"No, Maud, I do not."

Here Lord Glenant interposed. Lord Glenant was one of those young men who are almost always as polite to their sisters as to other young women, but his remark on this occasion was very severe, and not very polite. He said, "Magnificent inutility, my dear Maud, mocks at usefulness; I do not wonder that my father should manifest this partiality for Miss Bethnal, as I am afraid that not one of us is so useful to him as she isI know I am not."

It was now the Duchess's turn to blush, which she did with not a little anger in her soul; and tears of vexation rose to her eyes, for she had never before received such a reproof from her brother.

She rose from the breakfast-table, and the breakfast party was broken up.

It is easy to explain the foregoing scene; I hate having any concealments from the reader; Miss Bethnal was no other than our old friend, Maggie. I must honestly say I do not think it was quite right of Mr. Thurston to have

brought her with him to Loudenham Castle. But he had been overcome by Lord Glenant's entreaties that he should do so. And Lord Glenant had persuaded Casimir and Ruth, who were the only two other persons who knew Maggie by sight, to keep the secret.

I must also explain what the Earl meant when he alluded to Maggie's strong language. The truth is that Maggie had been much disconcerted by the folly and conceit of one of the men who had been working under her supervision at the temporary building. This workman had done something which would necessitate a great deal of undoing; and, to tell the honest truth, Maggie had informed him that he was a 66 cursed fool." She had done this rather sotto voce, having in the midst of her speech become aware that the good old Earl was near her. He had heard it, but could not bring himself to believe that he had heard it, and laid all the impropriety, if impropriety there was, on the literary class amongst whom he thought she had been brought up. Now let not this outburst of Maggie tell against her

with any of my readers. There is nothing in the world so hard to conquer as the use of bad language attained in early years. In my time, as a boy, not only did our armies swear terribly in Flanders and elsewhere, but there was a certain great school located in the precincts of a royal residence; and, notwithstanding this august neighbourhood, the scholars of that school used to swear with as big words as ever were used by our army in Flanders or elsewhere. I observe that none of us, not even the most refined, have quite got over this bad habit; and that, two or three times in the year at least, we are wont to say that a man is a damned fool, when it would be quite sufficient, and more than sufficient, to say that he is a fool, without adding that most uncomplimentary adjective.

How it was that all our dramatis persona were at Loudenham Castle is also very easily explained. Lord Lochawe had entered into the emigration project with great vigour and earnestness. was thought that it would be desirable to have great entertainments at Loudenham Castle both

It

for the rich and the poor, and that it would facilitate Count Casimir's object to have these entertainments. It would be a way of bringing people together, and of selecting emigrants judiciously.

Now, it may appear surprising that such a mere man of business as Lord Lochawe should take so great an interest as he did in these entertainments. The truth is, that he did not delight in festivity when the time for festivity came. He was shy, and awkward, and embarrassed, in receiving people, especially when they were of a class inferior to himself in rank and station; but no man delighted more than he did in the preparations for a grand festival. Here was an opportunity of displaying all that talent for organization which the Earl flattered himself he possessed in a high degree, and which he really did possess in some degree. The Earl delighted to give grand balls at Lochawe House, in London; and it really may be doubted whether any young lady, going for the first time to a ball at Lochawe House, had so much pleasure in going as the

Earl had in preparing to receive her; though when the young lady in question was presented to him, the old Earl would not have one word to say to her, other than the words which he addressed to each young lady indiscriminately, telling her how glad he was to see her, and how well she looked that evening.

There is a great delusion which besets people of different classes, when commenting upon each other's proceedings. The man or woman having comparatively small means, who gives entertainments, thinks that the great people, when they give them, have nothing to do but to order that such entertainments shall be given. But this is a great mistake. Nothing in the shape of a grand entertainment is given without a great deal of trouble and a great deal of previous arrangement. Lord Lochawe was greatly embarrassed on the present occasion by the want of space in all his reception rooms. He could receive two hundred and fifty guests, but thirteen hundred, at least, had been invited. The good Earl was never more embarrassed; and, in the