ARRANGEMENT. IIQ 



And who can be jealous ? Who can grudge them the 

 universal homage which even in the queenly presence they 

 always claim and win ? More than once, I must confess, 

 has a remonstrance risen to my lips which I have not dared 

 to utter. I remember sitting on a summer's eve contem- 

 plating my Roses in the soft light of the setting sun, and 

 in the society of a sentimental friend, more than ever senti- 

 mental because a daughter of the gods, divinely fair, had 

 just left us for the house. We sat still and pensive, until 

 at last I broke a long silence with the involuntary exclama- 

 tion, " Aren't they lovely ? " "Lovely!" he replied ; " I /laU 

 'em. She called that Due de Rohan a duck, and that 

 Senna Tea Vaisse, or whatever his name is " (he knew it as 

 well as I did) '^a darling. I tell you what, old fellow, if 

 either of these worthies could appear in the flesh, there is 

 nothing in the world I should like so much as a tete-a-tete 

 with him in a 24-foot ring. I flatter myself that I could 

 favour him with a facer which he couldn't obtain in France. 

 As for that General Jacqueminot, shouldn't I like to meet 

 him in action," here he pulled his mustache fiercely, "and 

 to roll him over on Rupert } " — his charger. I bade him 

 light a weed, and hope ; but he didn't seem to relish hoping. 

 Towards the end of the next summer he came to see me 



