lattering
one's self all the time that, so far as absence was concerned, the
fleetness of one's gifted brougham horse really made it no difference
between Mayfair and Bellamy's.

Endymion had replied, but not very quickly, to Lady Montfort's letter,
and he had heard from her again, but her letter requiring no reply, the
correspondence had dropped. It was the beginning of March when she wrote
to him to say, that she was obliged to come to town to see her lawyer
and transact some business; that she would be "at papa's in Grosvenor
Square," though the house was shut up, on a certain day, that she much
wished to see Endymion, and begged him to call on her.

It was a trying moment when about noon he lifted the knocker to
Grosvenor Square. The door was not opened rapidly, and the delay made
him more nervous. He almost wished the door would never open. He
was shown into a small back room on the ground floor in which was a
bookcase, and which chamber, in the language of Grosvenor Square, is
called a library.

"Her ladyship will see you presently," said the servant, who had come up
from Princedown.

Endymion was standing before the fire, and as nervous as a man could
well be. He sighed, and he sighed more than once. His breathing was
oppressed; he felt that life was too short to permit us to experience
such scenes and situations. He heard the lock of the door move, and it
required all his manliness to endure it.

She entered; she was in weeds, but they became her admirably; her
countenance was grave and apparently with an effort to command it. She
did not move hurriedly, but held out both her hands to Endymion and
retained his, and all without speaking. Her lips then seemed to move,
when, rather suddenly, withdrawing her right hand, and placing it on his
shoulder and burying her face in her arm, she wept.

He led her soothingly to a seat, and took a chair by her side. Not a
word had yet been spoken by either of them; only a murmur of sympathy on
the part of Endymion. Lady Montfort spoke first.

"I am weaker than I thought, but it is a great trial." And then she said
how sorry she was, that she could not receive him at Princedown; but
she thought it best that he should not go there. "I have a great deal of
business to transact--you would not believe how much. I do not dislike
it, it occupies me, it employs my mind. I have led so active a life,
that solitude is rather too much for me. Among other business, I must
buy a to