Herbert and Mary have got that corner all to themselves; I should like to go slily behind them, and find out what they are talking about." "Try and remember what you used to talk about to your partners in this very room, some twenty years back, and perhaps recollection will satisfy your curiosity," said Lady St.Eval, smiling, but faintly, however; the names Herbert and Mary had recalled a time when those names had often been joined before, and the silent prayer arose that their fates might not resemble those whose names they bore, that they might be spared a longer time to bless those who loved them.
"Twenty years back, Caroline, what an undertaking.

Allan is more like the madcap I was then, so I can better enter into his feelings of pleasure.

By-the-bye, why are not Mrs.Cameron's family here to-night?
I half expected to meet them here yesterday." "They spend this season with Sir Walter and Lady Cameron in Scotland," replied Lady St.Eval.

"Florence declared she would take no excuse; the Marquis and Marchioness of Malvern, with Emily and Louis, are there also, and Lady Alford is to join them in a week or two." "You were there last summer, were you not ?" "We were.

They are one of the happiest couples I know, and their estate is most beautiful.