THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 
 r 

 
 
 UNCLE WALTER, 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 /<PSJL 
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 BY MRS. TROLLOPE, 
 
 ArTHOK OF 
 
 FATHER EUSTACE," "THE BARNABYS," "MRS. MATHEWS," 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 YOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 COLBURN AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 1852. 
 
 The Author hereby notifies that she reserves to herself the right of 
 Translating this Work in France.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.
 
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 'Twas a brilliant Sunday in the month of 
 May 184 — ; and the world of London was 
 doing its best to look as like the festive time 
 as its natural smoke-grimed complexion, and 
 its respectable Sunday duties would permit. 
 But both these circumstances were rather 
 against the attempt. The glad brightness 
 of the sun, it is true, almost contrived to 
 gild the heavy masses of smoke which eter- 
 nally overhang the metropolis of the world's 
 workshop, and a large portion of its inhabitants 
 were, it is also true, doing their best to enjoy 
 the day, after the various fashions of their 
 different ranks and classes. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 That is to say, a pretty considerable majority 
 of them were substituting occupations which 
 they professed to believe sinful, for the duties 
 which they professed to believe obligatory, 
 but which they indisputably found disagreeable. 
 
 Among the more dignified and select classes 
 of society it might indeed seem that very little 
 could be gained by this bold emancipation 
 from ecclesiastical restraint ; for a dusty drive 
 round the park seems, at least to the profane 
 vulgar, not many degrees more agreeable than 
 the dreamy imprisonment for longsome hours 
 in a hot church, as prescribed by most Anglican 
 ministers. Nevertheless, the influence of the 
 park, versus the pulpit, avails to ensure a 
 sufficient number of lordly sabbath-breakers, to 
 make it abundantly clear to the great unwashed 
 that their rulers were only humbugging them 
 when they enacted Sabbath Observance Bills, 
 and harangued against the wickedness of all 
 popular Sunday recreations. 
 
 It was probably this not very unaccountable 
 conviction, combined with the acknowledged 
 sinfulness of human nature, which filled the 
 streets, suburban tea-gardens, railway excursion 
 trains, and all other haunts of plebeian pleasure
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 3 
 
 with the teeming population ; while, on the 
 Sunday afternoon on which our narrative 
 commences, many a metropolitan preacher was 
 left in a degree of abandonment approaching 
 that which reduced the Dean of St. Patrick's 
 to the well-remembered formulary, " Dearly be- 
 loved Roger, the Scripture moveth you and me." 
 
 Indeed, on the particular Sunday in May 
 of w 7 hich we have been speaking, the streets 
 of London presented in more than ordinary 
 degree a variety of sights and sounds grievous 
 to the eyes and ears of good churchmen, 
 and legislative Sabbatarians ; for it was the 
 first Sunday of genial, bright May weather 
 which the lagging spring of 184 — had yet 
 produced. 
 
 Thousands were thronging forth from their 
 close, crowded homes, and dim alleys, to solace 
 their toilsome lives with such pale pleasures 
 as the law permits, or to indulge in those 
 dearer stolen delights which the wisdom of 
 our law-makers have rendered immoral, by 
 pronouncing them illegal. 
 
 Great had been the disgust and indignation 
 produced that day, by irreligious apple-women 
 and rebellious news-vendors, on the well-regu- 
 
 b 2
 
 4 UNCLE "WALTER. 
 
 lated mind of the Reverend Henry Harrington, 
 Doctor of Divinity, Warden of All Saints' 
 College in the University of Oxford, Preben- 
 dary of the Cathedral Church of Glastonbury, 
 and Rector of a large and wealthy parish at the 
 west end of the metropolis. Very great and 
 very fervent had been his indignation, as he 
 was returning home with his family in their 
 carriage after the exemplary discharge of their 
 morning duties. 
 
 For many weeks past had the worthy Dr. 
 Harrington been engaged in a vigorous attempt 
 to put down, overcome, and annihilate these 
 particularly scandalous offences against religion 
 and decorum, within the bounds of his own 
 parish; but the inefficiency of the law, or 
 the supine apathy of the secular arm which 
 should have enforced its provisions, had ill 
 seconded his laudable endeavours ; and apples 
 and newspapers were still sold under his very 
 nose every Sunday, to his great and very 
 painful irritation. 
 
 The outrage thus offered to his professional 
 feelings had tinged the usually placid temper of 
 this excellent divine with a slight exacerbation, 
 which in some sort spoiled his enjoyment of
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 5 
 
 the neat little hot luncheon which awaited his 
 return from the morning service, though it was 
 as usual invitingly spread, and as usual in a 
 peculiarly snug room of that peculiarly comfort- 
 able residence, which called the Rector of St. 
 Martin's in the West its master. 
 
 This room indeed was a most enviable 
 sanctum : but we must now take the liberty of 
 following him to its privacy. 
 
 Enough has already been said to convince the 
 reader that the Warden of All Saints was what 
 the world very justly calls, and considers, a 
 fortunate man ; yet the entire catalogue of good 
 things that had fallen to his share has not yet 
 been rehearsed ; and while he is employed in 
 taking off his beautifully starched bands, wash- 
 ing his white hands, and pouring a little eau 
 de Cologne on his delicate cambric handkerchief 
 before addressing himself to the refreshment 
 just placed upon his table, we will give a brief 
 sketch of Dr. Harrington's past history, and 
 present social position. 
 
 His father, the Rev. John Harrington, had 
 held the family living of Stanton Parva ; which 
 was a snug piece of preferment, worth about 
 seven hundred a-year, with a population under
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 two hundred, the said population being wholly 
 composed of the household of Stanton Hall, the 
 ancestral seat of the Harringtons, and of the 
 tenants and labourers on their property. 
 
 Although this Rev. John Harrington who 
 held the living, was some five years younger 
 than his brother Walter, who held the estate, 
 the Rector was the father of a couple of 
 sons, some ten or twelve years old, before the 
 squire was married, and it can hardly be sup- 
 posed that the congratulations from the Rectory 
 to the Hall, when this event at length took 
 place, were wholly unmixed with a feeling of 
 disappointment. 
 
 The Rector, excusably enough perhaps under 
 the circumstances of the case, had lived up to 
 the extent of his income, and now there were 
 two boys to be educated who had to make their 
 way in the world. 
 
 However the Squire was a good brother and 
 lent a helping hand, and the two boys were sent 
 to one of those provincial schools whose merit 
 is more to be found in the scholarships and 
 fellowships, which the local partialities of 
 pious founders have indefeasibly established in 
 our universities, than in the particularly brilliant
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 7 
 
 educational powers attributed to the manage- 
 ment of them. 
 
 It seems strange that these worthy founders 
 and benefactors should have been so ignorant, 
 or careless, of the inevitable fact that by such 
 bequests they were for the most part providing 
 a very powerfully operative premium on idleness 
 and dunce-hood. But thus it is. The notions 
 which are self-evident to every school-boy in one 
 generation, were in a previous age truths too 
 recondite to be discovered by the wisdom of 
 sages. 
 
 In the case before us, however, the good 
 things provided by the founder of All Saints 
 College for the natives of the hundred of 
 Whippleshaw who should be educated on the 
 foundation of Frambury school and proceed 
 thence to All Saints in the University of Oxford, 
 failed to produce the mischief alluded to. Of 
 Walter Harrington indeed the Rev. Theophilus 
 Porsonby could make nothing at all; but 
 of Henry, his younger brother (whom we left 
 washing his hands, while his butler was waiting 
 for the bell that should summon his luncheon), 
 he made, despite her assured fellowship, an 
 excellent scholar.
 
 8 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 And it must be admitted, moreover, that this 
 latter result was extremely creditable to the 
 scholarly tastes and habits of Dr. Porsonby, for 
 nothing but a genuine love for learning could 
 have induced him to take any trouble in the 
 matter, the mastership of Frambury school 
 being richly endowed by the same munificent 
 founder who had built the venerable halls of All 
 Saints. 
 
 The master was indeed bound by the statutes 
 to teach Latin, Greek, and chanting, to all such 
 poor students born in a certain district, as 
 should present themselves ; but in the course 
 of ages it came to pass that very few of the 
 inhabitants of the hundred of Whippleshaw 
 cared to be taught Latin, Greek, and chant- 
 ing, so that the richly paid mastership of 
 Frambury school became by degrees very like 
 a sinecure ; and would no doubt have become 
 so quite, had it not been or the bribe held 
 out to students in the shape of the scholar- 
 ships. 
 
 Dr. Porsonby had just sent off his own son 
 brim full of " Adam's Antiquities," and Greek 
 plays, to enjoy the bounties of the pious 
 founder ; and had literally no recipient for
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 9 
 
 the overflowing treasures of his erudition, when 
 the two Harrington boys were sent to him. 
 
 It is quite clear that the most palmy state 
 and most perfect beau-ideal of a richly endowed 
 school must be to have no pupils at all, as 
 evidently as it is that of an unendowed school 
 to have the greatest number possible ; so that 
 the labour bestowed by the good Doctor on 
 the education of Walter and Henry Harrington, 
 can be regarded in no other light than as a 
 true labour of love. 
 
 The first half-yearly report, sent home with 
 the two boys from Frambury to Stanton Parva 
 at the holidays, informed their father that Walter 
 had been a little unruly, and not a little idle; 
 but that his brother Henry was a model of 
 application, and manifested dispositions of the 
 highest promise. 
 
 The subsequent half-year brought with them 
 further bulletins of exactly similar import, till, 
 in the year which made Walter fourteen and 
 Henry thirteen, Dr. Porsonby wrote to Mr. 
 Harrington explicitly declaring that he feared 
 it was but too clear that his eldest son was 
 wholly averse to intellectual pursuits, his utmost 
 efforts having proved unavailing in leading him
 
 10 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to perceive in "Virgil" higher beauties than 
 were to be found in " Robinson Crusoe," which 
 in truth was the only book that he ever seemed 
 to open willingly. He had brought with him, 
 from home, as it appeared, a copy of that idle 
 work, which had unfortunately had the effect of 
 withdrawing his mind from all useful studies 
 to a most lamentable degree. The learned 
 gentleman added, that he could not but take 
 that occasion to remark how very pernicious 
 it was to permit lads to obtain any access to 
 modern literature during the precious years 
 of youth, which ought to be devoted to laying 
 on the solid rock of classical learning, the 
 foundation of a truly liberal education. 
 
 On other points, however, the Doctor seemed 
 quite ready to avow that Master Walter Harring- 
 ton was not a bad boy ; far from it indeed, for 
 he manifested many amiable qualities, and was 
 a particular favourite with Mrs. Porsonby. 
 Nevertheless, he added, he could not but feel 
 that he should fail in his duty if he omitted to 
 inform Mr. Harrington, that he saw no proba- 
 bility that his eldest son would achieve any 
 satisfactory success in the noble career that 
 had been marked out for him.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 1 1 
 
 Of the younger boy, Dr. Porsonby had the 
 satisfaction of reporting very differently. The 
 only book that had ever been found in the 
 hands of Harrington junior, beside the immortal 
 master-pieces of Greece and Rome, was a little 
 work that contained detailed information re- 
 specting all the scholarships and fellowships 
 in the University of Oxford, their value, 
 and the conditions and methods of election to 
 them. 
 
 His progress in his studies had been most 
 satisfactory ; and if it pleased God, said the 
 Doctor in conclusion, that he should succeed 
 during the ensuing half-year in imbuing the 
 young gentleman's mind with the spirit 
 of Aristophanes as thoroughly as he had 
 grounded him in that of the great tragedian, 
 he doubted not that he would live to be a 
 comfort to his family, and an honour to his 
 country. 
 
 Now it so happened, that much about the 
 time when this discouraging report of his 
 eldest son reached the Rev. Mr. Harrington, 
 the Squire's lady at the Hall had presented 
 her husband with a fine boy ; thus definitively 
 cutting off any lingering hope the younger
 
 12 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 brother might have still suffered to lurk in 
 his heart, that his own son might inherit the 
 acres which had been so long attached to his 
 race. It also happened much about the 
 same time, that a cousin of the family was 
 on a visit to the Hall, who had just returned 
 from Australia, and was about to proceed 
 thither again. He had originally gone out 
 with about two thousand pounds, together with 
 a fine stock of health, energy, and industry. 
 All these talents had increased and multiplied. 
 He was now the owner of some thirty thousand 
 sheep, and the father of a large family. He 
 was an intelligent, bright, laughing-eyed, broad- 
 shouldered man of five-and-forty, and an 
 excellent good fellow. He and the young 
 Walter became great friends, and soon fell into 
 the habit of taking long rambles together over 
 the surrounding country. The intelligence 
 which had remained so perversely closed to 
 the beauties of Horace, and the merits of 
 Greek metres, seemed to kindle and expand 
 readily enough as the boy listened to cousin 
 George's accounts of the stirring life he had 
 been leading in the Bush, and the varied 
 incidents of a settler's struggle with the ele-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 13 
 
 ments of nature, on a soil not yet subjugated to 
 the uses of civilized man. 
 
 At length, and nearly on the eve of Mr. 
 George Harrington's departure for Sydney, he 
 proposed to Walter's father to take the boy 
 with him to that young world where no man 
 endowed with health, courage, and intelligence 
 can be a burden to his fellows, and there 
 to put him in a fair way to find his own 
 path in the world, in a manner that should 
 be more congenial to his nature than the 
 learned career in which he had so signally 
 failed. 
 
 Walter himself was delighted with the 
 proposal much beyond his power of expressing 
 the strength of his approval. 
 
 To cross the ocean, to see new countries 
 where there were primeval forests and real 
 wild men, and never to hear mention of 
 prosody more, appeared to him an exuberance 
 of good-fortune almost beyond the bounds of 
 credibility. 
 
 To the worthy Rector, who was just then 
 very sadly at a loss as to what he should do 
 with a stalwart boy of fourteen, over whose 
 indocile mind all the culture of the Rev.
 
 14 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Theophilus Porsonby had passed bootless as 
 water over a duck's back, the offer was far 
 too good, and too commodious to be re- 
 jected. 
 
 And so, despite some natural reluctance 
 on the part of poor Mrs. Harrington, whose 
 motherly love had been in no degree diminished 
 by her Walter's short-comings in the career of a 
 scholar, it was speedily determined that the 
 offer of cousin George should be accepted with 
 all thankfulness. 
 
 Cousin George was not one of those that let 
 the grass grow under their feet, and but little 
 time was suffered to elapse after the offer had 
 been made and accepted, before he started with 
 his young friend for his home at the antipodes. 
 And thus Walter Harrington, with many 
 blessings from father and mother, and a present 
 of five hundred pounds from his uncle the 
 Squire, had a second start offered him in the 
 race of life. 
 
 With what success he pursued it we cannot 
 now inquire, for it could only be done at 
 the cost of keeping his learned brother a 
 most unconscionably long time waiting for his 
 luncheon. We must, however, hereafter take
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 15 
 
 time to say a few words concerning that 
 learned brother's subsequent fortunes. But 
 this is a topic the discussion of which we 
 would wait for patiently, especially as nothing 
 can be stated concerning it but what must 
 be altogether pleasant for him to hear.
 
 16 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The course along the railroad in which 
 Henry Harrington had been appointed to run, 
 by the regulations of the sage founder of All 
 Saints, was perfectly smooth and uninterrupted. 
 
 From being a scholar on the foundation 
 of Frambury he became in due course a scholar 
 at All Saints. From a scholar of that magni- 
 ficent institution he became by the natural 
 operation of time, and a regular consumption of 
 " commons," a fellow of the same. 
 
 And here he might have stopped. Thus far 
 the mere fact of being a native of Whippleshaw 
 Hundred, and a pupil at Frambury Grammar 
 School, would have advanced him ; - but for 
 his farther advancement he was altogether in- 
 debted to his own abilities and qualifications.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 17 
 
 Without the dignified propriety of de- 
 meanour, and courteous suavity of address, for 
 which he was distinguished, he never would 
 have attained the position in which we find him. 
 
 Nor could this have sufficed alone to make 
 him what he was. Neither his dignity nor his 
 courtesy would have been so rewarded, had not 
 their effect been aided by that profound far- 
 sighted and ever-present perception of the side 
 on which his bread would ultimately be found 
 to be buttered, which, in the opinion of the 
 majority of mankind, constitutes virtue. With- 
 out all this he never w T ould have been Warden 
 of All Saints, Prebendary of Glastonbury, or 
 Rector of St. Martin's in the West. 
 
 When chosen Warden of All Saints by the 
 votes of the majority of the fellows, the Rev. 
 Henry Harrington was in his fortieth year. But 
 regular habits, ease both of body and mind, a 
 daily " constitutional," and daily dinner eaten, 
 
 " Untaxed, untroubled, under 
 The portrait of the pious founder," 
 
 joined to a naturally well-formed frame, and 
 good constitution, made him still a young and 
 very comely-looking man. 
 
 vol. i. c
 
 18 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Regular and well-shaped, though rather 
 heavy features, coal-black hair, eye-brows and 
 eyes, a clear healthy-looking complexion, and a 
 stature of six feet without his shoes, were gifts 
 which, joined to a generally placid and easy 
 temper, rendered the Rev. Mr. Harrington a 
 very popular man at this period of his life in 
 more circles than that of the common room at 
 All Saints. 
 
 It was about the same time, and just previous 
 to his election to the headship of his college, 
 that he had been called to Stanton Parva by the 
 sudden death of his father, an event which put 
 him into possession of the family living; for 
 the Squire of the family for the time being had 
 no second son to present to it. 
 
 So the fortunate Henry was presented to the 
 living, and about the same time to a lady, who 
 within a month or two afterwards became his 
 wife. This was no other than the Lady 
 Augusta Withers, third daughter of the Earl of 
 Bentley. The match was promoted and ap- 
 proved by all the members of both families, so 
 the world could not but consider the union as a 
 highly proper one. The world did so consider 
 it, and poured in congratulations and cards
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 19 
 
 accordingly ; and none but envious old maids, 
 sulky bachelors, and others of the small fungus 
 tribe, whose conduct must appear detestable to 
 all well-constituted minds, were sufficiently 
 illiberal to speculate whether the reverend gen- 
 tleman would have thrown himself and his 
 fellowship at the feet of the Lady Augusta, if 
 it had not chanced that his Oxford letters 
 brought him news that the Warden was given 
 over, and that he felt himself pretty sure of 
 succeeding him. 
 
 Neither, perhaps, might the Lady Augusta's 
 heart, and her father's unqualified approbation 
 of the connexion have been so readily obtained 
 (if we may believe such envious gossipings) had 
 not the indiscreet " Peerage" of those days made 
 patent to all the world that her graceful Lady- 
 ship had attained her thirty-fifth year. Such 
 suggestions are really odious ! But in spite of 
 them, the parties were joined together in very 
 holy wedlock ; and it would be well if as much 
 could be truly said of half the soi-disant holy 
 wedlocks which the world witnesses. 
 
 Their married life passed smoothly and pros- 
 perously ; successive pieces of preferment had 
 made the Warden a wealthy man, and his aris- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 tocratic marriage had greatly assisted him in 
 obtaining such a standing in the fashionable 
 world as suited his own tastes and propensities, 
 as well as those of his high-born partner. 
 
 Their union had been blessed with three 
 children. Henry, the eldest, was now eight- 
 and-twenty ; James, the second son, who was in 
 holy orders, was twenty-five; and their sister 
 Catherine had just completed her nineteenth 
 year. This clerical son James, was now rector 
 of the family living of Stanton Parva, his father 
 having resigned in his favour. 
 
 Now the reader is in possession of all the 
 particulars of the history and present posi- 
 tion of the Rev. Dr. Harrington, which it is 
 needful for him to be acquainted with at this 
 period of our story. If the uniformity of all 
 this prosperity was, as may well be supposed, 
 not altogether unchequered by annoyances and 
 vexations less apparent to the world in general 
 than his brilliant success had been, it is pro- 
 bable that the reader may discover them, as 
 well as the sources from whence they sprung, 
 in the course of that more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with his family to which it is our purpose 
 to introduce him.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 21 
 
 And now it is high time that the exhausted 
 dignitary should he supplied with the refresh- 
 ment, which his morning's exertions have made 
 so necessary to him. 
 
 " Send Hutchinson to me," said the Doctor 
 to the footman, who was putting his appetizing 
 little repast on his study-table ; and as he spoke 
 he sank into the morocco easy-chair which had 
 been just wheeled to the said table with the air 
 of a man extenuated with fatigue. 
 
 He had preached that morning, and was to 
 do so again in the afternoon ; and it is probable 
 enough, as the day was warm, and he, though a 
 fine well-preserved old man, was of rather a 
 full habit of body, that he did feel the need of a 
 little stimulus. 
 
 For the Doctor was now seventy. The once 
 abundant black hair, though nearly as plentiful 
 as ever, was perfectly white ; the florid com- 
 plexion, though still clear, had become of a 
 deeper hue than the consulting physician of an 
 insurance-office would have approved ; the full 
 rich tone of his voice, though still mellow and 
 powerful, had been rendered somewhat thick 
 by years and good living, and the burly propor- 
 tions of his person, which were well carried off
 
 22 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 by his six feet of stature, though they did 
 exceed sixteen stone, rested on supporters 
 which, to judge by his outline of them 
 as shown by the close-fitting long black 
 gaiters, might be warranted to carry any 
 weight. 
 
 Add to these particulars an abundant double 
 chin reposing on a still more abundant cushion 
 of soft cambric, a still bright eye and a large 
 good-humoured mouth, still very tolerably well 
 filled with stout teeth, and you will have a very 
 fair notion of the Warden of All Saints in his 
 seventieth year. 
 
 Hutchinson was a contemporary of the 
 Warden's, had risen through the various grades 
 of College service from scout to common-room 
 man, and now filled the easy and dignified post 
 of butler and confidential servant, to which he 
 had been promoted at the time of the Doctor's 
 election to the headship. 
 
 He was along bony dry old man, as tall as his 
 master, but very much less stout, with a know- 
 ing shrewd expression of features, and a nose 
 into which many successive pipes of common- 
 room port-wine had contributed to infuse a 
 bright shade of ruddy hue, which gradually
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 23 
 
 deepening in intensity became a glowing purple 
 at its extremity. 
 
 Hutchinson loved his master much, and 
 venerated him more, for in his order of 
 ideas the most important and most venerable 
 spot upon the earth's surface was Oxford, 
 and the most important and greatest man in 
 Oxford was the Warden of All Saints. Ox- 
 ford was the central sun of Hutchinson's 
 cosmogony, London England, the world were 
 but greater or less outflying planets which 
 revolved round it. 
 
 Such was the respectable functionary who 
 now presented himself at the door of the Doc- 
 tor's study. 
 
 " Hutchinson," said the Doctor in a languid 
 voice, " I won't take any sherry to-day ; let me 
 have a glass of the twenty-two India Madeira. 
 I really am worn out." 
 
 " Of course, Sir ! of course ! These great 
 crowded London churches is fit for nothing but 
 a strong young curate to preach in. I hope, 
 Sir, you are not a-going to preach again this 
 afternoon ?" 
 
 " I must, Hutchinson ! I must," returned 
 the Doctor ; " the world expects it of me."
 
