fers when he speaks of the--

"Nitor
Splendentis Pario marmore purius...
Et voltus, niminm lubricus adspici,"

and which an English poet, with the less sensuous but more spiritual
imagination of northern genius, has described in lines that an English
reader may be pleased to see rescued from oblivion,--

"Her face was like the milky way i' the sky,
A meeting of gentle lights without a name."
(Suckling)

The eyes so purely bright, the exquisite harmony of colouring between
the dark (not too dark) hair and the ivory of the skin; such sweet
radiance in the lip when it broke into a smile. And it was said that in
her maiden day, before Caroline Lyndsay became Marchioness of Montfort,
that smile was the most joyous thing imaginable. Absurd now; you would
not think it, but that stately lady had been a wild, fanciful girl, with
the merriest laugh and the quickest tear, filling the air round her
with April sunshine. Certainly, no beings ever yet lived the life
Nature intended them to live, nor had fair play for heart and mind, who
contrived, by hook or by crook, to marry the wrong person!

CHAPTER VIII.

The interior of the great house.--The British Constitution at home
in a family party.

Great was the family gathering that Christmas-tide at Montfort Court.
Thither flocked the cousins of the House in all degrees and of various
ranks. From dukes, who had nothing left to wish for that kings and
cousinhoods can give, to briefless barristers and aspiring cornets, of
equally good blood with the dukes,--the superb family united its motley
scions. Such reunions were frequent: they belonged to the hereditary
policy of the House of Vipont. On this occasion the muster of the
clan was more significant than usual; there was a "CRISES" in the
constitutional history of the British empire. A new Government had been
suddenly formed within the last six weeks, which certainly portended
some direful blow on our ancient institutions; for the House of Vipont
had not been consulted in its arrangements, and was wholly unrepresented
in the Ministry, even by a lordship of the Treasury. Carr Vipont had
therefore summoned the patriotic and resentful kindred.

It is an hour or so after the conclusion of dinner. The gentlemen have
joined the ladies in the state suite, a suite which the last Marquess
had rearranged and redecorated in his old age, during the long il