Ever since that conversation with Lady Hasselton which has been set before the reader, that lady had lingered and lingered--though the house was growing empty, and London, in all seasons, was, according to her, better than the country in any--until the Count Devereux, with that amiable modesty which so especially characterized him, began to suspect that the Lady Hasselton lingered on his account.

This emboldened that bashful personage to press in earnest for the fourth seat in the beauty's carriage, which we have seen in the conversation before mentioned had been previously offered to him in jest.

After a great affectation of horror at the proposal, the Lady Hasselton yielded.

She had always, she said, been dotingly fond of children, and it was certainly very shocking to send such a chit as the little Count to London by himself.
My uncle was charmed with the arrangement.

The beauty was a peculiar favourite of his, and, in fact, he was sometimes pleased to hint that he had private reasons for love towards her mother's daughter.