 24 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " The world ought to be taught," returned 
 Hutchinson doggedly, " that the properest place 
 for the Warden of All Saints to preach in is 
 x\ll Saints' College chapel ; and if he takes to a 
 London parish for the good of the church, it is 
 as much as they can expect of him to read 
 the Commandments and the Gospel at the 
 altar now and then. That's what I say." 
 
 " Well, Hutchinson, bring me the Madeira, 
 and reach me that bundle of sermons from my 
 writing-table." 
 
 The Doctor helped himself to some pulled 
 turkey from a covered silver dish that stood 
 before him, added a few delicate green peas to 
 it from another silver dish, and proceeded while 
 eating to look over the pile of sermons he had 
 referred to, in order to select one for his after- 
 noon's discourse. 
 
 They were the first-fruits of the Doctor's 
 ecclesiastical labours, having been written by 
 him during the early years of his incumbency of 
 Stanton Parva, and preached to the two hundred 
 rustics which formed his cong-reg-ation there. 
 
 The Doctor had a great objection to clergy- 
 men preaching sermons which were not their 
 own composition. To do so, he argued, was to
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 25 
 
 abandon all attempt at supplying the peculiar 
 teaching which every different congregation 
 required according to its circumstances and 
 condition. 
 
 On the present occasion, he felt desirous of 
 touching severely on those street desecrations of 
 the Sabbath, which had given him such offence 
 on his way home from the morning service. 
 So he selected one which had been written at a 
 time when the country around Stanton Parva 
 had been infested by Swing riots and incen- 
 diary fires. The text had been taken from the 
 7th verse of the 28th chapter of the Book of 
 Proverbs : " Whoso keepeth the law is a wise 
 son, but he that is a companion of a riotous 
 man shameth his father." 
 
 This text was evidently admirably adapted to 
 the case of the apple-women. So the sermon 
 required only a few alterations, here and there, 
 to render it exactly what was needed for the 
 peculiar teaching required at that especial junc- 
 ture by the parish of St. Martin's in the West. 
 
 Thus, in the following passage, a few words 
 only were required to be changed. In the 
 Stanton Parva discourse it had stood written: 
 " Nor in our own neighbourhood, my brethren,
 
 26 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 have there been wanting signs and portentous 
 warnings, which speak trumpet-tongued to every 
 thoughtful and pious mind, of the especial 
 dangers of these latter days ! Dangerous doc- 
 trines are abroad, and we read them translated 
 into deeds of lawless violence and terror, in 
 things that are passing round us." 
 
 The latter phrases were, he thought, perhaps 
 a trifle too strong for the apple-women, but a 
 stroke of the Doctor's pen rapidly changed 
 them into the softened epithets of " lawless 
 indecency ' : and " alarming impiety." Then 
 followed : " Hideous anarchy has invaded our 
 peaceful villages" (which was altered to streets), 
 " and no man can any longer feel that his life 
 and property are secure " (altered to church 
 and religion). 
 
 Towards the close of the discourse, an en- 
 tirely new passage was inserted to complete its 
 perfect adaptation to the occasion. It ran thus : 
 
 " But painful, my brethren, grievously pain- 
 ful to every thinking mind as are all these 
 evidences of the prelude of a subversive and 
 irreligious spirit among our people, there is no 
 one symptom which so irresistibly proves that 
 the insidious poison of revolutionary doctrines
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 27 
 
 have spread among the masses of the popula- 
 tion, as the shameless, the revolting practice of 
 openly desecrating the Sabbath and defying the 
 police, by carrying on a traffic demoralizing 
 alike to purchaser and vendor in the public 
 streets. For what guilt can be worse than his 
 who seeks to make a profit of the wickedness 
 of that portion of the community whose tender 
 years lay them most open to insidious temp- 
 tation ? And is it not an additional aggrava- 
 tion, which deepens indignation into horror, 
 and nurtures disgust into loathing, when the 
 sex of the tempter is that in which every pure 
 feeling, and every holy instinct should lead to 
 the shedding of tears over the loss of the young 
 soul thus lured to destruction ?" 
 
 The Doctor was getting rapidly into the 
 highest regions of the pathetic, and was polish- 
 ing off a peroration, in the construction of 
 which he had got a little hampered between 
 " sin against the Holy Ghost," and overt rebel- 
 lion against the police, when he was admonished 
 by a silvery sound from the little time-piece on 
 the chimney, that it was already half-past two 
 o'clock. 
 
 So he was obliged to draw his pen through
 
 28 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the straggling members of the unfinished sen- 
 tence, and to give up a very forcible parallel 
 which he had intended to draw between the 
 first apple which caused the universal fall of 
 man, and those later specimens of the same ill- 
 starred fruit, which were every Sunday causing 
 the still deeper fall of so many of the children 
 of men. 
 
 He hastily poured out a second glass of 
 Madeira, rose with a sigh from his easy chair, 
 and ringine; for the footman, sent him to ask 
 the Lady Augusta whether she intended to go 
 to church, or whether her Ladyship needed the 
 carriage elsewhere. 
 
 The answer which was speedily brought back 
 stated that her Ladyship did not feel equal to 
 attending church a second time that day, and 
 that she should be glad of the carriage at half- 
 past four, which would just give time for it to 
 bring him back from church. 
 
 The good Doctor had feared that he might 
 very possibly have had to make that journey on 
 foot. The distance, indeed, was not above a 
 couple of hundred yards, so it was not on the 
 score of bodily fatigue that he disliked the walk, 
 but he did not think it seemly, he said, that
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 29 
 
 when lawyers, bankers, and merchants, were 
 taken up at the church door in their own car- 
 riages, that a dignified representative of the eccle- 
 siastical hierarchy should be seen to wend his 
 way among them on foot. God knew that he 
 cared as little as most men for the pomps and 
 vanities of life, but it was impossible not to feel 
 that the Church must lose station and influence 
 if her aristocracy were not placed on a level with 
 that of other professions. Different tasks were 
 assigned by Providence to different labourers in 
 the Lord's vineyard ; it was the duty of some to 
 carry the precepts and consolations of religion to 
 the poor and lowly, and it was well that the 
 Church should be provided with ministers whose 
 social position did not place them at too great 
 an elevation above that of their flocks. On him 
 had been imposed the surely more onerous task 
 of making the glad tidings of salvation accept- 
 able to the great ones of the earth, and it 
 behoved him to take his station on the vantage- 
 ground of a distinguished social position accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 These were the considerations which made it 
 agreeable to him to have a handsome, well-
 
 30 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 appointed equipage waiting at the church door 
 to take him home after the service. 
 
 So to this message from her Ladyship he 
 graciously answered : " Tell your mistress that I 
 will take care to be in time," and then turning 
 to the handsome glass over the chimney, he was 
 in the very act of tying on his bands, when a 
 gentle knock was heard at his study door. 
 
 " Come in, Kate, my dear !" said the Doctor, 
 for he knew beyond the possibility of mistake 
 that the modest little tap came from no other 
 fingers than those of his young daughter. " But 
 say what you have to say in half a minute," he 
 added as she opened the door, " for that is all the 
 time I have to spare before starting for church." 
 
 " My errand may be easily packed into that 
 short space, papa," returned the young lady, 
 "for I only came to bring you this letter, which 
 was given to mamma by mistake when we returned 
 from church this morning ; and to say that if 
 Mr. White and Mr. Caldwell are to dine here 
 to-day, she thinks it would be less insufferably 
 dull if you were to ask the Miss Wigginsvilles 
 to come in the evening. You will be sure, you 
 know, to see some of them at church."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 31 
 
 " Oh ! — a letter from my brother Walter, I 
 see," said the Doctor taking it from his daugh- 
 ter's hand. " That will keep very well till to- 
 morrow morning. Yes, my dear, if I should 
 see either of the spinsters, tell your mother, 
 that I will ask them," and so saying the old 
 gentleman bustled off to church, and Kate 
 returned up stairs to report the result of her 
 embassy, and then to retire to her room to make 
 her carriage toilet in preparation for her drive 
 to the park with her mother.
 
 32 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The reader has had a peep at the Doctor in 
 his sanctum sanctorum, in the snug little study 
 which was situated behind the dining-room in 
 his house, No. 5, in one of those quiet aristo- 
 cratic streets immediately to the east of Park 
 Lane. We will call it Vale Street for the pur- 
 poses of our tale. 
 
 It will probably be now expected that we 
 should present the Lady Augusta Harrington 
 to him ; and this I believe would be doing things 
 in the proper order, and it cannot be denied that 
 etiquette ought to have great weight in all things 
 appertaining to No. 5, Vale Street ; but never- 
 theless I cannot resist the temptation which the 
 course of the narrative seems to offer of intro- 
 ducing my favourite Kate, while the Warden is
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 33 
 
 in church putting down apple-vending Sabbath- 
 breakers, and Lady Augusta is in the drawing- 
 room, with her friend Lady de Paddington, who 
 had dropped in after morning church for the 
 advantage of enjoying a little quiet chat with 
 her. 
 
 Having described her reverend papa's sanctum 
 sanctorum, we will now describe hers. It was 
 two stories nearer the sky than that of the 
 Doctor, and was situated over the back drawing- 
 room — nay her special premises extended also 
 over the boudoir which stretched beyond the said 
 back drawing-room — and an excellent bed-room 
 and dressing-room might have been made out 
 of the apartment thus situated ; but Kate had 
 arranged her little territory otherwise. The 
 small room over the boudoir contented her both 
 for bed-room and dressing-room, and thus the 
 really handsome-sized room over the second 
 drawing-room, was available for securing the 
 dear delight of an independent sitting-room, all 
 her own. 
 
 This much-prized retreat, furnished according 
 to her own fancy, stored with her own proper- 
 ties, and sacred to her own employments and 
 pursuits, Kate styled her " cell," in contradistinc- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 tion to her reverend father's " study," and her 
 lady mother's "boudoir." Shall we indulge 
 ourselves with a glance at the plenishing of 
 Kate's " cell," while she has gone to put on her 
 bonnet ? Much may be divined, as any natu- 
 ralist can tell us, respecting any creature from a 
 minute and intelligent examination of its habitat. 
 Kate's domain was most fortunately situated, 
 for an opposite break in the buildings of Park 
 Lane opened to her high windows a full view of 
 the park, and of the noble woods of Kensington 
 beyond it. This view was Kate's great joy and 
 pride, and she was at this time intent upon a 
 grand scheme of getting her windows cut dow T n 
 to the floor, and having a little conservatory 
 constructed, balcony-wise, outside them. 
 
 There were difficulties in the wav of this 
 project : not arising from the expense, for Kate 
 was in the happy position of having where- 
 withal to gratify her tastes, without making any 
 inroads on the large, but quite sufficiently be- 
 spoken income of her father ; for a maiden aunt 
 of his, who had died at an advanced age some 
 six years before, had left her the whole of her 
 snug little fortune of seven hundred a-year, the 
 trustees of which paid fifty pounds on each
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 35 
 
 quarter day into her own fair hands, and an 
 equal sum into those of the Doctor, for her 
 maintenance. So the cost of the much longed- 
 for conservatory did not present much difficulty, 
 for the reasonable Mr. Banbury of Lincoln's Inn, 
 Kate's acting trustee, made no objection to sup- 
 plying, from Kate's accumulated savings, the 
 needful funds. 
 
 But the Doctor had fears for the solidity of 
 his excellent house, and doubts how far its walls 
 might be safely trusted to bear such an addi- 
 tional burthen, as must be occasioned by the 
 picturesque excrescence projected by his daughter. 
 The Doctor was very subject to fears for the 
 stability of constituted things, and being with 
 good reason exceedingly well contented with 
 the world as it is, he was strongly attached to 
 the wisdom which counsels to "let well 
 alone." 
 
 In this difficulty, Kate built considerable hope 
 on the assistance of the Mr. Caldwell who has 
 been mentioned as having been invited to dinner 
 on that day ; for the said Mr. Caldwell, though 
 not an architect, but an officer in the Engineers, 
 was a man of science, and though a young man, 
 was one whose opinions on such a question, as 
 
 D 2
 
 36 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 well as on most others, was certain of being 
 listened to with attention. 
 
 Katherine had already contrived that he should 
 be consulted on the subject, and his visit on the 
 present occasion was for the especial purpose of 
 talking over some of the plans that had been 
 already suggested for indulging her fancy, with- 
 out endangering her cautious father's property ; 
 could she obtain an opinion favourable to her 
 scheme from so high an authority, she felt 
 tolerably certain that she should be able to 
 overcome all parental objections to it. 
 
 Between the windows and the fire-place of this 
 dearly beloved apartment stood a grand piano- 
 forte, which had been Kate's first important 
 purchase, and had absorbed the greater portion 
 of her first year's allowance ; but it was her 
 favourite boast that it was a finer instrument than 
 the one in the drawing-room. 
 
 The opposite side of the room, which was 
 unbroken by either door or window, was occupied 
 in its whole extent by a range of shelves, whose 
 contents, as the most cursory glance at them 
 would show, were culled from most of the 
 modern languages of Europe. There were the 
 poets of almost all nations, the leading histories
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 37 
 
 of many, and of their novels and romances not 
 a few ; and moreover there might been found, if 
 we had time to examine the shelves closely, 
 more decided evidences as to the owner's grow- 
 ing tastes and opinions, in the miscellaneous 
 mass of occasional literature — books evidently 
 not bought to form a library, but to read at 
 once, on the spur of the occasion. 
 
 Among these, there were, it may be feared, 
 some few which the Doctor would have been 
 more surprised than pleased to find there, had 
 it ever entered his head to visit his daughter's 
 book-shelves, and examine their contents. 
 
 As for the Lady Augusta, she exercised a 
 most conscientious, scrupulous and vigilant 
 control over her daughter's wardrobe and 
 toilette, but it never occurred to her to open a 
 volume in Kate's room, any more than in her 
 own. Once, indeed, she remarked upon the 
 rapidly increasing accumulation of volumes. 
 
 " Really, my dear Kate," she said, " if you 
 add many more books to your collection, you 
 will make your library out of proportion to the 
 rest of the furniture in your pretty room. But 
 you are right, I believe, in thinking it very 
 much the fashion at present to have quantities
 
 38 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 of books about one ; one really sees them lying 
 about now almost everywhere ; and I greatly 
 approve your taste, my dear, in your selection. 
 For the most part they harmonize admirably 
 together. Those white and gold, in particular, 
 are exceedingly elegant," which latter phrase very 
 satisfactorily developed her Ladyship's meaning 
 when she talked of an harmonious selection in 
 a library, which, without this explanation, might 
 have had something obscure in it. 
 
 On the side of the room opposite the win- 
 dows was a little easel, commodiously placed to 
 receive the light duly from the left, and on it 
 an unfinished drawing in water-colours of a 
 part of the interior of St. Peter's, while the 
 original from which it was in process of being 
 copied was supported on a little desk, which 
 stood on a table crowded with all the most 
 improved appliances for the art. 
 
 Beside the door of entrance was a second 
 book-case small, but deep-shelved, containing 
 a variety of works on the fine arts, with a small 
 collection of fine engravings on the lower 
 shelves, while the upper ones were occupied 
 by a goodly range of music, both vocal and 
 instrumental.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 39 
 
 On the table which stood before her sofa 
 was lying a copy of Mr. Ruskin's " Seven 
 Lamps," and Froud's " Nemesis of Faith," the 
 latter open, and with its leaves turned down- 
 wards on the table, as having recently left the 
 reader's hand. 
 
 And now what shall we say of the mistress 
 of the room thus imperfectly described ? 
 
 We must, I suppose, endeavour to give our 
 readers some notion of her " bodily present- 
 ment." As to her inward self, our history will 
 be little worth if, in the course of it, we fail 
 in making it manifest. 
 
 Let the reader then imagine a light slenderly- 
 formed figure, somewhat falling short of what 
 is authoritatively pronounced to be the model 
 height of woman ; but her beautiful proportions 
 gave a grace and charm to her carriage and 
 movements, which more than atoned for the 
 want of commanding stature. Her fair broad 
 forehead was well set off by wavy braids of 
 rich brown hair. Her eyes were brown too — 
 dark brown — and were beautifully softened in 
 their surpassing brightness by a deep fringe of 
 dark silken lashes. 
 
 The well-defined eyebrows were almost
 
 40 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 straight ; but there was a mobility in them 
 which sometimes gave a look of decision, and 
 sometimes of mutinerie. It was not a regu- 
 larly beautiful face. Perhaps no features so 
 rich in expression, so stamped with intelli- 
 gence, and with ready capacities for expressing 
 sympathy with every genial mood of mind ever 
 were regularly and perfectly beautiful. Wit- 
 ness the incontestable insipidity of Raphael's 
 Madonnas. But to those whose hearts are to 
 be fascinated only by something more rare and 
 more ethereal than mere beauty of feature, Kate 
 Harrington was infinitely more attractive than 
 any mere faultless animal organization could 
 have made her. 
 
 The chiselling of her features was delicate, 
 and of that sharpness which so much heightens 
 in a youthful face that espieglerie which our 
 language has no adequate term to express. But 
 if a certain amount of w r hat perhaps comes nearest 
 in homely Saxon phrase — if a little devilry 
 might be read in the eyes, all sweet affections 
 and soft sympathies dimpled round the mouth ; 
 and the influence of her frank, clear, silvery 
 voice and bright child-like smile, won kind 
 thoughts and admiring words, even from the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 41 
 
 least genially-minded of those who knew 
 her. 
 
 Nothing could he more becoming to a face 
 and figure like hers than the admirably fitting 
 dress and mantle of pale lilac silk in which we 
 now present her to our readers ; and the almost 
 Quakerish simplicity of her snow-white chip- 
 bonnet was prettily relieved by the sprays of 
 hedge-roses which clustered under it round her 
 sweet face. 
 
 Thus equipped, and perfectly ready to step 
 into the carriage at a moment's notice, Kate 
 came forth from her little bed-room, and 
 resumed the volume she had been reading.
 
 42 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Doctor having performed his afternoon 
 duty, and returned punctually at the time stipu- 
 lated, the Lady Augusta proceeded to perform 
 hers. 
 
 Kate was summoned from her retreat to join 
 her mother in the drawing-room, when one 
 rapid glance from that excellent mother's prac- 
 tised eye sufficed to assure her that her fair 
 daughter's toilet was irreproachable, and then 
 they rolled away together to perform their joint 
 duty in the park. 
 
 Duty? Yes, duty is the word, for in her 
 inmost heart Lady Augusta considered it to be 
 so, and she would have scouted the notion that 
 she went there every Sunday for her pleasure. 
 Could it, in truth, be a pleasure, even to her?
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 43 
 
 It could scarcely be so described, although the 
 want of it would have been an annoyance and a 
 misfortune, and the hours so occupied would 
 have been felt to be painfully long and listless 
 without it. 
 
 But its greatest zest most certainly arose 
 from considering it as an important duty duly 
 performed. For so necessary to happiness is 
 the feeling of having something to do, and the 
 consciousness of doing it, that the very idlest 
 people fancy they have an immensity of neces- 
 sary business to get through, and never awaken 
 to the knowledge of the dismal fact that their 
 whole lives are spent in doing nothing. This 
 admirable propensity to useful activity is the 
 gift of nature ; the counteracting habit is the 
 fruit of education. Query : What is the degree 
 of moral responsibility attached to this species of 
 training ? 
 
 But in Lady Augusta Harrington's case, this 
 drive in the park was very easily brought under 
 the general head of " duty to her daughter." 
 It was part of the great and important duty of 
 presenting Miss Harrington to the world, in 
 a manner and style befitting the grand-daughter 
 of the Earl of Bentley, a phrase which that
 
 44 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 nobleman's daughter was very filially prone 
 to use. 
 
 But though Lady Augusta was thus abso- 
 lutely bound to undergo the labour of park- 
 duty, it does not follow that we are bound to 
 share it with her. Of course the drive af- 
 forded the usual amount of such occupation as 
 is found in exclaiming : " Ah ! there is so and 
 so." " Did you see Lady This ?" " Was that 
 my Lord T'other ?" And sometimes there was 
 a lively variety of remarks such as : " Look at 
 that horrid Miss Puddingthwaite and her odious 
 britska ! She has got another new lining, Kate ! 
 she has upon my honour ! Rose colour this 
 time !" 
 
 " Well, mamma," was Kate's answer, " I am 
 sure I shall be very glad to see Miss Pudding- 
 thwaite couleur de rose."" 
 
 " Ah ! my love," rejoined her mother, who 
 occasionally thought it was right to be a little 
 sentimental and pathetic, " ah ! my love, to you 
 everything appears couleur de rose ! But to 
 me—" 
 
 And she would on this occasion have pro- 
 bably gone on for her daughter's moral instruc- 
 tion to quote " the rose that hides the thorn"
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 45 
 
 from Solomon, and might have bid her remem- 
 ber how beautifully Haynes Bailey observes that 
 " all flesh was grass," had not Kate suddenly 
 interrupted her by exclaiming : 
 
 " Why, mamma, there is Lord Brandling walk- 
 ing arm-in-arm with Mr. Caldwell ! I thought 
 Lord Brandling was at Rome. He must have 
 just returned again. I shall be so glad to see 
 him !" 
 
 " Yes ; he is just come back. Lady de Pad- 
 dington told me so this morning," returned her 
 mother. " But just look, Kate, what a lovely 
 horse young Filchinghan is riding ! I never 
 saw him look so well !" 
 
 And so the dull drive went on; but happily 
 came at last to a conclusion, as even drives in 
 Hyde Park must do, be they never so tedious. 
 And then the ladies returned to dress for 
 dinner. 
 
 The party at the table was increased to six, 
 by the presence of Mr. Harrington, the Doctor's 
 eldest son, who, though residing in London, did 
 not avail himself of the paternal roof as his 
 domicile ; nor indeed did the family in Vale 
 Street se^ as much of him as the good Doctor 
 would have wished ; for though very far from
 
 46 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 being a severe father, either in theory or 
 practice, and by no means wishing to have the 
 decorous routine and tranquil comfort of his 
 home disturbed by the somewhat incompatible 
 habits and associations of his son, the Doctor 
 felt sometimes a little uneasy respecting the 
 sort of life this son was leading ; and though 
 his own path lay in so wholly contrary a 
 direction, that he in truth knew exceedingly 
 little respecting the young man's whereabouts 
 and occupations, certain reports had occasionally 
 reached him, which led him to fear that more 
 particular inquiries were not likely to lead to 
 any satisfactory result. 
 
 The other guests, in addition to the usual 
 family party of the Doctor, his wife and 
 daughter, were, as we have mentioned, Mr. 
 Caldwell, and Mr. White, the Doctor's curate. 
 It was past seven, and for some minutes the 
 Doctor had been sitting with his hands folded 
 before him, and his eyes turned upwards to the 
 ceiling, the very picture of martyred resignation. 
 Mr. Caldwell was showing Miss Harrington 
 some drawings which he had brought with 
 him, and Mr. White was cudgelling his un- 
 happy brains in the hope of finding some-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 47 
 
 thing proper and appropriate to say, to her 
 Ladyship. 
 
