A REQUEST. 309 



Bends me an invitation ; but really now I must spend a few 

 days with my father, who has been so long solitary in the 

 country ; so good-bye, my dear Malcolm, and take care of those 

 two warm-hearted, affectionate girls, for my sake. They have 

 had too much gaiety lately ; and if you will oblige me, do not 

 let them go to more than two or three parties in the week — 

 indeed, they cannot stand this unceasing round of dissipation. 

 Am I asking too great a favour, or will it offend Lady Malcolm, 

 to decline some invitations for them on my account 1 " 



" My dear fellow, the thi-ee parties a week shall be strictly 

 attended to," replied Lord Malcolm, " if I offend all London. 

 The three parties a week shall not be exceeded — there is my 

 hand upon it." 



" Many thanks, Malcolm, for your promise, and I hope you 

 will now walk with me to the stables, as I purpose riding home 

 with Conyers, who has, I fear, been kept waiting there a long 

 time." 



CHAPTER XXXYIL 



After having made up his difference with Conyers, and seen 

 the two friends in their saddles, Malcolm returned to Grosvenor 

 Square, and found his mother alone, Mrs. Gordon having taken 

 the two girls for a quiet drive in the country. 



"Beauchamp, my dear mother, has commissioned me to 

 entrust two secrets to your keeping — one being considered of 

 too little moment for any woman to preserve. The first is, that 

 he is heir presumptive to an earldom — the other, that he is in 

 love with Blanche, and she with him." 



" The latter, ^Charles, I have long suspected ; but the former 

 I am surprised to hear, although well aware that the Beau- 

 champs are of a very old and high family." 



After a full explanation on these points, Malcolm added, 

 " Now, my dear mother, Beauchamp being, as you may suppose, 

 very anxious about the well-being of our two precious girls, haa 

 exacted from me a promise that they shall not be overbaked by 

 too much hot air, i.e., over-crowded rooms, which he says has 

 made them look like drooping lilies of the valley, instead of 

 roses, so that they are to be restricted to three balls or parties a 

 week for the future, until he returns ; and as Beauchamp' s ideas 

 are always right, and mine always wrong, his instructions to 



