I could not possibly flatter him. She is a pretty-looking girl, who has evidently fretted herself into bad health because Colonel ---- would not consent to her marriage with a Mr. ----, she being eighteen, and her lover the same age. As she has never heard from the lover since he joined the army of the Indus, it is very possible _he_ is inconstant, and that is what L. E. goes upon; he does not care how long he waits, &c. (and I think he will have to wait some time), but in the meantime perhaps I would speak to Mrs. S., and above all things Captain P. was not to know. That is always the end of all confidences; and in the meantime, as P. lives in a broad grin, and L. E. in a deep sigh, I should think their secrets will be guessed in a week. Thank goodness, now they are all engaged, except Z., who is not likely to fall in love with anybody but himself. Wednesday, May 29. We had a theatrical dinner yesterday, and a rehearsal of our new tableaux, which promise to be very successful. Six from the 'Corsair,' and five from 'Kenilworth.' We had them at night to try how Gulnare would look with her lamp going to visit Conrade; and I had another grand idea, of a trap-door, down which Amy Robsart is supposed to have fallen, at least four inches, so that she must have had every bone in her body smashed; and Varney with a torch looking into it, and Leicester and Trevilian in despair, made it a most awful business. The rehearsal was rather amusing; all the gentlemen in their common red coats, and a pretty Mrs. V., supposed to be Medora, was sitting with the shovel in her hand, and said in such a quiet way, 'This is, in fact, a guitar;' which, as she is dreadfully shy, and not given to speak at all, was one of the best jokes she ever made. CHAPTER XXXIX. Thursday, May 30, 1839. Our steady doctor gave his ball last night. He was asked for one by Mrs. L., and found it an easier way of returning civilities than giving a number of dinners. Wright and I have been down two or three times to arrange his house, and put up his curtains, and he had enclosed all his verandahs with branches of trees and flowers, so that it really looked very pretty. He is very popular from his extreme good-nature in attending anybody that wants him; he never takes any fee, and he takes a great deal of pains with his patients, and, moreover, he is a really well-informed man, and liked in society. So everybody whom he asked to his ball made a point of going, and they actually danced from eight at night till five in the morning; and they said it was one of the gayest balls ever seen. Saturday, June 1.