 How far Mr. Caldwell might have shared in 
 the general gladness when his artistic tete-a- 
 tete with Miss Harrington was brought to a 
 sudden stop, we will not pretend to say ; neither 
 is it necessary to describe Kate's degree of sym- 
 pathy in the general feeling, but certain it is, 
 that the rest of the party were infinitely relieved 
 by the entrance of Henry Harrington at twenty- 
 minutes past seven. 
 
 The Doctor, who was nearly as angry as it 
 was possible for him to be with any being 
 above the rank and station of an undergraduate, 
 could not help saying rather stiffly : 
 
 " When you do condescend to dine with us, 
 Henry, I wish that you would also condescend 
 to dine at our hour. You have kept us waiting 
 nearly half an hour." 
 
 And then Mr. White gave his arm to her 
 Ladyship, Mr. Caldwell to Kate, and the Doctor 
 and his son followed them down to the dining- 
 room. 
 
 " I did not see you at church this morning, 
 Henry," said the Doctor, after he had swallowed 
 a plateful of very restorative soup; adding, as
 
 48 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 he pushed the sherry towards his son, " some 
 little indisposition, I suppose ?" 
 
 For the worthy Doctor asked nothing hut a 
 decent excuse on such occasions, and like all 
 worshippers of decorum, deemed a decent lie 
 far preferable upon such a point to a less 
 decorous truth. 
 
 " Never was better, my dear Sir," returned 
 the young man, filling himself a bumper, and 
 nodding to his father as he tossed it off. " But 
 I must say I am rather astonished you should 
 wish to peril my religion by attending service at 
 St. Martin's." 
 
 " Hallo ! Mr. White," cried the Rector to 
 the curate, with the same sort of good-humour 
 Lord Eldon might have done, had some pet of 
 a grandchild set about to impugn his law, 
 " here's Henry going to bring a charge of 
 heretical teaching against us." 
 
 " Indeed, Sir," pursued Henry gravely, " I 
 fear it amounts to no less. For I am assured 
 by James, St. James of Stanton, as I call him, 
 that nothing is so bad for the salvation as living 
 in one parish, and going to church in another. 
 He says that the thing is thoroughly recognised 
 as a fact now."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 49 
 
 " Pooh, pooh, Sir !" quoth the Doctor, on whose 
 heavy brow a cloud now really lowered ; for the 
 high tendencies of his son James were a source 
 of great annoyance to him, and very highly 
 offensive to his feelings and prejudices, in many 
 ways and for many reasons. " James might 
 occupy himself far better than in spreading 
 such dangerous doctrines, which he has picked 
 up from innovators who will do the Church 
 more harm than their boasted learning will do 
 it good ; and you might do better than make 
 such a graceless use of them." 
 
 " Nay, Sir," persisted the scape-grace, with a 
 wicked glance at his sister, who was sitting on 
 the other side of the table ; to which glance 
 Kate only replied by a demure compression of 
 her lips, and an almost imperceptible shake 
 of the head, " nay, Sir, I protest I was about to 
 ask your advice on a point which James's teach- 
 ing has rendered very embarrassing to me. 
 You see, I spend most of the day at my club, 
 and have all letters and cards addressed to me 
 there. But unfortunately the lodging at which 
 I sleep is in the next parish. Now which is 
 my parish church?" 
 
 " Pooh, pooh, Sir !" again ejaculated the 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 UNCLE WALTER, 
 
 Doctor with something very like a growl, "I 
 request that I may hear no more of this stuff." 
 " But I assure you, Sir," persisted his incor- 
 rigible son, who seemed determined to spoil his 
 father's dinner and torment him with an indi- 
 gestion, " I do really assure you that the question 
 is one which deserves examination. For just 
 observe, Sir. James tells me that the priest of 
 my parish is the pastor and master specially 
 appointed by providence to teach me ; that I 
 must hear the Church and listen to the Church, 
 and that no other does or can represent the 
 Church to me. But the most curiously un- 
 fortunate fact of the matter is, that Providence 
 has provided that ' the truth' taught to parish- 
 ioners of the parish in which my club is situated 
 differs very much, and is, indeed, in many res- 
 pects quite contradictory to ' the truth' taught to 
 the inhabitants of that in which my lodging 
 happens to be. And I thought, Sir, that per- 
 haps you might be able to explain to me how 
 it is, that the obedience which I am so anxious 
 to render to the Church, may oblige me to 
 change the whole fabric of my religious convic- 
 tions in consequence of my changing my lodging. 
 Certainly," he added, with an air of profound
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 51 
 
 meditation, " nothing can appear more puzzling 
 in all the inscrutable ways of Providence than 
 that the divinely appointed teaching of the 
 Church shall prescribe to the faithful the doc- 
 trine of prevenient grace, perhaps, in Mary'bone, 
 baptismal regeneration in Bloomsbury, election 
 and reprobation in Pall Mall, and the operative 
 efficacy of absolution in Piccadilly." 
 
 "Said I not well, Sir," broke forth the 
 Doctor, addressing Mr. White with an explosion 
 of voice, deep-toned and sonorous, " said I 
 not well, when I told you the other day that our 
 lot had been cast on evil times ? What mis- 
 chief may we not expect when laymen, whose 
 presumption is equalled only by their ignorance, 
 meddle with questions which even the Fathers of 
 the Church ought only to approach, and that 
 with deep awe and cautious forbearance. Of a 
 truth may we say that, ' Fools rush in where 
 angels fear to tread.' But this, Sir, comes of 
 the presumptuous folly of self-sufficient young 
 men, who must needs proclaim themselves to be 
 better and wiser than their fathers, and who, by 
 seeking to introduce changes in a fabric which 
 has been hallowed by the veneration of ages, 
 have caused schism and perilous questionings 
 
 E 2
 
 52 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to creep in, where before were unity and peace. 
 Eh, Mr. White?" 
 
 " Dangerous indeed, Sir," replied Mr. White 
 in a doleful tone ; which probably appeared to 
 him as safe a reply as he could make under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 " So then, if I understand you rightly, Sir," 
 pursued Henry Harrington, still addressing his 
 father without taking any heed of gentle Mr. 
 White's contribution to the conversation, 
 " what you would recommend to us of the 
 laity, is to eat, drink and pay our tithes, and 
 trouble our heads no farther in the matter." 
 
 "The tone you take, Sir, precludes the 
 possibility of my conversing with you on the 
 subject," retorted the Doctor, in his most mag- 
 nificent and Johnsonian manner. 
 
 " Have you any news from Glastonbury, Mr. 
 White ?" 
 
 Mr. White hailed this diversion with infinite 
 alacrity. He had no taste for theological dis- 
 putes, especially when his venerated superiors in 
 the Church were so apt to take different sides, 
 as seemed to be the case at that unfortunate 
 moment ; whereas on the subject ol news from 
 Glastonbury, he felt very considerable interest ;
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 53 
 
 for Mr. White, who had been educated as a Bible- 
 clerk on the foundation of All Saints, and had 
 from the connexion so formed become the 
 Warden's Curate on his London preferment, 
 was exceedingly anxious to obtain by the same 
 interest a minor canonry in the Cathedral of 
 Glastonbury. It was a position which would 
 suit him much better than the curacy of St. 
 Martin's in all respects. 
 
 He hated London, and its inhabitants and its 
 clerical duties. With the rich and noble of his 
 parishioners he felt himself gene'e, ill at ease, and 
 never for a moment free from an awkward 
 feeling of restraint ; while the ways, and habits, 
 and troubles of the London poor were of a 
 class for which he had neither comprehension 
 nor sympathy ; and to deal with them judicially 
 required an amount of experience and worldly 
 wisdom which he did not possess. 
 
 He might have acquitted himself very re- 
 spectably of such duties as visiting a rheumatic 
 old dame in a country cottage, or investigating 
 the claims of a distressed labourer to out-door 
 relief; but he was altogether at sea among the 
 more complicated requirements of the London 
 poor.
 
 54 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Moreover he was musical, and had a fine 
 voice ; an advantage displayed to great advan- 
 tage in the situation of minor canon. In short, 
 the duties which would be required of him in 
 the chair of Glastonbury, were precisely such 
 as he was conscious he could perform with 
 pleasure and credit both to himself and the 
 Cathedral. 
 
 His tastes and habits, good man, were alto- 
 gether countrified and rural ; many excellent 
 qualities of heart, and some of head into the 
 bargain perhaps, had the Rev. Jonas White ; 
 and the worst thing, I believe, that his worst 
 enemy could say of him was, that perhaps he 
 was a little addicted to poaching, and a trifle 
 fonder of taking a part in a glee, or a bowl, 
 after he had heard the chimes at midnight, than 
 quite became his cloth. 
 
 But then, as to the fact of his wearing that 
 cloth, was it the fault of poor Jonas White that 
 his father, being a chaplain in the University, 
 had destined him for the clerical profession 
 from the cradle upwards? that he had 
 obtained the promise of a Bible-clerkship for 
 him before he could go alone? or that the 
 only educational preparation for the sacred
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 55 
 
 calling had been, the giving him clearly to 
 understand that he was to get his bread in the 
 Church ? 
 
 Yet had Jonas White been intended for a 
 bricklayer, his spiritual breeding might have 
 been much the same. The result of this was, 
 that Jonas entertained a very truly conscientious 
 conviction that he was admirably performing 
 his duty in that state of life to which it had 
 pleased God to call him by not getting rusti- 
 cated as a Bible-clerk, by not getting plucked 
 as a candidate for a degree, by duly passing his 
 examination for Holy Orders, and by labouring 
 away diligently at marrying, baptising, and 
 burying the parishioners of St. Martin's in the 
 West, as Curate. 
 
 The Doctor, therefore, touched on a very 
 interesting topic to Mr. White when he asked 
 about the latest news from Glastonbury. Old 
 Mr. Jackson the Precentor was supposed to 
 have at length sung his last anthem, and Mr. 
 Jackson was by far the oldest of the cathedral 
 clergy at Glastonbury, where he had been 
 Precentor for nearly half a century, and was 
 now dying at eighty-seven, after having been 
 the glory of the choir for the first twenty years
 
 56 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 of his incumbency, and its destruction for the 
 last seventeen. 
 
 " I got a letter this morning, Sir," said the 
 well-pleased Mr. White in reply to his Rector's 
 question respecting news from Glastonbury. 
 " I believe poor old Jackson is going, Sir. I 
 am told that he cannot last many days 
 longer." 
 
 " Well, White, I'll be as good as my pro- 
 mise, and do all I can for you. But you must 
 not be too sanguine. There's the Dean, you 
 know, and he perhaps — " 
 
 " I happen to know, Sir," returned the 
 Curate rather eagerly, " that I am so fortunate 
 as to have had my musical abilities, such as 
 they are, favourably mentioned to the Dean, 
 and that he has written to a friend at Oxford 
 to inquire respecting my voice. Dr. Barring- 
 ham, I am told, takes great interest in the 
 choir, and is very anxious to make it once again 
 all it is said to have been in poor Jackson's 
 younger days." 
 
 "Well, in that case," replied the Doctor, 
 " I think we shall have a very good chance ; 
 for Dr. Blanchard will go with the Dean of 
 course, and I think I can count on the support
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 57 
 
 of my old friend Tarleford. Well, White ! I 
 am sure I wish you all success, though it will 
 involve the necessity of my looking out for a 
 new curate." 
 
 Wliile this conversation had been passing 
 between the Doctor and the gentlemen near 
 him, Lady Augusta, Kate, and Mr. Caldwell, 
 had been engaged in a discussion on the causes 
 of the lamentably low state of architectural art 
 at the present day in England. The conver- 
 sation had commenced by Kate making a 
 vehement attack on the unfortunate National 
 Gallery, which, truth to say, was rather like 
 " kicking one who had no friends," but Kate 
 had a theory of her own on the subject of a 
 building for the exhibition of pictures, and the 
 subject was a favourite one with her. 
 
 This had led to a general view of the de- 
 plorable number of fine opportunities, which 
 had recently in London only served to pro- 
 duce disgraceful failures in our architectural 
 attempts. 
 
 The splendid exception of the " Palace of 
 Westminster," as our parliamentary chambers 
 are rather affectedly called, was however not 
 forgotten, and had all justice done it ; but for
 
 58 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the rest but little mercy was shown. Mr. 
 Caldwell had ventured to throw out a suo> 
 gestion that the real root of the evil must be 
 looked for in the defective education, and con- 
 sequent unenlightened judgment and bad taste 
 of our upper and middle classes generally, 
 rather than in any epidemic of incapacity on 
 the part of our architects. 
 
 This audacious heresy had " called up" Lady 
 Augusta, who, in the first place, really could 
 not see what the education of the upper classes 
 could have to do with the matter at all ; and in 
 the next place had " always understood that no 
 more liberal and perfect education could be 
 given than that afforded by our public schools 
 and universities." 
 
 This latter subject was an ocean too vast and 
 too deep to be plunged into with such a fellow- 
 swimmer as the Lady Augusta, with the 
 slightest hope of reaching a sure footing on any 
 shore ; so Mr. Caldwell contented himself with 
 observing generally to her Ladyship that he 
 thought the practical architects of the present 
 day had many difficulties to contend against. 
 
 " They are," said he, " more apt than they 
 should be to make the rules of Art, which ought
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 59 
 
 to be as eternal as the laws of Nature, bend and 
 yield before the caprices of a patron's taste; 
 and if they cannot please the said patrons with 
 what is good, they condescend to content him 
 with what they know to be bad." 
 
 " But we have been talking chiefly of public 
 buildings, Mr. Caldwell," observed Kate. 
 
 " And it is especially with regard to public 
 buildings that the deficient education I have 
 mentioned operates most fatally," said Mr. Cald- 
 well. " What we want is not so much a general 
 diffusion of taste, or even a knowledge of 
 artistic principles, as of serious appreciation of 
 the moral and political influence of art, espe- 
 cially of architectural art on the fortunes and 
 civilization of a nation. Members of executive 
 committees, and gentlemen of the House of 
 Commons cannot be got to understand what 
 wide-spread and self-propagating mischief they 
 are doing by extinguishing the sense of beauty 
 in the minds of the people, and making those 
 ' sermons in stones' which the great edifices of 
 a nation are eternally preaching, lessons of 
 ugliness, vulgarity and meanness." 
 
 " Well, I protest," exclaimed Lady Augusta, 
 shrugging her shoulders, and elevating her eye-
 
 60 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 brows, "I do not see what architecture can 
 have to do with politics." 
 
 " A vast majority of the collective wisdom of 
 the nation agrees with your Ladyship," replied 
 Mr. Caldwell, smiling. "It would be unfair 
 not to confess it." 
 
 The ladies now rose to leave the room ; the 
 Doctor filled and drank a second bumper of 
 port, and then, pushing the bottle towards Mr. 
 Caldwell, threw himself back in his arm-chair 
 for the enjoyment of a short nap, and soon gave 
 very convincing evidence of having found the 
 blessing he sought by a regular series of deep- 
 toned snores.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " I say, old fellow," said Henry Harrington 
 to Mr. White, " shan't you find it rather diffi- 
 cult to make it all right down at Glastonbury ? 
 What with the governor here, and old Barring- 
 ton, I think you'll be puzzled. The governor 
 is quite one of the old sort as St. James of 
 Stanton calls them, but the Dean, I am told, is 
 pretty considerable ' high.' Perhaps it comes 
 from keeping him too long without a bishopric. 
 What d'ye think about it? How shall you 
 manage to be all things to all men? to all 
 prebendal men, I mean, down at Glastonbury? 
 Eh !" 
 
 " By minding my own business, which I 
 take to be singing," returned White. ' If I 
 sing in tune, my doctrine will neither be found
 
 62 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 too high nor too low, I believe; and as long 
 as I have got a good tenor, I shall have no 
 fault found with my way." 
 
 " Well, I hope it may answer," returned 
 Henry, " and that I may live to hear you give 
 them ' Glorious Apollo' as well at Glastonbury, 
 when sober, as I have heard you give it to us 
 in the common-room at All Saints when a 
 small matter the reverse." 
 
 " For shame, Harrington. Hush ! There's 
 your father waking," said the Curate, looking 
 frightened. 
 
 " Not he, friend Jonas. I say, Caldwell, are 
 you and the governor going to talk architecture 
 and politics all the evening ? For if so, I think 
 I shall take myself off. That is if I knew what 
 on earth to do with myself. Surely there never 
 was any incentive to suicide like a Sunday 
 evening in London !" 
 
 :c Come, gentlemen," said the Doctor, aroused 
 by the vehemence of his son's accents. " come, 
 let us go and get a cup of coffee in the drawing- 
 room. I dare say our three Graces, or Muses, 
 if that title may be thought to suit them better, 
 have arrived by this time." 
 
 ' What, Sir ? you do not mean that you
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 63 
 
 receive the noble race of Wigginsville in your 
 humble halls to-night?" cried Henry, in an 
 accent of affected delight. " Come, come, 
 things are looking brighter — there will be better 
 fun than I bargained for. But perhaps by this 
 time I ought to say De-Von-Fitz-Mac-ap-Wig- 
 gonsville in speaking of these noble products of 
 heraldic art ? But I can't help thinking that if 
 I had been called in as Garter King of Arms, to 
 operate on the plebeian patronymic of Wiggins, 
 I should have refined it into Wyggynnes. There 
 is very great aristocratic virtue in a y, especially 
 if pronounced long, and a veritable Norman 
 savour about a double n, finished off with an e. 
 Methinks Fitzwyggynnesville would have been 
 highly effective, imposing alike to ear and eye, 
 and must have consigned the worthy distiller 
 deceased, and his objectional appellation, to 
 merited oblivion for evermore." 
 
 The Doctor half smiled, but shook his head, 
 and held up his fore-finger very reprovingly. 
 
 " But, Sir," persisted his graceless son, " if 
 you must make a mythological triad of these 
 high-born spinsters, allow me to suggest the 
 Fates as more calculated to convey a just idea 
 of Miss Hannah, Miss Mary Jane, and Miss
 
 64 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Jemima Wigginsville, than either Graces or 
 Muses." 
 
 " Be quiet, Harry, I won't have the good 
 souls laughed at," said the Doctor, leading the 
 way up the stairs. " There are worse people, I 
 assure you, than the Miss Wiggins villes, in 
 many ways." 
 
 " Quite true, Sir," rejoined his son, with a 
 profound sigh ; " but scarcely any more vari- 
 ously ridiculous, I should think." 
 
 " Well, well, you are incorrigible ! But at 
 any rate I must beg and entreat that if quiz 
 them you must, you will not do it so as to run 
 any risk of giving them pain." 
 
 " Would not hurt a hair of their heads for 
 the world, Sir! I doubt though, if dear Miss 
 Hannah has any to hurt," replied his son. 
 " But I will tell you," he added, " what I will 
 do to please them, if you will allow me. I'll 
 send Robert with a note to my old acquaintance, 
 Mr. Garble, and ask him to come here to tea. 
 If that is not self-sacrifice and devotion in the 
 service of your protegees, I don't know what 
 you would call so." 
 
 " I am not particularly fond of Mr. Garble 
 myself, Henry," returned his father. "But,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 65 
 
 however, as the three spinsters certainly are, you 
 have my full permission to get him if you can." 
 
 Despite his friendship for the Misses Wig- 
 ginsville, the good Doctor was not sorry to 
 hear any aid suggested which might remove 
 from himself the fatigue of entertaining them. 
 
 So the note to Mr. Garble was really written 
 and dispatched ; and this being done, the well- 
 satisfied gentlemen entered the drawing-room, 
 which they found occupied by half a dozen 
 ladies, for besides Lady Augusta and Miss 
 Harrington, there were the three Miss Wiggins- 
 villes and another lady whom it is now neces- 
 sary to present to the reader. 
 
 Indeed, as she is a member of the Doctor's 
 family, she ought to have been mentioned before. 
 But having been absent all day at a short dis- 
 tance from London, with friends with whom 
 she had been passing the Sunday for the 
 purpose of attending a favourite preacher, she 
 has not been exactly within our reach. 
 
 It is the Lady Juliana Witherby of whom 
 we are speaking, the younger and unmarried 
 sister of Lady Augusta Harrington. 
 
 For many years past she had been an inmate 
 of the Doctor's family and now, having dined with 
 
 VOL. I. f
 
 66 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 her suburban friend Mrs. Larraby, " between 
 the services," she had returned home in time to 
 take her evening coffee in her sister's drawing- 
 room. 
 
 This home in Dr. Harrington's family was 
 not altogether a happy one ; yet perhaps, under 
 the circumstances, it was less the contrary than 
 might have been expected ; for in the first place 
 it was a home accorded by charity, as Lady 
 Juliana's pitiful little fortune would scarcely 
 have sufficed to procure her decent food and 
 lodging ; and somehow or other this charity did 
 not seem to be of the species which blesses 
 both the giver and receiver. In fact, poor Lady 
 Juliana was, in different ways, disagreeable to 
 every member of the Doctor's household. 
 
 To that dignified and orthodox divine him- 
 self, her propensity to run about after popular 
 preachers, and all the other amusements of 
 dilettante religion, was particularly distasteful. 
 
 Yet, to do the Warden justice, he was far 
 from being unkind to his sister-in-law, and he 
 was much too gentlemanlike and generous ever 
 to have felt the maintenance of the poor soul as 
 any burthen in a pecuniary point of view, 
 and if his tolerance of her offending religious
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 67 
 
 crotchets was somewhat too evidently tinged 
 with contemptuous superiority, it must be re- 
 membered that they assailed all his prejudices 
 in their tenderest point. 
 
 To poor Kate she was certainly an unmiti- 
 gated bore, and perennial source of annoyance ; 
 for it unfortunately happened that all Kate did, 
 said, thought, read, painted, or sung was, in the 
 opinion of her aunt, so thoroughly saturated 
 with the abounding original sin of her nature, 
 as to make it her spinster Ladyship's imperative 
 duty to be continually entering; one never-end- 
 ing still-beginning protest against the whole 
 tenor of her niece's life. 
 
 Kate returned this very unpleasant solicitude 
 for her spiritual welfare by an equally incessant, 
 and much more effectual care, for her aunt's 
 temporal comforts ; and really never attempted 
 any resistance, except on one cardinal point, 
 namely, the sacred preservation of her cell from 
 all intrusion. And truly, without this magna 
 charta of her rights and privileges, Kate's life 
 would hardly have been worth having under the 
 same roof with the Lady Juliana. 
 
 It was, however, to Lady Augusta that her 
 sister's residence under the Doctor's roof gave, 
 
 F 2
 
 68 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 perhaps, the most pungent annoyance. At all 
 events, it was Lady Augusta's temper that 
 suffered most from the petty troubles produced 
 by Lady Juliana's whims and ways, and it was 
 assuredly she who most punctually repaid them 
 by making the offender suffer in her turn. 
 
 There were, in truth, many causes why the 
 two sisters were not well calculated to live 
 amicably together. 
 
 Lady Juliana had in her day been a beauty. 
 Lady Augusta never had. Hence, in two nar- 
 row, ill-regulated minds, innumerable jealousies, 
 heart-burnings, and mutual dislikes had sprung 
 up from their earliest years. 
 
 A marriage, which it had once appeared 
 probable that Lady Juliana would have con- 
 tracted, had been broken off under circum- 
 stances calculated to throw a certain degree of 
 shade over the noble family of Witherby, and 
 this was an offence which it was not in Lady 
 Augusta's nature to forgive. 
 
