At such generous self-abnegation, even Aunt Emma could not forbear imprinting a kiss on the cheek of her pretty niece; when, to her surprise, she found a tear stealing gently

down.

Say nothing of it, my dear child, to Theo.," said her ladyship. "She would be sure to tell her brother, on his return to town.-But I will give a hint on the subject to Mr. Howard; who, when he knows the rights of a case, manages to make the public see things in a proper light. -Let him only declare at the L*** House dinner to-day, that Captain Grandison has behaved unlike a gentleman, and this degraded swain of yours might as well have committed a forgery or marked a card."

CHAPTER IX.

AT the commencement of every new London season, next to the favourites for the Derby, Ascot Cup, and St. Leger, the last imported prima donna, or première danseuse, the animals which excite the strongest curiosity in the public mind, are usually the new members of her Majesty's parliament.-The Illustrated News renders us unfamiliar with their outward man, by a hazy portrait, after Claudet, in the same column with some monstrous fowl arrived by the last Oriental Steamer,—both occasionally deficient in an eye, claw, or whisker ;

while some ponderous periodical produces an equally authentic biography;-correct in every thing but names, dates, and facts. The following week comes forth, of course, a Notice from the editor, admitting that his "own correspondent" was at fault; having mistaken the new M.P. for an uncle of the same name, who died during the Irish Rebellion.

The idlers in Club-windows, meanwhile, gaping for news as other natives for air, are curious only to learn whether the new representatives of the people write themselves down L. or C.; and when the question has been worn. as threadbare as the last divorce or impending steeple-chase, in saunters Reuben Howard; and by a mere elevation of the eye-brows or an inward chuckle, settles the name, weight, and colours of the future Chatham, and nips his laurels in the bud, as completely as the "Fudge" of Burchell, or an epigram in Punch.

Through this trying sieve of public opinion,

Lord Dinton, Sir John Wraysbury, and young Wilchester, had been lately winnowed. The first was unanimously set down as a piece of furniture, valuable only to the whip of his party. The second, in whose case his cook and his daughter were extenuating circumstances, was remanded till next assizes. But on Lord Wilchester, no man had mercy. He was young, handsome, distinguished in birth, fortune, and appearance; and above all, he bore a name which, by association, commanded universal esteem. It is a trying thing to succeed to a Sir Robert Peel, or to such a man as the affianced of poor Bessy; and instead of the time-honoured name bespeaking indulgence for him, he is judged as severely as Racine fils.

The gaping natives decided that the new Lord Wilchester had come forward too young; that he should have waited till his beard had sprouted, and he was able to count a hundred without prompting; while Reuben Howard, who, of course, regarded the son of his intimate friend

with more than his usual share of malice, was heard to whisper one night in the lobby of the House, that the poor boy would do well enough to second the address of the following session, unless spoiled, in the interim, by lollypops, toadies, and his mamma.

In such an establishment as the one in Piccadilly, the vultures were, of course, already gathered together. Like barnacles the dining-out men clung to the table of the prodigal Earl. All the little lively vermin of society busied themselves in fetching and carrying for the Countess and Lady Theodosia, and were rewarded by an occasional invitation.-By these, while the gorgeous album of Lady Theodosia was inscribed by their cramped hands with оссаsional stanzas," well calculated to eclipse the celebrated "verses by a person of quality," Edgar was proclaimed a future Canning. Fortunately, the boy had at his ear the admonitory croak of Roger Farmer to remind him that he was mortal, and bid him "defy the foul fiend,"