He declined, laughing—she pressed the point; she bought Lord Raymond to press the point—still he laughed it off.
Nothing he should like better than to play, if he could; but it was a weakness of his, that he could not overcome. He was too diffident to succeed on the boards.
Harriet accused him of being a Saint.
He bowed to the compliment, and said he saw neither reason nor precedent for saints to put on the buskin when they had no turn for wearing it.
Lady James Deacon who had secretly destined him for her friend Miss Campbell, now called on that young lady to persuade him.
Miss Campbell was sitting on a sofa making pencil alterations in a song. She looked up with her quaint expression.
"Oh, don't teaze him!" she said, "I would not. Put his name down, and send him a part-book, if you cannot get a better Alphonse."
She gave her speeches all the point in tone and manner of a good actress. Mr. Haveloc took a seat by her side.
"Is that your advice, Miss Campbell?" he said, "they should make you stage-manager."
"Lord James is stage-manager," she replied, without raising her eyes from the sheet of music she was marking.