looking for some one not in the air, and evidently disappointed in his
search, comes to a full stop at length, takes off his hat, wipes his
brow, utters a petulant "Prr--r--pshaw!" and seeing, a little in the
background, the chairless shade of a thin, emaciated, dusty tree, thither
he retires, and seats himself with as little care whether there to seat
himself be the right thing in the right place, as if in the honeysuckle
arbour of a village inn. "It serves me right," said he to himself: "a
precocious villain bursts in upon me, breaks my day, makes an appointment
to meet me here, in these very walks, ten minutes before six; decoys me
with the promise of a dinner at Putney,--room looking on the river and
fried flounders. I have the credulity to yield: I derange my habits;
I leave my cool studio; I put off my easy blouse; I imprison my freeborn
throat in a cravat invented by the Thugs; the dog-days are at hand, and I
walk rashly over scorching pavements in a black frock-coat and a brimless
hat; I annihilate 3s. 6d. in a pair of kid gloves; I arrive at this haunt
of spleen; I run the gauntlet of Frosts, Slowes, and Prymmes: and my
traitor fails me! Half-past six,--not a sign of him! and the dinner at
Putney,--fried flounders? Dreams! Patience, five minutes more; if then
he comes not, breach for life between him and me! Ah, voila! there he
comes, the laggard! But how those fine folks are catching at him! Has
he asked them also to dinner at Putney, and do they care for fried
flounders?"

The soliloquist's eye is on a young man, much younger than himself, who
is threading the motley crowd with a light quick step, but is compelled
to stop at each moment to interchange a word of welcome, a shake of the
hand. Evidently he has already a large acquaintance; evidently he is
popular, on good terms with the world and himself. What free grace in
his bearing! what gay good-humour in his smile! Powers above! Lady
Wilhelmina surely blushes as she returns his bow. He has passed Lady