of rejoicing, and
the local journals bewailed the extinction of their sun.

The London season had begun, and only the nobodies stayed in the Forest
to watch the rosy sunsets glow and fade behind the yellow oaks; to see
the purple of the beech-boughs change mysteriously to brightest green;
and the bluebells burst into blossom in the untrodden glades and
bottoms. Captain Winstanley found a small house in Mayfair, which he
hired for six weeks, at a rent which he pronounced exorbitant. He
sacrificed his own ideas of prudence to the gratification of his wife;
who had made up her mind that she had scarcely the right to exist until
she had been presented to her sovereign in her new name. But when Mrs.
Winstanley ventured to suggest the Duchess of Dovedale, as her sponsor
on this solemn occasion, her husband sternly tabooed the notion.

"My aunt, Lady Susan Winstanley, is the proper person to present you,"
he said authoritatively.

"But is she really your aunt, Conrad? You never mentioned her before we
were married?"

"She is my father's third cousin by marriage; but we have always called
her Aunt. She is the widow or Major-General Winstanley, who
distinguished himself in the last war with Tippoo Saib, and had a place
at Court in the reign of William the Fourth."

"She must be dreadfully old and dowdy," sighed Mrs. Winstanley, whose
only historical idea of the Sailor King's reign was as a period of
short waists and beaver bonnets.

"She is not a chicken, and she does not spend eight hundred a year on
her dressmaker," retorted the Captain. "But she is a very worthy woman,
and highly respected by her friends. Why should you ask a favour of the
Duchess of Dovedale?"

"Her name would look so well in the papers," pleaded Mrs. Winstanley.

"The name of your husband's kinswoman will look much more respectable,"
answered the Captain; and in this, as in most matters, he had his own
way.

Lady Susan Winstanley was brought from her palatial retirement to spend
a fortnight in Mayfair. She was bony, wiggy, and snuffy; wore false
teeth and seedy apparel; but she was well-bred and well-informed, and
Vixen got on with her much better than with the accomplished Captain.
Lady Susan took to Vixen; and these two went out for early walks
together in the adjacent Green Park, and perambulated the
picture-galleries, before Mrs. Winstanley had braced herself up for the
fatigues of a fashionable afternoon.

Sometimes they came across Mr. Va