"Dear Madam," said Adrian, "let me entreat you to see him, to cultivate his
friendship. You will wonder then, as I do, at the extent of his
accomplishments, and the brilliancy of his talents." (Pardon me, gentle
reader, this is not futile vanity;--not futile, since to know that Adrian
felt thus, brings joy even now to my lone heart).

"Mad and foolish boy!" exclaimed the angry lady, "you have chosen with
dreams and theories to overthrow my schemes for your own aggrandizement;
but you shall not do the same by those I have formed for your sister. I but
too well understand the fascination you both labour under; since I had the
same struggle with your father, to make him cast off the parent of this
youth, who hid his evil propensities with the smoothness and subtlety of a
viper. In those days how often did I hear of his attractions, his wide
spread conquests, his wit, his refined manners. It is well when flies only
are caught by such spiders' webs; but is it for the high-born and powerful
to bow their necks to the flimsy yoke of these unmeaning pretensions? Were
your sister indeed the insignificant person she deserves to be, I would
willingly leave her to the fate, the wretched fate, of the wife of a man,
whose very person, resembling as it does his wretched father, ought to
remind you of the folly and vice it typifies--but remember, Lady Idris,
it is not alone the once royal blood of England that colours your veins,
you are a Princess of Austria, and every life-drop is akin to emperors and
kings. Are you then a fit mate for an uneducated shepherd-boy, whose only
inheritance is his father's tarnished name?"

"I can make but one defence," replied Idris, "the same offered by my
brother; see Lionel, converse with my shepherd-boy"---The Countess
interrupted her indignantly--"Yours!"--she cried: and then, smoothing
her impassioned features to a disdainful smile, she continued--"We will