"Well," said Lady Tenderden, "I think we have had a charming day, do you not Lady Glenmore?"
"Very much so," she replied, "and if only——."
"I will finish the phrase for you—if only Lord Glenmore was here—now my dear, I thought I had warned you not to indulge in that infantine habit of saying always what you think. You cannot conceive what strange ideas men attach to these sort of declarations; they are apt to suppose it is a hint to them to make love to you."
"Impossible!" said Lady Glenmore, colouring.
"Oh, you do not yet know the world, my dear Lady Glenmore. Be advised at first, and then afterwards act for yourself."
"I must beg of you, ladies," interrupted Comtesse Leinsengen, coming up to them, "to patronize a little modiste who is newly established, and whom I take under my special protection. She has all her patterns from Paris—dey are of the premier goût, and have that particular mark of distinction about them, which dose who are copied from the feuilles des modes never so attain. Mademoiselle Dumesnil has promised me never to sell certain things but to certain people; so that one is quite sure of not seeing le double of one's own dress on Mrs. Hoffer, or Lady Delafont, which is quite sufficient to make one fall into a syncope, and put one in bad humour for de whole season."
The Ladies smiled, agreed with her, and promised compliance with her wishes. "Mademoiselle Dumesnil's story," continued Comtesse Leinsengen, "feroit un roman; it is quite touching, and" (she added in a whisper, as the gentlemen entered the room), "its hero, le voilà," pointing to Mr. Leslie Winyard; then in a low voice she proceeded to give the whole particulars to the two Ladies, Glenmore and Tenderden, who sat next to her.
The gentlemen now expressed their wish to know whether the ladies would not profit by the beauty of the evening to walk out, and the measure being agreed upon, the party was so arranged that Lady Glenmore fell to the lot of Mr. Leslie Winyard, and much as she now felt averse to accept his arm, after the particulars she had just heard from Comtesse Leinsengen, it was impossible for her to refuse without incurring, as she thought, Lady Tenderden's animadversions. Lady Glenmore's silence, however, as they walked along, attracted her companion's particular notice. Something, he conceived, must have occurred, to change her manner so completely since dinner; but Mr. Leslie Winyard was too well versed in intrigue to augur from this circumstance any thing unfavourable to his wishes, because he knew that to have made an impression quelconque, was the first step towards attaining his end.
Determined, nevertheless, to ascertain the reason of this alteration in Lady Glenmore's manner, he very cautiously, but very adroitly, contrived to find out that something had been said which she conceived was to his disadvantage; and he could be at no loss to guess of what nature it was, for the affair in which his name had been mixed up, in Comtesse Leinsengen's conversation, was of too recent a date, and too marquante, to have escaped the memories even of that thoughtless circle—it was, in short, his last.