ssure you he continued to go through
my head till morning."

"Oh, don't call him vulgar!" broke in Miss Herbert; "surely there could
be nothing more quiet or unpretending than his manners."

"If I were to hunt for an epithet for a month," retorted I, "a more
suitable one would never occur to me. The fellow was evidently an actor
of some kind,--perhaps a rope-dancer."

She burst in with an exclamation; but at the same time Mrs. Keats
interposed, and though her words were perfectly inaudible to me, I had
no difficulty in gathering their import, and saw that "the young person"
was undergoing a pretty smart lecture for her presumption in daring to
differ in opinion with my Royal Highness. I suppose it was very ignoble
of me, but I was delighted at it. I was right glad that the old woman
administered that sharp castigation, and I burned even with impatience
to throw in a shell myself and increase the discomfiture. Mrs. Keats
finished her gallop at last, and I took up the running.

"You were fortunate, madam," said I, "in the indisposition that confined
you to your room, and which rescued you from the underbred presumption
of this man's manners. I have travelled much, I have mixed largely, I
may say, with every rank and condition, and in every country of Europe,
so that I am not pronouncing the opinion of one totally inadequate to
form a judgment--"

"Certainly not, sir. Listen to that, young lady," muttered she, in a
sort of under growl.

"In fact," resumed I, "it is one of my especial amusements to observe
and note the forms of civilization implied by mere conventional
habits. If, from circumstances not necessary to particularize, certain
advantages have favored this pursuit--"

When I had reached thus far in my very pompous preface, the clatter of
a horse coming up at full speed arrested my attention, and at the very
moment the German himself, the identical subject of our talk, dashed up
to the carriage window, and with a few polite words handed in a small
volume to Miss Herbert, which it seems he had promised to give her, but
could not accomplish before, in consequence of the abrupt haste of our
departure. The explanation did not occupy an entire minute, and he was
gone and out of sight at once. And now the little window was closed,
and I could distinctly hear that Mrs. Keats was engaged in one of those
salutary exercises by which age communicates its experiences to youth.
I wished I could have opened a little chi