hers might have been
changed.

"You must not allow our kind letter-writing friend," Lord Kew continued,
"to fancy we are hurt. We must walk out this afternoon, and we must
appear very good friends."

"Yes, always, Kew," said Ethel, holding out her hand again. The next
minute her cousin was at the table carving roast-fowls, and distributing
the portions to the hungry children.

The assembly of the previous evening had been one of those which the
fermier des jeux at Baden beneficently provides for the frequenters of
the place, and now was to come off a much more brilliant entertainment,
in which poor Clive, who is far into Switzerland by this time, was to
have taken a share. The Bachelors had agreed to give a ball, one of
the last entertainments of the season: a dozen or more of them had
subscribed the funds, and we may be sure Lord Kew's name was at the head
of the list, as it was of any list, of any scheme, whether of charity
or fun. The English were invited, and the Russians were invited; the
Spaniards and Italians, Poles, Prussians, and Hebrews; all the motley
frequenters of the place, and the warriors in the Duke of Baden's army.
Unlimited supper was set in the restaurant. The dancing-room glittered
with extra lights, and a profusion of cut-paper flowers decorated the
festive scene. Everybody was present, those crowds with whom our story
has nothing to do, and those two or three groups of persons who
enact minor or greater parts in it. Madame d'Ivry came in a dress of
stupendous splendour, even more brilliant than that in which Miss Ethel
had figured at the last assembly. If the Duchess intended to ecraser
Miss Newcome by the superior magnificence of her toilet, she was
disappointed. Miss Newcome wore a plain white frock on the occasion, and
resumed, Madame d'Ivry said, her role of ingenue for that night.

During the brief season in which gentlemen enjoyed the favour of Mary
Queen of Scots, that wandering sovereign led them through all the paces
and vagaries of a regular passion. As in a fair, where time is short
and pleasures numerous, the master of the theatrical booth shows you a
tragedy, a farce, and a pantomime, all in a quarter of an hour, having
a dozen new audiences to witness his entertainments in the course of
the forenoon; so this lady with her platonic lovers went through the
complete dramatic course,--tragedies of jealousy, pantomimes of rapture,
and farces of parting. There were billets on one side