always music, but it was not permitted that the guests should be
deprived of other amusements. But music was the basis of the evening's
campaigns. The duke himself sometimes took a second; the four married
daughters warbled sweetly; but the great performer was Lady Corisande.
When her impassioned tones sounded, there was a hushed silence in every
chamber; otherwise, many things were said and done amid accompanying
melodies, that animated without distracting even a whistplayer. The
duke himself rather preferred a game of piquet or cart with Captain
Mildmay, and sometimes retired with a troop to a distant, but still
visible, apartment, where they played with billiard-balls games which
were not billiards.

The ladies had retired, the duke had taken his glass of seltzer-water,
and had disappeared. The gentry lingered and looked at each other, as
if they were an assembly of poachers gathering for an expedition, and
then Lord St. Aldegonde, tall, fair, and languid, said to Lothair, "do
you smoke?"

"No!"

"I should have thought Bertram would have seduced you by this time.
Then let us try. Montairy will give you one of his cigarettes, so mild
that his wife never finds him out."



CHAPTER 4


The breakfast-room at Brentham was very bright. It opened on a garden