 And then in matters of daily life, wherein 
 Lady Augusta found that her position in society, 
 and her duty as a mother, required her occa- 
 sionally to act in a manner not altogether 
 accordant with the strict rules of religion,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 69 
 
 Lady Juliana was for ever near her, protesting by 
 conduct, by look, and by insinuation most pro- 
 vokingly against all such offences. 
 
 So that, from one cause or another, there 
 was always a sort of semi-subdued acrimony 
 and mutual irritation between the two sisters. 
 They were, moreover, very essentially unlike in 
 mind as well as in person. 
 
 Lady Augusta was rather short, and though 
 not fat, was decidedly embonpoint. The most 
 remarkable feature in her face was an immense 
 Roman nose, which imparted a sort of hawk- 
 like expression to her face. A sharp, bright 
 eye, high cheek-bones, a somewhat large, but 
 very well-formed mouth, and a broad square 
 chin, gave indications of energy, firmness, and 
 strength of will, at the expense of everything 
 like softness or gentleness of character. 
 
 Her sole pretension to beauty of any kind had 
 consisted in remarkably well-formed feet and 
 hands, and of these graceful appendages her 
 Ladyship was still proud at sixty. 
 
 To irreproachably elegant manners, a tolerable 
 knowledge of the small world in which she 
 had moved, calling it, and believing it, the great 
 world, and to a fair share of common sense, it
 
 70 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 must be confessed that Lady Augusta added 
 that deep-seated vulgarity of mind which is the 
 inevitable product of a life spent in looking up 
 to that on which we ought to look down ; reve- 
 rencing that which deserves no reverence, mis- 
 taking small things, and small people, for great 
 things, and great people, and in contracting all 
 thoughts and all feelings within the narrow circle 
 of a paltry, yet arbitrary conventionalism. 
 
 Lady Juliana was ten years younger than her 
 sister, and had never quite lost the habit acquired 
 in early life, of looking up to her with a certain 
 amount of respect and fear. She was herself a 
 remarkably elegant looking women ; tall, and 
 was perhaps somewhat too thin, but she still 
 retained, both in form and feature, considerable 
 traces of her former beauty. She had a fair 
 pale forehead of that peculiar form, which though 
 high, is so narrow as to impart no indication of 
 intellect; a large pale blue eye, a clear and 
 delicate complexion, and that delicately small 
 conformation of the lower part of the face 
 which, though in youth it may be termed pretty, 
 is an unfailing index of weakness of character. 
 
 In disposition she would have been better, had 
 she been happier. This approaches perhaps a
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 71 
 
 little to the dictum of the critic, who pro- 
 nounced that the picture would have been 
 better if the painter had taken more pains with 
 it. And of which of us may not the same 
 be said? But truly, in the case of poor Lady 
 Juliana, it might be declared that all her bad 
 qualities arose from her false position in the 
 world. 
 
 She was a blighted plant. All her life had 
 been a mistake. Nature had certainly intended 
 her to suckle fools, and not to have anything to 
 chronicle. 
 
 Had she married in her own station, and 
 produced a few noble little creatures in her own 
 likeness to suckle, it would have brought out all 
 the gentleness, tenderness, and love of her soft 
 nature ; and who knows whether, as a mother, 
 that soft weak nature might not have been 
 strengthened into a capability of self-sacrifice 
 and devotion ? As it was, poor soul ! there was 
 no active good in her at all, and continual dis- 
 comfort and discontent, together with vexations 
 and vain regrets, engendered but too much 
 active ill in the shape of acerbity, irritation, and 
 uncharitableness. In a word all that mixed 
 result of ennui, peevishness, and disappoint-
 
 72 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 ment, which the self-deluded lady consoled 
 herself by calling " her religious feelings." 
 
 Lady Juliana was reclining, when the gentle- 
 men entered, in an elegant attitude, on a chaise 
 longue on one side of the fire ; for, May as it 
 was, and a lovely May-day as it had been, 
 luxurious Londoners still welcomed the cheerful 
 aspect of a fire in the evening. A little table 
 stood at her elbow, beside which sat Miss 
 Mary Jane Wiggins ville, the youngest of the 
 three spinster sisters. These two ladies were in 
 very close, and apparently very interesting con- 
 versation across the little table, the diminutive 
 dimensions of which permitted their tete-a-tete 
 to be perfectly confidential. 
 
 Miss Mary Jane Wigginsville had not fully 
 attained the completion of her thirtieth year, 
 but she was very near having done so ; and 
 like all other unwedded ladies, she felt it to 
 be an important era. Small and very delicate 
 features, large light-coloured eyes, an oval face, 
 a beautiful complexion, and a very abundant 
 decoration of long and almost flaxen ringlets, 
 gave to this cadette of the house of Wiggins- 
 ville very fair claims in the eyes of many to be 
 considered as a very pretty woman.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 73 
 
 There was considerable congeniality of tastes 
 and pursuits between these two ladies ; and 
 although their tempers were widely different —   
 for there was not an atom of either sour or 
 bitter in the disposition of Miss Mary Jane — 
 they were very intimate. 
 
 On the opposite side of the fire-place, Lady 
 Augusta was sitting in a deep bergere, in which 
 she had fallen asleep over a meditation on the 
 best means of securing the presence of the 
 Duchess of Benlomond at a large party which 
 she shortly intended to give. 
 
 Miss Jemina Wigginsville, who was five years 
 older than Miss Mary Jane and very like her, 
 save that these five years had left their disagree- 
 able traces on her once beautiful complexion, 
 turning delicate pink to dingy red, was seated 
 with Kate at a large round table in the centre 
 of the room, where they were turning over 
 picture-books, and chattering away at a great 
 rate. 
 
 We must now introduce Miss Hannah Wig- 
 ginsville to the reader, or more properly speak- 
 ing Miss Wigginsville, par excellence. 
 
 This lady was the daughter of the late Mr. 
 Wigginsville by his first wife ; his marriage with
 
 74 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the mother of the before-named two ladies having 
 been contracted much later in life, and after he 
 had retired from business. There was probably 
 not less than twenty years difference between 
 the age of the eldest Miss Wigginsville and that 
 of her youngest sister, for Miss Hannah must 
 certainly have been fifty years old at the time of 
 which we are now speaking. Not that any 
 uncertainty on the point can have arisen from 
 any wish on her part to conceal her age ; for 
 Miss Hannah would not have given a farthing 
 for the power of mystifying the whole world 
 upon the subject. For though she was not 
 perhaps quite without pretension, of more kinds 
 than one, she was by no means one of those 
 unlucky females who consider juvenility as the 
 greatest of blessings while present, and the most 
 indispensable of fictions when past. 
 
 On the contrary, Miss Hannah, with her tall 
 large bulky person, her short scratchy " front," 
 her large massive forehead, and her never-absent 
 spectacles, would utterly have scorned any soft 
 impeachment of the kind. 
 
 She was now sitting exactly in front of the 
 fire, with one knee crossed in somewhat mascu- 
 line fashion over the other, and reading the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 75 
 
 " Quarterly Review," which she had coaxed Kate 
 to fetch for her from her father's study. Such was 
 the manner in which the ladies of the party were 
 distributed when the four gentlemen from the 
 dining-room made their appearance among 
 them.
 
 76 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The entrance of the gentlemen of course 
 made a complete revolution in the arrangement 
 of the whole party. 
 
 Lady Augusta waked, opened her eyes, stared 
 at them all, and asked whether it were not 
 getting rather late. The other ladies all moved 
 a little, more or less, and looked as if they were 
 holding themselves in readiness to form them- 
 selves into new groups if required to do so. 
 
 The Doctor after taking his coffee placed 
 himself in a chair, hefore the round table, say- 
 ing : " Now then, Caldwell, let us have a look 
 at your drawings." Whereupon Kate, and Miss 
 Jemima, being already seated at the same table, 
 naturally joined themselves to the Doctor and 
 Mr. Caldwell, apparently for the purpose of
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 77 
 
 enjoying a renewed exhibition of the young 
 engineer's very admirable drawings. 
 
 Henry Harrington drew a chair to the side of 
 Miss Hannah, with whom he knew himself to 
 be a sort of a favourite, though he was always 
 quizzing her, and "drawing her out," as he called 
 it. 
 
 But the real fact was, that in the frequent 
 sharp encounters of their wits, Miss Hannah 
 had a tolerably comfortable conviction that she 
 had no reason to consider herself the vanquished, 
 victimized or most bequizzed party, but rather 
 the contrary ; and perhaps Miss Hannah was 
 not altogether wrong. 
 
 In this state of affairs, Mr. White, unfortu- 
 nate young man ! saw himself in imminent 
 danger of having again to expose himself to all 
 the horrors of a tete-a-tete with the awful Lady 
 Augusta ; for Lady Juliana and Miss Mary Jane 
 seemed evidently determined to continue their 
 conversation apart. Anything, he thought, was 
 better than this ; so, although he knew that Lady 
 Juliana had a particular dislike to him, and that 
 he was sure to meet with something disagree- 
 able by addressing her, he bravely marched up 
 to the two serious ladies, and with all the bold-
 
 78 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 ness of desperation commenced the conversation 
 by asking Lady Juliana where she had been 
 passing her Sunday. 
 
 " I was permitted the great privilege of pass- 
 ing it at High worth, Mr. White," replied her 
 Ladyship, " where, as I have just been remarking 
 to Miss Wigginsville, the sheep never have to 
 leave the fold in search of food, Mr. White." 
 The latter part of her speech being added with 
 a dry stiffness which was meant to convey a 
 crushing reproof. 
 
 Poor White, whose very narrow and uniform 
 path in life had led him quite away from those 
 social latitudes in which the language now used 
 by Lady Juliana was current, and who more- 
 over was really as simple and single-minded as a 
 child, replied with much enthusiasm : 
 
 " Ah, Lady Juliana ! if you feel it a privilege 
 to get out of the smoke, think what it would be 
 to me ! I, you know, who have been panting 
 here from week's end to week's end, without 
 ever smelling country air ! But I did not know 
 that the system of feeding which you and Miss 
 Wigginsville have been discussing had been 
 tried in that part of the country. I have heard 
 of it in Lincolnshire, but had no idea that any-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 79 
 
 thing of the kind had been tried near Lon- 
 don." 
 
 And hereupon Miss Mary Jane permitted 
 herself the worldliness of a very modified half 
 suppressed titter, which however she brought 
 into proper keeping as to time, place, and her 
 companions, by letting it glide imperceptibly 
 into a sigh, while a very seraphic upcast glance of 
 her large blue eyes served the double purpose of 
 exhibiting them to the sinner as he stood look- 
 ing down at her, and at the same time manifest- 
 ing a due sense of the enormity of his sinful- 
 ness. 
 
 "What can you mean, Mr. White?" de- 
 manded her Ladyship, with more of hauteur, 
 however, than of anger ; for there was something 
 soothing and agreeable to her feelings in the 
 mental attitude of looking down upon the 
 "outer court" sinner, from the conscious elevation 
 of her own godliness. " What can you mean, 
 Sir ? And what system do you allude to ?" 
 
 " I beg pardon, your Ladyship," said poor 
 Jonas, beginning to perceive that he had made 
 some great mistake, and for what he knew, poor 
 man ! might perhaps have fallen into some 
 grievous sin against good-breeding, or etiquette.
 
 80 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " I beg pardon, I am sure. You must excuse 
 me, but I thought that you and Miss Mary Jane 
 had been speaking of the system of turnip 
 feeding." 
 
 Poor little Mary Jane was again obliged to 
 stifle a worldly titter with a deep and very godly 
 sigh. And then she ventured to say : 
 
 " The manna of the word, Mr. White, and 
 not turnips, was the food Lady Juliana was 
 alluding to." 
 
 " Ah, Sir !" ejaculated Lady Juliana, after 
 relieving her wounded feelings by a very awful 
 groan ; " ah, Sir ! The faithful shepherd — " 
 
 And here her Ladyship went off into a 
 metaphorical pastoral about good shepherds, 
 and bad shepherds, and wolves, and sheep, and 
 sheep-dogs, and sheep-folds, all very fine, and 
 very spiritual, but at too great length to make it 
 safe to follow her. 
 
 "I say, White," interrupted Henry Harrington 
 from the other side of the hearth-rug, whence he 
 had been talking with his friend, Miss Hannah. 
 " Have you seen a pamphlet which Miss Wig- 
 ginsville here has been telling me about ? 
 She says it is entitled ' The utility of our 
 Cathedral Chapters, considered on the true
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 81 
 
 principles of supply and demand.' The name of 
 the author it seems is Mr. Ricardo Macmalthus, 
 and she says that she hears it has made a great 
 sensation at Manchester and Glasgow. Have 
 you heard of it, White ?" 
 
 " No, Sir ; never heard of it," said White, 
 suddenly turning round, and inexpressibly re- 
 lieved by being thus released from Lady Juliana 
 and her fold. " But I really think it a very 
 important and proper view of the subject, and 
 I should say," he added thoughtfully, and as if 
 pronouncing the result of a well-weighed calcu- 
 lation, " I should say it would take three times 
 the number of minor-canonries that there are, 
 to supply the demand for them satisfactorily." 
 
 Miss Hannah and Henry Harrington burst 
 into a laugh at this somewhat exclusively pro- 
 fessional mode of viewing the matter; and the 
 spectacled spinster, who was a great political 
 economist, undertook to explain the subject to 
 him. 
 
 " W T hy really, Sir," said she, " I think you 
 are likely enough to be right, if indeed you do 
 not fall short in your estimate. But I suspect 
 Macmalthus was thinking more of what might 
 be the demand for canons, than for canonries." 
 
 vol. I. g
 
 82 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " I am afraid we are broaching what the 
 Governor would call very dangerous doctrines, 
 eh, White ?" said young Harrington. 
 
 "I don't exactly understand what is meant 
 by a demand for canons," replied poor White, 
 simply. " But the Church prays for a due 
 supply of them, you know, included of course 
 in the general prayer read at the University for 
 a due supply of men fitted to serve God in 
 Church and state." 
 
 The announcement of Mr. Garble at this 
 moment fortunately put a stop to the conversa- 
 tion, before " the Governor" had become aware 
 of the sort of ordeal which his worthy Curate 
 was likely to be submitted to by his very grace- 
 less first-born, and his rather partially privileged 
 guest, Miss Hannah ; for had he been aware of 
 it, he must have felt, to use that phrase so dear 
 to tender consciences, that he owed it to himself 
 to have testified his very decided disapprobation 
 <of them both.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 83 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mr. James Garble, attorney-at-law, was a 
 little undersized, slight-made, half starved-look- 
 ing figure with a narrow face, having a sharp 
 nose, and a cautious, cunning-looking mouth, 
 the whole visage being attenuated and rat-like, 
 but lit up by a pair of very bright piercing 
 black eyes. He had moreover very brilliantly 
 white teeth, and showed them often. But his 
 smile was not a pleasing one ; it was neither 
 frank nor joyous. 
 
 Yet though all this can hardly be said to 
 constitute an engaging individuality, few per- 
 sons cast their eyes upon Mr. James Garble 
 once, without being tempted by some feeling or 
 other to take a second look. Was it that his 
 high well-developed forehead imparted to this 
 
 G 2
 
 84 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 otherwise mean face, that impress of intellect 
 which never fails to command some degree of 
 instinctive and involuntary observance ? 
 
 As he saluted, one after the other, most of 
 those assembled in the Doctor's drawing-room, 
 there was nothing objectionable in his bearing 
 or manner, unless indeed it were a tinge of that 
 extra and studied politeness which occasionally 
 marks the consciousness of being among per- 
 sons felt to be of superior station. 
 
 He was no favourite of the Doctor's, though 
 it would be difficult to say why he was not ; 
 unless indeed a sort of mutual antipathy may 
 be supposed to have been generated by the 
 excessive contrast of their respective persons ; 
 and this was certainly such as to place them at 
 the opposite extremes of the species " homo." 
 The Doctor must have weighed a good sixteen 
 stone ; Mr. Garble certainly not above eight. 
 The Doctor's great sonorous voice resembled 
 the small treble of the attorney considerably 
 less than that of a mastiff does the sharp 
 yelping of a lap-dog ; and it really seemed 
 strange that the huge square ruddy visage of 
 the one, should belong to a being of the same 
 species as the keen sallow features of the other.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 85 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. Garble," said the Doctor, 
 putting out his right hand to him over his 
 shoulder, as he sat with his left holding the 
 drawing he was examining. 
 
 " Good evening, Sir," replied the other in a 
 tone of much less indifference, and receiving 
 the hand thus placed within his reach with 
 something of a reverential air. And then 
 glancing at the drawings which were occupying 
 the reverend gentleman's attention, he added, 
 after the pause of a moment: "What inde- 
 fatigable mental powers you must possess, Dr. 
 Harrington ! After the great fatigues of such 
 a day as this, it is really extraordinary that you 
 should still feel sufficient energy to occupy 
 yourself with works of art !" 
 
 Mr. Caldwell glanced towards the attorney's 
 face, thinking for a moment that he was ven- 
 turing to banter the reverend dignitary; but 
 he read nothing there but deep admiration and 
 reverence. 
 
 Having administered this little bit of adu- 
 lation to the Doctor, Mr. Garble glided 
 noiselessly across the room, bowing low to 
 the chair in which Lady Augusta was again 
 sleeping, to the little table beside which Lady
 
 86 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Juliana and Miss Mary Jane were still talking 
 with every appearance of earnestness. 
 
 Here he ventured to draw a chair and seat 
 himself, and then to enter into conversation 
 with them both in a sotto voce style of confi- 
 dential intimacy, which plainly indicated that 
 there was some sort of tie between the trio 
 beyond that which existed between the little 
 attorney and any other individuals of the party. 
 That such a tie existed is quite certain, and its 
 strength will be readily understood when it is 
 stated that it was furnished by the community 
 of their religious feelings. For Mr. Garble was 
 one of the elect, having been fortunate enough 
 to have had a " call." 
 
 We might perhaps safely leave the reader to 
 form his own notions respecting Mr. Garble 
 and his call, but on the whole we prefer making 
 no mystery about the matter, and therefore 
 state at once the plain truth, namely, that 
 Miss Mary Jane Wigginsville had been made 
 the means of grace to the regenerated attorney. 
 
 It was perfectly well known to all men 
 whom it might concern, and to many whom it 
 might not, that the late Mr. Wigginsville, ci- 
 devant Wiggins, had left above a hundred
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 87 
 
 thousand pounds to his daughters, and accord- 
 ingly the three ladies resided in the aristocratic 
 neighbourhood of St. Martin's in a style that 
 might well indicate the possession of three or 
 four thousand a-year. A handsome house, a 
 handsome equipage, a good deal of society, a 
 costly style of dress, at least in the juniors, and 
 a yearly autumnal excursion to some fashion- 
 able watering-place, showed plainly enough that 
 their expenditure could not fall far short of 
 that income. But beyond this, nothing was 
 known among their friends and neighbours 
 about their pecuniary concerns. 
 
 They had migrated from the far east upon 
 the death of their father, and had found little 
 or no difficulty in forming a very agreeable set 
 of acquaintances among the western tribes, in 
 whose precincts they had ventured to settle 
 themselves. 
 
 Mr. Garble was one of the individuals whose 
 interest and friendly feelings they had the most 
 rapidly awakened among their new acquaint- 
 ance ; and he, as well as some few others, had 
 thought it best to settle all doubts and fears 
 concerning their respectability, by at once ascer- 
 taining the real state of the case from the best
 
 88 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 authority. The unerring archives of Doctors' 
 Commons were applied to, and sundry monies 
 were pocketed by the functionaries thereof in 
 return for the indubitable information that 
 Joseph Wigginsville, &c. &c. &c. bequeathed 
 all the property of which he died possessed, 
 consisting of a dwelling-house situated so and 
 so, together with whatever amount of monies 
 in the three per cent, consols which might 
 belong to him at the time of his decease, to his 
 three daughters, Hannah, Jemima, and Mary 
 Jane in equal portions. 
 
 This will was dated only five days before the 
 old gentleman's death, so there could be no 
 doubt or mistake about the matter. 
 
 The very marked difference in the character 
 of the three ladies made this little investigation 
 peculiarly necessary in the case of any Ccelebs in 
 search of a dowered wife ; for the style of 
 wooing adopted for the entanglement of Miss 
 Hannah's affections would have been alto- 
 gether inefficacious when brought to bear upon 
 the feelings of the scientific Miss Jemima ; 
 while the deepest devotion to every " ology" 
 and " ism" under the sun, would have been 
 worse than thrown away upon Miss Mary Jane.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 89 
 
 It may easily be supposed that the three 
 well-to-do sisters were not left to waste their 
 sweetness, and that of their handsome income 
 upon the desert air of a solitude unpeopled 
 with pretenders to the honour of their alliance. 
 They were not among the number of fair ones 
 left to sing, "Nobody coming to marry me, 
 nobody coming to woo !" Many came to woo, 
 and to marry also, if they could manage it. 
 
 But every suitor found it absolutely necessary 
 to single out at once from the group the object 
 of his intended adorations. Each sportsman 
 had to mark his bird. It would by no means 
 do to take the chances which might arise from 
 blazing away at the whole covey at once ; nor 
 was there the remotest possibility that one 
 head might by mere luck be bagged when 
 another was shot at. 
 
 The three ladies really lived together in very 
 perfect sisterly harmony and good understand- 
 ing with each other ; but nevertheless each 
 very decidedly took her own course, and fol- 
 lowed her own line across the thoroughfare of 
 life. Moreover they each kept a hobby of their 
 own, and they all rode hard. 
 
 And thus it naturally came to pass that each
 
 90 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 lady had her own set of attendants, adherents, 
 admirers, and hangers-on. 
 
 All were received, however, with equal hos- 
 pitality and politeness at the frequent evening 
 reunions which took place in the Wigginsville 
 drawing-rooms ; not hut what it was perfectly 
 well known amongst them for whose sake 
 individually the most assiduous guests made 
 their appearance there. In fact there was no 
 more risk that the "following" of one sister 
 should be confounded with or mistaken for the 
 "following" of another, than that a blunder 
 should be made between the birds of the air, 
 the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea. 
 
 It had become necessary, therefore, for our 
 friend Mr. Garble at an early period of his 
 acquaintance with these interesting ladies, to 
 make up his mind as to the most promising 
 mode of turning this acquaintance to account. 
 He speedily felt the necessity of submitting to 
 the general rule thus enforced upon all the 
 friends of the house of Wigginsville, and it 
 had been a matter of much deep consideration 
 with him under which of the three banners he 
 should enrol himself. 
 
 He would for several reasons very greatly
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 91 
 
 have preferred leaving the question for some time 
 open. But this he soon found would be im- 
 possible ; and so, after very earnest though but 
 short deliberation, he became " serious" and 
 displayed himself openly as a Mary-Janite. 
 This choice, though of necessity made rapidly, 
 was grounded on very solid considerations. In 
 the first place, the assumption of the " serious" 
 colour might not improbably prove a good 
 speculation in a professional point of view, for 
 it was a notorious fact that the leading attorney 
 in that particular neighbourhood was a decided 
 Tractarian, and there was certainly, at that mo- 
 ment, a very good opening for a " serious" 
 practitioner. It was a notorious fact also, that 
 in these days high church families employ 
 high church butchers and bakers, and that low 
 church families employ low church butchers and 
 bakers, and it could not be doubted that both 
 parties were likely to select their legal advisers 
 upon the same system. 
 
