le
railway company, and the company gives him up to the first fellow
that comes and asks for him."

"It was cruel," said Frank.

"If it had happened to me, I should have been very angry," said Mrs.
Carbuncle.

"But Frank wouldn't have had a horse at all," said Lizzie, "unless he
had taken Mr. Nappie's."

Lord George still continued his plea for Mr. Nappie. "There's
something in that, certainly; but, still, I agree with Mrs.
Carbuncle. If it had happened to me, I should--just have committed
murder and suicide. I can't conceive anything so terrible. It's all
very well for your noble master to talk of being civil, and hoping
that the horse had carried him well, and all that. There are
circumstances in which a man can't be civil. And then everybody
laughed at him! It's the way of the world. The lower you fall, the
more you're kicked."

"What can I do for him?" asked Frank.

"Put him down at your club, and order thirty dozen of grey shirtings
from Nappie and Co., without naming the price."

"He'd send you grey stockings instead," said Lizzie.

But though Lizzie was in heaven, it behoved her to be careful. The
Corsair was a very fine specimen of the Corsair breed;--about the
best Corsair she had ever seen, and had been devoted to her for the
day. But these Corsairs are known to be dangerous, and it would not
be wise that she should sacrifice any future prospect of importance
on behalf of a feeling, which, no doubt, was founded on poetry, but
which might too probably have no possible beneficial result. As far
as she knew, the Corsair had not even an island of his own in the
Aegean Sea. And, if he had, might not the island too probably have a
Medora or two of its own? In a ride across the country the Corsair
was all that a Corsair should be; but knowing, as she did, but very
little of the Corsair, she could not afford to throw over her cousin
for his sake. As she was leaving the drawing-room, she managed to say
one word to her cousin. "You were not angry with me because I got
Lord George to ride with me instead of you?"

"Angry with you?"

"I knew I should only be a hindrance to you."

"It was a matter of course. He knows all about it, and I know
nothing. I am very glad that you liked it so much."

"I did like it;--and so did you. I was so glad you got that poor
man's horse. You were not angry then?" They had now passed across the
hall, and were on the bottom stair.

"Certainly not."

"And you are not angry