but, somehow, I was beginning to feel
chafed and impatient at her long delay. Could
she possibly have remonstrated against the
impropriety of being left alone with a young man?
Had she heard, by any mischance, that impertinent
phrase by which I designated her? Had
Mrs. Keats herself resented the cool style of
my permission by a counter-order? "I wish I
knew what detains her!" cried I to myself,
just as I heard her step on the gravel, and
then saw her coming, in very leisurely fashion,
up the walk.

Determined to display an indifference the
equal of her own, I waited till she was almost
close; and then, rising languidly, I offered
her a chair with a superb air of Brummelism,
while I listlessly said, "Won't you take a
seat?"

It was growing duskish, but I fancied I saw
a smile on her lip as she sat down.

"May I offer you a glass of wine, or a cigar?"
said I, carelessly.

"Neither, thank you," said she, with
gravity.

"Almost all women of fashion smoke, now-a-days,"
I resumed. " The Empress of the French
smokes this sort of thing here; and the Queen
of Bavaria smokes and chews."

She seemed rebuked at this, and said
nothing.

"As for myself," said I, " I am nothing without
tobacco—positively nothing. I remember
one night—it was the fourth sitting of the Congress
at Paris—that Sardinian fellow, you know
his name, came to me and said,

"'There's that confounded question of the
Danubian Provinces coming on to-morrow, and
Gortschakoff is the only one who knows anything
about it. Where are we to get at anything
like information?'

"' When do you want it, count?' said I.

"' To-morrow, by eleven at latest. There must
be at least a couple of hours to study it before
the Congress meets.'

"' Tell them to bring in ten candles, fifty
cigars, and two quires of foolscap,' said I; ' and
let no one pass this door till I ring.' At ten
minutes to eleven next morning he had in his
hands that memoir which Lord C. said
embodied the prophetic wisdom of Edmund Burke
with the practical statesmanship of the great
Commoner. Perhaps you have read it?"

"No, sir."

"Your tastes do not probably incline to
affairs of state. If so, only suggest what you'd
like to talk on. I am indifferently skilled in
most subjects. Are you for the poets? I am
ready, from Dante to the Bigelow Papers. Shall
it be arts? I know the whole thing from
Memmling and his long-nosed saints, to Leech
and the Punchists. Make it antiquities,
agriculture, trade, dress, the drama, conchology, or
cock-fighting—I'm your man; so go in, and
don't be afraid that you'll disconcert me."

"I assure you, sir, that my fears would
attach far more naturally to my own
insufficiency."

"Well," said I, after a pause, " there's
something in that. Macaulay used to be afraid of
me. Whenever Mrs. Montagu Stanhope asked
him to one of her Wednesday dinners, he always
declined if I was to be there. You don't seem
surprised at that?"

"No, sir," said she, in the same quiet, grave
fashion.

"What's the reason, young lady," said I,
somewhat sternly, "that you persist in saying
' sir' on every occasion that you address me?
The ease of that intercourse that should subsist
between us is marred by this Americanism.
The pleasant interchange of thought loses
the charming feature of equality. How is
this?"

"I am not at liberty to say, sir."

"You are not at liberty to say, young lady?"
said I, severely. " You tell me distinctly that
your manner towards me is based upon a something
which you must not reveal?"

"I am sure, sir, you have too much generosity
to press me on a subject of which I cannot, or
ought not, to speak."

That fatal Burgundy had got into my brains,
while the princely delusion was uppermost;
and if I had been submitted to the thumbscrew
now, I would have died one of the Orleans family.
"Mademoiselle," said I, grandly, " I have been
fortunately, or unfortunately, brought up in a
class that never tolerates contradiction. When
we ask, we feel that we order."

"Oh, sir, if you but knew the difficulty I am
in—"

"Take courage, my dear creature," said I,
blending condescension with something warmer.
"You will at least be reposing your confidence
where it will be worthily bestowed."

"But I have promised, not exactly promised,
but Mrs. Keats enjoined me imperatively not to
betray what she revealed to me."

"Gracious Powers!" cried I, " she has not
surely communicated my secret—she has not
told you who I am?"

"No, sir, I assure you most solemnly, that
she has not; but being annoyed by what she
remarked as the freedom of my manner towards
you at dinner, the readiness with which I replied
to your remarks, and what she deemed the want
of deference I displayed for them, she took me
to task this evening, and without intending it,
even before she knew, dropped certain expressions
which showed me that you were one of the
very highest in rank, though it was your pleasure
to travel for the moment in this obscurity
and disguise. She quickly perceived the
indiscretion she had committed, and said, ' Now,
Miss Herbert, that an accident has put you in
possession of certain circumstances, which I had
neither the will nor the right to reveal, will you
do me the inestimable favour to employ this
knowledge in such a way as may not compromise
me.' I told her, of course, that I would; and
having remarked how she occasionally—inadvertently,
perhaps— used 'sir,' in addressing
you, I deemed the imitation a safe one, while
it as constantly acted as a sort of monitor