nerally the
pleasantest, and that it did not much matter.

The fact that Mr. Smithson was at Lesbia Haselden's feet was obvious to
everybody.

Lesbia, who had at first treated him with supreme hauteur, had grown
more civil as she began to understand the place he held in the world,
and how much social influence goes along with unlimited wealth. She was
civil, but she had quite made up her mind that nothing could ever induce
her to become Horace Smithson's wife. That offer which had hung fire in
the case of poor Belle Trinder, was not too long delayed on this
occasion. Mr. Smithson called in Arlington Street about ten days after
the breakfast in Park Lane, before luncheon, and before Lady Kirkbank
had left her room. He brought tickets for a _matinee d'invitation_ in
Belgrave Square, at which a new and wonderful Russian pianiste was to
make a kind of semi-official _debut_, before an audience of critics and
distinguished amateurs, and the elect of the musical world. They wore
tickets which money could not buy, and were thus a meet offering for
Lady Lesbia, and a plausible excuse for an early call.

Mr. Smithson succeeded in seeing Lesbia alone, and then and there, with
very little circumlocution, asked her to be his wife.

Her social education had advanced considerably since that summer day in
the pine-wood, when John Hammond had wooed her with passionate wooing.
Mr. Smithson was a much less ardent suitor, and made his offer with the
air of a man who expects to be accepted.

Lesbia's beautiful head bent a little, like a lily on its stalk, and a
faint blush deepened the pale rose tint of her complexion. Her reply was
courteous and conventional. She was flattered, she was grateful for Mr.
Smithson's high opinion of her; but she was deeply grieved if anything
in her manner had given him reason to think that he was more to her than
a friend, an old friend of dear Lady Kirkbank's, whom she was naturally
predisposed to like, as Lady Kirkbank's friend.

Horace Smithson turned pale as death, but if he was angry, he gave no
utterance to his angry feelings. He only asked if Lady Lesbia's answer
was final--and on being told that it was so, he dismissed the subject in
the easiest manner, and with a gentlemanlike placidity which very much
astonished the lady.

'You say that you regard me as your friend,' he said. 'Do not withdraw
that privilege from me because I have asked for a higher place in your
esteem. Forget all I have sai