CHAPTER VIII.

"It has been said in ancient rules,
That flattery is the food of fools,
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to taste a bit."

SWIFT.

"In solemn grandeur now she left her coach,
And made with haughty bearing her approach."

CRABBE.

THE drive back to St. Clair Park was soon accomplished, and hearing Lord St. Clair was in the flower-garden, the ladies went to join him. The smiling face of the countess told her success, and, when she and the laughing Clara recounted the whole of their adventures, and the potent

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draughts of flattery administered by the countess, the usually grave earl entered with more mirth into the recital than Clara had thought it possible for him to do.

"Indeed, my dear Gertrude, you have achieved wonders. Who would not wish for a pretty face to canvass for him, and that one a countess, too? You seem to have made your honeyed words doubly sweet, and your interview with the Miss Quirks must have been a capital scene. But I must not send you on any more such errands, I think, lest you become such an adept in the art of flattery, that you try your skill upon me. I must write to Cecil Aston, and tell him how favourably the wind sets in his favour. I think he is a young man of superior abilities, and if he does but make as good a figure in the house as I anticipate, I hope, with my interest, he may yet retrieve his fallen fortunes. It is melancholy to see so old a family go to decay. Talking of decay, I wish you would come

with me, and see if you can suggest any thing for propping up our favourite old cedar a little longer. I should grieve to lose it."

At the moment they turned the corner towards the front of the house, a carriage and four, with two outriders, drove up to the door. Clara wished to make her escape, but, on seeing the liveries of the Duchess of Kingsland, Lady St. Clair declared she should stop to be introduced.

Lord St. Clair, with all the courtesy of the old school, went to hand the ladies from their carriage, and Lady St. Clair advanced to meet her guests. Clara had not seen the family from Kingsland-house, owing to their not having come this year to town, the real cause for which was the convenience of a year's economy in the country; but the avowed one, that the young Marchioness of Stavordale was expecting her confinement, and their anxiety that the heir of Kingsland should be born on the domain of his ancestors, and the whole family were too much

interested in the event to leave home at such an important moment.

The duchess was a little sharp-faced woman; nothing forgetful that she was a countess in her own right, besides the rank gained from her husband, who had been raised to a dukedom during the last Tory administration. Her voice was shrill and discordant, of which she gave her hearers the full advantage, by generally pitching it in a high key, and with as much of acrimony in the words as in the sound.

Her daughter-in-law, Lady Stavordale, was a very different person. The only child of a rich West India merchant, her features were decidedly those of a half-caste, but with that extraordinary grace and flexibility of figure and motion, for which they are peculiar. This, joined to a large languishing eye of the deepest black, made her altogether a very interesting looking girl, and one who appeared to shrink from the cold and repelling hauteur of the Duchess, who seemed only to

tolerate her because she now was Marchioness of Stavordale and eventually bringing a fortune far beyond what any nobleman's daughter could have done.

"You have had a very gay season in town, I hear," said the Duchess; " and I fear your niece will find the country dull, though the races coming on will bring some gaiety. My daughters have so many resources within themselves, they were really glad for once to have a summer's quiet this year."

"Yes, indeed," replied the Countess, "we have had a remarkably brilliant season in town: I never remember it so full, or such a choice réunion of pleasant persons. The Queen's parties are a great addition to London, and her Majesty's graceful and pleasing manners make them yet more delightful. It is quite beautiful to see her dance."

"I should have thought," shrieked the Duchess, in her shrillest tones, "that the atmosphere of our present court, was not one in which you would have liked to place