was sacrilege in the term when applied by such a man to Isabel Boncassen.  He had thought of days to come, when everything would be settled, when he might sit close to her, and call her pretty names,—­when he might in sweet familiarity tell that she was a little Yankee and a fierce republican, and ‘chaff’ her about the stars and stripes; and then, as he pictured the scene to himself in his imagination, she would lean upon him and would give him back his chaff, and would call him an aristocrat and would laugh at his titles.  As he thought of all this he would be proud with the feeling that such privileges would be his own.  And now this wretched man had called her a pert poppet!

There was a sanctity about her,—­a divinity which made it almost a profanity to have talked about her at all to such a one as Dolly Longstaff.  She was his Holy of Holies, at which vulgar eyes should not even be allowed to gaze.  It had been a most unfortunate interview.  But this was clear, that, as he had announced his engagement to such a one as Dolly Longstaff, the matter now would admit of no delay.  He would explain to his father that as tidings of the engagement had got abroad, honour to the young lady would compel him to come forward openly as her suitor at once.  If this argument might serve him, then perhaps this intrusion would not have been altogether a misfortune.

CHAPTER 70

‘Love May be a Great Misfortune’

Silverbridge when he reached Brook Street that day was surprised to find that a large party was going to lunch there.  Isabel had asked him to come, and he had thought her the dearest girl in the world for doing so. but now his gratitude for that favour was considerably abated.  He did not care just now for the honour of eating his lunch in the presence of Mr Gotobed, the American minister, whom he found there already in the drawing-room with Mrs Gotobed, nor with Ezekiel Sevenkings, the great American poet from the far West, who sat silent and stared at him in an unpleasant way.  When Sir Timothy Beeswax was announced, with Lady Beeswax, and her daughter, his gratification certainly was not increased.  And the last comer,—­who did to arrive till they were all seated at the table,—­almost made him start from his chair and take his departure suddenly.  That last comer was no other than Mr Adolphus Longstaff.  As it happened he was seated next to Dolly, with Lady Beeswax on the other side of him.  Whereas his Holy of Holies was on the other side of Dolly!  The arrangement made seemed to have been monstrous.  He had endeavoured to get next to Isabel; but she had so manoeuvred that there should be a vacant seat between them.  He had not much regarded this because a vacant chair may be pushed on one side.  But before he had made all his calculations Dolly Longstaff was sitting there!  He almost thought that Dolly winked at him in triumph,—­that very Dolly, who an hour ago had promised to take himself upon his Asiatic travels!