Mr. Haveloc, who followed Hubert Gage, caught up his eye-glass, dropped it with an air of great vexation, and exclaimed, in a suppressed tone, "Good Heaven, Hubert! is that fellow not dead yet?" "I wish anybody could tell me when he _would_ die," said Hubert, laughing; "but I am firmly persuaded, for my part, that he is the Wandering Jew." "Ay! here I am," said Mr. Casement, in reply to Mr. Grey's exclamation of surprise; "Miss Gage, your servant. So you two young fellows are returned at the same time. No fear of your not coming back--eh! a bad shilling! you know the saying." Hubert Gage burst into a hearty laugh at this address; but Mr. Haveloc knit his brows with an air of extreme disgust. By this time, as everybody was seated, and Hubert helping the soup for Margaret, Mr. Casement bethought himself of something disagreeable to say to her. "Ain't you very much obliged to me, little woman," he said, "for coming straight in here, and so leaving you to the young sparks? Suppose I had taken you into dinner?" "Mr. Casement," said Miss Gage, in her very calm manner, "you know I always keep you in order. You must not forget I am here." Mr. Casement made a contortion he meant for a smile, and vowed he was her slave. Mr. Haveloc told Miss Gage that everybody present owed her a vote of thanks. A remark which Mr. Casement did not forget. When a convenient pause occurred, he leaned forward, and said, in a sufficiently marked tone, "Oh, by the bye, Claude! and how are all our friends at Florence?" Margaret absolutely turned pale, and could not avoid glancing anxiously at Mr. Haveloc. He merely replied, taking up his glass to examine the dish he was about to carve. "I did not know, Mr. Casement, that you had any friends in any part of the world." Margaret was the only person who observed that his hand trembled. Miss Gage was pleased with his reply, for she knew the ill-natured point of the remark. Hubert laughed so heartily, that he was forced at intervals to beg Margaret's pardon for being so rude. Mr. Grey tried to turn the conversation. Mr. Casement looked sullen; and Mr. Haveloc, still appearing occupied with the dish before him, said, "There are two ways of carving these birds; which do you like best?" "Oh! the old fashioned way, don't you Sir?" asked Miss Gage of Mr. Grey, "it is much the best." "Yes; all old fashioned ways are in my opinion;" said Mr. Grey smiling, "but then I am an old man." Margaret could not easily regain her composure of feeling after this incident; she pitied Mr. Haveloc, she admired Miss Gage, and she envied the readiness with which she directed the conversation into other channels until all constraint seemed banished from the party.