‘I never desert any one,’ replied Cadurcis calmly, raising her from her supplicating attitude, and leading her to a seat.  ’The last time we met, you banished me your presence, and told me never to speak to you again.  Well, I obeyed your orders, as I always do.’

‘But I did not mean what I said,’ said Lady Monteagle.

‘How should I know that?’ said Lord Cadurcis.

‘Your heart ought to have assured you,’ said the lady.

‘The tongue is a less deceptive organ than the heart,’ replied her companion.

‘Cadurcis,’ said the lady, looking at her strange disguise, ’what do you advise me to do?’

’To go home; and if you like I will order my vis-a-vis for you directly,’ and he rose from his seat to give the order.

‘Ah!’ you are sighing to get rid of me!’ said the lady, in a reproachful, but still subdued tone.

’Why, the fact is, Gertrude, I prefer calling upon you, to your calling upon me.  When I am fitted for your society, I seek it; and, when you are good-tempered, always with pleasure; when I am not in the mood for it, I stay away.  And when I am at home, I wish to see no one.  I have business now, and not very agreeable business.  I am disturbed by many causes, and you could not have taken a step which could have given me greater annoyance than the strange one you have adopted this evening.’

‘I am sorry for it now,’ said the lady, weeping.  ’When shall I see you again?’

‘I will call upon you to-morrow, and pray receive me with smiles.’

‘I ever will,’ said the lady, weeping plenteously.  ’It is all my fault; you are ever too good.  There is not in the world a kinder and more gentle being than yourself.  I shall never forgive myself for this exposure.

‘Would you like to take anything?’ said Lord Cadurcis:  ’I am sure you must feel exhausted.  You see I am drinking wine; it is my only dinner to-day, but I dare say there is some salvolatile in the house; I dare say, when my maids go into hysterics, they have it!’

‘Ah, mocker!’ said Lady Monteagle; ’but I can pardon everything, if you will only let me see you.’

‘Au revoir! then,’ said his lordship; ’I am sure the carriage must be ready.  I hear it.  Come, Mr. Gertrude, settle your wig; it is quite awry.  By Jove! we might as well go to the Pantheon, as you are ready dressed.  I have a domino.’  And so saying, Lord Cadurcis handed the lady to his carriage, and pressed her lightly by the hand, as he reiterated his promise of calling at Monteagle House the next day.

CHAPTER XVII.

Lord Cadurcis, unhappy at home, and wearied of the commonplace resources of society, had passed the night in every species of dissipation; his principal companion being that same young nobleman in whose company he had been when he first met Venetia at Ranelagh.  The morn was breaking when Cadurcis and his friend arrived at his door.  They had settled to welcome the dawn with a beaker of burnt Burgundy.