He was going to tell more, when Ursula said, rather hesitatingly, "We have a visitor to-day." Lady Caroline came out of her corner, laughing.

"You did not expect me, I see.

Am I welcome ?" "Any welcome that Mrs.Halifax has given is also mine." But John's manner, though polite, was somewhat constrained; and he felt, as it seemed to my observant eye, more surprise than gratification in this incursion on his quiet home.

Also I noticed that when Lady Caroline, in the height of her condescension, would have Muriel close to her at dinner, he involuntarily drew his little daughter to her accustomed place beside himself, "She always sits here, thank you." The table-talk was chiefly between the lady and her host; she rarely talked to women when a man was to be had.

Conversation veered between the Emperor Napoleon and Lord Wellington, Lord William Bentinck and Sardinian policy, the conjugal squabbles of Carlton House, and the one-absorbing political question of this year--Catholic emancipation.
"You are a staunch supporter of the Bill, my father says.