to behave, and had avoided that peculiar coarseness of manners and
complexion which seem the inevitable results of a provincial life. What
are forty-five or even forty-eight years, if a man do not get up too
early or go to bed too soon, if he be dressed by the right persons, and,
early accustomed to the society of women, he possesses that flexibility
of manner and that readiness of gentle repartee which a feminine
apprenticeship can alone confer? But Lord Hull was a man with a red face
and a grey head on whom coarse indulgence and the selfish negligence of
a country life had already conferred a shapeless form; and who,
dressed something like a groom, sat at dinner in stolid silence by Lady
Hampshire, who, whatever were her complaints, had certainly the art,
if only from her questions, of making her neighbours communicative. The
countess examined Lord Hull through her eye-glass with curious pity at
so fine a fortune and so good a family being so entirely thrown away.
Had he been brought up in a civilised manner, lived six months in May
Fair, passed his carnival at Paris, never sported except in Scotland,
and occasionally visited a German bath, even Lord Hull might have 'fined
down.' His hair need not have been grey if it had been attended to; his
complexion would not have been so glaring; his hands never could have
grown to so huge a shape.

What a party, where the countess was absolutely driven to speculate on
the possible destinies of a Lord Hull! But in this party there was not a
single young man, at least not a single young man one had ever heard
of, except her son, and he was of no use. The Duke of Bellamont knew
no young men; the duke did not even belong to a club; the Duchess of
Bellamont knew no young men; she never gave and she never attended an
evening party. As for the county youth, the young Hungerfords and the
young Ildertons, the best of them formed part of the London crowd.

Some of them, by complicated manouvres, might even have made their way
into the countess's crowded saloons on a miscellaneous night. She knew
the length of their tether. They ranged, as the Price Current says, from
eight to three thousand a year. Not the figure that purchases a Lady
Florentina!

There were many other guests, and some of them notable, though not
of the class and character to interest the fastidious mother of Lord
Valentine; but whoever and whatever they might be, of the sixty
or seventy persons who were seated each d