Carruthers."
"She cannot do him any harm," replied Mrs. Scrops; "she is married, I am
thankful to say."
"There will be no good done with him this season," said poor Lady
Masham. "I would rather he had fallen in love than that she took
possession of him."
But Basil was not allowed to remain very long tete-a-tete with his
charming queen. The Duchess of Hexham, alarmed lest her most brilliant
star should be eclipsed, came to the rescue. Lady Amelie was soon
surrounded, and then was carried off by the archduke.
Not, however, before she had managed to turn round to Basil and say to
him, sotto voce, "You must call and see me. We shall be friends, I can
foretell." And he was more charmed than ever by those words. Friends
with that enchanting woman, that proud, peerless queen, that radiant
beauty! Be friends with her! It was more than he had dared to venture to
hope. That he might worship her in the distance seemed to him honor
enough.
He had dreamed of such women, but he had not thought they existed; they
belonged to the heroic ages, past now and dead. Here, in the midst of
the days he considered so degenerate, he had found the very ideal of his
heart.
The brilliant scene before him seemed to fade away. Ah! if there was but
some faint chance of distinguishing himself for her sake!--if she were
but a princess in distress!--a lady for whom he could enter the lists
and fight until he won! What was there in this prosaic century that he
could do for her?--literally nothing but give her flowers.
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