"So do I think so. I have had my eye on her several times since you withdrew yours; and I have had the honor of witnessing a little spectacle which you were spared".
I did not ask what; I waited voluntary information, which was presently given.
"Miss Fanshawe", he said, "has a companion with her—a lady of rank—I happen to know Lady Sara by sight; her noble mother has called me in professionally. She is a proud girl, but not in the least insolent, and I doubt whether Ginevra will have gained ground in her estimation by making a butt of her neighbors".
"What neighbors?"
"Merely myself and my mother. As to me it is all very natural: nothing, I suppose, can be fairer game than the young bourgeois doctor; but my mother? I never saw her ridiculed before. Do you know, the curling lip, and sarcastically leveled glass thus directed, gave me a most curious sensation?"
"Think nothing of it, Dr. John; it is not worth while. If Ginevra were in a giddy mood, as she is eminently to-night, she would make no scruple of laughing at that mild, pensive Queen, or that melancholy King. She is not actuated by malevolence, but sheer, heedless folly. To a feather-brained school-girl nothing is sacred".
"But you forget; I have not been accustomed to look on Miss Fanshawe in the light of a feather-brained school-girl. Was she not my divinity—the angel of my career?"
"Hem! There was your mistake".
"To speak the honest truth, without any false rant or assumed romance, there actually was a moment, six months ago, when I thought her divine. Do you remember our conversation about the presents? I was not quite open with you in discussing that subject; the warmth with which you took it up amused me. By way of having the full benefit of your fervor, I allowed you to think me more in the dark than I really was. It was that test of the presents which first proved Ginevra mortal. Still her beauty retained its fascination; three days—three hours ago, I was very much her slave. As she passed me to-night triumphant in beauty, my emotions did her homage; but for one luckless sneer, I should yet be the humblest of her servants. She might have scoffed at me,
