monosyllabic appellation of Hare (and who, being my partner, trumped my
king!) assured me that Lord Doltimore was desperately in love with
Caroline Merton. By the way, now, there is a young lady of a proper age
for you,--handsome and clever, too."

"You talk of antidotes to matrimony; and so Miss Cameron--"

"Oh, no more of Miss Cameron now, or I shall sit up all night; she has
half turned my head. I can't help pitying her,--married to one so
careless and worldly as Lord Vargrave, thrown so young into the whirl of
London. Poor thing! she had better have fallen in love with
Legard,--which I dare say she will do, after all. Well, good-night!"



CHAPTER II.

PASSION, as frequently is seen,
Subsiding, settles into spleen;
Hence, as the plague of happy life,
I ran away from party strife.--MATTHEW GREEN.

Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
The dark decrees and will of fate.--_Ibid._

ACCORDING to his engagement, Vargrave breakfasted the next morning at
Burleigh. Maltravers at first struggled to return his familiar
cordiality with equal graciousness. Condemning himself for former and
unfounded suspicions, he wrestled against feelings which he could not or
would not analyze, but which made Lumley an unwelcome visitor, and