To beauty and her train.'"

"Oh!" cried Lady Flora, laughing, "you mean Mrs. Desborough and her
train: see where they sweep! Pray go and render her homage."

"It is rendered," said Linden, in a low voice, "without so long a
pilgrimage, but perhaps despised."

Lady Flora's laugh was hushed; the deepest blushes suffused her
cheeks, and the whole character of that face, before so playful and
joyous, seemed changed, as by a spell, into a grave, subdued, and even
timid look.

Linden resumed, and his voice scarcely rose above a whisper. A
whisper! O delicate and fairy sound! music that speaketh to the
heart, as if loth to break the spell that binds it while it listens!
Sigh breathed into words, and freighting love in tones languid, like
homeward bees, by the very sweets with which they are charged! "Do
you remember," said he, "that evening at ---- when we last parted? and
the boldness which at that time you were gentle enough to forgive?"

Lady Flora replied not.

"And do you remember," continued Clarence, "that I told you that it
was not as an unknown and obscure adventurer that I would claim the
hand of her whose heart as an adventurer I had won?"

Lady Flora raised her eyes for one moment, and encountering the ardent
gaze of Clarence, as instantly dropped them.