"Did you ever see Lady Vargrave?"
"Never," replied Legard, looking another way; "but Lady Doltimore says she is as beautiful as Evelyn herself, if that be possible; and still so young in form and countenance, that she looks rather like her sister than her mother!"
"How I should like to know her!" said Maltravers, with a sudden energy.
Legard changed the subject. He spoke of the Carnival, of balls, of masquerades, of operas, of reigning beauties!
"Ah," said Maltravers, with a half sigh, "yours is the age for those dazzling pleasures; to me they are 'the twice-told tale.'"
Maltravers meant it not, but this remark chafed Legard. He thought it conveyed a sarcasm on the childishness of his own mind or the levity of his pursuits; his colour mounted, as he replied,
"It is not, I fear, the slight difference of years between us,it is the difference of intellect you would insinuate; but you should remember all men have not your resources; all men cannot pretend to genius!"
"My dear Legard," said Maltravers, kindly, "do not fancy that I could have designed any insinuation half so presumptuous and impertinent. Believe me, I envy you, sincerely and sadly, all those faculties of enjoyment which I have worn away. Oh, how I envy you! for, were they still mine, thenthen, indeed, I might hope to mould myself into greater congeniality with the beautiful and the young!"