Lord Randolph was well pleased at the turn affairs had taken: he had not brains enough to carry out two things at once. All his ideas were now fixed upon one great achievement, foreign to this. Burton seemed so awkwardly ill at ease, that Tremenhere could almost have found it in his heart to pity him. After the first feeling of annoyance occasioned by his presence, he felt gratified, as he would be a witness of the public justice he purposed doing Minnie; and, in this mood, he quickly recovered his equanimity of temper; and, when he took his place at the dinner-table, Lord Randolph was fain to admit, even with the then prejudice against him, that certainly honest uprightness sat upon his brow, and lightness of conscience in his easy gaiety; whereas Burton looked pale, discontented, and gloomy. Tremenhere took not the slightest notice of him; there was no sneer, no avoidance, but a quiet obliviousness of his existence, especially annoying. Their host was in high spirits, and, with the well-bred ease of a perfect gentleman, put all his guests, as far as he could, on that pleasant footing. Several peculiar looks passed between Vellumy and himself, more especially after the former's return to table, whence he had been summoned by Lord Randolph's valet. "Vellumy," he cried, laughing, "you look as if you had seen a ghost; 'pon my life you're pale." "Am I?" responded the other in the same tone; "I have, howe_w_er, seen no ghost, but a spi_w_it of g_w_ace and beauty." "Where?" asked the others, in a breath. "Ask Randolph," said Vellumy; "I ne_w_er tell tales out of school." "Pshaw!" answered the host, giving a half-frowning look at his friend, "there's not a living woman here, that I ever see, now the women folk and their maids have departed." "Talking of that," said Burton, "when do you become one apart from us--a respectable married man?" "Probably never," was the decided reply. "Lady Dora frowns upon my suit; and----" "You have little pressed it of late," hazarded some one. "I never saw two less like lovers than you were, down here the other day." "By George, no!" cried Burton; "you were always running up to town--there must be some magnet there, I fear. Lady Dora should look to it." Vellumy laughed aloud. "Oh, Vel is in the secret!" exclaimed the first speaker. "Tell us, is she dark or fair?--fair for a guinea! for this morning at breakfast he was raving about golden hair, and cheeks blushing like the inside of a sea-shell, which the amorous sea bathes in tears." "Poetically described," said Lord Randolph, colouring slightly; and almost inadvertently his eye rested on Tremenhere, who was pale and silent. "I shall, probably, _never_ marry," continued he; "that is, not till I grow a cranky old bachelor."