lities of frost setting in and putting a stop to field sports.
I was therefore a lively circle into which Lady Eveline Darlington was introduced as a fresh face and a fresh nature; and she felt the attentions, the badinage, the smart conversation, the careless gaiety of that pleasure-loving and pleasure-seeking coterie something as delightful as it was new. Her father had been of the old school of self-indulgence, and she had had no brothers, so that it was a great deal more to her than to other young ladies of rank to come out. The Derricks had been very slow and stupid compared to this gay assembly, and she could not help contrasting John Derrick unfavourably with several of he young gentlemen whose compliments were much better turned, and whose attentions were much less clumsy. She received her fair share of admiration, if not from Lord Martingale or Sir Henry Overton, from one or two others whom she though much more agreeable; and especially from Mr. Gerald Staunton, a young barrister who was toiling up the many slow steps that lead in one case out of ten thousand to the woolsack, and which that remote chance tempts so many adventurous spirits to climb.
He had never seen anything out of his dreams so fresh and innocent as Lady Eveline Darling-
