There was, perhaps, a slight discrepancy between this opinion and one formerly delivered by Miss De Lancie; but let that pass; the last-uttered judgment was probably the most righteous, as growing out of a longer acquaintance, and longer experience in the merits of the subject. Thus--while Lord William Daw prolonged his stay, and Mr. Murray fumed and fretted, the months of April, May, and June went by. The first of July the family of Compton Lodge prepared to commence their summer tour among the watering, and other places of resort. They left Winchester about the seventh of the month. Lord William Daw had not been invited to join their party, nor had he manifested inclination to obtrude himself upon their company, nor did he immediately follow in their train. Nevertheless, a few days after their establishment at Berkeley Springs, Colonel Compton read in the list of arrivals the names of “Lord William Daw, Rev. Henry Murray, and two servants.” Enough! The intimacy between the young nobleman and the Comptons was renewed at Berkeley. And soon the devotion of his youthful lordship to the beautiful and gifted Marguerite De Lancie was the theme of every tongue. To escape this notice, Marguerite withdrew from her party, and attended by her maid and footman, proceeded to join some acquaintances at Saratoga. In vain! for unluckily Saratoga was as free to one traveler as to another, provided he could pay. And within the same week of Marguerite’s settlement at her lodgings, all the manœuvring mammas and marriageable daughters at the Springs were thrown into a state of excitement and speculation by the appearance among them of a young English nobleman, the heir presumptive of a marquisate. But alas! it was soon perceived that Lord William had eyes and ears and heart for none other than the dazzling Miss De Lancie, “la Marguerite des Marguerites,” as the French minister had called her. Miss De Lancie’s manner to her boyish worshiper was rather restraining and modifying than repulsing or discouraging. And there were those who did not hesitate to accuse the proud and queenly Marguerite of finished coquetry. To avoid this, the lady next joined a party of friends who were going to Niagara. And of course it was obvious to all that the young English tourist, traveling only for improvement, must see the great Falls. Consequently, upon the day after Miss De Lancie’s arrival at the Niagara Hotel, Lord William Daw led her in to dinner. And once more the “infatuation,” as they chose to call it, of that young gentleman, became the favorite subject of gossip. A few weeks spent at the Falls brought the last of September, and Marguerite had promised, upon the first of October, to join her friends, the Comptons, in New York. When Lord William Daw learned that she was soon to leave, half ashamed, perhaps, of forever following in the train of this disdainful beauty, he terminated his visit and preceded her eastward.