"You are always so good! Have you seen Charles? I was in
hopes he would have come," Lady Marney added in a somewhat
mournful tone.
"He is at the House: otherwise I am sure he would have been
here," said Lady Deloraine, glad that she had so good a reason
for an absence, which under any circumstances she well knew
would have occurred.
"I fear you will be sadly in want of beaus this evening, my
love. We dined at the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine's, and all our
cavaliers vanished. They talk of an early division."
"I really wish all these divisions were over," said Lady
Marney. "They are very anti-social. Ah! here is Lady de
Mowbray."
Alfred Mountchesney hovered round Lady Joan Fitz-Warene, who
was gratified by the devotion of the Cupid of May Fair. He
uttered inconceivable nothings, and she replied to him in
incomprehensible somethings. Her learned profundity and his
vapid lightness effectively contrasted. Occasionally he
caught her eye and conveyed to her the anguish of his soul in
a glance of self-complacent softness.
Lady St Julians leaning on the arm of the Duke of Fitz-
Aquitaine stopped to speak to Lady Joan. Lady St Julians was
determined that the heiress of Mowbray should marry one of her
sons.
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