chios who is leaning on his umbrella close
to the rails, and smoking the cigar of meditation as if the park was
his own.

I often wondered who that man was. Morning after morning have I seen
him at the same place, always with an umbrella, and always with a
cigar. I quite missed him on the Derby day, when of course he was gone
to Epsom (by-the-bye, why don't we go to the Derby just as much as to
Ascot?); and yet it was rather a relief, too, for I had got almost shy
about passing him. It seemed so absurd to see the man every day and
never to speak; besides, I fancied, though of course it could only be
fancy, that he looked as if he was expecting me. At last I couldn't
help blushing, and I thought he saw it; for I'm sure he smiled, and
then I was so provoked with myself that I sent Brilliant up the ride
at a pace nothing short of a racehorse could have caught.

CHAPTER III.

I wonder whether any lady in England has a maid who, to use that
domestic's own expression, is capable of "giving satisfaction." If any
lady does rejoice in such an Abigail, I shall be too happy to "swap"
with her, and give anything else I possess except Brilliant into the
bargain. Mine is the greatest goose that ever stood upon two legs, and
how she can chatter as she does with her mouth full of pins is to me a
perfect miracle. Once or twice in the week I have to endure a certain
ordeal which, although a positive pleasure to some women, is to my
disposition intense martyrdom, termed dressing to go out; and I think
I never hated it more than the night of Lady Horsingham's ball. Lady
Horsingham is my poor uncle's widow; and as Aunt Deborah is extremely
punctilious on all matters relating to family connections, we
invariably attend these solemnities with a gravity befitting the
occasion.

Now, I may be singular in my ideas; but I confess that it does appear
to me a strange way of enjoying oneself in the dog-days, to make one's
toilette at eleven p.m., for the purpose of sitting in a carriage till
twelve, and struggling on a staircase amongst a mob of one's
fellow-creatures till half-past. After fighting one's way literally
step by step, and gaining a landing by assault, one looks round and
takes breath, and what does one see? Panting girls looking in vain for
the right partner, who is probably not ten yards from them, but wedged
in between substantial dowagers, whom he is cursing in his heart, but
from whom there is no escape; or perhaps phi