e persons; and if Onslow's fortune
be a princely one, he may still feel compunctious regrets for his
detestable conduct to me!"

"Oh, I forgot that!" said Norwood, with a most laudable air of
seriousness.

"It was very kind of you, my Lord, very considerate and very kind,
indeed, to forget it. Yet I should have fancied it was the very
sentiment uppermost in the mind of any one entering this chamber,
witnessing the solitary seclusion of my daily life, beholding the
resources by which the weary hours are beguiled, not to speak of the
ravages which sorrow has left upon these features."

"On that score, at least, I can contradict you, Hester," said he, with a
smile of flattering meaning. "It is now above eight years since first--"

"How can you be so tiresome?" said she, pettishly.

"Prince Midchekoff, my Lady, presents his compliments," said a servant,
"and wishes to know if your Ladyship will receive him at dinner to-day,
and at what hour?"

"How provoking! Yes, say, 'Yes, at eight o'clock,'" said she, walking up
and down the room with impatience. "You 'll stay and meet him, Norwood.
I know you 're not great friends; but no matter, George is so uncertain.
He left us t' other day to entertain the Prince alone, Kate and
myself, only fancy; and as he takes half-hour fits of silence, and Kate
occasionally won't speak for a whole evening together, my part was a
pleasant one."

"How Florence wrongs you both!" said Norwood. "They say that no one is
more agreeable to your Ladyship than the Midchekoff," said he, slowly
and pointedly.

"As Miss Dalton's admirer, I hope rumor adds that," said she, hastily.

"What? are you really serious? Has the Dalton pretensions?"

"Perhaps not; but the Prince has," interrupted Lady Hester. "But you
are forgetting these people all the while. Do pray do something anything
with them; and don't forget us at eight o'clock." And with this Lady
Hester hurried from the room, as if admonished by her watch of the
lateness of the hour, but really anxious to escape further interrogatory
from the Viscount.

When Norwood reached the court, he was surprised to find it empty; not
one of the eager creditors remained, but all was still and silent.

"What has become of these good people?" asked he of the porter.

"The stranger who arrived in the caleche awhile ago spoke a few words to
them, and they went."

This was all that he knew, and being a porter, one of that privileged
caste whose prerogati