 This was, as of course it ought to have 
 been, a very strong argument in favour of 
 displaying himself to the eyes of all men either 
 high or low. 
 
 And another reason for his deciding upon
 
 92 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 immediately becoming " serious," was the much 
 greater facility of preparing himself for it, than 
 he should find in getting up the necessary 
 stock of talk in either of the departments of 
 worldly wisdom to which the two elder sisters 
 had devoted themselves. He felt in short that it 
 would be easier for him to become a saint, ac- 
 cording to the rites and ceremonies enjoined by 
 Miss Mary Jane and her friends, than a deeply- 
 read political economist of Miss Hannah's 
 school, or a natural philosopher with Miss 
 Jemima. Moreover, his natural sagacity led 
 him to suspect that the heart of the youngest 
 lady was by its nature more easily impression- 
 able than the hearts of her sisters. Besides 
 all this we must do him the justice to admit, 
 that he did certainly remember and allow 
 some weight to the consideration that Miss 
 Mary Jane was not only the youngest and best- 
 looking of the three, but that she really was 
 very pretty, while her sisters were as certainly 
 not pretty at all. 
 
 So that in truth the wooing of Mr. Garble, 
 though entered upon in a decidedly business-like 
 spirit, was not altogether a disagreeable business. 
 
 On the present occasion, however, it had to
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 93 
 
 be carried on almost entirely by looks, and 
 amatory sighs ; for although Lady Juliana would 
 not have objected to any amount of pious double 
 entendre about love, and the spirit which, con- 
 stitutes the flirtation of the elect, and to which 
 " serious " phraseology so happily lends itself, 
 she would not have tolerated, despite her fifty 
 years, that the whole of such heavenly-minded 
 tenderness of feeling should have been appro- 
 priated entirely by Miss Mary Jane. 
 
 The clever little attorney therefore, in order 
 to turn the present opportunity to the best 
 profit, was obliged to divide his soft and piously- 
 worded cajoleries as dexterously as he could 
 between his two gentle listeners, and trust to 
 the language of the eyes, and all the other 
 eloquent little asides with which mankind are 
 all, more or less, familiar, in order to make the 
 younger lady understand how exclusively the 
 meaning of every tender sound he uttered, was 
 for her. 
 
 Before long, however, the appearance of the 
 tea equipage broke up the different coteries into 
 which the party had divided themselves. Lady 
 Augusta roused herself, and taking her place at 
 the tea-table, said to her husband :
 
 94 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " Well, my dear, what did your brother say 
 to you in the letter I sent down to you by Kate 
 this morning ?" 
 
 The Doctor started. 
 
 " Upon my word," he exclaimed, " I had 
 entirely forgotten it ! The fact is, that at the 
 moment you sent it to me this morning, I was 
 on the very point of starting for church. I had 
 no time to look at it then, and, to say the truth, 
 I have never thought of it since. Kate, my love, 
 be so kind as to bring it to me from my study. 
 You will find it on the mantel-piece." 
 
 Kate vanished, and re-appeared again in a 
 wonderfully short space of time, and quietly 
 glided back to her place as soon as she had put 
 the forgotten letter in her father's hand ; but 
 if she flattered herself that the conversation 
 which had been interrupted by her leaving the 
 room was to be resumed upon her return to it, 
 she was disappointed; for the thoughts of all 
 present were speedily turned into a new current, 
 and that so effectually as to render the recur- 
 rence to any former theme quite impossible.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 95 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Scarcely had the Doctor perused half a 
 dozen lines of his letter before he exclaimed : 
 
 " God bless me, Lady Augusta ! It is indeed 
 fortunate that you recalled this letter to my 
 recollection. Why, Walter has returned to 
 England, my dear ! He must be in London 
 now ; and as far as I can make out will in all 
 probability be here this evening. What in the 
 world are we to do ?" 
 
 " Do, Doctor Harrington ? Of course we 
 can do nothing at this time of night," replied 
 Lady Augusta, with very unmistakeable mani- 
 festations of not being particularly delighted at 
 this sudden invasion of her dominions. " Do 
 you really suppose that your brother can expect
 
 96 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to find us prepared to receive him for the night 
 at such very short notice as he has thought 
 proper to give us ? Even if his letter had not 
 been so unluckily forgotten all these hours, it 
 would have been strangely abrupt. I really 
 think it is impossible !" 
 
 " My dear Lady Augusta !" replied the 
 worthy divine, with sundry symptoms of un- 
 easiness, " I fear there is no doubt about the 
 matter. Just hear, my dear, what he says in 
 his letter," and then he read as follows : 
 
 " My dear Harry, 
 " I reached Liverpool this morning, and I 
 am now going to the Museum, which I am told 
 contains some specimens which I particularly 
 wish to examine. I purpose leaving this place 
 to-morrow by a train which they say will reach 
 London by nine p.m. I have neglected to keep a 
 note of your London address, and therefore 
 enclose this to my friend and agent, Thackiey 
 of Threadneedle Street, who will forward it to 
 your residence without delay. You will doubt- 
 less be surprised at my unlooked-for return to 
 Europe — but more of this when we meet, which
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 97 
 
 I hope will be in time for going to roost Sun- 
 day night. 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 " Walter Harrington." 
 
 " Decidedly there is no mistake about the 
 matter," said young Harrington ; " and if he 
 has not jumped out of the railway-carriage, en 
 route in pursuit of some butterfly or tom-tit, 
 which by all I can learn of my venerable uncle 
 and his habits, is not unlikely ; but, if he escape 
 the temptation, it appears to me highly probable 
 that I may have the advantage of making his 
 personal acquaintance in a minute or two." 
 
 " In truth, Harry," said the Doctor, pulling 
 out his watch, " it is just about time for him to 
 be here." 
 
 " Well, I must say, that I think it would 
 have been kinder, to use no other word," said 
 Lady Augusta, " if Mr. Harrington had either 
 given us a rather longer notice of his approach, 
 or had taken up his quarters for one night at 
 least, at an hotel." 
 
 " It would surely have been more decent 
 too," murmured Lady Juliana, with freezing 
 propriety, " not to have broken the Sabbath by 
 
 vol. I. h
 
 98 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 this evidently unnecessary journey, even if Mr. 
 Harrington be so unhappy as not to be in- 
 fluenced by any higher motive." 
 
 " There's a carriage at the door," cried young 
 Harrington. " It brings our long-lost relative, 
 I am quite sure." 
 
 In another instant, the deep sonorous baying 
 of a large hound, as it seemed, was heard 
 reverberating through the entire house, and 
 almost shaking the walls with the unwonted 
 echo. A few more minutes, and a heavy tread 
 was heard on the stairs, and the door of the 
 drawing-room was opened for the admittance of 
 Mr. Walter Harrington. 
 
 The unsatisfactory termination of the Rev. 
 Dr. Ponsonby's attempts to make a scholar of 
 Walter Harrington, and the subsequent de- 
 parture of the boy for Australia at the age of 
 fourteen, is probably still fresh in the recol- 
 lection of the reader. From that period to the 
 summer in which our narrative commences, 
 and which witnessed the completion of his 
 seventy-first year, Walter Harrington had never 
 been in England, nor indeed in Europe, save 
 once. Yet all these years had not been passed 
 by him as a sheep-farmer in Australia. 
 
 

 
 UNCLE WALTER. 99 
 
 Circumstances had occurred in the interval 
 which had very materially altered the position 
 of the young emigrant, and that too while he 
 was .still far from being an old man. About 
 twenty years after his departure for the Anti- 
 podes, his young cousin, the heir of the family 
 estate, sickened and died. His uncle, who 
 had never had a second child, and was then an 
 old man, did not very long survive his son, 
 and Walter succeeded to the property, his own 
 father having died about two years before. 
 
 It might have been expected, that the thriv- 
 ing Australian sheep-farmer, now that he had 
 become one of the landed aristocracy of the old 
 country, and owner of some thousands per 
 annum, would have hastened to take his place 
 among the fortunate few of the old world. 
 
 But this, however generally expected by his 
 connexions in England, did not take place, 
 nor would it have taken place even if the in- 
 heritance had fallen to him earlier, for it would 
 have been nearly impossible at any period of 
 his life, that Walter Harrington could have 
 settled down into a quiet, stay-at-home country 
 gentleman. 
 
 The same restless activity and imaginative 
 
 H 2
 
 100 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 excitability which had impelled him as a boy to 
 range the fields, when he should have been 
 seated at his desk, impelled him still to range 
 the fields ; and the Robinson Crusoe infection 
 which he had received in boyhood had never 
 been eradicated. 
 
 Not that the acquisition of his inheritance 
 was in any degree unwelcome or indifferent to 
 him, for it enabled him to extend his wander- 
 ings unchecked over almost every part of Earth's 
 surface, and these wanderings had formed his 
 occupation, and the history of his life for the 
 last thirty years. 
 
 Immediately upon hearing that the well- 
 remembered woods and meadows of Stanton 
 had become his own, he disposed of his flocks 
 and wider extent of acres amid the virgin 
 forests of the new world, and hurried home to 
 have one look at the well-remembered scenes, 
 and to arrange the business necessarily arising 
 out of this acquisition of property; and this 
 done, he started on a course of wide-world 
 travel, the wanderings of which now brought 
 him once again to his native land. 
 
 It must not, however, be inferred from this 
 statement that his years had literally been spent
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 101 
 
 like those of the Wandering Jew, in perpetual 
 change of place without ever resting for two 
 nights together in the same spot. He could 
 not have been the same man he was, had this 
 been so. 
 
 Walter Harrington had found time and op- 
 portunity amidst the immense variety of scenes 
 he had passed through, to read much, and to 
 think and examine more ; but his studies had 
 all been of the kind which the natural bent of 
 his mind dictated, and referred almost wholly 
 to those external aspects of Nature, which his 
 widely-extended acquaintance with her had 
 made especially interesting to him. 
 
 He had become a profound, as well as an 
 euthusiastic botanist and zoologist. Entomology 
 and ornithology were perhaps his favourite 
 pages in the great encylopedia of Nature, and 
 as an active cultivator of those departments 01 
 science he was well known to the learned 
 societies both of London and Paris, though 
 personally a stranger in both ; and the name 01 
 Walter Harrington ranked among their most 
 valuable corresponding members. 
 
 Of pretty nearly any other knowledge he was 
 almost as ignorant as a child, and of all sorts
 
 102 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 of etiquette, conventionalities, habits of acting, 
 and modes of thinking, which make up civilized 
 social life, he was more ignorant than most 
 children. 
 
 That noble largeness of mind, however, and 
 that peculiar directness and singleness in every 
 intellectual operation, which always results from 
 conversing with Nature, more than with Man, 
 was especially his. 
 
 Deeply rooted also in the foundations of 
 his mind was a pervading sentiment of that true 
 and sublime piety, and that heartfelt adoration 
 of the Creator, which is sure to spring from the 
 same source. His readings in the great book 
 of Nature, which all nations and all creeds of 
 men must admit to contain an indisputable 
 revelation of the laws and the will of God, had 
 taught him that good, physical and moral, is 
 the normal condition of all that He has created, 
 and that evil is the abnormal condition of the 
 same ; and he had faith unbounded in the ulti- 
 mate godlike destiny of the immortal soul. 
 
 The tone of mind and feeling which had thus 
 become habitual in the old naturalist, produced 
 in him a most large and abounding charity 
 towards all the follies, faults, and frailties of
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 103 
 
 humanity ; for his genuine bond-fide persuasion, 
 that no sin or error, great or small, can by pos- 
 sibility escape its accurately measured quantum 
 of painful consequences, caused him habitually, 
 and almost involuntarily, to comtemplate the 
 erring with pity rather than with anger. 
 
 But if it be desirable that the reader should 
 really become acquainted with the moral and 
 intellectual peculiarities of Mr. Walter Harring- 
 ton, it may be better to leave them to develop 
 themselves in the course of the narrative, lest 
 any farther attempt at psychological portraiture 
 of him should cause our sons; to become a 
 sermon. 
 
 So we will now direct our attention to the 
 lighter matters of his outward man, as he 
 appeared when, at the age of seventy-one, he 
 arrived at the house of his brother, the Warden. 
 
 He was about six feet in height, being a trifle 
 taller than his younger brother, and was probably 
 also a heavier man than the Doctor, although 
 much thinner : for his breadth of shoulders was 
 immense, and the limbs and whole frame-work 
 of the man were in proportion. 
 
 The face, and all the features in it, were large 
 also, but totally free from everything like heavi-
 
 104 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 ness. A noble massive forehead, high, broad 
 and square, surmounted it. Large, bushy, black 
 eyebrows sheltered a pair of finely opened large 
 blue eyes, bright with intelligence, and laughing 
 with joyous frankness. 
 
 The large mouth was filled with a magnificent 
 set of teeth, almost in as good repair as they 
 had been half a century ago. His complexion 
 was deeply tanned, by long exposure to the sun 
 and wind of many a clime, to a fine ruddy brown, 
 and though not free from wrinkles, showed that 
 clear purity of skin which more perhaps than 
 any other peculiarity indicates well-preserved 
 health. 
 
 But the greatest peculiarity of Mr. Walter 
 Harrington's appearance was his hair. Abundant 
 as that of his brother, he wore it very much 
 longer, so long indeed, that it fell in huge wavy 
 locks almost upon his shoulders ; but unlike the 
 Doctor's, which was silvery, the original black 
 was only mingled with a sufficient quantity of 
 white to produce the general appearance of a 
 very dark iron-grey. 
 
 He was still as upright as an arrow, and trod, 
 though not quite so lightly, yet still with almost 
 as much vigour and alertness as he had ever
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 105 
 
 done, and very decidedly with more than half 
 the Londoners of forty displayed. 
 
 His voice was of the same sonorous quality 
 as that of the Warden, but entirely free from 
 the thick huskiness which the burly fatness of 
 the portly divine had imparted to his. The 
 sort of pompous slowness of delivery too, which 
 well enough became the position and character 
 of the ecclesiastical dignitary, was changed in 
 the case of the elder brother for a jovial frank- 
 ness of manner which was irresistible, and 
 which sufficed to atone to most persons, even in 
 the most refined society, for the rather startling 
 body of sound which was apt to issue from the 
 capacious chest of the magnificent old man. 
 
 In a word, Walter Harrington, in his seventy- 
 first year, was one of the finest old men ever 
 seen, notwithstanding the peculiarities of his 
 dress, which in one or two respects was certainly 
 not exactly such as old gentlemen of seventy, 
 with several thousands a-year, are in the habit of 
 wearing in this country. 
 
 A huge pair of leggings, made of dark 
 pepper and salt cloth, and fitting tightly from 
 ankle to knee, encased his mighty lower limbs ; 
 while his body was clothed with a sort of frock
 
 106 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 of the same material, bound round the waist 
 with a girdle of leather some six inches broad, 
 to which were attached a variety of pockets and 
 pouches, of different size and various construc- 
 tion. 
 
 Over the collar of this frock, which buttoned 
 close round the throat, fell a deep shirt-collar of 
 very white and fine linen ; while a strangely in- 
 congruous look of dandyism was produced by 
 broad wristbands of the same material turned 
 back over the sleeves of the frock which buttoned 
 closely at the wrists. 
 
 The same Brummel-like appreciation for 
 " fine linen, and plenty of it," showed itself 
 also on his broad chest, where the frock opened, 
 permitting this under garment to be visible, 
 almost to his girdle. A very broad-brimmed, 
 low-crowned hat upon his head completed his 
 costume. 
 
 The sensations of the party assembled in 
 Doctor Harrington's drawing-room were very 
 various when, after a moment spent in expec- 
 tation, the door was flung back against the 
 wall, and this long-lost relative made his appear- 
 ance, closely followed by an enormous and very 
 handsome dog of the huge Labrador breed.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 107 
 
 One stride brought him to the spot where 
 his brother was standing. 
 
 The reverend dignitary's soft white hand 
 was grasped in the huge iron palm of the 
 wanderer, and the tea-things rung upon the 
 table with the reverberations of the cordial, 
 "Harry, my boy! how are you?" with which 
 he greeted this astonished and almost stunned 
 brother, while his left hand and arm adminis- 
 tered to the startled divine something between 
 an embrace and a slap on the back. 
 
 The Doctor sank into a chair which stood 
 near the table, as soon as he could fairly dis- 
 engage himself from his brother's circling arm, 
 and for a minute or two was utterly unable 
 to speak from violent coughing, and positive 
 want of breath. As soon as he possibly could, 
 however, he said, while he leaned with his 
 elbow on the table, and the water streamed 
 from his eyes : 
 
 " My dear brother ! — ugh ! — ugh ! — ugh ! 
 This is very dangerous doctrine — ugh ! — ugh ! 
 — ugh ! — very dangerous practice, I mean ! 
 I am most happy to see you — ah ! — ah ! — ah ! 
 But I never was so strong as you, you know, 
 Walter; and to say the truth, my habits have
 
 108 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 not fitted me for such violent .... pastimes," 
 he added, after vainly seeking some more appro- 
 priate term. 
 
 " Ah ! you gentlemen of England who live 
 at home at ease — " returned his brother, look- 
 ing round him ; but what he might have said 
 further remains unknown, for his friend and 
 follower Faust, as he called his noble dog, was 
 causing as much sensation in another part of 
 the room, as his master had done, and of a 
 somewhat similar kind. On their first entering 
 the room, Faust had gravely and far more 
 quietly than his noisy master, proceeded to make 
 a detailed and careful investigation of all the 
 circumstances of the new world to which he 
 found himself introduced. He had received 
 with dignified self-possession the salutation of 
 " fine fellow !" from Kate, nor had he shrunk 
 from rather a cordial caress from Mr. Caldwell. 
 He had solemnly sniffed round the chair from 
 which Lady Augusta had risen to welcome her 
 brother-in-law, and had silently received a pat 
 on the head both from Henry Harrington and 
 Miss Hannah. 
 
 So far all was well ; but unfortunately his 
 onward march brought him to the group con-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 109 
 
 sisting of Lady Juliana, Miss Mary Jane, and 
 Mr. Garble, and here his investigations assumed 
 a more active and accurate character. The 
 Lady Juliana was the only one of the party 
 who still kept her seat, not deeming it necessary 
 to incur the fatigue of rising from it, till it 
 should come to her turn to receive the greetings 
 of her brother-in-law. 
 
 Now, whether it were that the abundantly po- 
 matumed and perfumed ringlets of the noble spin- 
 ster had attracted the attention of Faust, or 
 whether her reclining attitude had excited his 
 curiosity to discover whether she were asleep or 
 dead, it is impossible to say ; but certain it is, that 
 the huge beast suddenly, yet very deliberately, 
 raised himself on his hind legs, and, placing 
 his fore-paws on the lady's uncovered shoulders, 
 set about diligently examining with his nose 
 every part of her coiffure. 
 
 It must be owned that the attack was an 
 alarming one for an elderly London lady ; for 
 the enormous weight of the dog did really, and 
 without any affectation at all, nearly overset 
 her backwards. Nevertheless it certainly was 
 not necessary, nor very reasonable, that it should 
 call forth the rapid succession of crescendo
 
 110 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 screams that were now uttered by her Lady- 
 ship. 
 
 An immediate exclamation of " Faust, Sir, 
 come to heel !" shouted by his master in the 
 tone and key that had been wont to make the 
 primeval forests ring, instantly caused the 
 obedient animal to withdraw himself, and 
 crouch at his master's feet. 
 
 But the mischief to the lady's nervous 
 system was not so easily repaired. It was 
 indeed some time before the united assiduities 
 of the other ladies assembled round her, were 
 able definitively to ward off the alternate threaten- 
 ings of hysterics and fainting fits; but when 
 at length she was sufficiently restored to com- 
 posure to permit anger to take the place of terror, 
 she turned her eyes on the huge offender with 
 no very gentle or forgiving look. 
 
 Mr. Harrington, who certainly at first had 
 been rather inclined to laugh at the assault his 
 favourite had committed, now stood in utter 
 astonishment at the effect it had produced ; but 
 when at length there appeared to be a possi- 
 bility of speaking to the terrified and offended 
 lady, he approached her, saying, that had he 
 not well known the dog to be as gentle as a
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 1 1 1 
 
 lamb, he should not have brought him into the 
 house, and that she need not be under the slight- 
 est alarm in case a similar accident should occur 
 again. 
 
 " Occur again, Sir !" cried the outraged lady, 
 with a strongly accentuated expression of indig- 
 nant astonishment, " I trust, Sir, that you will 
 not dream of further tempting Providence by 
 suffering the creature to live. Surely, after the 
 merciful escape I have had — and I pray God 
 most fervently that I may recognise, as I ought, 
 with due thankfulness the special mercy shown 
 therein ! — surely, Sir, you will not tempt Provi- 
 dence any further? Surely you will think it 
 right to have the dangerous beast shot im- 
 mediately ?" 
 
 " Shot, Madam !" returned the old man, with 
 a sudden and rather portentous contraction of 
 his bushy black eyebrows. But immediately 
 recovering his look of open-hearted good humour, 
 he added : " Pooh, pooh ! you are joking. No, 
 we won't shoot Faust, but he shall undergo a 
 punishment almost as terrible ; he shall be 
 turned out of the room, and sit without daring 
 to move on the staircase." 
 
 And so saying, he opened the door, and an-
 
 1 1 2 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 nounced his sentence to the obedient beast, who 
 forthwith obeyed with an air of unmistakable peni- 
 tence, and consciousness of disgrace. But despite 
 this atonement, those of the party who best knew 
 the Lady Juliana felt no doubt respecting the 
 nature of her feelings, both towards the dog and 
 his master. 
 
 The three Miss Wigginsvilles now discreetly 
 arose and took their leave ; Mr. Garble too 
 jumped up, as in duty bound, to lead them to 
 their carriage, and also made his parting bow. 
 And then Mr. Caldwell, having promised Kate 
 to call in the morning to examine the site of her 
 proposed conservatory, and pronounce his opinion 
 of the practicability of her scheme, also took his 
 leave, and the family party were left to them- 
 selves.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 113 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Then came all the hospitable inquiries from 
 Lady Augusta and the Doctor as to what the 
 traveller would have to eat, together with a 
 sotto voce discussion as to what might be in 
 the house, &c. ; and her Ladyship was again a 
 little startled by hearing her guest, when pressed 
 to say what sort of refreshment he would prefer, 
 reply : 
 
 " Anything, my dear sister — anything you 
 will. Give me a broiled turkey, if you like it." 
 
 The good gentleman had quite forgotten that 
 turkeys do not run about London streets as they 
 do about the homesteads on the other side of 
 the Atlantic, and was perfectly ignorant that the 
 improvise supper he had selected as the easiest 
 and simplest in the whole bill of fare known to 
 
 vol. I. i
 
 114 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 him, was, under the existing circumstances, rather 
 an exigeant one. 
 
 The lady was in fact obliged to confess that 
 she feared there was no such thing as a turkey 
 in the house, and, being Sunday, it was impossi- 
 ble to get one. 
 
