Twelve o'clock was fixed upon.
"I shall have great pleasure in again meeting you all at that time," said Alloway, and, as he shook hands with me, he added, with a significant smile, "I will endeavor to be quite punctual, Colonel!"
"Who is that fine-looking young man, Colonel Lunettes?" asked the lady with whom I had been conversing, as I reseated myself at her side. "His manners are remarkably easy and graceful for so young a person. What a contrast he is to young J——, there, who, with all the advantages of education, foreign travel, and good society, is, and always will be, a clown! Just look at him, now, talking to those girls! Sitting, of course, upon two legs of his chair, and picking his teeth with a pen-knife!"
"What would be the consequence," said I, "if he should lose his balance and fall backward, with his mouth open in that way, and his knife held by the tip end of the handle, poised upon his teeth?"
"It looks really dangerous, don't it," commented the same slender female, whose slight manifestations had interested me, at dinner, the day before—"but I suppose he is so used to it that"——
A sudden movement arrested further philosophical speculation, on the part of this profound observer of life and manners, and a young lady whose flounces had been sadly torn by the very chair upon the occupant of which she was commenting, passed hurriedly out of the room, with her disordered dress gathered up in both hands.
The next morning, some time before the hour appointed for our visit to the Dusseldorf Gallery, a servant brought me the following note:
"Mr. Alloway regrets extremely that an unexpected, but imperative, engagement, deprives him of the anticipated pleasure of accompanying the Misses and Colonel Lunettes this morning.
"Will Colonel Lunettes oblige Mr. Alloway by making his compliments acceptable to the Misses Lunettes, together with the most sincere expressions of his disappointment?
"Metropolitan Hotel,