Under the Red Dragon

er various guests till we came, and where undoubtedly the ladies' faces grew brighter when we ap

r, I am sorry to say, somewhat of a task to me. Though her dark hair was considerably seamed with gray, her forehead was without a line, smooth and unwrinkled as that of a child--care, thought, reflection, or sorrow had never visited her. Wealth and rank, with a naturally aristocratic indolence and indifference of mind, had made the ways of life and of the world--at least, the world in which she lived--easy, soft, and pleasant, and all her years had glided brilliantly but monoto

t old dame, whose goodwill and favour I was sedulously anxious to gain, it was impossible f

g over her chair, his rubicund face beaming with smiles and happiness; for he was in

ooking up with fresh annoyance, yet not un

he lad for his dead mother's sake--she was an old flame of mine in my more romantic days

s quite a ladykiller, perhaps; to be such

fever attacked him at least. If provisions were scanty, he'd share his last biscuit with a comrade; on the longest and hottest march he never fell out or became knocked up; and more than once he has be

ead my cause, he could not have

" said I; "it is impossible for one not to overhear, when one's ow

nd more

ht-bachelor," said Lady Estelle, lau

ters, opulent traders, tuft-hunters, and ministerial tools; the d

ear me, for evidently he was not m

voice, "among those present hav

him all through our singing--the old gentleman has no idea of a sotto voce, and talks always as if he were in the hunting-field. By Jove, Harry, you grow quite pink!" he continued, laughing. "

her ample skirts over the piano-stool, with an air that, though all unstudied, seemed quite imperial, and ran her slender fingers rapidly over the white keys, preluding an air; while Guilfoyle, who had a tolerable voice and an intolerab

with this lady," said Estelle, "as most

w voice close to her ear, yet not so low as to be unheard by me. "I was somewhat of a

at res

by arresting her runaway horse on the very brink of the Rhine, I must own that his Highness the Prince was the reverse of pleased, and viewed me with c

e! were you actually

on me; I n

e in lov

ver in lo

time together in the seclusion of Craigaderyn, I began to fear that he must have far surpassed me in the chances of interest with her.. Moreover, Dora's foolish remark might reasonably lead her to suppose that I was already involved with Winifred; and

ch nein! ich

Leb' wohl!

ant to begin: all the more so, perhaps, that her friend--with rather questionable taste, certainly--was wont, in a spirit of mischief or raillery--but one pardons so much in lovely woman, especially one of rank--to quiz Wales, its music and provincialism; just as, when in the Highlands, she had laughed at the natives, and voted "their sham chiefs and gatherings as deli

et, or bawling like Edgardo in the burying-ground, or to give us 'Stride la vampa' in a fashion that would terrify Alboni," said Sir Madoc, "or indee

the Men of Harlech;" doubtless as much to compliment Caradoc and me as to please her father; for it was then our regimental march; and, apart from its old Welsh associations, it is one of the finest effusions of our old harpers. Sir M

than to excel; and though tremulous at

ust of that peculiar kind which leaves nothing more to be wished for

ne, as she grew very pale; for some girls will do so, when others would flush with emotion, and

ieu, after duly shawling and handing her to the carriage, at the close of a late rout in Park-lane, when the birds of an early June morning were twittering in the trees of Hyde Park, when the purple shadows were lying deep about the Serpentine, when the Ring-road was a solitude, the distant Row a desert, and the yawning footmen in plush and powder, and the usually rubicund coachmen, looking weary, pale, and impatient, and when the time and place were suited neither for delay nor dalliance. Yet, as I have elsewhere said, an avowal of all she had inspired within me was trembling on my lips as I led her through the marble vestibule and down the steps, pressing her hand and arm the while against my side; but her mother's voice from the depths of the carriage (into which old Lord Pottersleigh had just handed her) arrested a speech to which she m

we last met, and parted,

ut night or morning, it was a most delightful ball. I had not en

orgotten it, then,"

among many happy ones. Day was almost breakin

nothing more?' I

d me most a

as whisp

uch times," she replied, while her white eyelids quiver

reproachfully; "and then, as n

ing?" she asked, after a little pau

ugh to conceal the intense annoyance her unexpected question gave me; "but, by the way, Lad

amma lost all her passports at the Berlin Eisenbahnhof, and he accompanied us to the Alte Leipziger Strasse for others, and saw us safely to our carriage. Then, by the most singular chances, we met him again at the new Kursaal of Ems, at Ger

d. I only lost some money to him; en

asked, with

es

hospitable, asked him here to see the lions of Craigad

ry explanation," said I, cloudily, while gnawing my

he looked me full in the face with her clear, dark, and penetrating eyes, to the sparkle of which the form of their lids, and t

that

ng agai

ady Es

he asked, a li

pardon me, thi

an you w

rha

ace, and she perceived it. I bowed and obeyed, with a smile on my lips and intense annoyance in my heart. I knew that the soft eyes of Winifred Lloyd had been on us from time to time; but my little flirtation with her was a thing of the past now, and I was reckless of its memory. Was she so? Time will prove. I felt jealousy of Guilfoyle, pique at Lady Estelle, and rage at my own mismanagement. I had sought to resume the tenor of our thoughts and conversation on the

ty unimpaired; and I thought that her daughter, though with more sparkle and brilliance, would be sure to resemble her very much at the same years. She was not displeased to meet with attention, but was shrewd enough to see, and disdainful enough to resent, its being bestowed, as

ept through the gilded folding doors of the outer drawing-room, with an arm round Dora's waist, her backward glances fell on all--but me. Why was this? Was this coldness of manner the result of Guilfoyle's influence, fear of her mamma, her alleged engagement with old Lord Pottersleigh, pique at myself caused by Dora's

. His voice was soft in tone; his manner, when he chose, was suave; his laugh at all times, even when he mocked and sneered, which was not unfrequent, silvery and pleasing; yet he was evidently one who could "smile and smile and be"--I shall not exactly say what. While smoking a cigar, I pondered over these and other perplexing things in my room before retiring for the night, hearing ever and anon the click of the billiard-balls at the end of the corridor. Had I not the same chance and right of competition as this Guilfoyle, though unknown to the "family

adoc, smoothing his moustache, came into my room, which adjoined his, to have, as he said, "a quiet weed before turni

n, unless greatly mistaken, a regular free-lance, without the bravery or brilliance that appertained to the name of old--a lawless ritter of the gaming-table, and one that can't even act his part well or consistently in being so. He has been spinning another story about that ring, wi

you really think so?" I asked, astonished to find

it," said he, emphatically.

Lady Estelle, too, for she seems to take rather more than an interest in him

ique and chagrin, and I resolved that, come what might, I would end t

fears his f

eserts a

ot put it t

se it all!"