"I'm afraid you've destroyed my future peace of mind. I now shall never hear a double knock with equanimity; depend upon it our time has not yet come." "Yours has at all events, Lord Spunyarn, for if you don't get in you will certainly be left behind." "Good-bye, then, Miss Warrender; parting is such sweet sorrow, I e'en could say good-bye until to-morrow." "Now that is very sweet of you. I little thought you were Romeo still." "Now and ever, Miss Warrender," said the young man with mock passion, as they laughingly shook hands, and he hastened to enter the carriage. "One thing I have forgotten, though," he said, "don't let your cousin see the Society papers." The parting between Haggard and his wife was necessarily what such partings usually are: it was painful to both; it would not be amusing to the reader. Georgie's eyes were full of tears as her husband embraced her for the last time. He only tore himself from her reluctant arms as the final whistle sounded from the engine. As the train slowly moved from the platform, the girls walked hurriedly along for a few yards. Haggard leant from the window, waving his hand; his wife gazed after the vanishing train, standing like Niobe, dissolved in tears. Even Haggard, case-hardened as he was, didn't light his cigar for full twenty minutes. That evening Lucy Warrender obtained with some difficulty a copy of '_The Sphere_;' this is what she read there: "Seldom indeed now-a-days do Englishmen fight duels. In this they are wise, for with us the man who fights a duel receives no sympathy, and what is more unpleasant, generally becomes an object of ridicule. Sometimes, however, a duel is unavoidable. We understand that this was the case in the late unfortunate affair at Rome. The provocation was given by the man who fell. M. Barbiche was well known in London society. As usual, the cause of the quarrel was a lady. A correspondent in Rome, upon whose information we can rely, informs us that a blow was struck by Mr. R---- H----, but only after the grossest provocation. The meeting took place within twenty-four hours; unfortunately the result was fatal. The survivor and the seconds of both parties crossed the frontier at once, but one of the friends of the deceased took the precaution to draw up a _procès verbal_ of the affair before he left, and transmitted it to the authorities. Society in Rome has been stirred to its foundations, for both the parties were well known. The weapons were sabres. We understand that the seconds of Mr. R---- H----, a well-known sporting nobleman and General C----, are, as well as their principal, members of the P----m Club. General C---- is now in England."