"Indeed!"

"Yes; you are far more like her, than your
father, and you are scarcely so tall as he was."

"Perhaps not, madam."

"But you have his manner, sir, the graceful
and captivating dignity that distinguished all
your house; this would betray you to the eyes
of all who have enjoyed the high privilege of
knowing your family."

The allusion to our house showed that we
were royalties, and I laid my hand on my
heart, and bowed as a prince ought, blandly but
haughtily.

"Ah, sir," said she, with a deep sigh, "your
present enterprise fills me with apprehension.
Are you not afraid, yourself, of the
consequences?"

I sighed, too, and if the truth were to be told,
I was very much afraid.

"But, of course, you are acting under advice,
and with the counsel of those well able to guide
you."

"I cannot say I am, madam; I am free to
tell you, that every step I am now taking is
self-suggested."

"Oh, then, let me implore you to pause, sir,"
said she, falling on her knees before me, "let
me thus entreat of you not to go further in a
path so full of danger."

"Shall I confess, madam," said I, proudly,
"that I do not see these dangers you speak of."

I thought that on this hint she would talk
out, and I might be able to pierce the veil of the
mystery, and discover who I was; for though
very like my mother, and shorter than my father,
I was sorely puzzled about my parentage; but
she only went off into generalities about the
state of the Continent, and the condition of
Europe generally. I saw now that my best
chance of ascertaining something about myself,
was to obtain from her the newspaper that first
suggested her discovery of me, and I said half
carelessly, "Let me see the paragraph which
struck you in the Courrier."

"Ah, sir, you must excuse me, these ignoble
writers have little delicacy in alluding to the
misfortunes of the great; they seem to revenge
the littleness of their own station on every such
occasion."

"You can well imagine, madam, how time
has accustomed me to such petty insults: show
me the paper."

"Pray let me refuse you, sir; I would not,
however blamelessly, be associated in your mind
with what might offend you."

Again I protested that I was used to such
attacks, that I knew all about the wretched
hireling creatures who wrote them, and that
instead of offending, they positively amused me
—actually made me laugh.

Thus urged, she proceeded to search for the
newspaper, and only after some minutes was it
that she remembered Miss Herbert had taken it
away to read in the garden. She proposed to
send the servant to fetch it, but this I would
not permit, pretending at last to concur in her
own previously expressed contempt for the
paragraph—but secretly promising myself to go in
search of it the moment I should be at liberty—
and once more she resumed the theme of my
rashness, and my dangers, and all the troubles I
might possibly bring upon my family, and the
grief I might occasion my grandmother.

Now as there are few men upon whom the
ties of family and kindred imposed less rigid
bonds, I was rather provoked at being reminded
of obligations to my grandmother, and was
almost driven to declare that she weighed for
very little in the balance of my plans and
motives. The old lady, however, rescued me from
the indiscretion by a fervent entreaty that I
would at least ask a certain person what he
thought of my present step.

"Will you do this?" said she, with tears in
her eyes. "Will you do it, now?"

I promised her faithfully.

"Will you do it here, sir, at this table, and
let me have the proudest memory in my life to
recal the incident."

"I should like an hour or two for reflection,"
said I, pushed very hard by this insistance of
hers, for I was sorely puzzled whom I was to
write to.

"Oh!" said she, still tearfully, "is it not the
habit of hesitating, sir, has cost your house so
dearly?"

"No," said I, "we have been always
accounted prompt in action and true to our
engagements."

Heaven forgive me! but in this vainglorious
speech I was alluding to the motto of the Potts'
crest, "Vigilantibus omnia fausta;" or, as some
one rendered it, "Potts answers to the night-
bell."

She smiled faintly at my remark. I wonder
how she would have looked had she read the
thought that suggested it.

"But you will write to him, sir?" said she
once more.

I laid my hand over what anatomists call the
region of the heart, and tried to look like Charles
Edward in the prints. Meanwhile, my patience
was beginning to fail me, and I felt that if the
mystification were to last much longer I should
infallibly lose my presence of mind. Fortunately,
the old lady was so full of her theme that she
only asked to be let talk away without interruption,
with many an allusion to the dear Count
and the adored Duchess, and a fervent hope
that I might be ultimately reconciled to them
both, a wish which I had tact enough to
perceive required the most guarded reserve on my
part.

"I know I am indiscreet, sir," said she, at
last; "but you must pardon one whose zeal
outruns her reason."

And I bowed grandly, as I might have done
in extending mercy to some captive taken in
battle.

"There is but one favour more, sir, I have
to beg."

"Speak it, madam. As the courtier remarked,
if it be possible it is done, if impossible it shall
be done."