laughing, 'but you know I am always off when you talk poetry.'

'I suspect it is time for us all to be off,' said Claude, 'did I not
hear it strike the quarter?'

'And to-morrow I shall be off in earnest,' said Lord Rotherwood.
'Half way to London before Claude has given one turn to "his sides,
and his shoulders, and his heavy head."'

'Shall we see you at Easter?' said Emily.

'No, I do not think you will. I am engaged to stay with somebody
somewhere, I forget the name of place and man; besides, Grosvenor
Square is more tolerable then than at any other time of the year, and
I shall spend a fortnight with my mother and Florence. It is after
Easter that you come to Oxford, is it not, Claude?'

'Yes, my year of idleness will be over. And there is the Baron
looking at his watch.'

The 'Baron' was the title by which the young people were wont to
distinguish Mr. Mohun, who, as Lily believed, had a right to the
title of Baron of Beechcroft. It was certain that he was the
representative of a family which had been settled at Beechcroft ever
since the Norman Conquest, and Lily was very proud of the name of Sir
William de Moune in the battle roll, and of Sir John among the first
Knights of the Garter. Her favourite was Sir Maurice, who had held
out Beechcroft Court for six weeks against the Roundheads, and had
seen the greater part of the walls battered down. Witnesses of the
strength of the old castle yet remained in the massive walls and