cases, you, at least, may be sure of an answer. And tell me, Lucy, if
there be in all this city one so foolish as to think that these idle
gems, useful only as a vent for my pride in you, can add a single charm
to a beauty above all ornament?"

So saying, Brandon produced a leathern case; and touching a spring, the
imperial flash of diamonds, which would have made glad many a patrician
heart, broke dazzlingly on Lucy's eyes.

"No thanks, Lucy," said Brandon, in answer to his niece's disclaiming and
shrinking gratitude; "I do honour to myself, not you; and now bless you,
my dear girl. Farewell! Should any occasion present itself in which you
require an immediate adviser, at once kind and wise, I beseech you, my
dearest Lucy, as a parting request, to have no scruples in consulting
Lord Mauleverer. Besides his friendship for me, he is much interested in
you, and you may consult him with the more safety and assurance; because"
(and the lawyer smiled) "he is perhaps the only man in the world whom my
Lucy could not make in love with her. His gallantry may appear
adulation, but it is never akin to love. Promise me that you will not
hesitate in this."

Lucy gave the promise readily; and Brandon continued in a careless tone:
"I hear that you danced last night with a young gentleman whom no one
knew, and whose companions bore a very strange appearance. In a place
like Bath, society is too mixed not to render the greatest caution in
forming acquaintances absolutely necessary. You must pardon me, my
dearest niece, if I remark that a young lady owes it not only to herself
but to her relations to observe the most rigid circumspection of conduct.
This is a wicked world, and the peach-like bloom of character is easily
rubbed away. In these points Mauleverer can be of great use to you. His