probably, his descendant."

"I 'm very sorry, sir, if I should have dared to differ with you; but
when I heard the name first, and in connection with two such names as
Algernon Sydney, and when I thought by what strange accident did they
ever meet in the one person--"

"You are very young, Miss Herbert, and therefore not removed from the
category of the teachable," said I, with a grand didactic look. "Let
me guard you, therefore, against the levity of chance inferences. What
would you say if a person named Potts were to make the offer of his
hand? I mean, if he were a man in all respects acceptable, a gentleman
captivating in manner and address, agreeable in person, graceful and
accomplished,--what would you reply to his advances?"

"Really, sir, I am shocked to think of the humble opinion I may be
conveying of my sense and judgment, but I'm afraid I should tell him it
is impossible I could ever permit myself to be called Mrs. Potts."

"But, in Heaven's name, why?--I ask you why?"

"Oh, sir! don't be angry with me; it surely does not deserve such a
penalty; at the worst, it is a mere caprice on my part."

"I am not angry, young lady, I am simply provoked; I am annoyed to think
that a prejudice so unworthy of you should exercise such a control over
your judgment."

"I am quite ashamed, sir, to have been the occasion of so much
displeasure to you. I hope and trust you will ascribe it to my ignorance
of life and the world."

"If you are dissatisfied with yourself, Miss Herbert, I have no more
to say," said I, taking up a book, and pretending to read, while I felt
such a disgust with myself that if I had n't been strapped up with
a leather apron up to my chin, I think I should have thrown myself
headlong down and let the wheel pass over me. "What is it, Potts, that
is corrupting and destroying the naturally fine and noble nature you
are certainly endowed with? Is it this confounded elevation to princely
rank? If you were not a Royal Highness, would you have dared to utter
such cruelties as these? Would you, in your most savage of moods, have
presumed to make that pale cheek paler, and forced a tear-drop into that
liquid eye? I always used to think that the greatest effort of a man was
to keep him on a level with those born above him. I now find it is far
harder to stoop than to stand on tiptoe. Such a pain in the back comes
of always bending, and it is so difficult to do it gracefully!"

I was positively dying t