hout winking or moving, cowering
together like a covey of birds when the hawk is circling over the
turnip-field. How can you expect a man to make himself agreeable under
such appalling circumstances? The heart of the adventurer sinks within
him. Lo! there is a rustling of robes near; what if Calyba or Urganda
were at hand? _Fuyons!_ And the knight-errant retreats, with drooping
crest and smirched armor--a melancholy contrast to the _preux chevalier_
who went forth but now chanting his war-song, conquering and to conquer.
The remarks of the discomfited one, after such a failure, were, I fear,
the reverse of complimentary; and the unpleasant word _begueule_ figured
in them a great deal too often.

Cecil and Fanny Molyneux were certainly exceptions to the rule of
unsociability, but the general dullness of those _reunions_ infected
them, and made the atmosphere oppressive; it required a vast amount of
leaven to make such a large, heavy lump light or palatable. Besides, it
is not pleasant to carry on a conversation with twenty or thirty people
looking on and listening, as if it were some theatrical performance that
they had paid money to see, and consequently had a right to criticise.
The fair friends had held counsel together as to the expediency of
gratifying others at a great expense to themselves on the present
occasion, and had made their election--not to go.

Early the next morning Miss Tresilyan encountered Keene; their
conversation was very brief; but, just as he was quitting her, the
latter remarked, in a matter-of-course way, "We shall meet this evening
at Madame de Verzenay's?"

She looked at him in some surprise, for she knew he must have heard from
Mrs. Molyneux of their intention to absent themselves. She told him as
much.

"Ah! last night she did not mean to go," replied Royston; "but she
changed her mind this morning while I was with them. When I left them,
ten minutes ago, there was a consultation going on with Harry as to what
she should wear. I don't think it will last more than half an hour; and
then she was coming to try to persuade you to keep her fickleness in
countenance."

Now the one point upon which Cecil had been most severe on _la mignonne_
was the way in which the latter suffered herself to be guided by her
husband's friend. It is strange how prone is the unconverted and unmated
feminine nature to instigate revolt against the Old Dominion--never more
so than when the beautiful _Carbonara_