I want a little sea air; I shall go to Dover
or Brighton. But I suppose you will have the house full again about
Christmas; in that case I shall be delighted to repeat my visit."

The fact was, that Mr. Marsden, without Lilburne's intellect on the one
hand, or vices on the other, was, like that noble sensualist, one of
the broken pieces of the great looking-glass "SELF." He was noticed in
society as always haunting the places where Lilburne played at cards,
carefully choosing some other table, and as carefully betting upon
Lilburne's side. The card-tables were now broken up; Vaudemont's
superiority in shooting, and the manner in which he engrossed the talk
of the sportsmen, displeased him. He was bored--he wanted to be off-and
off he went. Vaudemont felt that the time was come for him to depart,
too; Robert Beaufort--who felt in his society the painful fascination
of the bird with the boa, who hated to see him there, and dreaded to
see him depart, who had not yet extracted all the confirmation of his
persuasions that he required, for Vaudemont easily enough parried
the artless questions of Camilla--pressed him to stay with so eager a
hospitality, and made Camilla herself falter out, against her will,
and even against her remonstrances--(she never before had dared to
remonstrate with either father or mother),--"Could not you stay a few
days longer?"--that Vaudemont was too contented to yield to his own
inclinations; and so for some little time longer he continued to
move before the eyes of Mr. Beaufort--stern, sinister, silent,
mysterious--like one of the family pictures stepped down from its frame.
Vaudemont wrote, however, to Fanny, to excuse his delay; and anxious
to hear from her as to her own and Simon's health, bade her direct her
letter to his lodging in London (of which he gave her the address),
whence, if he still continued to defer his departure, it would be
forwarded to him. He did not do this, however, till he had been at
Beaufort Court several days after Lilburne's departure, and till, in
fact, two days before the eventful one which closed his visit.

The party, now greatly diminished; were at breakfast, when the servant
entered, as usual, with the letter-bag. Mr. Beaufort, who was always
important and pompous in the small ceremonials of life, unlocked the
precious deposit with slow dignity, drew forth the newspapers, which he
threw on the table, and which the gentlemen of the party eagerly seized;
then, d