joyed millions, but you will have escaped
bankruptcy. "Our hostess," said my Lord Chesterfield to his friend in a
confidential whisper, of which the utterer did not in the least know the
loudness, "puts me in mind of Covent Garden in my youth. Then it was
the court end of the town, and inhabited by the highest fashion. Now, a
nobleman's house is a gaming-house, or you may go in with a friend and
call for a bottle."

"Hey! a bottle and a tavern are good things in their way," says my Lord
March, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was not born before the
Georges came in, though I intend to live to a hundred. I never knew the
Bernstein but as an old woman; and if she ever had beauty, hang me if I
know how she spent it."

"No, hang me, how did she spend it?" laughs out Jack Morris.

"Here's a table! Shall we sit down and have a game?--Don't let the
Frenchman come in. He won't pay. Mr. Warrington, will you take a card?"
Mr. Warrington and my Lord Chesterfield found themselves partners
against Mr. Morris and the Earl of March. "You have come too late,
Baron," says the elder nobleman to the other nobleman who was advancing.
"We have made our game. What, have you forgotten Mr. Warrington of
Virginia--the young gentleman whom you met in London?"

"The young gentleman whom I met at Arthur's Chocolate House had black
hair, a little cocked nose, and was by no means so fortunate in his
personal appearance as Mr. Warrington," said the Baron, with much
presence of mind. "Warrington, Dorrington, Harrington? We of the
continent cannot retain your insular names. I certify that this
gentleman is not the individual of whom I spoke at dinner." And,
glancing kindly upon him, the old beau sidled away to a farther end
of the room, where Mr. Wolfe and Miss Lowther were engaged in deep
conversation in the embrasure of a window. Here the Baron thought fit to
engage the Lieutenant-Colonel upon the Prussian manual exercise, which
had lately been introduced into King George II.'s army--a subject with
which Mr. Wolfe was thoroughly familiar, and which no doubt would
have interested him at any other moment but that. Nevertheless the old
gentleman uttered his criticisms and opinions, and thought he perfectly
charmed the two persons to whom he communicated them.

At the commencement of the evening the Baroness received her guests
personally, and as they arrived engaged them in talk and introductory
courtesies. But as the rooms and tables filled, and