.

"Oh, we shall get away in time for the assembly, which, by the by, is
the last of the season," replied Mrs. Jerrold. "Helen, you look
charmingly this morning. I declare you are the happiest couple I know
of in the world."

Cards, scandal, chocolate, and ices, filled up the routine of the
_Matinee_; then the guests rolled away in their carriages to dress for
dinner, or leave cards at the doors of people, who they knew were out.
It is the way of the world.

"I should prefer not to go, Walter," said Helen that evening at tea.

"Nonsense. I have better faith in you, Helen, than to think _one_
evening will put you in peril. Come, don't be a coward. I wish you to
hear this eloquent, half-crazy enthusiast preach; then we can drop into
the opera, or assembly, whichever you wish."

"In my hat and white _pegnoir_--how ridiculous, said Helen, with a
faint smile.

"No; come back and dress, if you choose. It will look ill for us to
stay away when the others expect us and to be frank with