lately from our dear friend, Lily Dale?' And she looked him full in the face, in a manner more significant, probably, than even she had intended it to be. There was, at once, a general hush in the room, and all eyes were turned upon her and upon him.
Crosbie instantly made an effort to bear the attack gallantly, but he felt that he could not quite command his colour, or prevent a sudden drop of perspiration from showing itself upon his brow. 'I had a letter from Allington yesterday,' he said. 'I suppose you have heard of your brother's encounter with the bull?'
'The bull!' said Lady Julia. And it was instantly manifest to all that her attack had been foiled and her flank turned.
'Good gracious! Lady Julia, how very odd you are!' said the countess.
'But what about the bull?' asked the Honourable George.
'It seems that the earl was knocked down in the middle of one of his own fields.'
'Oh, dear!' exclaimed Alexandrina. And sundry other exclamations were made by all the assembled ladies.
'But he wasn't hurt,' said Crosbie. 'A young man named Eames seems to have fallen from the sky and carried off the earl on his back.'
'Ha, ha, ha, ha!' growled the other earl, as he heard of the discomfiture of his brother peer.
Lady Julia, who had received her own letters that day from Guestwick, knew that nothing of importance had happened to her brother; but she felt that she was foiled for that time.
'I hope that there has not really been any accident,' said Mr Gazebee, with a voice of great solicitude.
'My brother was quite well last night, thank you,' said she. And then the little groups again formed themselves, and Lady Julia was left alone on the corner of a sofa.
'Was that all an invention of yours, sir?' said Alexandrina to Crosbie.
'Not quite. I did get a letter this morning from my friend Bernard Dale,—that old harridan's nephew; and Lord De Guest has been worried by some of his animals. I wish I had told her that his stupid old neck had been broken.'
'Fie, Mr Crosbie!'
'What business has she to interfere with me?'
'But I mean to ask the same question that she asked, and you won't put me off with a cock-and-bull story like that.' But then, as she was going to ask the question, dinner was announced.
'And is it true that De Guest has been tossed by a bull?' said the earl, as soon as the ladies were gone. He had spoken nothing during dinner except what words he had muttered into the ear of Lady Dumbello. It was seldom that conversation had many charms for him in his own house; but there was a savour of pleasantry in the idea of Lord De Guest having been tossed, by which even he was tickled.
'Only knocked down, I believe,' said Crosbie.
'Ha, ha, ha!' growled the earl; then he filled his glass, and allowed some one else to pass the bottle. Poor man! There was not much left to him now in the world which did amuse him.
'I don't see anything to laugh at,' said Plantagenet Palliser, who was sitting at the earl's right hand, opposite to Lord Dumbello.
'Don't you?' said the earl. 'Ha, ha, ha!'
'I'll be shot if I do. From all I hear De Guest is an uncommon good farmer. And I don't see the joke of tossing a farmer merely because he's a nobleman also. Do you?' and he turned round to Mr Gazebee, who was sitting on the other side. The earl was an earl, and was also Mr Gazebee's father-in-law. Mr Plantagenet Palliser was the heir to a dukedom. Therefore, Mr Gazebee merely simpered, and did not answer the question put to him. Mr Palliser said nothing more about it, nor did the earl; and then the joke died away.
Mr Plantagenet Palliser was the Duke of Omnium's heir,—heir to that nobleman's title and to his enormous wealth; and, therefore, was a man of mark in the world. He sat in the House of Commons, of course. He was about five-and-twenty years of age, and was, as yet, unmarried. He did not hunt or shoot or keep a yacht, and had been heard to say that he had never put a foot upon a race-course in his life. He dressed very quietly, never changing the colour or form of his garments; and in society was quiet, reserved, and very often silent. He was tall, slight, and not ill-looking; but more than this cannot be said for his personal appearance—except, indeed, this, that no one could mistake him for other than a gentleman. With his uncle, the duke, he was on good terms;—that is to say, they had never quarrelled. A very liberal allowance had been made to the nephew; but the two relatives had no tastes in common, and did not often meet. Once a year Mr Palliser visited the duke at his great
