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182 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

like a warrior of old in full armor, and with a glove in his casque, ready for anything or anybody, but more particu- larly Mr. Philip Forsyth.

" My dear Mrs. Milbanke," said Philip, " I called to see if I might have the pleasure of taking you and Dolly " (yes, he called her Dolly) " to my mother's Afternoon."

" You might," said Mrs. Milbanke, her bonnet on, her golden sceptre in her hand, " and you might not : I really cannot say ; we thought you had forgotten that there was such a place as Westbury Lodge ; at breakfast this morning, Walter wondered whether you had been called abroad."

Mrs. Milbanke's brown cheeks glowed with suppressed anger.

11 1 hoped to have called yesterday," said Philip, looking at his boots.

" It is two days since my sister accepted your proposals, the most momentous occasion of both your lives ; for two days she has neither seen you nor heard from you ; and to-day you call as if nothing had happened ; what is the meaning of it, Mr. Forsyth? What are we to understand by it? My sister is positively ill with vexation or anxiety, I really do not know which."

" I am awfully sorry," said Philip, " the truth is I have been unusually busy ; I went to Mrs. Chetwynd's At Home last night more on business than for any other purpose ; Chetwynd came and fetched me away from the studio; and I hoped to have seen you at Dorset-square you and your sister."

" I don't know why you should have expected either of us ; we do not know Mrs. Chetwynd ; we have met her once or twice it is true ; and we know Chetwynd, a very pleasant sort of person ; but we do not visit Mrs. Chetwynd."

Mrs. Milbanke had made up her mind to be calm, if spiteful, the moment Philip was announced ; but she found