"but really I will be obliged to you if you can tell me what has come to him, for he has cut me for the last two years most decidedly." "He has begun, I think, to cut me too," rejoined Mrs. Neville; but we must let spoilt children have their own way, for it is too much trouble to attempt to correct them." "But I really used to like the fellow," continued Miss Lyttleton. "Well, I hope I shall find somebody else of my acquaintance, for I cannot do without a man to flirt with, or laugh at, and my mother has left me here with Lady Bellenden for three days;only think what a bore!" Then eyeing Georgina through her glass," By the way," she proceeded, "you seem to have got a pretty young thing there with you. Do introduce me, will you ?" As this could not be refused, the ceremony was instantly performed, and while she shook, or rather twisted Georgina's slender wrist, "I assure you," she exclaimed, “I like a pretty girl, almost as well as a pretty fellow. By the way, I don't at all like. those curls of your's; why don't you crop as close as I do?-Mrs. Neville, how do you like my new crop?" At this she bent down her head to shew how entirely she had stript a poll of strong black hair, of every thing like ornament, or a possibility of being ornamented. Mrs. Neville said that to punish her she would put her into a cap. "Odious!" she returned. "I hate all caps but a hunting cap. They make one look so like a woman! But I declare there's Tremaine again-I must go and plague him :" and she immediately flew off. Mrs. Neville turning to Georgina, smiled to observe her astonishment. "You are quite struck, I perceive," said she. "Why, I own she is at least extraordinary," answered Georgina. "May I ask more particularly who and what she is?" 66 "I should say," replied Mrs. Neville, " that she was one of my protegées, did she not soar so infi: nitely above all protection. She is certainly eccen tric, but I really believe there is no harm in her.” She then proceeded to inform Georgina, that Miss Lyttleton was the daughter of a good-natured country gentleman in the neighbourhood, who, with an indolent mother, had allowed her to do just as she pleased; and that she had pleased always to affect the man, instead of the woman. This, she added, had, on more occasions than one, been the means of getting her into scrapes, from which she had generally extricated herself by being the first to laugh at them, and by availing herself of a sort of privilege of saying and doing whatever it came into her head to say or do. This little account was interrupted by the approach of Lady Gertrude; who perceiving Mrs. Neville, came up to that lady with something like pleasure, and shaking hands with her, exclaimed, "O! I am so glad to see you here; it is really quite shocking to have no one to speak to!" Is this to be my friend? said Georgina to herself. The lady went on, "Oh! do pray let me sit by you at dinner, my dear Mrs. Neville. By the way, how did you come?-did you know this was one of my father's public days?" surveying her dress. "Oh! don't look at me," said Mrs. Neville, "for I am merely en voyageuse, and if it were not for a few diamonds that my woman got at for me, I should not be fit to be seen. However, I see you've scarcely any body here." "Oh no! nothing but parsons and parsons' daughters," said Lady Gertrude, sotto voce. My friend! observed Georgina again to herself. "How you overlook merit!" replied Mrs. Neville "don't you see Mr. Horton ?" "Still worse!" remarked Lady Gertrude; "an honest downright Yorkshire 'squire might do; but a 'squire whose head is turned merely because he belongs to one of the lower club houses in St. James's Street, is quite unbearable." "Well then," cried Mrs. Neville, "I will now really give you joy, for if I mistake not here come two admirers of yours." "I protest, and so they do," said Lady Gertrude, eyeing them through her glass. These were no less persons than the Lord St. Clair, and the still greater Beau of whom such honourable mention has been made in a former chapter. Seeing Mrs. Neville and Lady Gertrude, they instantly joined them; the Beau, upon the same principle as Lady Gertrude herself, had sought Mrs. Neville, and for the rest of the interval, till dinner was announced, the group seemed quite happy, if Lady Gertrude's happiness was not a little alloyed by the attentions which St. Clair paid to his old acquaintance and relation Georgina, and by the total neglect of Tremaine. For this, however, she was amply compensated by the Beau, to whom she gave the same carte du pays as she had given to Mrs. Neville, and who finding from her, that Georgina was the daughter of a country parson, scarcely vouchsafed to look at her and having agreed to sit all together, and, as the Beau said, to let the natives take care of themselves, (which was thought very witty by Mrs. Neville and Lady Gertrude,) they adjourned, on a summons, to the dining-room, where about thirty persons of both sexes sat down. : CHAP. IV. PRECEDENCY. "You know your own degrees; sit down; at first SHAKSPEARE. Ir was not without difficulty that the guests were arranged; since in addition to country precedency, (a point infinitely too nice for the best heraldry to settle,) the wish of the above honourable party to sit together threw considerable embarrassment in the way. The place of Lord St. Clair, as first in rank, decided itself, and he was seated by Lady Bellenden, at her right hand, without opposition. Mrs. Neville seated herself in the chair next to him; Mr. Beaumont was going to take Lady Bellenden's left hand; and Lady Gertrude next to him; and thus all would have been quietly and comfortably arranged. But unforeseen, though insuperable impediments arose on the part of Sir Marmaduke Crabtree, and not only of Lady Crabtree, but Lady Grojam, Lady Mayfield, and Lady Bluemantle; the three first, wives of Baronets; the last only of a Knight, but that Knight the High Sheriff himself. All these high dames had, in their way, just as high notions of their own con |