Preparations had
already commenced for the return, and the younger members of the party
were busy discussing the arrangements of the homeward drive.
That moonlight drive was looked forward to as one of the chief
pleasures of the excursion; it would afford such glorious opportunities
for flirtation. It would enable romantic young ladies to quote so much
poetry about the moon and the summer night, while poetically-disposed
young gentlemen replied in the same strain. All was animation and
excitement. The champagne and burgundy, the sparkling hock and moselle,
which had been consumed in the marquee, had only rendered the majority
of the gentlemen more gallant and agreeable; and softly-spoken
compliments, and tender pressures of pretty little delicately-gloved
hands, testified to the devotion of the cavaliers who were to escort
the band of fair ones homeward.
Lydia Graham hoped that she would be able to take up the thread of her
flirtation with Lord Howden exactly where it had dropped when she had
risen to leave the dinner-table. She had thought it even possible that,
if she could secure a _tete-a-tete_ drive home with the weak-brained
young nobleman, she might lure him on until he made a formal proposal,
from which he would find it no easy matter to recede; for Captain
Graham was at his sister's call, and was a gentleman of no very
yielding temper where his own interests were at stake.
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