LITMIR.BIZ

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he beheld Sir Julius he thought of the lady, and "vice versaw," as Sir Julius was fond of exclaiming.

      Was ever hero in this fashion wooed?

      The woman now and then would peep through Sir Julius. Or she would sit, and talk, and altogether forget she was impersonating that worthy fop.

      She never uttered an idea or a reflection, but Richard thought her the cleverest woman he had ever met.

      All kinds of problematic notions beset him. She was cold as ice, she hated talk about love, and she was branded by the world.

      A rumour spread that reached Mrs. Doria's ears. She rushed to Adrian first. The wise youth believed there was nothing in it. She sailed down upon Richard. "Is this true? that you have been seen going publicly about with an infamous woman, Richard? Tell me! pray, relieve me!"

      Richard knew of no person answering to his aunt's description in whose company he could have been seen.

      "Tell me, I say! Don't quibble. Do you know any woman of bad character?"

      The acquaintance of a lady very much misjudged and ill-used by the world, Richard admitted to.

      Urgent grave advice Mrs. Doria tendered her nephew, both from the moral and the worldly point of view, mentally ejaculating all the while: "That ridiculous System! That disgraceful marriage!" Sir Austin in his mountain solitude was furnished with serious stuff to brood over.

      The rumour came to Lady Blandish. She likewise lectured Richard, and with her he condescended to argue. But he found himself obliged to instance something he had quite neglected. "Instead of her doing me harm, it's I that will do her good."

      Lady Blandish shook her head and held up her finger. "This person must be very clever to have given you that delusion, dear."

      "She is clever. And the world treats her shamefully."

      "She complains of her position to you?"

      "Not a word. But I will stand by her. She has no friend but me."

      "My poor boy! has she made you think that?"

      "How unjust you all are!" cried Richard.

      "How mad and wicked is the man who can let him be tempted so!" thought Lady Blandish.

      He would pronounce no promise not to visit her, not to address her publicly. The world that condemned her and cast her out was no better--worse for its miserable hypocrisy. He knew the world now, the young man said.

      "My child! the world may be very bad. I am not going to defend it. But you have some one else to think of. Have you forgotten you have a wife, Richard?"

      "Ay! you all speak of her now. There's my aunt: 'Remember you have a wife!' Do you think I love any one but Lucy? poor little thing! Because I am married am I to give up the society of women?"

      "Of women!"

      "Isn't she a woman?"

      "Too much so!" sighed the defender of her sex.

      Adrian became more emphatic in his warnings. Richard laughed at him. The wise youth sneered at Mrs. Mount. The hero then favoured him with a warning equal to his own in emphasis, and surpassing it in sincerity.

      "We won't quarrel, my dear boy," said Adrian. "I'm a man of peace. Besides, we are not fairly proportioned for a combat. Ride your steed to virtue's goal! All I say is, that I think he'll upset you, and it's better to go at a slow pace and in companionship with the children of the sun. You have a very nice little woman for a wife--well, good-bye!"

      To have his wife and the world thrown at his face, was unendurable to Richard; he associated them somewhat after the manner of the rick and the marriage. Charming Sir Julius, always gay, always honest, dispersed his black moods.

      "Why, you're taller," Richard made the discovery.

      "Of course I am. Don't you remember you said I was such a little thing when I came out of my woman's shell?"

      "And how have you done it?"

      "Grown to please you."

      "Now, if you can do that, you can do anything."

      "And so I would do anything."

      "You would?"

      "Honour!"

      "Then"...his project recurred to him. But the incongruity of speaking seriously to Sir Julius struck him dumb.

      "Then what?" asked she.

      "Then you're a gallant fellow."

      "That all?"

      "Isn't it enough?"

      "Not quite. You were going to say something. I saw it in your eyes."

      "You saw that I admired you."

      "Yes, but a man mustn't admire a man."

      "I suppose I had an idea you were a woman."

      "What! when I had the heels of my boots raised half an inch," Sir Julius turned one heel, and volleyed out silver laughter.

      "I don't come much above your shoulder even now," she said, and proceeded to measure her height beside him with arch up-glances.

      "You must grow more."

      "'Fraid I can't, Dick! Bootmakers can't do it."

      "I'll show you how," and he lifted Sir Julius lightly, and bore the fair gentleman to the looking-glass, holding him there exactly on a level with his head. "Will that do?"

      "Yes! Oh but I can't stay here."

      "Why can't you?"

      "Why can't I?"

      He should have known then--it was thundered at a closed door in him, that he played with fire. But the door being closed, he thought himself internally secure.

      Their eyes met. He put her down instantly.

      Sir Julius, charming as he was, lost his vogue. Seeing that, the wily woman resumed her shell. The memory, of Sir Julius breathing about her still, doubled the feminine attraction.

      "I ought to have been an actress," she said.

      Richard told her he found all natural women had a similar wish.

      "Yes! Ah! then! if I had been!" sighed Mrs. Mount, gazing on the pattern of the carpet.

      He took her hand, and pressed it.

      "You are not happy as you are?"

      "No."

      "May I speak to you?"

      "Yes."

      Her nearest eye, setting a dimple of her cheek in motion, slid to the corner toward her ear, as she sat with her head sideways to him, listening. When he had gone, she said to herself: "Old hypocrites talk in that way; but I never heard of a young man doing it, and not making love at the same time."

      Their next meeting displayed her quieter: subdued as one who had been set thinking. He lauded her fair looks.

      "Don't make me thrice ashamed," she petitioned.

      But it was not only that mood with her. Dauntless defiance, that splendidly befitted her gallant outline and gave a wildness to her bright bold eyes, when she would call out: "Happy? who dares say I'm not happy? D'you think if the world whips me I'll wince? D'you think I care for what they say or do? Let them kill me! they shall never get one cry out of me!" and flashing on the young man as if he were the congregated enemy, add: "There! now

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