and then a leader of fashion. Her sister, our Marchioness, had been
past thirty when she married, and had never been quite so much in the
world's eye as her sister, Lady Persiflage. And Lady Persiflage was
the mother of her husband's heir. The young Lord Hautboy, her eldest
son, was now just of age. Lady Kingsbury looked upon him as all
that the heir to an earldom ought to be. His mother, too, was proud
of him, for he was beautiful as a young Phoebus. The Earl, his
father, was not always as well pleased, because his son had already
achieved a knack of spending money. The Persiflage estates were
somewhat encumbered, and there seemed to be a probability that Lord
Hautboy might create further trouble. Such was the family to whom
collectively the Marchioness looked for support in her unhappiness.
The letter which she wrote to her sister on the present occasion was
as follows;--

Trafford Park,
Saturday, October 25th.

MY DEAR GERALDINE,--

I take up my pen to write to you with a heart laden with
trouble. Things have become so bad with me that I do not
know where to turn myself unless you can give me comfort.
I am beginning to feel how terrible it is to have
undertaken the position of mother to another person's
children. God knows I have endeavoured to do my duty. But
it has all been in vain. Everything is over now. I have
divided myself for ever from Hampstead and from Fanny. I
have felt myself compelled to tell their father that I
have divorced them from my heart; and I have told Lord
Hampstead the same. You will understand how terrible must
have been the occasion when I found myself compelled to
take such a step as this.

You know how dreadfully shocked I was when she first
revealed to me the fact that she had promised to marry
that Post Office clerk. The young man had actually the
impudence to call on Lord Kingsbury in London, to offer
himself as a son-in-law. Kingsbury very properly would
not see him, but instructed Mr. Greenwood to do so. Mr.
Greenwood has behaved very well in the matter, and is a
great comfort to me. I hope we may be able to do something
for him some day. A viler or more ill-conditioned young
man he says that he never saw;--insolent, too, and talking
as though he had as much right to ask for Fanny's hand as
though he were one of the same class. As for that, she
would deserve nothing better than to be marr