What he heard, on the whole, was very like this--'hubble-bubble-rubble-dubble--the great match of shuttlecock played between the gentlemen of the north and those of hubble-bubble--the Methodist persuasion; but--ha-ha-ha!--a squeeze of a lemon--rubble-dubble--ha-ha-ha!--wicked man--hubble-bubble--force-meat balls and yolks of eggs--rubble-dubble--musket balls from a steel cross-bow--upon my--hubble-bubble--throwing a sheep's eye--ha-ha-ha--rubble-dubble--at the two remaining heads on Temple Bar--hubble-bubble--and the duke left by his will--rubble-dubble--a quid of tobacco in a brass snuff-box--hubble-bubble--and my Lady Rostrevor's very sweet upon--rubble-dubble--old Alderman Wallop of John's-lane--hubble-bubble--ha-ha-ha--from Jericho to Bethany, where David, Joab, and--rubble-dubble--the whole party upset in the mud in a chaise marine--and--hubble-bubble--shake a little white pepper over them--and--rubble-dubble--his name is Solomon--hubble-bubble--ha-ha-ha--the poor old thing dying of cold, and not a stitch of clothes to cover her nakedness--rubble-dubble--play or pay, on Finchley Common--hubble-bubble--most melancholy truly--ha-ha-ha!--rubble-dubble--and old Lady Ruth is ready to swear she never--hubble-bubble--served High Sheriff for the county of Down in the reign of Queen Anne--rubble-dubble--and Dr. and Mrs. Sturk--hubble-bubble--Secretaries of State in the room of the Duke of Grafton and General Conway--rubble-dubble--venerable prelate--ha-ha-ha! hubble-bubble--filthy creature--hubble-bubble-rubble-dubble.' And this did not make him much wiser or merrier. Love has its fevers, its recoveries, and its relapses. The patient--nay even his nurse and his doctor, if he has taken to himself such officers in his distress--may believe the malady quite cured--the passion burnt out--the flame extinct--even the smoke quite over, when a little chance puff of rivalry blows the white ashes off, and, lo! the old liking is still smouldering. But this was not Devereux's case. He remembered when his fever--not a love one--and his leave of absence at Scarborough, and that long continental tour of hers with Aunt Rebecca and Gertrude Chattesworth, had carried the grave, large-eyed little girl away, and hid her from his sight for more than a year, very nearly _two_ years, the strange sort of thrill and surprise with which he saw her again--tall and slight, and very beautiful--no, not _beautiful_, perhaps, if you go to rule and compass, and Greek trigonometrical theories; but there was an indescribable prettiness in all her features, and movements, and looks, higher, and finer, and sweeter than all the canons of statuary will give you.