e, and calculated, with greater accuracy than
he had hitherto done, the probable fortune Lucy would derive from her
uncle.

No sooner were the cards issued for Lord Mauleverer's fete than nothing
else was talked of among the circles which at Bath people were pleased
to term "the World."

But in the interim caps are making, and talk flowing, at Bath; and when
it was found that Lord Mauleverer--the good-natured Lord Mauleverer, the
obliging Lord Mauleverer--was really going to be exclusive, and out of
a thousand acquaintances to select only eight hundred, it is amazing
how his popularity deepened into respect. Now, then, came anxiety and
triumph; she who was asked turned her back upon her who was not,--old
friendships dissolved,--Independence wrote letters for a ticket,--and,
as England is the freest country in the world, all the Mistresses
Hodges and Snodges begged to take the liberty of bringing their youngest
daughters.

Leaving the enviable Mauleverer,--the god-like occasion of so much
happiness and woe, triumph and dejection,--ascend with us, O reader,
into those elegant apartments over the hairdresser's shop, tenanted
by Mr. Edward Pepper and Mr. Augustus Tomlinson. The time was that of
evening; Captain Clifford had been dining with his two friends; the
cloth was removed, and conversation was flowing over a table graced
by two bottles of port, a bowl of punch for Mr. Pepper's especial
discussion, two dishes of filberts, another of devilled biscuits, and a
fourth of three Pomarian crudities, which nobody touched.

The hearth was swept clean, the fire burned high and clear, the curtains
were let down, and the light excluded. Our three adventurers and
their rooms seemed the picture of comfort. So thought Mr. Pepper; for,
glancing round the chamber and putting his feet upon the fender, he
said,--

"Were my portrait to be taken, gentlemen, it is just as I am now that I
would be drawn!"

"And," said Tomlinson, cracking his filberts,--Tomlinson was fond of
filberts,--"were I to choose a home, it is in such a home as this that I
would be always quartered."

"Ah, gentlemen," said Clifford, who had been for some time silent, "it
is more than probable that both your wishes may be heard, and that ye
may be drawn, quartered, and something else, too, in the very place of
your desert!"

"Well," said Tomlinson, smiling gently, "I am happy to hear you jest
again, Captain, though it be at our expense."

"Expense!" echoed