A VIRGINIAN. 43 



me make you know Colonel Fairfax. Colonel, the 

 Duke of Beaufort, Lord Cbeshire." 



''I thought as much," thought Fairfax within him- 

 self, but he said nothing, only bowed and touched his 

 hat, without shaking hands a V Americaine." 



" A-h — Colonel Fairfax — charmed— a-h. Had the 

 pleasure — a-a-h — to send my card this morning — a-h. 

 Happy to have the honor, a-h — dinner at eight — yes 

 — Lady Cheshire — a-h." 



Very different was the greeting of the Duke, who, 

 when the peer had got through with his stultified St. 

 James Street a-ahing, offered his hand frankly. 



" I have had the pleasure of hearing of you before, 

 Colonel Fairfax. Rothesay wrote to me about you. 

 I believe you have a letter for me from our mutual 

 friend Talleyrand. Delighted you have come to see 

 us here ; this is the place of all others for a foreigner 

 to see, who wishes to see what is most worth seeing, 

 most peculiar, in us English — this and New Market. 

 On the Continent you will find a thousand things as 

 fine as any we can show you, some perhaps finer, 

 palaces, pictures, architecture, armies — but the world 

 has but one New Market, but one Melton Mow- 

 bray." 



" I was making nearly the same observation to 

 Count Matuschevitz, just as we met you, sir. In 

 England you make your rudest sports, many of our 

 republican sovereigns would call them toils, into a 

 luxury." 



" I hope you will not think, on further trial, that 

 ive make our luxuries a toil. Our mediseurs do charge 

 us, I believe, with something of the kind. But which 

 way are you bound?" 



" We are going to the stables to inspect the cattle 

 and make arrangements for to-morrow." 



*'Are your stables mysterious, or visible to th& 

 uninitiated?" 



