put it to
the warrant--you will see it is a choice antique cameo Cupid, riding
on a flying fish--I had it for twenty zechins, from Signor Furabosco at
Rome--a most curious matter for an antiquary, but which will add little
faith to a Manx warrant.

"My signet--my signet--Oh! you mean that with the three monstrous
legs, which I supposed was devised as the most preposterous device, to
represent our most absurd Majesty of Man.--The signet--I have not seen
it since I gave it to Gibbon, my monkey, to play with.--He did whine for
it most piteously--I hope he has not gemmed the green breast of ocean
with my symbol of sovereignty!"

"Now, by Heaven," said the Countess, trembling, and colouring deeply
with anger, "it was your father's signet! the last pledge which he sent,
with his love to me, and his blessing to thee, the night before they
murdered him at Bolton!"

"Mother, dearest mother," said the Earl, startled out of his apathy, and
taking her hand, which he kissed tenderly, "I did but jest--the signet
is safe--Peveril knows that it is so.--Go fetch it, Julian, for Heaven's
sake--here are my keys--it is in the left-hand drawer of my travelling
cabinet--Nay, mother, forgive me--it was but a _mauvaise plaisanterie_;
only an ill-imagined jest, ungracious, and in bad taste, I allow--but
only one of Philip's follies. Look at me, dearest mother, and forgive
me."

The Countess turned her eyes towards him, from which the tears were fast
falling.

"Philip," she said, "you try me too unkindly, and too severely. If times
are changed, as I have heard you allege--if the dignity of rank, and
the high feelings of honour and duty, are now drowned in giddy jests and
trifling pursuits, let _me_ at least, who live secluded from all others,
die without perceiving the change which has happened, and, above all,
without perceiving it in mine own son. Let me not learn the general
prevalence of this levity, which laughs at every sense of dignity or
duty, through your personal disrespect--Let me not think that when I
die----"

"Speak nothing of it, mother," said the Earl, interrupting her
affectionately. "It is true, I cannot promise to be all my father and
his fathers were; for we wear silk vests for their steel coats, and
feathered beavers for their crested helmets. But believe me, though
to be an absolute Palmerin of England is not in my nature, no son ever
loved a mother more dearly, or would do more to oblige her. And that you
may own