CONTENTS OF VOL. XLI. XXIII. A Self-sacrificing Resolution XXV. An Admission XXVI. Publicity VI. York, Sulgrave, South Cave, Market Weighton, Howden, 411 Days, The, of the Week. By HENRY BRADLEY 423 Diamonds, Artificial 186 Edinburgh Stage, The Old. By H. BARTON BAKER 167 Fable, A, in the Manner of Dr. Swift. By AUSTIN DOBSON XII. Giuseppe Giusti. By FRANCES ELEANOR TROLLOPE 89 Little Smallware Shop, The. By HENRY W. LUCY Montaigle and its Legend. By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID Old Château, An, in the Ardennes. By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID Radiant Matter. By D. PIDGEON Week, The Days of the. By HENRY BRADLEY Wintering at Hyères. By J. ARBUTHNOT WILSON 500 DRAWN BY A. Hopkins. Frontispiece Alfred Rimmer. To face p. 77 BELGRAVIA. MARCH 1880. A Confidential Agent. BY JAMES PAYN. THE CHAPTER X. THE PATRON'S VISIT. HE alarm at No. 7 Cavendish Grove at the news of Mr. Signet's promised visit, which Matthew brought home with him that night, was considerable and well-nigh universal. Sabey, naturally shy, was struck with consternation at the greatness thus thrust upon her, of entertaining her husband's employer. Matthew himself was by no means pleased that Mr. Signet, with whom his business relations were far from agreeable, should have thus invited himself as a guest, and Amy-though herself perfectly self-possessed on all occasions-had a strong foreboding that this honour to be conferred upon the family was likely to result in anything but advantage. She pictured to herself in Mr. Signet (from what had fallen from her brother-in-law) a purse-proud and somewhat offensive person, with whom it would be very difficult to get on,' and to whom Uncle Stephen might very possibly present a side of his character which was not the most attractive. For he was not, as a rule, genial to strangers, and had not in the first instance responded very cordially to the advances of Mr. Barlow himself. That he could be agreeable, when he chose, to everybody, and could talk with much knowledge and familiarity upon almost every topic, she was well aware: but she had also observed in him, on occasion, a certain frigidity of manner, which not only froze conversation at its very source, but with it the would-be talker's very vitals. He had, it was true, seen Mr. Signet once on the occasion of Matthew's first introduction to him, but had since maintained a silence with respect to that gentleman which was VOL. XLI. NO, CLXI. B not only significant but ominous. That, for his nephew's sake, Uncle Stephen would do his best to conciliate their visitor, she had no doubt; but in a case where he entertained dislike or contempt, she doubted his powers to please. There are natures so genial that they blossom even in frost and snow, but others (and these are the greater ones) require the sun of sympathy to evoke their hues and fragrance, which in its absence shrink up within themselves, and close,' like the sensitive plant,'beneath the kisses of night.' We may even go a little further, and admit that they have the involuntary faculty under such circumstances of making themselves uncommonly disagreeable. In this particular instance, it is fair to say that Amy's apprehensions were ill founded. Stephen Durham, it was true, was not a man to put himself out '-that is to say, to make the least sacrifice of independence—to please the Great Mogul, or (I fear) even the Archangel Michael, had that potentate favoured him with a personal visit; but he understood, of course, that it was important to be civil to his nephew's employer, and made up his mind— within limits to be so. It fortunately never entered into his mind that Mr. Signet would venture upon patronising either him or his, or that gentleman would indeed have found himself (as Captain Langton had humorously expressed it) in Queer Street. As a matter of fact, however, when Mr. Signet stepped into his brougham at six o'clock that afternoon, from the door of his country house at Teddington, and gave that very insignificant direction to his coachman, To Cavendish Grove,' he felt the patron' from the summit of his crush-hat down to the sole of his patent-leather boots. To do him justice, he was not generally so foolish when going out to dinner as to wear a crush-hat (which, if certain people would only understand the fact, is meant for evening parties, and not for dinners), but he had an idea that his carrying that article of apparel under his arm into No. 7 would impress its tenants with the fashion and social position of the bearer. (As it turned out, it only succeeded in embarrassing the domestic, Mary Jane, to whom he presented it as he sat down to table, to put somewhere, and who in her ignorance and alarm very nearly put it into the soup tureen.) As it is certain that neither the width nor height of the tenements in The Grove' could have impressed Mr. Signet favourably, we may conclude that he arrived at his destination in the same state of proud pre-eminence as when he started; and yet, no sooner did he set foot in that little sitting-room with which we are |