Henrietta looked more vexed than the commonplace sneer needed, and which Sir George did not appear to hear. He was surrounded by some friends, all of whom seemed delighted to see him once mere in England. A turn in the walk shut him out; and Henrietta began to think what a tiresome thing a fête is, and to wonder that people ever gave them. She also began to enumerate the number of hours she should have to stay; and to think that it was very unreasonable, even in a prime minister, to give a breakfast, dinner, and tea-party, all in one day, to say nothing of the night itself being trenched upon by a ball. Lord Norbourne's attention, too, was more taken up than it ought to have been with the beauty of the fête on his arm; but, alas! he knew everybody, and everybody knew him; public characters must pay the penalty of greatness.
Henrietta was now all but surrounded by a mob of elderly gentlemen, ribanded and starred; and on the other side was the trunk of a huge cedar tree. Her prospects might have been more agreeable. However, the very cedar,