 Then followed a discussion concerning the 
 best arrangements that could be made about a 
 bed for him, and very civil regrets were ex- 
 pressed on the part of her Ladyship that the 
 shortness of the notice precluded the possibility 
 of her doing all she could wish for his accom- 
 modation ; and again her nerves were doomed 
 to endure a shock that made her inwardly shud- 
 der from head to foot, by a proposal from the 
 hardy old traveller that he should have " a 
 shake-down in the room they were in." 
 
 " Merciful Heaven ! a shake-down for an 
 old man and his dog in her amber satin draw- 
 ing-room ! Must not the being be an absolute 
 savage who could propose it ?" 
 
 Such assuredly was her thoughts ; but all she 
 said was, gently, though with a slight touch of 
 despair in her accent, " that she trusted they 
 might think of some plan more convenient than 
 that."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 115 
 
 A short muttered conversation then followed 
 between Kate and her mother, which ended by 
 the young lady's saying, with a pretty mixture 
 of frankness and timiditv, that if her uncle 
 would accept a bed in a very tiny bed-room it 
 would be a great pleasure to her, as she herself 
 could sleep perfectly well on the large sofa which 
 stood in her mother's dressing-room. 
 
 Uncle Walter of course protested against any 
 such arrangement; but Kate persisted so earn- 
 estly, and the sincerity of her wish that he 
 should accept her offer was so evident, that he 
 yielded, and so the matter was arranged; and 
 then Kate led him off, while his supper was 
 being prepared, to show him his quarters, and 
 herself do the honours of her own little territory. 
 
 Tins was in truth a labour of love, for Kate 
 was rather proud of her dominions ; and some- 
 how or other, she already felt that she should 
 take more pleasure in showing her books, and 
 her music, and her drawings, and all her other 
 treasures, to this great, rough, stranger uncle, 
 than to all the rest of her kinsfolk and ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 There is no way of accounting for this, save 
 by the mysterious doctrine of sympathy. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 It was but little that Kate knew, or had 
 ever heard, of her uncle, for it was very little 
 that any of her family could tell her about him. 
 The one fact, that he was known to the scien- 
 tific world as a great traveller and naturalist, 
 comprised pretty nearly all she knew concerning 
 him ; yet certain it is, that before they returned 
 to the drawing-room, Kate and her uncle were 
 very fast friends. 
 
 Moreover, she had actually confided to him 
 the great conservatory project, into which he 
 entered, heart and soul ; and she told him, 
 moreover, that Mr. Caldwell was coming to- 
 morrow to pronounce his opinion on the feasi- 
 bility of the construction. And she mentioned, 
 too, that this Mr. Caldwell was an officer in the 
 Engineers, and reckoned by every one to be 
 particularly clever, and quite a man of science. 
 And then she added, that he was also considered 
 by everybody, she believed, as extremely agree- 
 able. Nor was the eccentric old uncle blind to 
 the fact that his beautiful niece looked more 
 beautiful still, as she said all this, and that the 
 delicate colour in her cheeks became perceptibly 
 heightened. 
 
 The genus young lady, was a branch of
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 117 
 
 zoology which the old bachelor had enjoyed 
 very few opportunities of studying. But he 
 noted these phenomena in his mind. 
 
 The habitat of the pretty creature he was 
 studying afforded him great interest and satis- 
 faction, for, to say the truth, Kate's cell appeared 
 to him the only part of the house he had seen 
 which promised any of the comforts of existence. 
 Not only were there books, music, and drawing 
 materials, but there were also indications of their 
 being used. 
 
 In the drawing-room the pianoforte was 
 closed, and no sign, in the shape of music- 
 books, that it was ever open. Not a book of 
 any kind was to be seen there, save that one 
 number of the " Quarterly," which Miss Hannah 
 had, with her usual audacity, contrived to ex- 
 tract from the Doctor's study. 
 
 But here, on the contrary, all that he saw 
 seemed for use, and in use ; so that Kate and 
 her uncle returned to the drawing-room, as I 
 have already stated, fast friends. 
 
 "I have been telling Kate," said Mr. Har- 
 rington, as he re-entered the drawing-room, 
 " that I shall really be ashamed of myself for 
 appropriating what appears to be evidently the
 
 118 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 best quarters in the house ; but she won't 
 listen to me, and so I suppose I must submit." 
 
 " Upon my word, Walter," said the Doctor, 
 looking at him, " I think that any one would 
 take you to be twenty years my junior, instead 
 of being my senior. But care and grave respon- 
 sibilities will tell ; and an over-laboured brain," 
 he added, shaking his head with a sigh of resig- 
 nation, " will bleach the hair that covers it." 
 
 " And learning, too, Harry ! You know," 
 returned Walter, while his eyes laughed gaily, 
 " all the learning they crammed into you must, 
 I am very sure, help a good deal in making a 
 man old before his time. You remember, 
 Harry, don't you ? how steadfastly I refused to 
 swallow poor old Ponsonby's doses of Greek " 
 
 " In truth, the sword sometimes will wear 
 out the scabbard, Walter," rejoined the Doctor. 
 " Incessant mental labour of all kinds cannot be 
 expected to leave the body at seventy, in such a 
 state of health and perfect preservation as it is 
 evident you enjoy. It is only one more instance 
 of the domination of mind over matter." 
 
 And the Doctor said this very solemnly, with 
 his fat husky voice, as he crossed his hands 
 resignedly upon his rotund stomach.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 119 
 
 " True, brother," returned the elder Harring- 
 ton, in a very grave tone, but with a merry 
 twinkle in his eye ; " but you must take as 
 much care of yourself as you can. And, by the 
 way, what hours do you keep, Harry ? when do 
 you go to bed ?" 
 
 " Oh ! we are early people, we generally get 
 to bed by midnight; and Hutchinson always 
 brings me my hot water at nine, for the break- 
 fast is punctually on the table at ten." 
 
 " That's what you call early, is it ?" said the 
 other, with genuine surprise. " If I don't get 
 my first draught of morning air within half an 
 hour after the sun gets up, it never seems to 
 me to be fresh enough. And what do you do 
 with hot water, Harry, at that time in the 
 morning ?" 
 
 " Do with it ?" returned the Doctor, staring 
 at him, " why wash and shave, to be sure. 
 What do you do ?" 
 
 " Why I jump into the coldest bath I can 
 get," returned the senior, laughing. 
 
 " What, in winter ?" said the shivering Doctor 
 aghast. 
 
 " Winter and summer, seed-time and harvest, 
 every morning of my life if I can possibly
 
 120 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 manage it," said Walter, finishing his supper 
 as he spoke by tossing off a tumbler of water. 
 
 " You have taken no wine, brother," said 
 the Doctor. " You will find that sherry ex- 
 cellent." 
 
 " I have not the least doubt of it, Harry ; but I 
 never drink wine," was the reply. " Do you 
 use it much ?" added Walter, glancing at the 
 Warden's rubicund visage. 
 
 " But little," replied the reverend gentleman 
 gravely. " I very seldom take above a glass, 
 or at most two, at luncheon, and very rarely 
 exceed a pint at dinner." 
 
 " Well," returned the senior, after the pause 
 of a moment, " to tell you the truth, Harry, 
 I rather wonder that the scabbard has lasted 
 so well, if that is the treatment you give it. 
 But now before going to bed I must beg your 
 indulgence, Lady Augusta, for a companion of 
 my journey who is not quite so hardy as I am, 
 and who cannot do without the luxury of a fire 
 at night." 
 
 " My dear brother, I had no idea that you 
 had any one with you," cried the Doctor, rather 
 uneasilv. " I fear that we have not the means 
 of accommodating any — "
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 121 
 
 " Oh ! she will share my room," returned 
 the elder brother, laughing ; " or if not, she 
 will do capitally well in Kate's cell, if she has 
 only a fire in the room — that's the great 
 point." 
 
 " Some wretched Indian woman !" thought 
 the Doctor, greatly shocked, and equally em- 
 barrassed and surprised at this utter disregard 
 of decency ; and he was meditating in very 
 awkward silence how best to point out to him 
 the impossibility of his consenting to receive 
 such an inmate, when Walter added : 
 
 " I should like to show her to you. I'll 
 have her brought up here ;" and before his 
 brother could interfere to prevent his purpose, 
 he had opened the door, and ran down stairs 
 into the hall. 
 
 The Doctor and the Doctor's wife looked at 
 each other in dismay ; and young Harrington 
 and Kate looked at each other and laughed; 
 while Lady Juliana sat muttering that she was 
 not the least surprised, and that nothing better 
 could be expected from one who travelled on a 
 Sunday, when Mr. Harrington re-entered, fol- 
 lowed by a couple of men-servants carrying a 
 large deal box about four feet square, which by
 
 122 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the old gentleman's direction they placed on the 
 floor. 
 
 The party round him exchanged glances, ex- 
 pressive both of astonishment and dismay, but 
 waited in perfect silence for what was to follow, 
 Mr. Harrington the while occupying himself 
 busily in preparing to open the case. 
 
 " I was determined that you should be the 
 first to see her," said he, affectionately ; " and 
 she will be presented to-morrow, I hope." 
 
 " Presented ! Brother Walter," cried the 
 agitated Doctor, " what are you talking about ? 
 and what do you mean? and what can this 
 great box have to do with the person you were 
 speaking about?" 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha, ha !" laughed Walter, who had 
 by this time unloosed the fastenings of the 
 case. " This box, Harry, is for the present 
 the residence of the person I have been speak- 
 ing about. And the person herself," he added, 
 raising the lid as he spoke with an air of the 
 utmost pride and satisfaction, " the person her- 
 self is no less, as I flatter myself, than the most 
 magnificent boa-constrictor ever brought alive 
 to this country." 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the various
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 123 
 
 symptoms of terror and surprise which this 
 announcement produced among most of the 
 persons present. 
 
 The Doctor, who had been standing close 
 beside his brother, retreated four or five paces 
 with a more rapid and much less dignified step 
 than usual, exclaiming : 
 
 " God bless my soul ! Is the reptile safely 
 secured, brother Walter? Surely it is not 
 desirable to introduce animals of so formidable 
 a species into — into — the privacy of domestic 
 life ! It is very dangerous doct .... that is, 
 I mean to say, a very dangerous beast." 
 
 Lady Augusta and her sister had rushed 
 to the furthest corner of the room, and were 
 screaming together, " Shut the box ! shut the 
 box !" in tones that indicated approaching 
 hysterics. 
 
 Young Harrington had advanced to his 
 uncle's side, and was gazing with interest on 
 the apparently slumbering monster ; while Kate, 
 with her hand on her brother's arm, and half 
 shrinking behind him, was timidly venturing 
 to gratify her curiosity also. 
 
 Mr. Harrington, after striving in vain to 
 persuade the two elder ladies to come and look
 
 124 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 at the animal, by assuring them that it was in 
 a perfectly torpid state, closed the box, and 
 informed them, to their no small relief, that he 
 had brought it to England as a present to the 
 Regent's Park Zoological Gardens, and that 
 he intended to send it thither on the morrow ; 
 and then it was very satisfactorily arranged that 
 it should be conveyed to Kate's cell for the 
 night, and that a fire should be lighted there for 
 its especial accommodation and comfort. The 
 family party then separated for the night, but 
 not before Lady Juliana had observed that she 
 felt she owed it to herself to say that " it was 
 in her judgment a vain and sinful tempting of 
 the Lord, to feed and cherish animals which 
 He had selected as the fitting form of incarnation 
 for the eternal enemy of man, and a wicked 
 disobedience and rebellion to preserve and 
 cherish a creature whose head he had been 
 positively commanded to crush."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 125 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 We must perforce follow the Doctor and Lady 
 Augusta to their own apartment, for it was there 
 that a conversation took place between them too 
 important to our story to be omitted. It was 
 the lady who began it, which she did by address- 
 ing her husband by a title which she now rarely 
 used, except when she was not well pleased. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Warden !" said she, " what is 
 your opinion of this newly-found brother, who 
 is come back upon us like the prodigal son ?" 
 
 " My dear love !" quoth the Doctor, " the 
 parable, since you have referred to it, is as- 
 suredly intended to teach us what example to 
 follow, and what to avoid. I trust we shall be 
 ready to behave as did the prodigal's father, and
 
 126 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 not as his brother. More especially, Lady 
 Augusta, as in this case, the lost sheep has not 
 spent all he had in riotous living — or otherwise, 
 but very much the contrary." 
 
 " Come, come, Mr. Warden, let us leave 
 texts and parables to their proper place, if you 
 please, and endeavour to consider the important 
 matter before us with common sense if we can," 
 said Lady Augusta, which meant, in plain 
 English, and divested of the ordinary decencies 
 of expression, " Let us, in the consideration of 
 this matter, be guided wholly and solely by 
 motives of the most sordid kind ; let us throw 
 out of sight altogether all thoughts of duty, 
 kindness, or brotherly affection, and look entirely 
 at our own interests — our interests of the mean- 
 est and lowest sort." And yet how unfeignedly 
 shocked would that pattern of propriety, the 
 Doctor, or his superlatively correct lady have 
 been if this species of conference had been 
 openly and nakedly proposed by the one to the 
 other. 
 
 But the worshippers of decency and propriety 
 never do look at their own thoughts naked. 
 Indeed, for the most part, their thoughts can 
 scarcely be said to be born naked, but rather to
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 127 
 
 spring from the mind ready clothed with a 
 becoming and presentable vesture of decorous 
 semblance, and with the decent and becoming 
 veil of proper phraseology. 
 
 The Doctor replied accordingly to his respected 
 partner's harangue, and earnestly assured her that 
 his wish was to consider the subject on the 
 soundest and broadest principles of common 
 sense ; and he proceeded at once to give proof 
 of docile obedience by observing that his brother 
 must now be in possession of at least four 
 thousand a-year, and probably of a very con- 
 siderable sum of ready money besides ; for it 
 was well known that he had never spent above 
 half his income since he succeeded to the estate ; 
 " and even of that annual expenditure he tells 
 me," said the Doctor, with a tinge of pitying 
 contempt in his manner, " that a few hundreds 
 only have supplied all his personal wants, while 
 full fifteen hundred a-year have gone in the 
 purchase and transport of specimens for his 
 museum." 
 
 " Specimens ! specimens of what, in the name 
 of Heaven?" cried Lady Augusta with a 
 vivid appreciation of the value of fifteen hundred 
 a-year.
 
 128 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " How should I know," returned the Doctor, 
 with the dignified contempt which he invariably 
 felt for everything of which he was ignorant. 
 " Sticks, and stones, and trash of all sorts — 
 birds, beasts, and reptiles, dead or alive ! I have 
 no doubt that horrid monster he has been so 
 inconsiderate as to bring home with him, has 
 cost him more than a hundred pounds." 
 
 " Gracious Heaven !" cried her Ladyship, " is 
 it not dreadful to think that a man capable of 
 such preposterous absurdity should have the 
 uncontrolled disposition of four thousand a-year ! 
 I am sure many a statute of lunacy has been 
 taken out on less cogent grounds." 
 
 " Walter is eccentric, lamentably eccentric !" 
 replied the Doctor ; and then, he added, with 
 a touch of the pompous tone, and regular and 
 piston-like rise and fall of voice which con- 
 stituted his pulpit manner, " There never was a 
 more striking instance of the fatal results arising 
 from the neglect of a regular education, than is 
 exhibited in the deplorable wreck of his mind — 
 and intellect." 
 
 " The property is entailed, of course ?" said 
 Lady Augusta, interrogatively. 
 
 " No, my dear Lady Augusta, it is not.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 129 
 
 The entail was cut off by my poor uncle and 
 his son, who died very shortly afterwards. 
 Walter has the entire and unrestricted posses- 
 sion of the property, and may sell the whole 
 to-morrow, if he should think fit." 
 
 " Gracious Heaven !" again ejaculated her 
 Ladyship, " I wonder that I should have never 
 informed myself of all this before ! But, in 
 truth, I felt certain that our poor dear Henry 
 was heir to the estate as a matter of course. 
 And so, as a matter of course, he would be, 
 entail or no entail, if Mr. Harrington were a 
 different sort of man ; or, in short, if he were 
 in a condition to be considered as of sound 
 mind, which, to say the truth, I cannot con- 
 sider a man to be who is likely to defraud 
 his natural heir for the sake of selling his 
 estate, and sinking the entire produce in the 
 purchase of snakes ! I don't know what you 
 may think of it, Mr. Warden, but I am very 
 decidedly of opinion that the Lord Chan- 
 cellor's opinion would be found to agree with 
 mine." 
 
 The Doctor shook his head very mournfully, 
 but it might be doubtful whether it was be- 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 cause he differed from his lady, or agreed with 
 her. 
 
 "The very fact of his bringing that most 
 awful and abominable serpent into my drawing- 
 room," she continued, after pausing for a 
 moment to shudder as the fearful outrage 
 recurred to her ; n this very fact alone, the 
 mere statement of his having brought a boa 
 constrictor into the drawing-room of Lady 
 Augusta Harrington, would go far towards 
 convincing a jury of his insanity." 
 
 The Doctor listened to her very attentively, 
 and then replied : 
 
 " Absurd, as my poor brother's notions 
 appear to us, my dear, and monstrous as they 
 must appear to every man of enlarged mind, 
 and regularly finished education, I do not think 
 that his perversity of intellect amounts to what 
 the law calls lunacy. Moreover, it is a deplorable 
 fact, my dear Lady Augusta, that there exist 
 large bodies of men deeply infected with various 
 forms of very analagous mania." 
 
 This opinion was delivered in the Doctor's 
 most dogmatizing and impressive manner ; but 
 after a short pause, he added in a less magnifi- 
 cent tone of voice :
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 131 
 
 " However, despite his follies, my dear, I 
 must own that Walter has shown himself a 
 good and kind brother on more than one 
 occasion ; and I cannot but think that he will 
 eventually make such a disposition of his pro- 
 perty as we shall all think right and becoming. 
 But this, my dear Augusta, you must be sen- 
 sible, is but one part of the question." 
 
 " Of course," replied her intelligent Ladyship ; 
 " and though, for dear Henry's sake, it may 
 eventually be considered as the most impor- 
 tant, it is not the most pressing subject for 
 immediate consideration." 
 
 " You allude, my love, to the probability that 
 my brother may wish to reside with us ?" said 
 the Doctor. 
 
 " I allude, Mr. Warden, to the four thousand 
 a-year which this half-crazed brother has to 
 dispose of, whether he live with us or else- 
 where, and which he has evidently no more 
 need of, and no more idea what to do with, 
 than that great monster of a dog he has brought 
 with him." 
 
 " It would be a great thing for him to reside 
 under our roof, Lady Augusta," said the Doctor 
 in a meditative and rather melancholy tone. 
 
 k 2
 
 132 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " He must, my dear, be in sad want of guid- 
 ance and assistance of all sorts — even to the 
 enjoyment of the natural and most ordinary 
 comforts of life, of which he seems almost to 
 be wholly ignorant." 
 
 The words of very decent, well-behaved 
 people, like the Doctor, often require translating 
 into plain English, in order to be fully intelli- 
 gible even to their own hearts. 
 
 Thus the real thought which the Doctor's 
 last words ought to have expressed was : " It 
 would be a great thing for us if my brother 
 Walter could be persuaded to live with us, and 
 pay us a handsome sum from his abundant 
 income for board and lodging." Nay, if the 
 exact idea is to be completely rendered, the 
 recollection that the Brother Walter took no 
 wine must not be omitted. 
 
 Lady Augusta, however, who was a finished 
 mistress of decorum in all its branches, includ- 
 ing of course the use and ready comprehension 
 of its phraseology, was at no loss to understand 
 the Doctor's full meaning ; she understood it 
 perfectly well.   
 
 The key to this language is simply putting 
 words indicative of the generous, the noble, and
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 133 
 
 the great, in order to express thoughts shabby, 
 dirty, and little. It is a figure of speech which 
 furnishes immense resources ; and it may al- 
 most be said, that in the present state of society, 
 decency could scarcely exist without it. 
 
 And Lady Augusta replied accordingly : 
 
 " It would indeed, my dear Doctor, be every- 
 thing for the poor lonely man ! And the 
 thought does honour to your goodness of 
 heart, Henry ! But there are many objections 
 — many things to be considered. It must be 
 admitted, I know, that a brother has great 
 claims ; and God forbid that I should put any 
 difficulty in the way, from any consideration for 
 my own comfort." 
 
 " My dearest Lady Augusta," replied her 
 husband, with a tone and look of deep ad- 
 miration, " you are ever ready at the call of 
 duty. House-rent is enormously high in this 
 neighbourhood. I dare say now that it would 
 appear almost incredible to poor Walter, that 
 we should pay eight hundred a-year for this 
 house." 
 
 " The expenses of housekeeping too, at the 
 West-end of London," rejoined Lady Augusta, 
 " would doubtless appear to his almost savage
 
 134 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 nature absolutely preposterous. I dare say, poor 
 man, that he did not mean to ask for anything 
 out of the usual way when he told me to give 
 him a turkey for his supper to-night; and 
 turkeys costing, as our last did, twenty-five 
 shillings !" 
 
 " If my brother's tastes and habits should be 
 found to require that our moderate housekeeping 
 should be modelled on a more expensive plan 
 than heretofore, which certainly from the cir- 
 cumstance you mention does not seem altogether 
 improbable," said the Doctor, " if such should 
 really be the case, my dear, it would not be 
 right, I think, to make our home distasteful to 
 him by denying him comforts which he has such 
 ample means of commanding." 
 
 " Perhaps not," replied Lady Augusta, with 
 an air of lenient indulgence towards the sybarite 
 tastes attributed to Walter on the strength of 
 the turkey supper hypothesis. " Perhaps it 
 ivould be too much to expect that an old, self- 
 indulged bachelor, possessed of such a fine 
 income, should content himself with such frugal 
 housekeeping as ours ; for, Heaven knows, I am 
 often obliged to be careful. But it will be 
 absolutely necessary, Doctor, remember, should
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 135 
 
 any arrangement of the kind be proposed, that 
 this difference as to expenditure should be borne 
 in mind." 
 
 " Unquestionably !" was the only word uttered 
 in reply ; but it was spoken in the Doctor's 
 most decisive manner, and Lady Augusta was 
 so perfectly well satisfied by it, that early peas, 
 house lamb, and pate gras, were mentally set 
 down to Walter's account as necessaries that 
 he would consider indispensable, and must pay 
 for accordingly. And then her active mind 
 passed on rapidly to another item in the ac- 
 count, and to this she alluded in her own 
 peculiarly decorous manner : 
 
 " A brother, my dear Doctor," said she, in a 
 tone both gentle and affectionate, " a brother 
 has great claims, immense claims ; and God 
 forbid, as I said before, that I should stand in 
 the way of your doing a brother's duty. No, 
 not for the world would I be guilty of this : 
 but the bringing any inmate into such a family 
 as ours is a very serious thing, Dr. Harrington, 
 and ought to be very maturely considered in 
 every point of view. Now, there is one con- 
 sideration, and I should not be doing my duty 
 if I did not confess it, which may tend to
 
 136 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 render your brother an objectionable member of 
 our family circle. I allude to our daughter, 
 Dr. Harrington. Kate is young, and extremely 
 impressionable ; and I leave you to judge whether 
 the manners of savage life ; such — in short, 
 as we know must necessarily be those of Mr. 
 Harrington — are exactly the model on which 
 you would desire to see your daughter's 
 fashioned ?" 
 
