the same, he played night after night with his hosts and their guests, and seemed to be enjoying himself with the best of them. The other lady visitors, of whom one or two bore rather a shady character (though of this fact Nora was entirely ignorant), were ready to avail themselves of all the luxuries provided for them, but that did not deter them from saying nasty things about Lady Bowmant behind her back, which struck Lady Ilfracombe as being particularly ill-bred and ungrateful. ‘My dear Lady Ilfracombe,’ said one of them to her, ‘you know she was positively _nobody_--a grocer’s daughter, I believe, or something equally horrible; and this old fool, Sir Archibald, was smitten by her red cheeks and ringlets, and married her six months after his first wife’s death. She is just the sort of person to take an old dotard’s fancy. Don’t you agree with me?’ ‘Well, I am not sure if I do, Mrs Lumley,’ replied Nora. ‘I think Lady Bowmant is exceedingly good-natured, and no worse in her manners than many women whom I have met who could boast of much higher birth. I know nothing of our hostess’s ancestry, so I can only speak of her as I find her.’ ‘That is not saying much!’ exclaimed the other, laughing. ‘To see her go on with that poor Prince of Huhm-Hessetal is enough to make one die of laughing. With his broken English, and her attempts at French, it is as good as a play. And the open way in which she flatters him. He will think he is a little god before he leaves Usk.’ Their ill-nature made Nora better inclined than she would otherwise have been towards the object of it, and she found that Lady Bowmant, though decidedly fast and vulgar, was so kind-hearted and frank with it all, that she could not help liking her much better than she did her detractors.