Coterie succeeds coterie, equally
smiling--the explosions take place in his absence. Even a grand passion,
which teaches a man more, perhaps, than anything else, is not very
easily excited by the traveller. The women know that, sooner or later,
he must disappear; and though this is the case with all lovers, they do
not like to miss the possibility of delusion. Thus the heroines keep in
the background, and the visitor, who is always in a hurry, falls into
the net of the first flirtation that offers.
The Duke of St. James had, however, acquired a great knowledge; if
not of mankind, at any rate of manners. He had visited all Courts, and
sparkled in the most brilliant circles of the Continent. He returned to
his own country with a taste extremely refined, a manner most polished,
and a person highly accomplished.
CHAPTER III.
_The Duke Returns_
A SORT of scrambling correspondence had been kept up between the young
Duke and his cousin, Lord St. Maurice, who had for a few months been his
fellow-traveller. By virtue of these epistles, notice of the movements
of their interesting relative occasionally reached the circle at
Fitz-pompey House, although St.
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