d
then, impatient at my loss of time, took no rest, night or day, till I
found myself at Paris.

Young, well-born, tolerably good-looking, and never utterly destitute of
money, nor grudging whatever enjoyment it could produce, I entered Paris
with the ability and the resolution to make the best of those beaux
jours which so rapidly glide from our possession.

CHAPTER X.

Seest thou how gayly my young maister goes?--Bishop Hall's Satires.

Qui vit sans folie, n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.--La Rochefoucault.

I lost no time in presenting my letters of introduction, and they were
as quickly acknowledged by invitations to balls and dinners. Paris was
full to excess, and of a better description of English than those who
usually overflow that reservoir of the world. My first engagement was to
dine with Lord and Lady Bennington, who were among the very few English
intimate in the best French houses.

On entering Paris I had resolved to set up "a character;" for I was
always of an ambitious nature, and desirous of being distinguished from
the ordinary herd. After various cogitations as to the particular one I
should assume, I thought nothing appeared more likely to be remarkable
among men, and therefore pleasing to women, than an egregious coxcomb:
accordingly I arranged my hair into ringlets, dressed myself with
singular plainness and simplicity (a low person, by the by, would have
done just the contrary), and putting on an air of exceeding languor,
made my maiden appearance at Lord Bennington's. The party was small,
and equally divided between French and English: the former had been all
emigrants, and the conversation was chiefly in our own tongue.

I was placed, at dinner, next to Miss Paulding, an elderly young lady,
of some notoriety at Paris, very clever, very talkative, and very
conceited. A young, pale, ill-natured looking man, sat on her left hand;
this was Mr. Aberton, one of the attaches.

"Dear me!" said Miss Paulding, "what a pretty chain that is of your's,
Mr. Aberton."

"Yes," said the attache, "I know it must be pretty, for I got it at
Brequet's, with the watch." (How common people always buy their opinions
with their goods, and regulate the height of the former by the mere
price or fashion of the latter.)

"Pray, Mr. Pelham," said Miss Paulding, turning to me, "have you got one
of Brequet's watches yet?"

"Watch!" said I: "do you think I could ever wear a watch? I know nothing
so plebeian.