f the man who had proclaimed it. Many declared that
they had come to the determination to discredit the story. Not one,
however, sincerely professed that he disbelieved it.

Can it be, as the French moralist asserts, that we have a latent sense
of satisfaction in the misfortunes of even our best friends; or is it,
as we rather suspect, that true friendship is a rarer thing than
is commonly believed, and has little to do with those conventional
intimacies which so often bear its name?

Assuredly of all this well-bred, well-dressed, and wellborn company, now
thronging the courtyard of the palace and the street in front of it, the
tone was as much sarcasm as sorrow, and many a witty epigram and smart
speech were launched over a disaster which might have been spared such
levity. At length the space slowly began to thin. Slowly carriage after
carriage drove off,--the heaviest grief of their occupants often being
over a lost _soiree_, an unprofited occasion to display toilette and
jewels; while a few, more reflective, discussed what course was to be
followed in future, and what recognition extended to the victim.

The next day Florence sat in committee over the lost Countess. Witnesses
were heard and evidence taken as to her case. They all agreed it was a
great hardship,--a terrible calamity; but still, if true, what could be
done?

Never was there a society less ungenerously prudish, and yet there were
cases--this, one of them--which transgressed all conventional rule.
Like a crime which no statute had ever contemplated, it stood out
self-accused and self-condemned. A few might, perhaps, have been
merciful, but they were overborne by numbers. Lady Glencore's beauty and
her vast fortune were now counts in the indictment against her, and many
a jealous rival was not sorry at this hour of humiliation. The despotism
of beauty is not a very mild sway, after all; and perhaps the Countess
had exercised her rule right royally. At all events, it was the young
and the good-looking who voted her exclusion, and only those who could
not enter into competition with her charms who took the charitable
side. They discussed and debated the question all day; but while they
hesitated over the reprieve, the prisoner was beyond the law. The gate
of the palace, locked and barred all day, refused entrance to every one;
at night, it opened to admit the exit of a travelling-carriage. The next
morning large bills of sale, posted over the walls, dec