ds in the world."

"He interests me very much; no one so much. I am sincerely, even deeply
attached to him; but it is like your love, it is a sister's love. There
is only one person I really love in the world, and alas! he does not
love me!" And her voice was tremulous.

"Do not say such things, dear Lady Montfort. I never can believe what
you sometimes intimate on that subject. Do you know, I think it a little
hallucination."

Lady Montfort shook her head with a truly mournful expression, and then
suddenly, her beautiful face wreathed with smiles, she said in a gay
voice, "We will not think of such sorrows. I wish them to be entombed in
my heart, but the spectres will rise sometimes. Now about your brother.
I do not mean to say that it would not be a great loss to me if he
married, but I wish him to marry if you do. For myself, I must have
a male friend, and he must be very clever, and thoroughly understand
politics. You know you deprived me of Lord Roehampton," she continued
smilingly, "who was everything I could desire; and the Count of Ferroll
would have suited me excellently, but then he ran away. Now Endymion
could not easily run away, and he is so agreeable and so intelligent,
that at last I thought I had found a companion worth helping--and I
meant, and still mean, to work hard--until he is prime minister."

"I have my dreams too about that," said Lady Roehampton, "but we are all
about the same age, and can wait a little."

"He cannot be minister too soon," said Lady Montfort. "It was not being
minister soon that ruined Charles Fox."

The party broke up. The prince made a sign to Waldershare, which meant a
confidential cigar, and in a few minutes they were alone together.

"What women!" exclaimed the prince. "Not to be rivalled in this city,
and yet quite unlike each other."

"And which do you admire most, sir?" said Waldershare.

The prince trimmed his cigar, and then he said, "I will tell you this
day five years."

CHAPTER LXXXI

The ecclesiastical incident mentioned at the dinner described in our
last chapter, produced a considerable effect in what is called society.
Nigel Penruddock had obtained great celebrity as a preacher, while
his extreme doctrines and practices had alike amazed, fascinated, and
alarmed a large portion of the public. For some time he had withdrawn
from the popular gaze, but his individuality was too strong to be easily
forgotten, even if occasional paragraphs as to his