The Parisians, Book 9.

his solitary apartment one morning, wh

in himself to need any national title to his esteem. After some preliminary questions and answers as to the health of Mrs. Morley, the length of the Colonel's stay in Lon

hought of me at all; but I am not aware of having

ur return. And, by the way, sir, I am charged to deliver to you this note from her, and to back the r

over the note a

parably amusing chaperon? Frank has my orders to bring you back to renew these happy days, while the birds are in their first song, and the leaves are in their youngest green. I have prepared your rooms chez nous-a chamber that looks out on the Champs Elysees, a

find words to thank your wife sufficiently for an invit

ed the Col

much to do

spicion that there is anything, sir, wh

whom liberty of speech has yet educated into la recherche de la verite, and ce

is lip as if stung by a sudden pang; but after a mom

utiful city, and appreciate the charms of the most

ked Paris, but if there were anything that m

neglect, he may decline going to another place, whatever pleasure it would give him to do so. By the way, there is a great ball at one of the Ministers' to-night; you should go there, and I will p

her the Duchess of -- is as beautiful as report says, and whether Gladstone or Disraeli seems to your phrenological scien

present, but the Colonel evinced no such intention. On the contrary, settling himself more at ea

his visitor a cigar-box which

tic regalia; this he lighted from a gold match-box in the shape of a locket attached to his watch-chain, and to

ite circles of the Fifth Avenue in New York. Now the Colonel was much too experienced a man of the world not to be aware that the commission with which his Lizzy had charged him was an exceedingly delicate one; and it occurred to his mother wit that the best way to acquit himself of it, so as to avoid the risk of giving or of receiving serious affront, would be t

the signorina, or as we popularl

is quite well, and her l

ost

my wife and I had the pleasure to see them. Of course you have read

the book; it is full o

iting another? But

rising young man Gustave Rameau, that the publishers bid high for her brains considerable. Two translations have already appea

I write on. He inclined his head as in assen

ed her gifts while they were yet unconjectured. My wife says so. You m

ge-singer and actress. But this M. Rameau? You say he is a rising man. It struck me when at Paris that he was one of those charlatans with a gr

Commun, in which talented periodical Made

d among ourselves-I have no sympathy with them. To me it seems that when a man says, 'Off with your head,' he ought to let us know what other head he would put on our shoulders, and by what process the change of heads shall be effected. Honestly sp

is, and dissuade her yourself. Start-go ahead-don't be shy-don't seesaw on the beam of speculation. You will have more influence with that young female than w

y a girl deprived of her natural advisers in parents, is a reasonable and honourable supposition; but to imply that the most influential adviser of a young lady so situated is a young single man, in no way related to her, appear

llantising a single young woman; and that no young lady would be justified in resenting as impertinence my friendly suggestion to the s

his regalia, and again ga

u mean, I presume, as a

l, I guess, you are not wi

honour, but I do n

ongress, he likes to calculate how the votes will run. Well, sir, suppose we ar

persistent officiousness of his visit

as regards Mademoiselle Cicogna, can you think it would not shock her to suppose that

t I have the most amicable sentiments towards both parties, and if there is a misunderstanding which is opposed to the union of the States, I wish to remove it while yet in time. Now, let us suppose that you decline to be a candidate; there are plenty of others who will run;

rley, that I entertai

leisurely walked to the door; there he paused, as if struck by a new thought, and said gravely, in his

onel Morley, such a

y point of telling her so, when I was suddenly called off to Philadelphia; and at Philadelphia, sir, I found that Heaven had made another Mrs. Morley. I state this fact, sir, though I seldom talk of my own affairs, even when willing to tender my advice in the affairs of another, in order to prove that I do not intend to censure you if Heaven has served you in the same manner. Sir, a man may go blind for one

n to Paris; that he had then, agreeably to Lizzy's instruction, ventilated the Englishman, in the most delicate terms, as to his intentions with regard to Isaura, and that no intentions at all existed. The sooner all th

the tapis, or even requesting his compliments to the Signoras Venosta and Cicogna, she was more than put out, more than resentful,-she was deeply grieved. Being, however, one of those gallant heroes of womankind who do not give in at the first defeat, she began to doubt whether Frank had not rather overstrained the delicacy which he said he had put into his "soundings." He ought to have been more expl

me, convinced that she ought to seize the opportunity afforded to her by Graham's letter. It was one to which she might very naturally reply, and in that reply she might convey the object at her heart more

day on which Isaura gave her consent to the publication of her MS. if approved by Savarin, in the journal to be set up by the handsome-faced young author, she leapt to the conclusion that Graham had been seized with no unnatural jealousy, and was still under

her hands-as women do when they would suppress pai

ley sat down and wrot

to what you men call business, you have no right to have any business at all. You are not in commerce; you are not in Parliament; you told me yourself that you had no great landed estates to give you trouble; you are rich, without any necessity to take pains to remain rich, or to become rich

ung lady to be called her equal. Well, if you admired her then, what would you do now if you met her? Then she was but a girl-very brilliant, very charming, it is true -but undeveloped, untested. Now she is a woman, a princess among women, but retaining al

silly match-making little woman, when

Among the stateliest daughters of your English dukes, where is there one whom a proud man would be more proud to show to the world, saying, 'She is mine!' where on

ntmorency, seeing you and Isaura side by side, I whispered to Frank, 'So should those two be through life,' some cloud has passed between your eyes and the future on which they gazed. Cannot that cloud be dispelled? Were you so unjust to yourself as to be jealous of a rival, perhaps of a Gustave Rameau? I write to you frankly -answer me frankly; and if you answer, 'Mrs. Morley, I don't know, what you mean; I admired Mademoiselle Cicogna as I might adm