Beatrice Boville and Other Stories

nd luxurious to the last extent: a first-rate stud, a capital billiard table, a good sporting country, pretty girls to amuse one with when tired of the p

eaux vivants, sang gay wild chansons peculiar to herself, that made the Screechington bravuras and themes more insupportable than ever; and, what was more, managed to infuse into everybody else some of her own energy and spirit. She made every one do as she liked; but she tyrannised over us so charmingly that we never chafed at the bit; and to the other girls she was so good-natured in giving them the r?les they liked, in praising, and in aiding them,

aughing bend of his head to Cecil

whispered in earnest, not in jest. She laughed, however. "Are you insp

I can't play

think that. Say you wo

see, it bores me rather; and I'm not Christian enoug

ace," said Cecil, looking through the window at t

m up as a lord in waiting, he'll be a dainty lay figure, but for anything more he's not as fit as t

ude of petition. "He must have the part if you won't. Be good, and don't spoil the play. I have set my mi

Love" with her that afternoon, a play that was to come off on the 23rd. Cos sulked slig

isped Horace. "Oh, I dare

enty of fellow-sufferers," w

reux chevalier. If you don't order over from Boxwood that suit of Milan armor you say one of your ances

rmured Cos. "You do anything

th, and old Ben says there's not a chance of a change till the new moon. Qui Vive might as well have kept at Hounslow. To waste all

lf, admired her embroidery, and talked with great empressement about it, till Laura, much flattered at such unusual attention, after lisping a good deal of nonsense, finally pr

"I assure you if you give me yours,

age that one whispers leaning over the back of a phaeton after a dinner at the Castle or a day at Ascot, but never expects to be called to remember the next morn

his flaxen whiskers, looked at her with his half-closed light eyes-and thought himself irresistible-and Miss Screechington broke the string of the purse she was making, and scattered all the steel beads about the floor in the futile hope of gaining his attention. Blanche went down on her knees and spent twenty minutes hunting them all up; but as I helped her I saw the turquoise eyes looked anything but gra

s. "How is the ice, will anybody tell me? I am wild to try it, ain't you, Blanche? If we

let us go after luncheon, shall we?" said Cecil. "It

tine last February, Talbot, and I, and some other men-lots of people said

d Vivian, curtly, from the fire, where he was st

y fingers. "One looks such a figure-blue, and wet, and

is mustaches. "I fear, however fêté you may be in every ot

u don't a bit mind tanning yourself, nor getti

onded Syd. "I'm neither

drenched to the skin for the chance of playing a pike; and will turn out of a comfortable arm-chair on a winter's night just t

ass country; and I believe that a man who has the strength, and nerve, and energy to go thoroughly into fishing, or shooting, or whatever it be, will carry the same wi

which, at Deerhurst, was of unusual splendor and duration. And afterwards, when she had arrayed herself in a hat with soft curling feathers, and looped up her dress in some inexplicable manner that showed her dainty high heels artistically, he took her little skates in his hand and walked down by her side to the pond. It was some way to the pond-a good sized piece of water, that snobs would have ca

Do you know, Captain Thornton, when she went away, and I saw her boxes actually on the carriage-top

y high heels and Syd's swinging cavalry strides kept pace ove

the fair Laura, who, between two young dandies, was picking her route over the

is very ki

so deeply, you had bette

nels-hark at their bay! Would you like to come and see them? By-t

loved him so much, and he loved me. He was bitten by an asp just before I left, and papa woul

leap upon her with muddy paws and much sudden affection, began to scream, and rushed to Vivian w

you must not try them, or you will cause her endless expenses in sal volatile and ether; But

er waist; while Vivian stood by her with admiration in his glance. Poor Laura looked foolish, and be

Colonel, as we left the kennels. "You were not h

y destroy all romantic effect? You can

uld-be fine ladyism that thinks it looks interesting when it pleads guilty to sal volatile, and screams at an hon

ou must have learned that you are too dangerous to the

e wind. Her feathers gave a little dance as she sh

liment me, I am

gs are warm, your impulses frank and true; it were a pity to mar the

see it. She had not forgotten the Caldecott flirtation of the morni

tout. There is no

intment passed over

h have been haunted by the memory of a slight word, a careless look, with which, unwittingly or in

cil, softly.

t, and she kept him on, luring him with vague promises, and flirting with Goring, and Francis Egerton, and all the other gay gentlemen. One night his endurance broke down: he asked her whether or no she cared for him? He begged, as a sign, for the rosebud she had in her dress. She laughed at him, and-gave the flower to Harry Carrew, a young fellow in Lunsford's 'Babe-eaters.' Guy said no more, and left her. Before dawn he shot Car

, but Ceci

ou believe that any woman ever p

ead branch forsook him. Poor fellow! they set it down to a coup de soleil, but it was the falsehood of Emily Rushbrooke th

n not to know that Syd's cool exterior covered a stormy heart, and in the longing to rouse up the storm at her incantation she resolved to play a dangerous game. The ghost story did not warn her. As Mephistopheles to Faust came Horace Cos to aid the impulse, and Cecil turned to him with one of her radiant smiles. She n

the Serpentine was an offspring of the Cossetting poetic fancy. Thrice did the luckless baronet essay the ice, and thrice did he come to grief with heels in the air, and his dainty apparel disordered. At last, his Canadian sorceress took compassion upon him, and declaring she was tired, asked him to drive her across the pond. Cos, with an air of languid martyrdom and a heavy sigh as he glanced at his Houbigants, torn and soiled, grasped the back of the chair, and actually contrived to start it. Once started, away went the chair and its Phaeton after it, whether he would or no, its occupant looking up and laughing in the dandy's heated, disconcerted, and anxious face. All at once there was a

he said, bendi

ruck her forehead on the ice, which had stunned her slightly. The Colonel saw the chestnut

and send a carriage. Good Heavens! that that fool should

race wrapped rugs and cloaks round Cecil, who, having more pluck than strength, declared she was quite well now, but

il," remarked Blanche, at dinner.

Colonel, calmly; "but I am very s

t say I am," murmured Horace. "It's something t

to his champagne glass. "A fool t

efore turning in. When I stepped out into my balcony that night, Syd was already puffing away at his pipe. Perhaps his Cavendish was unusually good, for he did not seem greatly

a cornet playing, and playing badly, Halévy's

ade, I s

see where the cornet came from. It came from under Cecil's windows, where a light was still burning. The player looked unco

him out of his bed into the snow to play some false notes to his lady-love. It's rather windy, don't you think, Ned. Good night, old fellow-and, I say, don't turn little Blanche's head with

emained, smoking four pipes and a half, meditating on his last words, for I had been playing with th