WHICH RELATES SUNDRY HAPPENINGS AT THE GARDEN FÊTE
"Gad, Beverley! how the deuce did y' do it?"
"Do what, Marquis?"
"Charm the Serpent! Tame the Dragon!"
"Dragon?"
"Make such a conquest of her Graceless Grace of Camberhurst, my great-aunt? I didn't know you were even acquainted,—how long have you known her?"
"About an hour," said Barnabas.
"Eh—an hour? But, my dear fellow, you came to see her—over the wall, you know,—she said so, and—"
"She said so, yes, Marquis, but—"
"But? Oh, I see! Ah, to be sure! She is my great-aunt, of course, and my great-aunt, Beverley, generally thinks, and does, and says—exactly what she pleases. Begad! you never can tell what she'll be up to next,—consequently every one is afraid of her, even those high goddesses of the beau monde, those exclusive grandes dames, my Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper and the rest of 'em—they're all afraid of my small great-aunt, and no wonder! You see, she's old—older than she looks, and—with a perfectly diabolical memory! She knows not only all their own peccadillos, but the sins of their great-grandmothers as well. She fears nothing on the earth, or under the earth, and respects no one—not even me. Only about half an hour ago she informed me that I was a—well, she told me precisely what I was,—and she can be painfully blunt, Beverley,—just because Cleone happens to have refused me again."