A Nest of Linnets

es, but half the population of Bath as well. Dick could not bear to be suspected of entertaining hopes on his own account as to Elizabeth Linley; he possessed a certain amount of vanity

ld not have endured the humiliation of taking a place among the rejected suitors, and he had not so

ther Charles, had worn their heart upon their sleeve. The man who is ready to laugh is not the man who is ready to love, most people think; and, being aware of this, he made himself ready

ercome in the morning by an emotion which was certainly n

, in spite of Dick's want of sympathy, to take a very lenient view of Dick's attitude toward him, was actually the first to approach him after dinner with the story of his sufferings, and with an attempt to enshrine the deepest of them in a pastoral poem which took the form of a dialogue between one Corydon and his

d no hesitation in expressing the opinion that no unprejudiced critic could fail to perceive from these data that the poet meant to refer to Miss Linley and to Bath. He was not sure, however, that Miss Linley would, on reading the verses, be stung

eville had assured him that if he had not known that he, Charles, had composed the poem, he would unhesitatingly have accepted it as the work of Dryden. Still, he was much gratified by Dick's opinion that it was on an intellectual level with the materi

ss Linley. Charles's eyes gleamed at the prospect of being thus singled out for distinction; and Dick knew why they were gleaming. He knew that his brother would certainly hurry away to the seclusion of the country before it would be too late-before people would cease

no doubt that tongues will wag when it is known that I have gone. I would not make the attempt to conceal the

o; but I see no reason why I should depart from an ordinary an

usly. "No, brother; the truth must be to

ill, one should be ready to make some sacrifice for one's brother: one should be ready at his bidding to make a depart

l tears in his eyes and a tremolo note in his voice as he

ue story of your wrongs," said Dick. "It would be very discouraging to me to find that my deviation into the truth is not credit

He seemed a li

lue unless they were dated from some

. "But, unhappily, it did not occur to me when

t your grief receives the most respectful attention in your absence. Let that thought make you happy. It will be my study to see that you are referred to in the high

idered that question,"

d in a hurry. But since both the shepherds express the sentiment of their grief wit

away very t

losely the tale poured into his sympathetic ear by every one of the young men resembled that confided to him by his brother. And there was not one of them who had not made some attempt to embody

ian manner, beginning: "Sir, if no spectacle is more pleasing to a person of sensibility than an artless maiden dissembling her love by a blush of innocence, none is more offensive than that of the practised coquette making the attempt to lure into her toils an unsuspecting swain. Among the ancient writ

young Mr. Sheridan how closely Miss Linley resembled

within earshot of the Sirens?" said Dick. "I don't suppose that they wanted him par

each Homer how to deal with his he

d your half-guinea, and then you would not have been

" said the other tartly. "She did

lement Nature's handiwork," said Dick, with a smile so enigmatical that the ge

n, young or old, loved her sufficiently to be able to conceal his affection within his own breast? There they were, writing their artificial verses and still more artificial essays-looking about for some one to make a con

he wondered. But had he kept his love a secret from her? Alas! he felt that a

d promised to

embly Rooms, to recall some of the bitter things which had occurred to him earlier in the day on the subject of the institution of

a moonlight effect upon a brook that rippled through a glen. It was a laugh that had rippled through England and made all the land joyous-it was the laugh

swirling about the bodice, stood there in the most graceful of attitudes, her head poised like the head of a coquettish bird that turns a single

o the world: the world that included so joyous a creature as Mrs. Abington could not be in a wholly deplorable condition. This is what Mr. Sheridan thought at that particular moment, and that is what all England t

ch is which. Mr. Gainsborough knows the difference. Ask him to paint me. 'I will hang her brocade on a wig-stand and that will be enough for most critics,' he will answer. They say that the Duchess o

peaking, "madam, when I look at Mrs. Abington it is revealed to me that a beau

efrained. She only gave an extra tilt of an inch or thereabouts to her stately head, and allowed her fan t

and as for the music-oh, lud! I have seen women dress so that it would need a whole orchestra to do them justice. For my own part, I aim no higher than the compass of a harpsichord; and I hold

has opened a vein of such wit," said Dick. "But pray

Tis the first

w is it possible that you have been able

and Covent Garden is-not so

are not in any of t

hat she needs to make her truly happy and to make M

ince she has enabled Mrs. Abington to c

ll mankind. Was it not Pope who wrote,

ope who said it. Your voice

c and has taken to marriage-a state from which music is perpetually absent-you feel that 'tis laid on you as a duty to keep people informed

opposite

o music in the world now that Miss L

that he could be as cynical as the best of them-he

he young woman who gives up singing in favour

e general ear. 'Tis a kind of claret wit, this of yours; claret is not the bever

Mrs. Abington," said young Mr. Sheridan, bowing with the true Angelo air

from Mrs. Abington expressed much more than the lowest courtesy from the next most beautiful woman could ever express; and they would have been righ

s that you still