e London season, and I am
sure you haven't been into ten houses, when a hundred of the very
best are open to you--" I loathe the term "best houses." The tinsel
ineptitude of them! For entertainment I really would sooner attend a
mothers' meeting or listen to the serious British Drama--Have I read so
and so's novel? Am I going to Mrs. Chose's dance? Do I ride in the Park?
Do I know young Thingummy of the Guards, who is going to marry Lady
Betty Something? What do I think of the Academy? As if one could have
any sentiment with regard to the Academy save regret at such profusion
of fresh paint! "You want shaking up," continued my aunt. Silly woman!
If there is a thing I should abhor it would be to be shaken up. "Come
and dine with us at seven-thirty _in costume_, and I'll promise you a
delightful time. And think how proud the girls would be of showing off
their _beau cousin_." _Et patiti et patita._ I am again reminded that I
owe it to my position, my title. God ha' mercy on us! To bedeck myself
like a decayed mummer in a booth and frisk about in a pestilential
atmosphere with a crowd of strange and uninteresting young females is
the correct way of fulfilling the obligations that the sovereign laid
upon the successors to the title, when he conferred the dignity of a
baronetcy on my great-grandfather! Now I come to think of it the
Prince Regent was that sovereign, and my ancestor did things for him
at Brighton. Perhaps after all there is a savage irony of truth in Aunt
Jessica's suggestion!

And a _beau cousin_ should I be indeed. What does she think I would
go as? A mousquetaire? or a troubadour in blue satin trunks and cloak,
white silk tights and shoes and a Grecian helmet, like Mr. Snodgrass at
Mrs. Leo Hunter's _fete champetre?_

I wish I could fathom Aunt Jessica's reasons for her attempts at
involving me in her social mountebankery. If the girls get no better
dance-partners than me, heaven help them!

Only a fortnight ago I drove with them to Hurlingham. My aunt and
Gwendolen disappeared in an unaccountable manner with another man,
leaving me under an umbrella tent to take charge of Dora. I had an hour
and a half of undiluted Dora. The dose was too strong, and it made my
head ache. I think I prefer neat Carlotta.

CHAPTER IX

July 5th

I lunched at home, and read drowsily before the open window till four
o'clock. Then the splendour of the day invited me forth. Whither
should I go? I thought of Judit