a third emblazoned a page with rare pigments and the finest quality
of gold leaf. Beautiful forms leaned over frames glowing with
embroidery, and beautiful frames leaned over forms inlaid with
mother-of-pearl. Others, more remote, occasionally burst into
melody as they tried the passages of a new and exclusive air given
to them in MS. by some titled and devoted friend, for the private
use of the aristocracy alone, and absolutely prohibited for
publication.

The Duchess, herself the superlative of beauty, wealth, and
position, was married to the highest noble in the Three Kingdoms.
Those who talked about such matters said that their progeny were
exactly like their parents,--a peculiarity of the aristocratic and
wealthy. They all looked like brothers and sisters, except their
parents, who, such was their purity of blood, the perfection of
their manners, and the opulence of their condition, might have been
taken for their own children's elder son and daughter. The
daughters, with one exception, were all married to the highest
nobles in the land. That exception was the Lady Coriander, who,
there being no vacancy above a marquis and a rental of L1,000,000,
waited. Gathered around the refined and sacred circle of their
breakfast-table, with their glittering coronets, which, in filial
respect to their father's Tory instincts and their mother's
Ritualistic tastes, they always wore on their regal brows, the
effect was dazzling as it was refined. It was this peculiarity and
their strong family resemblance which led their brother-in-law, the
good-humored St. Addlegourd, to say that, "'Pon my soul, you know,
the whole precious mob looked like a ghastly pack of court cards,
you know." St. Addlegourd was a radical. Having a rent-roll of
L15,000,000, and belonging to one of the oldest families in