Even from this
delusion, too, was he to waken, and, for the first time in his life, he
gauged the depth and strength of that popularity which had been so dear
to him, and which he now found to be so shallow and so weak.
'What will they think of me when they know all? What they will: I care
not. I would sooner live in a cottage with May Dacre, and work for our
daily bread, than be worshipped by all the beauty of this Babylon.'
Gloomy, yet sedate, he returned home. His letters announced two
extraordinary events. M. de Whiskerburg had galloped off with Lady
Aphrodite, and Count Frill had flown away with the Bird of Paradise.
CHAPTER XI.
_'Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly.'_
THE last piece of information was a relief; but the announcement of the
elopement cost him a pang. Both surprised, and the first shocked him.
We are unreasonable in love, and do not like to be anticipated even in
neglect. An hour ago Lady Aphrodite Grafton was to him only an object of
anxiety and a cause of embarrassment. She was now a being to whom he was
indebted for some of the most pleasing hours of his existence, and who
could no longer contribute to his felicity.
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