To return our engagement ring was the chief object that agitated me during dinner; and, on perceiving that Louisa had drawn the glove off her lovely left hand, I almost thought the return was thereby invited; and as we dawdled over the dessert, which was served up on the earl’s favourite Rose du Barri service of Sèvres china, and while Slubber waxed eloquent on his friend Lord Aberdeen’s doubtful policy, which my uncle tore all to fritters, I contrived, unseen, to place my Rangoon diamond in her hand, which closed upon it and mine, with a rapid, but nervous pressure, which sent a thrill to my heart, and a flush to my cheek. It was done! Recovering—if, indeed, she ever lost it—her complete composure, she asked me, with a smile, as if casually, how I liked the family motto, which was graven round the champagne goblets. "_Prends moi tel que je suis_," she added, reading it. "I understand it with delight," said I. "Take me such as I am," she translated, with a glance which filled me with joy. Poor old Slubber knew nothing of the little enigma that was being acted almost under his aristocratic nose, and amid such trivial remarks as these— "What bin is this port from, Mr. ——?" naming the butler. "Good, remarkable port, my Lord—bin ten—vintage, 1820; it is the finest old wine in the county of Kent." "Don’t taste so," said Lord Chillingham; in fact, it had been voted out of the servants’ hall as intolerable. "And the sherry—eh?" "Pale, my lord," whispered the butler; "you paid three hundred a butt for it—from the small bin." "Good—uncork some of the Moselle." In the calm, inscrutable face, and tutored bearing of Louisa Loftus, no one could have read the deep secret we had just shared in—the reconciliation of two ardent and anxious hearts—the bond of love and trust renewed; but this strange power of veiling all agitation at times is incident alike to birth and training, and to the local influences of these in the present time, when in modern society the human face is too often a mere mask which conceals every emotion, exhibiting a calm exterior, however at variance with the mind or disposition of the person; thus, though her pride and self-esteem had been recently stung to madness, and her heart had been crushed within her, now, under the revulsion incident to a great joy, and reunion with me, Louisa was able to wreathe her sweet face with a quiet and well-bred smile, while she listened to the senile gabble of my Lord Slubber. Great emotions, like those excited by the affair of Agnes Auriol, seldom can remain long, and must subside; Louisa was quite subdued, and sunk in softness and love to-night. She was all that I could desire—my own Louisa.