many. One diversion I am sure would charm you,--the
club at Almack's, in which the ladies nominate gentlemen to membership
and gentlemen the ladies. Only a few days before leaving London I
attended a grand masquerade ball at Almack's, where my Lady Archer
appeared as a boy wearing a postman's blue coat. Lord Edgecombe
assumed the character of an old washerwoman. Sir Watkins Wynne rode
into the hall on a goat, assuming the character of holy Saint David.
The goat, more accustomed to browse in the pastures than take part in
such high jinks, frightened by the blare of trumpets, the scraping of
fiddles, and the whisking of the ladies' skirts as they went round in
the dance, capered like mad, butted my Lady Winchester so that she
fell flat upon the floor, upset holy Saint David, and kept the room in
an uproar until a waiter seized the animal by the horns and another by
the tail and led him from the hall."

Lord Upperton roared with laughter, and Miss Newville could but join
him in the merriment.

"It was a picturesque scene, I assure you, with peddlers, haymakers,
shepherdesses, gypsies, chimney-sweeps, and nymphs," his lordship
said.

"May I ask, my lord, what a masquerade is supposed to represent?" Miss
Newville inquired.

"Well, really now, I never thought of it. I suppose it means
something, but just what, upon my soul, I cannot tell you, except to
have a jolly good time and appear to be what we are not."

"Are such masquerade balls usually attended by noble lords and
ladies?"

"Oh, yes. They are almost the exclusive patrons. I attended one a
little while ago at Carlisle House. It was intended the king and queen
should be patrons. Tickets were sent to his most gracious majesty,
and, of course, there was a great crush. The king and queen returned
the tickets, but everybody else was there. I remember that the Duke of
Cleveland appeared as Henry VIII.; the Duke of Gloucester as a fine
old English gentleman; the Duchess of Buccleugh as the Witch of Endor;
Lady Edgecombe as a nun; the Duchess of Bolton as the goddess Diana;
Lady Stanhope as Melopomene; the Countess of Waldegrave as Jane Shore;
Lord Galway's daughter, Mrs. Monckton, as an Indian princess, in a
golden robe, embroidered with diamonds, opals, and pearls worth thirty
thousand pounds. One of the gentlemen came as a Swiss ballad-singer
with a hurdy-gurdy, leading a tame bear with a muzzle on his nose. He
had been stopped by the gate-keeper, because he had on