, and no burden at all on a naturally humble
temper. Dr. Baker, of Whindale, accustomed to trouncing Mrs. Seaton,
would have thought him a poor creature.

When dinner was announced, Robert found himself assigned to Mrs. Darcy;
the Squire took Lady Charlotte. Catherine fell to Mr. Bickerton, Rose
to Mr. Wynnstay, and the rest found their way in as best they could.
Catherine seeing the distribution was happy for a moment, till she found
that if Rose was covered on her right she was exposed to the full fire
of the enemy on her left, in other words that Langham was placed between
her and Dr. Meyrick.

'Are your spirits damped at all by this magnificence?' Langham said
to his neighbor as they sat down. The table was entirely covered with
Japanese lilies, save for the splendid silver candelabra from which the
light flashed, first on to the faces of the guests, and then on to those
of the family portraits hung thickly round the room. A roof embossed
with gilded Tudor roses on a ground of black oak hung above them; a
rose-water dish in which the Merry Monarch had once dipped his hands,
and which bore a record of the fact in the inscription on its sides,
stood before them; and the servants were distributing to each guest
silver soup-plates which had been the gift of Sarah Duchess of
Marlborough, in some moment of generosity or calculation, to the
Wendover of her day.

'Oh dear no!' said Rose carelessly. 'I don't know how it is, I think I
must have been born for a palace.'

Langham looked at her, at the daring harmony of color made by the
reddish gold of her hair, the warm whiteness of her skin, and the
brown-pink tints of her dress, at the crystals playing the part of
diamonds on her beautiful neck, and remembered Robert's remarks to him.
The same irony mingled with the same bitterness returned to him, and the
elder brother's attitude became once more temporarily difficult. 'Who is
your neighbor?' he inquired of her presently.

'Lady Charlotte's husband,' she answered mischievously, under her
breath. 'One needn't know much more about him, I imagine!'

'And that man opposite?'

'Robert's pet aversion,' she said calmly, without a change of
countenance, so that Mr. Longstaffe opposite, who was studying her as he
always studied pretty young women, stared at her through her remark in
sublime ignorance of its bearing.

'And your sister's neighbor?'

'I can't hit him off in a sentence, he's too good!' said Rose laughing;
'a