TWO INVITATIONS. 15 



shall," cried Levi. " Lords H and B dine 



with me to-day, by their own invitation ; you must 

 do me the honour of meeting them." 



"Agreed!" cried Fred., "seven's the main, I 

 suppose. Adieu." I wonder, said Fred, to himself, 

 as he descended the stairs, whether the old rascal 

 believes any thing of the Ascot business. 



On Fred's, return, passing through the hall, he 

 took up several cards, and among them a small 

 elegant perfumed note to this effect : 



" CHER AMIE, 



" Two days' absence has appeared an age to your 

 affectionate 



"KATE." 



A few minutes found Fred, in a small but elegantly 

 furnished house in Mayfair. Here every article of 

 furniture and ornament evinced the refined and 

 expensive taste of him who had fitted up this fairy 

 temple of love and beauty, for one who, in point of 

 loveliness of person, showed in true keeping with the 

 elegance that surrounded her. The eye of Fred. 

 Manderville had been as correct and classic on 

 the beauty of his mistress, as in every thing of 

 which he chose to possess himself. The chosen few 

 who had the entree to this abode of beauty, were 

 witness to the correctness of Fred.'s appellation of his 

 fair mistress, when he described her as his " splendid 

 Kate." His devoted, affectionate, and faithful Kate, 

 were terms of more doubtful reality. Springing 

 from a couch, and throwing on the ground a splen- 

 didly bound annual she had been reading, Kate fondly 

 reproached Manderville for his truantship, and with 



