“Thank you, Lady Lundie,” she said.  “I would rather not play.”

Lady Lundie assumed an extreme surprise which passed the limits of good-breeding.

“Oh, indeed?” she rejoined, sharply.  “Considering that we are all here for the purpose of playing, that seems rather remarkable.  Is any thing wrong, Miss Silvester?”

A flush appeared on the delicate paleness of Miss Silvester’s face.  But she did her duty as a woman and a governess.  She submitted, and so preserved appearances, for that time.

“Nothing is the matter,” she answered.  “I am not very well this morning.  But I will play if you wish it.”

“I do wish it,” answered Lady Lundie.

Miss Silvester turned aside toward one of the entrances into the summer-house.  She waited for events, looking out over the lawn, with a visible inner disturbance, marked over the bosom by the rise and fall of her white dress.

It was Blanche’s turn to select the next player.

In some preliminary uncertainty as to her choice she looked about among the guests, and caught the eye of a gentleman in the front ranks.  He stood side by side with Sir Patrick—­a striking representative of the school that is among us—­as Sir Patrick was a striking representative of the school that has passed away.

The modern gentleman was young and florid, tall and strong.  The parting of his curly Saxon locks began in the center of his forehead, traveled over the top of his head, and ended, rigidly-central, at the ruddy nape of his neck.  His features were as perfectly regular and as perfectly unintelligent as human features can be.  His expression preserved an immovable composure wonderful to behold.  The muscles of his brawny arms showed through the sleeves of his light summer coat.  He was deep in the chest, thin in the flanks, firm on the legs—­in two words a magnificent human animal, wrought up to the highest pitch of physical development, from head to foot.  This was Mr. Geoffrey Delamayn—­commonly called “the honorable;” and meriting that distinction in more ways than one.  He was honorable, in the first place, as being the son (second son) of that once-rising solicitor, who was now Lord Holchester.  He was honorable, in the second place, as having won the highest popular distinction which the educational system of modern England can bestow—­he had pulled the stroke-oar in a University boat-race.  Add to this, that nobody had ever seen him read any thing but a newspaper, and that nobody had ever known him to be backward in settling a bet—­and the picture of this distinguished young Englishman will be, for the present, complete.

Blanche’s eye naturally rested on him.  Blanche’s voice naturally picked him out as the first player on her side.

“I choose Mr. Delamayn,” she said.

As the name passed her lips the flush on Miss Silvester’s face died away, and a deadly paleness took its place.  She made a movement to leave the summer-house—­checked herself abruptly—­and laid one hand on the back of a rustic seat at her side.  A gentleman behind her, looking at the hand, saw it clench itself so suddenly and so fiercely that the glove on it split.  The gentleman made a mental memorandum, and registered Miss Silvester in his private books as “the devil’s own temper.”