"She passes on in unblenched majesty," said Lady Delacour.

"She is really a charming woman," said Clarence Hervey, in a low voice, to
Lady Delacour, drawing her into a recessed window: he in the same low
voice continued, "Could I obtain a private audience of a few minutes when
your ladyship is at leisure?--I have--" "I am never at leisure,"
interrupted Lady Delacour; "but if you have any thing particular to say to
me-as I guess you have, by my skill in human nature--come here to my
concert to-night, before the rest of the world. Wait patiently in the
music-room, and perhaps I may grant you a private audience, as you had the
grace not to call it a _tete-a-tete_. In the mean time, my dear Countess
de Pomenars, had we not better take off our hoops?" In the evening,
Clarence Hervey was in the music-room a considerable time before Lady
Delacour appeared: how patiently he waited is not known to any one but
himself.

"Have not I given you time to compose a charming speech?" said Lady
Delacour as she entered the room; "but make it as short as you can, unless
you wish that Miss Portman should hear it, for she will be down stairs in
three minutes."

"In one word, then, my dear Lady Delacour, can you, and will you, make my
peace with Miss Portman?--I am much concerned about that foolish
razor-strop dialogue which she overheard at Lady Singleton's."

"You are concerned that she overheard it, no doubt."

"No," said Clarence Hervey, "I am rejoiced that she overheard it, since it
has been the means of convincing me of my mistake; but I am concerned that