tone
to the society; some one who would unite indispensable rank and wealth
with personal graces, and thus, as it were, by prescriptive right,
assume the first place. Then, I say, Florence would be second to no city
of Italy. Would that your Ladyship would condescend to accept the vacant
throne!"

"I!" said she, affecting astonishment; and then laughingly added: "Oh
no! I detest mock sovereignty. I actually shudder at the idea of the
lady-patroness part; besides, whom should one have to reign over?
Not the Browns and Smiths and Perkinses; not the full-pensioned East
Indians, the half-pay colonels, and the no-pay Irish gentilities, that
form the staple of small city society. You surely would not recommend me
to such a sad pre-eminence."

The colonel smiled flatteringly at her Ladyship's smartness, and
hastened to assure her that such heresy was far from his thoughts; and
then with a practised readiness ran over a list of foreign celebrities
French, Russian, and German whose names, at least, clinked like the true
metal.

This looked promisingly; it was very like cutting all English society,
and had the appearance of something very exclusive, very impertinent,
and very ungenerous; and now she lent a willing ear as Haggerstone
revealed a plan of operations for a whole winter campaign. According
to his account, it was a perfect terra incognita, where the territorial
limits and laws might be laid down at will; it was a state which called
for a great dictatorship, and the sway of unlimited authority.

Now, Lady Hester had never at least since her marriage, and very rarely
even before it been more than on the periphery of fashionable society.
When she did obtain a footing within the charmed circle, it was by no
prescriptive right, but rather on some ground of patronage, or some
accidental political crisis, which made Sir Stafford's influence a
matter of moment. There was, therefore, a flattery in the thought of
thus becoming a leader in society; and she shrewdly remembered, that
though there might be little real power, there would be all the tyranny
of a larger sovereignty.

It is true she suffered no symptom of this satisfaction to escape
her; on the contrary, she compassionated the "poor dear things," that
thought themselves "the world," in such a place, and smiled with angelic
pity at their sweet simplicity; but Haggerstone saw through all these
disguises, and read her real sentiments, as a practised toadeater never
f