to the homage offered her and drank in the honeyed words poured forth
into her ear?

"Halloo!" cried an Oxford student, with a long rent-roll in prospective,
who was screwing himself against the wall, not to be in the way of the
waltzers, "I thought you had given up coming to these places?"

"So I had," replied the fast nobleman addressed, the son of a marquis.
"But I am on the lookout, so am forced into them again. I think a
ball-room the greatest bore in life."

"On the lookout for what?"

"For a wife. My governor has stopped supplies, and has vowed by his
beard not to advance another shilling, or pay a debt, till I reform. As
a preliminary step toward it, he insists upon a wife, and I am trying to
choose one for I am deeper in debt than you imagine."

"Take the new beauty, then."

"Who is she?"

"Lady Isabel Vane."

"Much obliged for the suggestion," replied the earl. "But one likes a
respectable father-in-law, and Mount Severn is going to smash. He and I
are too much in the same line, and might clash, in the long run."

"One can't have everything; the girl's beauty is beyond common. I saw
that rake, Levison, make up to her. He fancies he can carry all before