 The Doctor, in his secret heart, knew perfectly 
 well that this high-sounding objection was not 
 intended to be insuperable, but was only brought 
 forward as an item in the bill to be charged and 
 paid for ; so he very gently replied : 
 
 " It is, as you most justly observe, my dear, 
 a matter of great importance, and one that 
 demands mature deliberation ; yet I cannot but 
 flatter myself, Lady Augusta, that this danger 
 may be met, and conquered, by a little increased 
 vigilance on your part ; and from this labour, 
 fatiguing as it may be, I know you will not 
 shrink. Nevertheless, I own that I certainly 
 do think that the necessity of imposing all this 
 additional trouble upon you, ought to be taken 
 into consideration w 7 hen we are fixing the amount 
 which my wealthy brother ought to contribute
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 137 
 
 to the expenses of our family establishment. 
 This would be but common sense and common 
 justice." 
 
 " I knew you would agree with me, dear 
 Doctor," replied her Ladyship, well pleased with 
 the deceit drapery with which he had so readily 
 covered up her not very gracious suggestion ; and 
 after the pause of a few seconds, she added, in an 
 accent of the most perfect conjugal confidence : 
 '* Well then, taking all things into consideration 
 what sum do you think it would be right to 
 name ? We had better make up our minds on 
 this point at once, my dear Henry ; for if your 
 brother has any idea of the kind, it is highly 
 probable that he will mention the subject to- 
 morrow, and it is quite as well we should have 
 mutually made up our minds upon the subject, 
 beforehand. Indeed, even if he should not 
 touch upon the matter at all, you will probably 
 think that it would be no more than brotherlv 
 affection demands if you were, unsolicited, to 
 propose this truly kind arrangement to him. In 
 any case, however, it is highly desirable that 
 you should be prepared. Our greatest difficulty 
 will be about a sitting-room for him. I suppose 
 it will be necessary to give him one of some
 
 138 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 sort or other ? I am afraid it would be very 
 inconvenient to give up your study. Do you 
 think you could manage without it ?" 
 
 "My dear Lady Augusta, it is wholly im- 
 possible — altogether out of the question — not 
 to be thought of for a moment ! I would far 
 rather give up London, and divide the year 
 between Oxford and Glastonbury." 
 
 This hint was sufficient, as the sympathising 
 feelings of the Doctor led him to anticipate 
 would be the case, and Lady Augusta made no 
 farther allusion to the sacred accommodation he 
 so dearly valued. 
 
 " There would be no difficulty," she resumed, 
 " in getting Kate to relinquish her rooms, but I 
 am afraid, from a few words which I overheard 
 to-night, from her uncle, that he would object to 
 any such proposal." 
 
 " My dear Lady Augusta," said the Doctor 
 eagerly, " now you mention Kate's room, I 
 remember Walter expatiated upon the great 
 pleasure and advantage arising from her windows 
 commanding such a fine view of the Park. Mow 
 it is obvious, I presume, for I have never been 
 in that part of the house myself, that the view 
 must be finer still from the room above. Surely,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 139 
 
 my dear, the two rooms over Kate's bed-room 
 and sitting-room would accommodate Walter 
 very satisfactorily ? With his extraordinary 
 activity too, it must be quite delightful to him 
 to ascend so many stairs. It is a law of nature, 
 a well-known law of nature, Lady Augusta, that 
 all creatures delight in exercising the faculties 
 which they possess in the greatest perfection." 
 
 " In that case," replied Lady Augusta, look- 
 ing extremely well-pleased, " in that case, Doctor 
 Harrington, all the servants must at once be 
 instructed that those apartments are no longer 
 to be called the back attics. The housekeeper 
 has hitherto slept in one of them, and the other 
 has been used as a lumber-room. Briggs must 
 now share my maid's-room, and the lumber- 
 room must immediately be cleared out. The 
 two rooms will then indeed form a most desir- 
 able apartment. Indeed, considering the purity 
 of the air, the beauty of the view, and the very 
 much greater quiet and tranquillity which they 
 must possess, they may very fairly, I think, be 
 considered as the best and pleasantest quarters 
 in the house." 
 
 " And even if they are so, my dear love," 
 rejoined the Doctor with an air of almost
 
 140 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 angelic benignity, " even if they are so, I should 
 still be well pleased that they should be given 
 up to my brother. His means are amply 
 sufficient to justify his being allowed to occupy 
 the best part of whatever house he may reside in. 
 And it will be a great pleasure to me, in any 
 conversation I may have with Walter on the 
 subject, to point out to him the desirable 
 features in the rooms which we are so fortu- 
 nately able to offer him." 
 
 " I am sure it will ! I am quite sure of it !" 
 replied her Ladyship approvingly. " But now, 
 my dear, let us return to the important question 
 — always bearing in mind the heavy expenses 
 which it is clear, even from the cursory exami- 
 nation of the subject that we have now given 
 it, that we must incur in making your brother 
 as comfortable as we would wish him to be, and 
 not altogether losing sight of what is due to 
 ourselves, and our children — what sum per 
 annum, Dr. Harrington, do you think it would 
 be right to propose to him ?" 
 
 Up to this point the conversation had proceeded 
 briskly enough, but this was the heart of the 
 matter, and it was a knotty heart, and the 
 Doctor paused long ere he replied to it, so long
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 141 
 
 indeed, that his impatient consort hastened his 
 deliberations by exclaiming : 
 
 " Well, Mr. Warden ! have you gone to 
 sleep ? or do you mean to keep me all night, 
 waiting for your reply ?" 
 
 Thus strangely urged, the worthy dignitary, 
 who far from forgetting this part of the subject, 
 had in truth been concentrating the whole power 
 of his mind upon it, at length made up his mind 
 to speak as follows : 
 
 " I am of opinion, Lady Augusta, that it 
 would be very greatly for my brother's advantage 
 to purchase all that a residence under my roof — 
 and yours, Lady Augusta — would give him, for 
 the annual payment of one thousand pounds. 
 I am sure we could not do it for less in justice 
 to ourselves." 
 
 Lady Augusta was disappointed. She had in 
 her own mind determined upon trying for half 
 as much again. So she returned to the charge, 
 by very emphatically exclaiming : 
 
 "No, Mr. Warden! no! that will not do. 
 It is all very well, and very natural for you to 
 feel generously disposed towards your brother, 
 but you ought not to exercise your generosity at 
 the expense of justice to your own family. You
 
 142 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 must know, perfectly well, that a thousand a- 
 year will not pay for choice rooms in a house of 
 eight hundred a-year ; a table of the most 
 costly, and probably troublesome kind, great 
 fatigue, great care, great anxiety and respon- 
 sibility, and the use of a carriage. Besides, 
 Sir, use your common sense for a moment, 
 and tell me, if you please, what is your bachelor 
 brother to do with the remaining three thousand 
 a-year ? Squander it, Mr. Warden ! squander it 
 in an unprincipled manner, in purchasing 
 absolutely useless trash. Is this right, Sir ? 
 Ought we to permit such shocking, such sinful 
 waste of money, if we can in any way prevent 
 it ? No, Mr. Warden ! most assuredly we 
 ought not. I think," she continued, in a gentler 
 tone, after taking a few minutes to recover her- 
 self from the shock which the Doctor's shabby 
 little estimate had caused her, " I think, that 
 with my careful management, I might be able 
 to make fifteen hundred a-year suffice — but 
 certainly not a shilling less, certainly not. In 
 justice to myself and my three children I could 
 not attempt it." 
 
 " I have not the least doubt that you are 
 perfectly right, my dear Lady Augusta," re-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 143 
 
 plied the Doctor, very docilely ; " not the least 
 shadow of doubt. You understand such mat- 
 ters much better than I do. I am only afraid 
 that Walter, who is of course more ignorant 
 of all these things than even I am, I am 
 only afraid that he might think fifteen hundred 
 a-year rather high for board and lodging ; 
 and that it might not occur to him to make 
 any allowance for — " here the Doctor hesi- 
 tated a little, " for — those other considerations, 
 which it is absolutely necessary to take into 
 the account." 
 
 " Upon my word, I will not suppose any- 
 thing so absurd, Dr. Harrington," said the 
 bolder-spirited lady. " If your brother," she 
 continued, " is really so completely ignorant of 
 the modes and customs of civilized society as 
 to be unconscious of the fact, he must by some 
 means or other be made to comprehend that 
 mere food and lodging do not include all the 
 requirements and expenses of a gentleman in 
 London. But I cannot think," she added, after 
 meditating in silence for a minute or two, " I 
 cannot think that a man who is capable of 
 paying above a hundred pounds for a hideous, 
 venomous snake, is likelv to care much whether
 
 144 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 he pays a little more or a little less for any- 
 thing." 
 
 And herein Lady Augusta made a nearer 
 approach to speaking the thoughts of her heart 
 than she had yet done. Her hopes of obtaining 
 a handsome addition to her husband's already 
 handsome income, were chiefly based on the 
 conviction that her brother in-law was too 
 " savage" to know or to care much about the 
 value or the use of money. 
 
 " Well, my dear love, resumed the Doctor," 
 " I defer entirely, as I said, to your better 
 judgment ; and whenever the subject comes to 
 be spoken of, I shall tell Walter that for fifteen 
 hundred a-year he may have in this house all 
 the comforts and blessings of a family, and a 
 home. But that for a smaller sum, it would be 
 impossible for me, without injuring my own 
 children, to receive him." 
 
 " The latter alternative to be, of course, 
 touched on only in case he object to the sum 
 named," said Lady Augusta. 
 
 " Of course, my dear, of course," was the reply. 
 
 And then this admirable couple turned each 
 on their respective pillow, and sunk into that 
 sweet sleep which those blessed by the approval
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 145 
 
 of their own consciences — and a good digestion 
 — are sure to enjoy after the fatigues of a well- 
 spent day. 
 
 * # # # * 
 
 And now before closing this chapter, we will 
 relieve the anxious reader's mind by communi- 
 cating at once the result of the important 
 proposition which had been decided on in the 
 preceding conversation. 
 
 Walter, as his thoughtful relatives had anti- 
 cipated, did not let the morrow pass without 
 adverting to his future plans. 
 
 It was in the Doctor's study, and imme- 
 diately after breakfast, that the conversation 
 between the brothers took place. The pro- 
 posal that the elder should find a home in the 
 house of the younger came from Walter, who 
 went on to talk of his brother's children, and of 
 their being all that he had to care for in the 
 world ; and he said how much he had been 
 charmed with all he had seen of his niece Kate, 
 and how needful it was to happiness to have 
 something to love, especially when one felt old 
 age coming on. All which were sentiments 
 highly praiseworthy, and pleasant to hear from 
 a wealthy bachelor-brother. But still there 
 
 vol. I. l
 
 146 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 was no opening afforded by which the Doctor 
 could enter upon the £. s. d. part of the 
 subject. 
 
 He began to get embarrassed and fidgetty ; 
 and at last, as Walter did not appear to be 
 getting at all nearer to this important portion 
 of the question, he desperately determined to 
 dash at it boldly, by saying : 
 
 " Ah, brother ! would to Heaven, it were in 
 my power to offer you all the blessings you 
 have been speaking of as freely as I would wish 
 to do it." 
 
 " My dear Harry," cried the simple Walter, 
 " is there any objection in the way ? I am 
 heartily sorry for it." 
 
 " There is no objection, my dear Walter, but 
 such as arises, alas ! from my restricted means, 
 and the terribly large expenses incidental to my 
 position." 
 
 " But this would surely be amended, dear 
 Harry, and not aggravated by our uniting our 
 means together," returned Walter. " My ex- 
 penses are small, and my wants few and 
 simple." 
 
 The Doctor was cruelly puzzled by this little 
 speech. The first clause of it seemed to inti-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 147 
 
 mate a possibility that Walter's notions of 
 contributing to the family expenses far exceded 
 in liberality all he had ever dared to hope for. 
 But then, the latter part of it seemed to indicate 
 a valuation of what he was to receive, which 
 would fall far short of what he and his ad- 
 mirable helpmate hoped to maintain. 
 
 After a short pause given to a hasty and 
 nervous calculation on the probabilities, he 
 decided that in any case it would be best to 
 come to the point at once, and he replied : 
 
 " You are, as ever, all generosity and kind- 
 ness, my dear Walter, and your truly brotherly 
 proposition emboldens me to say frankly, that I 
 think, by careful management, and by the help 
 of Lady Augusta's admirable economy, all those 
 blessings of which you have been speaking 
 might, without injury to my own family, be 
 secured to you for fifteen hundred a-year ; 
 including, you know," he added hastily, as if 
 anxious to modify the effect of his proposal, 
 " always including the use of a carriage." 
 
 " Well, my dear fellow, so be it," cried 
 Walter, cordially. " And I shall truly rejoice," 
 he added, " if the arrangement is any assistance 
 
 l 2
 
 148 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to you in defraying the heavy expenses you 
 speak of." 
 
 " Heavy indeed, my dear brother," returned 
 the Warden, with a sigh. " Ah, Walter !" he 
 added, " you don't know all that the world 
 expects from a man in my position." 
 
 And so it was definitively settled, to the satis- 
 faction of all parties, that Walter should have 
 board, lodging, family ties, and something to 
 love in his declining years, including the use 
 of a carriage, for fifteen hundred pounds per 
 annum, paid quarterly.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 149 
 
 CHAPTER XI, 
 
 The important arrangement which has been 
 recorded in the last chapter, caused Lady 
 Augusta to postpone the great party, which 
 has been already alluded to, for a week or two. 
 She had originally intended that it should come 
 off about the end of May, but the little revo- 
 lution in family arrangements which the arrival 
 of Mr. Harrington had occasioned, made it 
 convenient to postpone the ball, and the 
 25 th of June had ultimately been fixed on for 
 it, which day was now near at hand. 
 
 For although not a day had passed since 
 Walter's arrival, unmarked by some circum- 
 stance connected with his initiation into civilized 
 society, well worthy to have engaged the atten-
 
 150 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 tion of such small chroniclers as ourselves, we 
 are compelled to pass them in silence, in order 
 to leave time and space for what is to follow ; 
 and we must therefore hasten over the events 
 which have befallen our dramatis persona in 
 the interval at a hard gallop. 
 
 Walter had already seen much which had 
 appeared to him to be fully as astonishing as 
 anything that his widely extended travels had 
 shown him ; and the curious interest and very 
 great surprise and puzzlement which many of 
 the aspects of civilized life afforded him, were 
 increased in no slight degree by an inveterate 
 habit, very difficult to be broken through when 
 once contracted, of believing everything that 
 w r as told him. 
 
 Lady Augusta had done her best to make 
 her brother-in-law a little more presentable, as 
 she called it, and her well-meant efforts had 
 taken the form of sundry earnest lecturings 
 upon certain points in his conduct and bearing 
 which Walter thought infinitesimally small in 
 their significance, and which soon caused him 
 to assign to his sister-in-law a place in his mind 
 next door to that still occupied by his recol- 
 lections of Mrs. Ponsonby, whose unceasing
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 151 
 
 warfare against the dirty shoes and rumpled 
 shirt-collars of his naughty-boyhood still lived 
 in his memory. 
 
 He considered Lady Juliana as a very curious 
 but rather incomprehensible animal. There 
 was no great chance, certainly, that there would 
 ever be any great sympathy between them, and 
 in truth the pious spinster already hated the 
 " Godless savage," as she called him, with a 
 veiy zealous hatred. But it is true also that 
 he had given her considerable cause to do so, 
 and there really was great reason to fear that 
 the poor lady's life would become a burthen 
 to her in consequence of Mr. Harrington's 
 residence in the family, for causes of very 
 vehement offence were perpetually occurring. 
 
 Sometimes when Lady Juliana would heave 
 a sigh, or breathe forth a groan, such as are 
 considered in all civilized society to express 
 reprobation of the wickedness of those around, 
 or of compunction for the sins of the whole 
 world in general, Walter Harrington would 
 earnestly ask, " what ailed her ?" and that too 
 in a tone of such truly genuine solicitude, as 
 made it difficult for any by-stander to hear it 
 without a smile. And, moreover, the extreme
 
 152 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 amusement which everv such occurrence 
 evidently afforded the unregenerate Kate, occa- 
 sioned Lady Juliana the disagreeable sensation 
 of extreme and intense provocation. 
 
 Moreover, the offending wanderer was 
 always, and for ever, in such detestably high 
 spirits, and with so provoking an appearance of 
 happiness, that not even her secret conviction 
 of his eternal perdition appeared sufficient to 
 soothe the irritation of spirits which his joyous 
 hilarity produced — for did not his rude health 
 seem to defer to an almost indefinite distance 
 this just requital for all he made her suffer ? 
 
 Once, indeed, matters threatened to become 
 still worse between them, for she almost 
 succeeded in really offending the old gentleman. 
 
 It happened that Walter had, one Sunday 
 afternoon, proposed to the ladies that they 
 should accompany him to the Zoological 
 Gardens, and Lady Augusta and Kate had 
 readily accepted the invitation, to the great 
 scandal and indignation of Lady Juliana, whose 
 feelings were so vehemently excited by it, that 
 she turned to her sister, and said, with great 
 animation : 
 
 "Mr. Harrington, as an Atheist, acts with
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 153 
 
 perfect consistency in breaking the Sabbath; 
 but I do hope, Augusta, that you — " 
 
 A sudden and very unusual flush had spread 
 over the face of Walter Harrington. 
 
 " What do you say ?" exclaimed he, with an 
 intonation that made all present start. " But 
 it would be very silly," he added, in quite a 
 different tone, " it would be very silly to be 
 angry about it. Ladies should not use Greek 
 words, which doubtless they do not under- 
 stand." 
 
 "You must pardon me, Mr. Harrington," 
 replied the irritated lady, with an intensity of 
 bitterness which she took no great pains to 
 conceal, " you must pardon me, if I do not 
 plead guilty to the excess of ignorance w 7 hich 
 you are pleased to attribute to me. An 
 Atheist, Mr. Harrington is one who, as the 
 Scripture awfully describes it, lives without God 
 in the world — unhappily, we see but too many 
 such around us !" 
 
 "And may I ask you, Lady Juliana, upon 
 what grounds you have come to the conclusion 
 that I, and those you class with me, live, as it is 
 phrased, without God in the world ?" And now 
 Walter Harrington spoke gently and calmly.
 
 154 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " I have but to answer in the words of holy 
 writ, Sir ! ' By their fruits ye shall know them,' ' 
 replied the lady, with awful emphasis, and a 
 most lofty air of superiority. " And how can it 
 be supposed, Sir," she added very solemnly, 
 " that those who break God's commandments 
 can have the fear of Him before their eyes ?" 
 
 " Perhaps, Lady Juliana," replied the old man, 
 with a mild and solemn thoughtfulness, that 
 rendered his venerable physiognomy the beau- 
 ideal of a pious patriarch, " perhaps many such 
 may have that perfect love of God in their 
 hearts, which we are told casteth out fear. But 
 let me suggest to you, my good lady, that it is 
 unreasonable, as well as uncharitable, to con- 
 clude that those do not recognise God who 
 conceive of Him differently from yourself." 
 
 It must, of course, be scarcely necessary to 
 mention that Lady Juliana considered it now 
 more clearly proved than ever that Mr. Har- 
 rington was an Atheist, and that her conscience 
 very much applauded her for hating him more 
 than ever, accordingly. 
 
 The gentleman on his part, however, began 
 very seriously to nourish an opinion that her 
 Ladyship was a little, or perhaps not a little,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 155 
 
 insane upon such subjects. And perhaps he 
 was right ; although her insanity did not reach 
 the point at which it was likely to be recognised 
 as such by the world in general. 
 
 How arbitrary are the distinctions, and how 
 narrow the divisions of our phraseology ! The 
 world would have denied that the mind of Lady 
 Juliana was in a state to deserve the appellation 
 of insane, but a large portion of it would have 
 admitted that it was unsound. Walter did not 
 sufficiently recognise this difference between 
 tweedledum and tweedledee; yet it lawfully 
 divides the inmates of a mad-house from those 
 who put them there. 
 
 Meanwhile a very strong and fast friendship 
 had sprung up between Kate and her uncle. 
 There had been a mutual tendency towards 
 liking each other on the first evening of their 
 acquaintance, and this had ripened into a warm 
 and firm affection, with a rapidity which could 
 have been consistent with enduring solidity 
 only in the case of natures as wholly guileless, 
 open, and unreserved as those both of the uncle 
 and niece. It is curious to observe how quickly 
 and spontaneously natures which deserve to be 
 trusted, trust, when they encounter beings as
 
 156 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 single-hearted as themselves. Kate, though she 
 was a good and very affectionate daughter, and 
 had never in her life dreamed of mistrusting her 
 father in any way, yet felt conscious that some- 
 how or other she could a thousand times more 
 readily have confided the inmost secrets of her 
 heart to her Uncle Walter than to her father, or 
 to her mother either. 
 
 And what heart is there, however innocent, 
 however guileless, but has its secret ? 
 
 It was fortunate that this confidential feeling 
 existed between the uncle and niece, because 
 Walter was a person from whom it was very 
 difficult to hide any secret in which his heart 
 took an interest. The secret which reconciled 
 the seeming contradictions of Lady Augusta's 
 ourning desire to have the Duchess of Benlo- 
 mond at her ball, with the constantly disparaging 
 way in which she spoke of that noble star of 
 fashion, might have rested securely impenetrable 
 by Walter to the end of time ; and yet there 
 were other secrets which some persons might 
 think quite as much beyond the sphere of an 
 old bachelor which it would have been very dif- 
 ficult to conceal from him. 
 
 Not, indeed, that the noble-hearted old man
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 157 
 
 had the remotest thought of prying into the 
 secrets of any one, for he would most scrupu- 
 lously have looked to the left, had any one told 
 him that if he looked to the right he might see 
 what the parties concerned desired to conceal 
 from him. But he was slow to suppose that 
 anybody wanted to conceal anything ; never- 
 theless, the habits of more than half a century, 
 spent in observation of all that was presented to 
 his reasoning faculties, had given an acuteness 
 to his observing powers, which enabled him to 
 understand much which might have passed 
 unnoted, or remained unintelligible to less 
 practised faculties. 
 
 And thus it had come to pass that Uncle 
 Walter was very considerably more aware than 
 his niece Kate herself, that she was rapidly 
 learning to consider Mr. Caldwell as so very 
 admirable a person, that pretty nearly all the 
 world beside was absolutely nought in compari- 
 son. He knew that young ladies from about 
 seventeen, to — not all his acute observations 
 had enabled him to assign the other limit to the 
 period — but he knew that ladies from seventeen 
 upwards, were liable to this sort of vehemence 
 in their feelings and opinions, and like a dutiful
 
 158 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 disciple of Nature, he accepted the fact as 
 incontrovertible. It next became a question 
 with him, whether he should turn his acute 
 perspicacity to account by communicating his 
 discovery to the young lady herself, or whether 
 he should do no such thing, but suffer matters 
 to take their own course. After some considera- 
 tion, he decided on the latter plan. 
 
