Thaddeus was confounded for a moment; then, returning into the room, he took up a pen, which lay on the table, and said,
"I will write my address to a place where any of your ladyship's commands may reach me; but I will do myself the honor to repeat my call very soon."
"I shall always be happy to see you," replied the countess, while he was writing; "but before I engage you in a promise of which you may afterwards repent, I must tell you that you will meet with dull entertainment at my house. I see very little company; and were it not for the inexhaustible spirits of Miss Egerton, I believe I should become a complete misanthrope."
"Your house will be my paradise!" exclaimed the count, with an expressiveness to the force of which he did not immediately attend.
Lady Tinemouth smiled.
"I must warn you here, too," cried she. "Miss Egerton must not be the deity of your paradise. She is already under engagements."
Thaddeus blushed at being mistaken, and wished to explain himself.
"You misunderstand me, madam. I am not insensible to beauty; but upon my word, at that moment I had nothing else in my thoughts than gratitude for your ladyship's kindness to an absolute stranger."
"That is true, Mr. Constantine: you are an absolute stranger, if the want of a formal introduction and an ignorance of your family constitute that title. But your protection introduced you to me; and there is something in your appearance which convinces me that I need not be afraid of admitting you into the very scanty number of my friends."
Thaddeus perceived the delicacy of Lady Tinemouth, who wished to know who he was, and yet was unwilling to give him pain by a question so direct that he must answer it. As she now proposed it, she left him entirely to his own discretion; and he determined to satisfy her very proper curiosity, as far as he could without exposing his real name and circumstances.