circumstances. Gazebee was there, happy in the
absolute fact of his connection with an earl, and blessed with the
consideration that was extended to him as an earl's son-in-law. And
Crosbie, also, was in the rooms,--was present there, though he had
sworn to himself that he would no longer dance attendance on the
countess, and that he would sever himself away from the wretchedness
of the family. But if he gave up them and their ways, what else would
then be left to him? He had come, therefore, and now stood alone,
sullen in a corner, telling himself that all was vanity. Yes; to the
vain all will be vanity; and to the poor of heart all will be poor.

Lady Dumbello was there in a small inner room, seated on a couch to
which she had been brought on her first arrival at the house, and
on which she would remain till she departed. From time to time some
very noble or very elevated personage would come before her and say
a word, and she would answer that elevated personage with another
word; but nobody had attempted with her the task of conversation. It
was understood that Lady Dumbello did not converse,--unless it were
occasionally with Mr Palliser.

She knew well that Mr Palliser was to meet her there. He had told
her expressly that he should do so, having inquired, with much
solicitude, whether she intended to obey the invitation of the
countess. "I shall probably be there," she had said, and now had
determined that her mother's letter and her husband's conduct to her
should not cause her to break her word. Should Mr Palliser "forget"
himself, she would know how to say a word to him as she had known how
to say a word to her husband. Forget himself! She was very sure that
Mr Palliser had been making up his mind to forget himself for some
months past.

He did come to her, and stood over her, looking unutterable things.
His unutterable things, however, were so looked, that they did not
absolutely demand notice from the lady. He did not sigh like a
furnace, nor open his eyes upon her as though there were two suns in
the firmament above her head, nor did he beat his breast or tear his
hair. Mr Palliser had been brought up in a school which delights in
tranquillity, and never allows its pupils to commit themselves either
to the sublime or to the ridiculous. He did look an unutterable thing
or two; but he did it with so decorous an eye, that the lady, who was
measuring it all with great accuracy, could not, as yet, declare that