old friend, in a foreign country too, might have
escaped being classified in this category?"

"I own my fault, which, like most faults, has brought its own penalty."

"If this be meant to express your deep affliction at not coming to us, I
accept the speech in all its most complimentary sense."

I bowed in acquiescence, and she went on:--

"You must forgive me if I talk to you with a freedom that our actual
acquaintanceship does not warrant, for, while _you_ never heard of me
before, _I_ have been listening to stories and narratives about _you_, I
cannot say how long."

"Indeed! I scarcely suspected Sir Gordon had more than remembered me."

"I did not say that Grandpapa was my informant," said she, laughing.
"Lady Catherine Douglas--the Collingwoods--the Grevilles--and then that
delightful person, Madame de Favancourt,--all spoke of you.... For which
of my catalogue was that blush intended, Mr. Templeton?"

"I was only yielding to a very natural sentiment--call it shame, pride,
or pleasure--that so many fair friends should have deemed me worthy a
place in their memory. Is Mary Greville married?"

"Yes; about a month since she accepted the hand she had, it is said,
some half-dozen times rejected."

"Sir Blake Morony?"

"The same: an intolerable bore, to my thinking; and, indeed, I believe
to poor Mary's, too. But, then, 'the' man did not offer. Some say, he
was bashful; some, that he dreaded what he need not have dreaded--a
refusal; and so, Mary went but to the Cape when her father became
Governor there; and, like all governors' daughters, took a husband from
the staff."

"She was very pretty, but----"

"Say on; we were never more than mere acquaintances."

"I was going to add, a most inveterate flirt."

"How I do detest to hear that brought as an accusation against a girl,
from the very kind of person that invariably induces the error!--Young
men like Mr. Templeton, who, entering life with the prestige of ability
and public success, very naturally flatter the vanity of any girl by
their attentions, and lead to a more buoyant character of mind and a
greater desire to please, which are at once set down as coquetry. For
my own part, I greatly prefer old men's society to young one's, from the
very fact that one is permitted to indulge all the caprices of thought
or fancy without incurring the offensive imputation of a design on his
heart."

"I should not always give a verdict of acquittal even in such case