clap-trap, and if that fails (and I see the girl has a deuce of a spirit, and defies and even dislikes me—of course owing to her infatuation for this English lover) I'll take the liberty of carrying her off by force, and compelling her to marry me!"

With this and similar discussions carried on in rapid and vehement French, the gentle, sentimental Baron, and the Capitaine who so piqued himself on his frankness and bonhommie, beguiled the way till they arrived at the theatre, when the Baron de Saint Felix threw a tender and reproachful languor into the large blue eyes he had the art of moistening with tears at will, and where the Capitaine Crevecœur smoothed his ruffled brow, twirled his black moustaches, and met Mrs. Orde's admiring gaze with the most frank and winning smile, that ever displayed a set of dazzling teeth.

The play-Romeo and Juliet'-had not

begun when our party entered, and took possession of one of the stage boxes, the other being filled by a dashing set of officers of the Dragoons, then quartered at Brighton. The beauty of the Misses Orde, and the showy air of their foriegn attendants, with the elegance of Mrs. Orde and the antique oddity of Miss Jenny, attracted a great deal of attention in the officers' box.

There was an air and manner so very distinguished about the Count, in addition to his remarkable beauty of form and face, and Gerard Esdaile was so unmistakeably an English gentleman, that the experienced eyes of the elder of the officers were fixed in amaze at their appearance in close intimacy with the Captain and the Baron, whose exterior they considered of a very equivocal nature.

Men very easily and quickly perceive anything questionable or de mauvais ton in other men; and it soon become evident to all our

party and even to themselves that the showy little Baron de Saint Felix and the military Capitaine Crevecoeur were the objects of a scrutiny in their opposite neighbours which seemed far from flattering.

CHAPTER XVII.

Celui qu'on Aime.

THE most distinguished-looking and the handsomest of the officers, whose opera-glasses were levelled at Mrs. Orde's box, was the Colonel of the Regiment-The Honourable Harcourt Pevensey, son of the late, and brother of the present Earl of Chester-Although bordering on forty years of age, his fine figure, his noble features, and his truly aristocratic air, gave him an im

mense superiority even over the handsomest of his subalterns, in the first bloom of their manhood. If any fault could be found in a face whose Plantagenet nose, eagle eye, and chiselled mouth and chin, were universally considered master-pieces of manly beauty, it was in an expression occasionally haughty and sarcastic, but which, as with all thorough-bred and intellectual people, he could soften at will into the sweetest condescension and most endearing amiability. It was perhaps the recognising something of his own cast of features and character of expression in the Count de Montfaucon, which caused him to examine that gentleman with so minute and protracted a scrutiny. There certainly was a curious resemblance between them, although Colonel Pevensey's closely curled hair, whiskers and moustachios, were of a bright chesnut, his large eyes of a rich blue, and his complexion. so fair that with any less noble features, less resolute expression, and less commanding figure,