was satisfactory :-if Lady Phoebe Locksley did not consider Cecil Danby worth coming to see, she was at least uninfected by her father's passion for strawberry leaves.-Devereux was as much slighted as myself. The chief point, however, on which I congratulated myself when stepping into my cab to go to the opera, was that I had renewed my acquaintance with old Ashby; and I had been careful to inform him in reply to his enquiries after "my excellent father,"-that "Lord Ormington was completely broken up, and in a very precarious way." My civilities to the Duchess meanwhile, had not fallen on sterile ground:-next day, came a dinner card. I had half a mind to refuse; for the Ilfracombs were dull sort of people, living in a set with which I had little sympathy; but in the sequel, I had reason to congratulate myself on having relented in their favour. Though I went early, in deference to the age of the Duke, not only was his grace's brother the Archbishop already arrived, but beside him on the sofa sat a striking-looking girl in a simple muslin dress without ornaments, nothing to adorn her but the finest hair, with the exception of poor Jane Walsingham's, I ever beheld, — conversing with him with all the ease of good breeding but without a moment losing sight of the respect due to one of the most venerable fathers of the Church,-whom the presence of Lord Ashby discoursing fustian with the Duchess, sufficiently explained to be Lady Phœbe.— I fully expected that, when presented to her, she would look the other way, as affecting carelessness and indifference, according to the habit of young ladies when flattered and fluttered by making a highly desirable acquaintance. Instead of which, she gazed stedfastly in my face, and told me she had long wished for the pleasure of knowing me, as coolly as if I had been my own grandmother ! As there was no other lady, the Duke had of course the honour of her arm to dinner, and Devereux equally, of course, supported her on the other side. But the party being small, we had a sociable round table; and as the conversation became general, and I was seated within three of her, she began questioning me respecting two or three Milanese families whom she had known at Vienna, and seemed instinctively aware I had also known at Lucca. -There was not a moment's cessation of chat between us. Lord Ashby, between a Duchess and an Archbishop, like his own coat of arms supported by a Monk and an Angel,—was too much engrossed to interfere.-But the scarlet patches on the cheek-bones re-appeared again; especially when he saw young Devereux obliged to get up a conversation aside with the Duke upon the Municipal Bill,—concerning which both of them had probably heard enough the night before, in the Houses of Gee-up, and Wo-ho. After dinner, Lady Phoebe's courtesies were still more unequivocal. She was evidently amazingly struck with me.-It was Saturday night; and she was careful to tell me she was always at the opera with her aunt Lady Stuart of Stuartsfield, and that their box was on the first pair. I hope it was because she fancied me near-sighted, that she thought it necessary to afford me such minute intelligence !— CHAPTER VII. Pour veiner de son front la paleur délicate, Le Japon a donné son plus limpide azur : La blanche porcelaine est d'un blanc bien moins par Et quand elle se lève, à notre ciel obscur, On dirait la hunc en sa robe d'onate. Ses yeux d'argent bruni roulent moelleusement, Sa bouche a des rougeurs de pêche et de framboise; A MAN must have been unreasonable indeed in his expectations, to feel disappointed in Lady Phoebe Locksley !-To a symmetry of form and feature which the dreams of Lysippus |