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124 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. Walter had a glib and happy vocabulary, a touch of the Charles Mathews manner, and which his wife in moments of badinage said had come to him ever since he played, at some private theatricals, the leading part of "Patter versus Clatter."

During that one good cigar after dinner, Walter had tried to talk of the Venetian trip, which had often been discussed by the Westbury Lodge household, to be at last finally settled upon. Philip had of his own accord expressed a wish to accompany the party, and his mother had secretly confided to Mrs. Milbanke that this proposal was preliminary to a second one of a more important nature.

The Milbankes were well satisfied with this arrangement. Dolly, while she flirted with Sam Swynford, and indeed with any other eligible gentleman who came in her way, was far more serious with Phil Forsyth than with anyone else, had indeed gone so far as to dance with him at Lady Marchmount's ball five times, to Phil's entire satisfaction and to the envy of several of his acquaintances.

Philip Forsyth, being of a more or less reflective turn of mind, and a student in name and in reality, enjoyed the light-hearted chat and merry ways of Dolly, and it must be confessed she was a very bright and pretty girl. She had dark brown eyes, a fair complexion, light brown hair with a suggestion of sunshine in the tone of it, a straight little nose, that had in early youth made up its mind to be retroussé, and had become more demure later on, to develop into a coquettish something between humorous snub and serious straight, the effect of which was, to quote Sam Swynford, "awfully taking, my boy." She had a dainty, willowy figure, not too willowy, but with sufficient roundness to suggest generosity of living and generosity of nature. Coupled with all this she had a musical little laugh, which in an ugly girl would have been called a giggle, but in the case of Dolly was a pretty trill of gaiety