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〃You ought to be very clever and brilliant; and to know almost everything。〃



Lord Lambeth looked at her a moment。  〃Shall I tell you something?〃 he asked。

〃A young man in my position; as you call it〃



〃I didn't invent the term;〃 interposed Bessie Alden。

〃I have seen it in a great many books。〃



〃Hang it! you are always at your books。  A fellow

in my position; then; does very well whatever he does。

That's about what I mean to say。〃



〃Well; if your own people are content with you;〃

said Bessie Alden; laughing; 〃it is not for me to complain。

But I shall always think that; properly; you should have been

a great minda great character。〃



〃Ah; that's very theoretic;〃 Lord Lambeth declared。

〃Depend upon it; that's a Yankee prejudice。〃



〃Happy the country;〃 said Bessie Alden; 〃where even people's

prejudices are so elevated!〃



〃Well; after all;〃 observed Lord Lambeth; 〃I don't know that I am

such a fool as you are trying to make me out。〃



〃I said nothing so rude as that; but I must repeat that

you are disappointing。〃



〃My dear Miss Alden;〃 exclaimed the young man; 〃I am the best

fellow in the world!〃



〃Ah; if it were not for that!〃 said Bessie Alden with a smile。



Mrs。 Westgate had a good many more friends in London than

she pretended; and before long she had renewed acquaintance

with most of them。  Their hospitality was extreme; so that;

one thing leading to another; she began; as the phrase is; to go out。

Bessie Alden; in this way; saw something of what she found

it a great satisfaction to call to herself English society。

She went to balls and danced; she went to dinners and talked;

she went to concerts and listened (at concerts Bessie

always listened); she went to exhibitions and wondered。

Her enjoyment was keen and her curiosity insatiable; and;

grateful in general for all her opportunities; she especially

prized the privilege of meeting certain celebrated persons

authors and artists; philosophers and statesmenof whose

renown she had been a humble and distant beholder; and who now;

as a part of the habitual furniture of London drawing rooms;

struck her as stars fallen from the firmament and become palpable

revealing also sometimes; on contact; qualities not to

have been predicted of sidereal bodies。  Bessie; who knew

so many of her contemporaries by reputation; had a good many

personal disappointments; but; on the other hand; she had

innumerable satisfactions and enthusiasms; and she communicated

the emotions of either class to a dear friend; of her own sex;

in Boston; with whom she was in voluminous correspondence。

Some of her reflections; indeed; she attempted to impart

to Lord Lambeth; who came almost every day to Jones's Hotel;

and whom Mrs。 Westgate admitted to be really devoted。

Captain Littledale; it appeared; had gone to India; and of

several others of Mrs。 Westgate's ex…pensionersgentlemen who;

as she said; had made; in New York; a clubhouse of her drawing room

no tidings were to be obtained; but Lord Lambeth was certainly

attentive enough to make up for the accidental absences;

the short memories; all the other irregularities of everyone else。

He drove them in the park; he took them to visit private collections

of pictures; and; having a house of his own; invited them to dinner。

Mrs。 Westgate; following the fashion of many of her compatriots;

caused herself and her sister to be presented at the English

court by her diplomatic representativefor it was in this

manner that she alluded to the American minister to England;

inquiring what on earth he was put there for; if not to make

the proper arrangements for one's going to a Drawing Room。



Lord Lambeth declared that he hated Drawing Rooms; but he participated

in the ceremony on the day on which the two ladies at Jones's Hotel

repaired to Buckingham Palace in a remarkable coach which his lordship

had sent to fetch them。  He had on a gorgeous uniform; and Bessie Alden

was particularly struck with his appearanceespecially when on her

asking him; rather foolishly as she felt; if he were a loyal subject;

he replied that he was a loyal subject to HER。  This declaration

was emphasized by his dancing with her at a royal ball to which the two

ladies afterward went; and was not impaired by the fact that she

thought he danced very ill。  He seemed to her wonderfully kind;

she asked herself; with growing vivacity; why he should be so kind。

It was his dispositionthat seemed the natural answer。

She had told her sister that she liked him very much; and now that she

liked him more she wondered why。  She liked him for his disposition;

to this question as well that seemed the natural answer。

When once the impressions of London life began to crowd thickly upon her;

she completely forgot her sister's warning about the cynicism

of public opinion。  It had given her great pain at the moment;

but there was no particular reason why she should remember it;

it corresponded too little with any sensible reality; and it

was disagreeable to Bessie to remember disagreeable things。

So she was not haunted with the sense of a vulgar imputation。

She was not in love with Lord Lambethshe assured herself of that。

It will immediately be observed that when such assurances become

necessary the state of a young lady's affections is already ambiguous;

and; indeed; Bessie Alden made no attempt to dissimulateto herself;

of coursea certain tenderness that she felt for the young nobleman。

She said to herself that she liked the type to which he belonged

the simple; candid; manly; healthy English temperament。

She spoke to herself of him as women speak of young men they like

alluded to his bravery (which she had never in the least seen

tested); to his honesty and gentlemanliness; and was not silent

upon the subject of his good looks。  She was perfectly conscious;

moreover; that she liked to think of his more adventitious merits;

that her imagination was excited and gratified by the sight

of a handsome young man endowed with such large opportunities

opportunities she hardly knew for what; but; as she supposed;

for doing great thingsfor setting an example; for exerting

an influence; for conferring happiness; for encouraging the arts。

She had a kind of ideal of conduct for a young man who should find

himself in this magnificent position; and she tried to adapt

it to Lord Lambeth's deportment as you might attempt to fit

a silhouette in cut paper upon a shadow projected upon a wall。

But Bessie Alden's silhouette refused to coincide with his

lordship's image; and this want of harmony sometimes vexed her

more than she thought reasonable。  When he was absent it was;

of course; less striking; then he seemed to her a sufficiently

graceful combination of high responsibilities and amiable qualities。

But when he sat there within sight; laughing and talking with his

customary good humor and simplicity; she measured it more accurately;

and she felt acutely that if Lord Lambeth's position was heroic;

there was but little of the hero in the young man himself。

Then her imagination wandered away from himvery far away; for it was

an incontestable fact that at such moments he seemed distinctly dull。

I am afraid that while Bessie's imagination was thus invidiously

roaming; she cannot have been herself a very lively companion;

but it may well have been that these occasional fits of indifference

seemed to Lord Lambeth a part of the young girl's personal charm。

It had been a part of this charm from the first that he felt

that she judged him and measured him more freely and irresponsibly

more at her ease and her leisure; as it werethan several young

ladies with whom he had been on the whole about as intimate。

To feel this; and yet to feel that she also liked him; was very agreeable

to Lord Lambeth。  He fancied he had compassed that gratification so

desirable to young men of title and fortunebeing liked for himself。

It is true that a cynical counselor might have whispered to him;

〃Liked for yourself?  Yes; but not so very much!〃  He had; at any rate;

the constant hope of being liked more。



It may seem; perhaps; a trifle singularbut it is nevertheless true

that Bessie Alden; when he struck her as dull; devoted some time;

on grounds of conscience; to trying to like him more。

I say on grounds of conscience because she felt that he had

been extremely 〃nice〃 to her sister; and because she reflected

that it was no more than fair that she should think as well

of him as he thought of her。  This effort was possibly sometimes

not so successful as it might have been; for the result

of it was occasionally a vague irritation; which expressed

itself in hostile criticism of several British institutions。

Bessie Alden went to some entertainments at which she met

Lord Lambeth; but she went to others at which his lordship was

neither actually nor potentially present; and it was chiefly

on these latter occasions that 

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