"And _I_ most indubitably should not have come," replied the latter, "had it not been to _oblige you_; and after all I would have given a great deal that I _had not_: for I assure you, my dear, as soon as the affair of the day is over, we must none of us be seen here again; what we may do respecting Lord and Lady Glenmore, _reste a savoir_. But yonder is Lady Baskerville and Lady Tenderden, let us join them, and by keeping as much as possible together, and talking to no one but in our own circle, shew that we are not here even at present on familiar footing." Lady Baskerville was conversing with Lady Tenderden on one of those square Ottomans _dos-a-dos_, with their several cavaliers by them, Lord Tonnerre, Lord Gascoigne, Lord Boileau, &c. "Well I am sure," said Lady Baskerville, addressing Lord Boileau, "if I were Lady Glenmore, I should heartily wish all this _étiquette de noces_ was over; when a marriage has taken place, and it is known to all the world, the amusement is ended, and there is nothing to be wished for, but the comfortable arrangement of two sensible persons, who know what it is to live without being _a charge_ to each other." "To be sure," replied Lord Boileau, "I wonder how people can make this sort of fuss and _étalage_; it is assuming that one is interested for them--nobody cares whether any body is happy or miserable, and it is a bad taste to _affiché_ their private feelings in this public manner." At this moment a general movement in one of the apartments attracted every body's attention.--"Lord Melcomb is dead!" "Lord Melcomb is dying!" resounded in audible whispers. "Call my carriage."--"How shocking."--"I would not be in the room with a corpse for the world."--"Do let us get away." "Who knows but it may be catching--how fortunate for Glenmore," said Lord Boileau, looking over the people's heads, as he beheld Lord Melcomb apparently lifeless. "He will have the pretty heiress and her fortune at the same moment." "What do you mean?" asked some one who stood near. "Why, only if the old Lord dies, that Miss Melcomb becomes immediate mistress of Melcomb Park, and an estate of ten thousand a year." "Does she! you do not mean so; had I known that, I would have proposed to the girl myself," said Lord Tonnerre. "But is he really in an apoplectic fit?" said another. "Perhaps, but sometimes people do outlive these sort of things, and walk about quite gaily many years."