Young, strikingly handsome, talented, of high rank, of widely extended interest, and possessing all the means of gratifying every wish, to what dangers was not Lord Albert D'Esterre exposed, in such a scene as has been described, and on which he was from that evening to play a part! He seemed, with the impulse of natural politeness, to look around for Lady Tilney, as he entered, as if he would pay his first homage to her, whose self and not her house he visited; in a manner directly the reverse of that false refinement of modern _ton_, which seeks a display of its _savoir vivre_, in a pointed indifference to all the received forms of society. Before he had reached the second room he was met by Lady Tilney, with a greater degree of courtesy and _empressement_ than was usual in her receptions; and his address was listened to with more complacency and patience than generally marked her manner towards any one.--"Who is he?" passed in whispers round the circle amongst those to whom he was unknown.--"Did you hear his name announced?"--"No! I have seen him somewhere before, I think--is it not Lord Albert D'Esterre, Lord ----'s son?" "Ah true, it is! but what an extraordinary lengthy speech he is making--surely Lady Tilney must be ready to expire under its duration."--"Not under its dulness, I am certain," said Lord Glenmore, as he caught Lady Baskerville's remark to Lord Rainham, "for, D'Esterre is too clever ever to say a dull thing." "Or ever do a wise one, perhaps," added Lord Rainham in his most caustic manner. "Did you hear Rainham?" whispered Spencer Newcombe to Ombre; "there was no time for gestation there--it was really well said."--"Then, if so," replied his neighbour, "we may 'for once a miracle accept instead of wit.'" "No; I do not allow of miracles now a days," said Lord Rainham, turning sharply round, having overheard the remark applied to him: "I do not believe in miracles--not even in the resurrection of the Glacier man--do you, Ombre?" The laugh was with the latter speaker; but Mr. Ombre thought that, in fact, miracles had not ceased when Lord Rainham could thus improvise two good things without incubation; and so he whispered into the ear of his friend Spencer Newcombe, as Lord Rainham moved away. While Lord Albert D'Esterre was thus affording subject of remark to the coterie, and their observations in turn made matter of ill-natured review among themselves, he was addressing his courteous excuse to Lady Tilney for having disobeyed her commands, in arriving so late. Lady Baskerville was probably right in her conjecture, that Lady Tilney felt considerably bored by his doing so, and making reference to injunctions which she had forgotten the moment they were given, because certain they would be generally obeyed, and Lady Borrowdale's assembly be left untenanted by all her early visitors.