Out of this, an ardent imagination, with the Countess de Saldar for an interpreter, might construe a promise of some sort.

Evan soon had high hopes.

What though his name blazed on a shop-front?
The sun might yet illumine him to honour! Where a young man is getting into delicate relations with a young woman, the more of his sex the better--they serve as a blind; and the Countess hailed fresh arrivals warmly.

There was Sir John Loring, Dorothy's father, who had married the eldest of the daughters of Lord Elburne.
A widower, handsome, and a flirt, he capitulated to the Countess instantly, and was played off against the provincial Don Juan, who had reached that point with her when youths of his description make bashful confidences of their successes, and receive delicious chidings for their naughtiness--rebukes which give immeasurable rebounds.

Then came Mr.
Gordon Graine, with his daughter, Miss Jenny Graine, an early friend of Rose's, and numerous others.