 All he had seen of Mr. Caldwell, inclined 
 him to think highly of him ; but his interest in 
 Kate, and her welfare, did not permit him to 
 remain satisfied with so slight an acquaintance, 
 and the active old man had taken measures to 
 obtain farther and more particular information. 
 The more he learned concerning him, the more 
 inclined he became to hope that the attachment 
 would prove to be mutual ; and accordingly, he 
 decided in his own mind that if Mr. Caldwell 
 and Kate chanced, or chose to fall in love with 
 each other, there was no just cause or impedi- 
 ment why they should not be joined together. 
 
 Between young Harrington and his uncle 
 there was also a sort of friendship, and a 
 certain degree of mutual liking. There was a 
 fresh sincerity, and very genuine dislike to falsity, 
 cant, and humbug in them both ; and this very
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 159 
 
 soon operated as an attraction and tie between 
 them. But the same quality had produced 
 different effects on the two natures, or rather, 
 perhaps the effects varied because they had been 
 called into action under widely different circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The younger man had passed the last 
 half-dozen years of his life in the. fashionable 
 world of London and Paris, and the averseness 
 to seeming which has been mentioned as a 
 prominent feature in his character, had generated 
 in him a bitterly sarcastic spirit which was far 
 from producing a healthy or fruitful condition 
 of mind. 
 
 The truthful simplicity of the old naturalist, 
 on the contrary, was that of a man who has 
 hardly ever made acquaintance with falsehood, 
 who knows nothing of it, nay, disbelieves in its 
 existence except as a rare monstrosity. 
 
 There was ever in young Henry Harrington's 
 mind, and in his manners too, a something of 
 harshness, and a tone of sneering which grated 
 painfully against the warmer sympathies, and 
 more genial temperament of his uncle ; while, 
 on the other hand, the simplicity and worldly
 
 160 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 ignorance of the senior frequently produced 
 something very like contempt from the worldly 
 wisdom of the far more narrow-minded junior. 
 
 Both, however, were very strongly persuaded 
 that the other would have been a very noble 
 fellow, had he but enjoyed the good fortune 
 of living the life, and passing through the 
 training which- he himself had done. Such an 
 opinion as this, is far on the road towards 
 mutual esteem. 
 
 With all the three Wigginsville sisters, 
 Walter had become, more or less, an intimate 
 and valued acquaintance. Miss Mary Jane 
 did not, indeed, venture to display too much 
 cordiality towards him in the Vale Street 
 drawing-room, and in the presence of her valued 
 friend the Lady Juliana, for she was perfectly 
 aware that her regenerated Ladyship had pro- 
 nounced him to be a brand given over to the 
 burning, and considered him as neither more 
 nor less than pitch, which could not be meddled 
 with without defilement. At the Wigginsville 
 tea-table, however, at which Walter had several 
 times been a guest, the gentleness of the fair 
 devotee's nature was permitted to mitigate the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 161 
 
 severity of her theology, and she suffered herself 
 to hope that the call, which she confessed with 
 a sigh had been lamentably long delayed, would 
 come at last. 
 
 Miss Hannah's really sound sense and good- 
 ness of heart constituted a natural bond of 
 alliance between her and Mr. Harrington, which, 
 to say the truth, was not a little strengthened by 
 the trifling eccentricities, and small rebellions 
 against society in the matters of bibs and 
 tuckers, coat-lappets and hats, of which both 
 were wont to be guilty. 
 
 As to Miss Jemima, she very naturally 
 considered this new acquaintance to be clearly 
 marked out by his attainments, pursuits, and 
 high reputation in the scientific world as one of 
 her especial subjects and admirers ; while, on the 
 other hand, the venerable philosopher was fully 
 aware that he owed to her particular penchants 
 and habitual associations, the pleasure of fre- 
 quently meeting in the Wigginsville drawing- 
 room many persons distinguished in various 
 scientific pursuits, with whose names and reputa- 
 tion he was perfectly familiar. 
 
 If to all this we add that Mr. Garbel had 
 
 VOL. I. m
 
 162 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 been briskly pushing on the siege he was laying 
 before Miss Mary Jane's gentle heart, the reader 
 will be able to enter with lis on the next scenes 
 of our drama with a clear comprehension of the 
 position of the dramatis persona.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 As volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and 
 other such great convulsions of nature, are 
 generally heralded by portentous heavings, 
 thunderings, and rushing of mighty winds, 
 so did the Doctor's house in Vale Street show 
 for many days manifest signs and warnings of 
 the coming eruption of festivity, so long pro- 
 jected by Lady Augusta. 
 
 This fated 25 th of June fell on a 
 Wednesday, and it was now the preceding 
 Monday. Already the first floor of the house 
 presented the appearance of the main-deck of 
 a ship of war prepared for action. 
 
 The unhappy Doctor — happy enough, indeed, 
 in the prospect of the splendour which was 
 
 M 2
 
 164 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to be the result, but most unhappy amid the 
 agonies and convulsions of preparation — the 
 miserable Doctor kept himself hid and shel- 
 tered, as far as was possible, in the sacred 
 retreat of his study. But even that was to 
 be invaded on the morrow, for it was there 
 that the family must live, and — deplorable 
 profanation ! — it was there that on the great 
 day itself such miserable morsels as they might 
 obtain by way of dinner, must be eaten ! the 
 handsome dining-room having to be surrendered 
 into the hands of Gunter and his myrmidons. 
 Moreover, this sacred scene of sacred study was 
 to become the receptacle of cloaks and shawls 
 throughout the livelong night ! 
 
 Walter, whose rooms might on this occasion 
 with some show of truth be indeed called the 
 most desirable part of the house, inasmuch as 
 in their lofty tranquillity they were far above 
 the tumult and the din, Walter wandered about 
 the transformed mansion greatly astonished and 
 inexpressibly perplexed; observing everything, 
 but comprehending nothing. 
 
 On one occasion he ventured to ask Lady 
 Juliana, who was superintending the tying up 
 of flowers into garlands, why the comfortable
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 165 
 
 chairs had all been removed from the drawing- 
 rooms, and those very disagreeable and ugly- 
 looking benches ranged round the room ? 
 
 " I am seeing these garlands constructed at 
 my sister's urgent request, Mr. Harrington," 
 she replied. " But these are pomps and 
 vanities which I do not willingly meddle with. 
 You had better ask Lady Augusta." 
 
 " Vanities ! These miserable little mimicries 
 of seats are indeed a vain delusion for all who 
 would rest upon them ; but I should not think, 
 Lady Juliana, that the severest anchorite that 
 ever lived could call them pomps. They appear 
 to me worthy of a penitential cell." 
 
 " How hardly shall the things appertaining 
 to the spirit be understood by such as are under 
 the dominion of the flesh !" returned Lady 
 Juliana with a groan. " But I assure you, Sir," 
 she added, " that I am not sufficiently of the 
 world to explain its ways to you." 
 
 Lady Juliana was one of the tolerably large 
 class who profess to think, and probably do 
 think, th,at fetes, and finery, as well as most 
 other pretty and agreeable things, can only be 
 enjoyed at the risk of eternal burning here-
 
 166 UNCLE WALTER, 
 
 after, a bargain which with great prudence and 
 good sense they decline making. 
 
 And in this respect, at least, the position 
 of Lady Juliana in her sister's family was a 
 fortunate one, for the ci-devant beauty might 
 there enjoy the pomps and vanities which she 
 had been early taught to love, at the expense 
 of her sister's soul, and that of the Doctor, 
 on the very easy condition of entering, in her 
 own person, an occasional protest against their 
 worldly-minded enjoyments. 
 
 It is curious to see how easily professing 
 believers in the doctrine of eternal punishment 
 for the sins committed during our present state 
 of existence, make up their minds to believe 
 that all those nearest and dearest to them (if 
 they choose to differ in religious doctrine, or 
 religious practice) will not only perish ever- 
 lastingly, but will be subjected during countless 
 ages to the most torturing agonies that their 
 organization can be made to endure. 
 
 Both Romanists, and Calvinists gravely pro- 
 claim that such is their belief; but if it be so, 
 it is really difficult to comprehend how they 
 can look forward to Such a destiny for those
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 167 
 
 they love with the philosophical composure 
 that we witness. 
 
 The Romanist indeed has the consolation of 
 believing; that if he can but contrive to raise 
 money enough to pay for masses for those who 
 have died in their sins and their unbelief, they 
 may still have a chance, or rather a certainty, 
 of escaping; but the adherents to the Lady 
 Juliana's much more terrific creed permit them- 
 selves no such soothing alternative, and it is 
 therefore really astonishing to see with what 
 unflinching courage they contemplate the awful 
 result, of which they declare themselves sure, 
 beyond the possibility of mistake. 
 
 Walter, whose curiosity respecting the com- 
 fortless benches, w r as perfectly genuine, and still 
 perfectly unsatisfied, ventured to attack Lady- 
 Augusta herself on the subject in the very 
 midst of her cares and manifold anxieties, 
 
 " Lord, Mr. Harrington !" was her impatient 
 reply, " it is to make room to be sure. I hope," 
 she added with conscious pride, " that there will 
 not be standing-room, even on the stairs. I 
 have more than three hundred on my list." 
 
 "But surely, in that case, my dear sister, 
 your friends will find themselves very uncom-
 
 168 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 fortable, especially in this hot weather. Would 
 it not have been more hospitable to have named 
 a whole week instead of one day, and have let 
 them come in comfortably, forty or fifty at a 
 time ?" 
 
 " Fiddlesticks ! Friends and hospitality in- 
 deed ! Do you really suppose now, Mr. Har- 
 rington, that I care one quarter of a straw for 
 all these people ? Not I, Sir, believe me. 
 But you do not understand these matters, my 
 good Walter. Friends and hospitality are all 
 very well in the country, but they have very 
 little to do with a London cram." 
 
 It was not a very easy matter, however, to 
 enable Walter Harrington to bring his bar- 
 barous mind to take in the fact that the coming 
 solemnity owed its origin in no respect and in 
 no degree to any feelings of kindness, hospitality 
 or friendship whatever, but wholly and solely 
 for vanity and ostentation, stimulated, however, 
 by the hope that every penny expended would 
 be repaid by a quid pro quo of some sort or 
 other. 
 
 This, indeed, might be said with equal justice 
 of all the parties given by Lady Augusta, and 
 all the other ladies of her class ; but this iden-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 169 
 
 tical party had a special and more than usually 
 important end in view, and one that it is neces- 
 sary we should explain to the reader. The said 
 reader already knows that Lady Augusta Har- 
 rington had a daughter ; and as this fair 
 daughter had attained the witching period of 
 eighteen years of age, it was become of course 
 the first object of her mother's life to obtain a 
 good marriage for her. That her beautiful 
 Katherine should marry well, was at this period 
 decidedly the most anxious wish of her mother's 
 heart. There is no need to explain what Lady 
 Augusta meant when she talked of Kate's 
 marrying well, for the phrase is too generally 
 understood to bear the sense which her Lady- 
 ship assigned to it, for any explanation to be 
 necessary. 
 
 How this great object of securing a good 
 marriage for Kate was to be forwarded by her 
 mother's cramming all her acquaintance into 
 a space too small to hold them, would have 
 furnished another puzzle for Walter, as difficult 
 to solve as the substitution of hard benches for 
 soft chairs ; but this needs no explanation to 
 those who are initiated into the mysteries of the 
 fashionable world. And Heaven forbid that
 
 170 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 we should do any of our readers the cruel 
 wrong of supposing that they are not of the 
 number. 
 
 But in thus brilliantly filling her rooms on 
 this particular occasion, Lady Augusta had an 
 especial object. 
 
 The London season of this year had witnessed 
 the first introduction of the young and im- 
 mensely wealthy Lord Goldstable to the perils 
 and delights of our magnificent metropolis. 
 This fortunate youth, who had just reached the 
 conclusion of a long minority, was the only son 
 of a long-descended Scotch Earl ; a strange sort 
 of man, half-philosopher, half-misanthrope, and, 
 as some of his neighbours declared, very nearly 
 whole madman ; some proof of which was 
 furnished by the fact that in dying he left his 
 little motherless son to the sole management of 
 an old bachelor acquaintance and neighbour, 
 a recluse whom nobody knew, and nobody cared 
 to know. 
 
 A tutor had been provided for him, who 
 remained with him till within a few months 
 of his coming of age, when the poor man 
 died, leaving the young Earl and his old guar- 
 dian to a rarely-broken tete-a-tete.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 171 
 
 By the especial request of the late Earl, this 
 very faithful old guardian had taken up his 
 residence in the wide old Scotch castle, in 
 which his friend had lived and died. This 
 castle had a noble lake near it, so the young 
 Earl had learned to manage a boat, sails and 
 all ; he could moreover swim like an otter, 
 and row like a Thames waterman. Game of 
 all kinds abounded in the woods, so Lord 
 Goldstable had learned to be a capital good 
 shot, and he could hunt too, and leap any- 
 thing. 
 
 In addition to all this, he had learned to read, 
 write, and was tolerably well acquainted with 
 the initiatory parts of arithmetic ; but he 
 stopped short at the rule-of three. 
 
 Moreover, from the age of ten to sixteen, he 
 had been constantly attended once a-week by a 
 dancing-master, who drove himself over from a 
 town at the distance of ten miles from the 
 Castle, to perform this service. 
 
 That the tutor, who was an " Oxford scholar," 
 had duly gone through the ordinary routine of 
 instilling as much Greek and Latin into his 
 pupil as he could contrive to make him imbibe, 
 is not to be doubted, for the tutor was a very
 
 1 72 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 honest, worthy man ; but he died in consequence 
 of a fever caught during a long and stormy 
 passage across the lake, before his pupil had 
 made any very great progress in classical erudi- 
 tion. 
 
 The only relation the young man had in the 
 world who moved in the circle denominated 
 " the great world" was old Lady de Paddington, 
 who has been already mentioned as the intimate 
 friend of Lady Augusta Harrington. For some 
 time before Lord Goldstable had obtained the 
 age of twenty-one, and for some time before 
 Kate had obtained the age of eighteen, it had 
 occurred to these very intimate friends that the 
 great-nephew of the one would make an excel- 
 lent match for the daughter of the other, and 
 many had been the pleasant half-hours they had 
 spent together in laying plans for bringing them 
 together in such a manner as to ensure the 
 young man's falling in love with Kate, before he 
 could have an opportunity of falling in love with 
 anybody else. 
 
 Kate Harrington, in truth, was so very pretty 
 a creature that it really seemed almost as certain 
 to Lady de Paddington as to the proud mother 
 herself, that it would be only necessary to let the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 173 
 
 young man see Kate once, looking as they had 
 both seen her look in the brilliant atmosphere 
 of a ball-room, in order to enchant his eyes, 
 win his heart, and obtain the offer of his hand. 
 
 It was obviously certain, however, that dozens 
 of other mothers, and most of them of higher 
 position than Lady Augusta, would be equally 
 anxious for the honour of becoming; his mother- 
 in-law, and therefore both the plotting ladies 
 felt that priority in " the start" might be every- 
 thing. 
 
 Lord Goldstable had been just turned out 
 from the bag of his minority, a fact perfectly 
 well known to all studious mothers possessing 
 " The Peerage," and was expected to give the 
 town a very fine run. By the invaluable assist- 
 ance of the great-aunt, an assistance bien entendu 
 to be paid for by sundry grateful and convenient 
 little attentions, Lady Augusta had been enabled 
 to dart upon him the very moment his nose had 
 become visible, and by the skilful management 
 of Lady de Paddington the " honour of his 
 company" at Lady Augusta's ball had been 
 secured, before he had entered as a guest into 
 any house in the metropolis save her own. 
 Whether such a manoeuvre might be within the
 
 174 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 limits of fair sport, or whether it might be stig- 
 matized as poaching we must leave to the jury 
 of mothers to decide. 
 
 Lord Goldstable was, as we have said, very 
 rich, and he certainly was, moreover, very silly. 
 His riches amounted to eighty thousand a-year, 
 and the accumulations of a long minority. The 
 amount of his silliness cannot be stated with 
 equal accuracy, but it was very great, and we 
 shall probably not be far wrong if we estimate 
 it as being as much above the ordinary average, 
 as his wealth was. But despite his silliness, it 
 would be cruel not to feel some degree of in- 
 terest for him. Reared in deep seclusion, igno- 
 rant of almost all things, and especially so of 
 the world and its ways, shy, diffident, and awk- 
 ward, the unfortunate lad was turned out to run 
 for his life as best he might, through the hungry 
 pack of scamps and blacklegs, both noble and 
 ignoble, plotting mammas and fascinating daugh- 
 ters, rogues, libertines, and leeches of all sorts. 
 And to these tribes, as to all others, their 
 natural prey is appointed, and in sufficient quan- 
 tity. But hares have their swiftness, bulls 
 their horns, and horses their hoofs, as the 
 Grecian poet remarks ; and rarely indeed does it
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 175 
 
 happen that any animal is delivered over to his 
 natural enemies in so wholly defenceless a condi- 
 tion as was that helpless young peer. With 
 such an auxiliary as his great-aunt, and only 
 near connexion, it must be evident to all that 
 Lady Augusta Harrington started with very 
 great advantages. It so chanced that she had 
 it in her power to be often of very essential ser- 
 vice to the hig-h-born, but far from wealthv old 
 lady, who almost appeared to have the right of 
 disposal of the helpless young peer ; the right of 
 presentation, we may fairly say, to that rich and 
 eligible piece of preferment amounting to eighty 
 thousand a-year, with a capital mansion, and 
 very light duty. 
 
 And thus it came to pass that the contracting 
 parties, Lady de Paddington, to wit, and Lady 
 Augusta Harrington, had determined and ar- 
 ranged that the first London ball-room which 
 his young Lordship entered should be that of 
 the last-mentioned lady. 
 
 This having been decided between them, the 
 preparations for this important fite were com- 
 menced immediately, not, however, till Lady 
 Augusta had performed that first and most
 
 176 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 precious duty of a good wife, namely, the taking 
 her husband into her confidence. 
 
 The Doctor had already heard Lady de Pad- 
 dington speak repeatedly of her great-nephew, 
 with all the tender interest which such a rich 
 great-nephew was likely to inspire in such a poor 
 great-aunt — for Lady de Paddington was really, 
 for a person of high rank, very poor ; but he 
 had never himself felt any particular interest 
 about the young man, till Lady Augusta opened 
 all her maternal heart to him on the subject. 
 
 The Doctor listened to her with deep atten- 
 tion, and replied very solemnly, after she had 
 completed the statement of her hopes and her 
 wishes : 
 
 " A great thing indeed, my dear ! Such a 
 marriage would, in truth, be an immense thing. 
 Dear child ! she would do honour to such a 
 splendid position, Lady Augusta. It really is 
 all that my fondest ambition could wish for my 
 darling Kate ; and I must say, Lady Augusta, 
 that your management of the whole affair does 
 you the highest honour. Pray, my dear love, 
 let nothing be spared to make this fete all that 
 it ought to be with such an object before us.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 177 
 
 Upon such an occasion, expense becomes a 
 very secondary consideration." 
 
 " I confess that I do flatter myself that the 
 thing has been conducted with some skill," 
 returned Lady Augusta. " But what will not 
 a mother's affection for her child accom- 
 plish?" 
 
 "Eighty thousand a-year, I think you said, 
 Lady Augusta, and the savings of a very long 
 minority ! God bless my soul !" ejaculated the 
 meditative Doctor. " Did you hear anything 
 of parliamentary influence, my dear ? But, of 
 course, a man with such a fortune must have 
 influence ; and I know that when Dr. Halchard 
 got his mitre, I was spoken of very favourably 
 in high quarters. You remember my having 
 preached once — Well, well ! God's will be 
 done !" 
 
 With this pious feeling beaming in every 
 feature, the excellent divine settled himself down 
 into his arm-chair, to indulge in a little com- 
 fortable castle-building, while his more active 
 consort proceeded to seek an interview with her 
 daughter, for the purpose of forwarding the 
 hatching of the chickens which she left the 
 Doctor counting. 
 
 vol. I. N
 
 178 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 "My dear Kate," said Lady Augusta, seating 
 herself in the arm-chair which occupied one 
 side of the fire-place in Kate's own sacred room, 
 and motioning her daughter at the same time to 
 place herself on the sofa opposite, " my dear 
 Kate, there are two or three important words 
 which, busy as I am at this moment, I am very 
 anxious to say to you. So listen to me, my 
 dear, with your best attention." 
 
 " I will indeed, mamma," replied the uncon- 
 scious Kate. 
 
 " You are well aware, my dear Kate," re- 
 sumed the anxious mother, " how earnest and 
 how unceasing have been the endeavours of your 
 father and myself to give you every advantage 
 which our position would admit of; but — "
 
 UNCLE WALTER. ] 79 
 
 " I am indeed, dear mamma," interrupted 
 Kate ; " and I am so truly sensible of all I owe 
 you, that I would do anything and everything in 
 my power to testify it ; but, unfortunately, it is 
 now very near the end of the quarter, mamma, 
 and I am afraid — " 
 
 Kate had fallen into an error, as people who 
 have the hasty and bad habit of interrupting 
 are verv aDt to do. But the fact was, that 
 Lady Augusta had so frequently prefaced little 
 demands on her fair daughter's purse by a pre- 
 cisely similar exordium, that Kate had taken it 
 for granted that the sequel was to be the same. 
 But her lady-mother now interrupted her in her 
 turn, and proceeded with some asperity of man- 
 ner to express herself as follows : 
 
 " I really am at a loss to guess, child, what 
 it is you mean about quarters. If you would 
 have had the good-breeding to permit me to 
 finish what I was saying, you would have found 
 out that it had nothing whatever to do with 
 quarter-day. Let me beg of you at present, if 
 you please, to listen to me with sufficient atten- 
 tion to prevent your making any more such 
 extraordinary and very ridiculous blunders." 
 
 The penitent Kate begged pardon very ear- 
 
 N 2
 
 180 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 nestly for her stupidity, and declared herself 
 ready to listen with the greatest attention. 
 
 " I consider you, Kate, at this particular 
 moment, in the very act, as I may say, of begin- 
 ning life." 
 
 Kate felt rather puzzled, but she had pro- 
 mised not to interrupt again, and therefore 
 looked with an air of innocent ignorance into 
 her mother's face, but said nothing. 
 
 " What I mean," said Lady Augusta, in reply 
 to this look, " is, that as you were only presented 
 this year, I consider your real life, properly so 
 called, to be just began. The ball which we are 
 now about to give is entirely for the purpose, 
 Katherine, of letting you be seen to advantage. 
 You are, I am sadly afraid, still younger in mind 
 than in years, at least upon some subjects of the 
 very first and greatest importance ; yet still I 
 think you cannot be so very childish as not to 
 know, that the first duty of a mother, who has 
 before her the anxious and important task of 
 marrying a daughter, is to take every possible 
 means of securing this object." 
 
 " Mamma !" exclaimed Kate, trying to laugh, 
 and to look as if she hoped that her mother was 
 laughing too.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 181 
 
 " This is no subject for jesting, Kate," re- 
 turned her mother solemnly, " and your father 
 would be very deeply shocked if he could believe 
 for a moment that you could speak, or even look 
 jestingly on such a theme. But let me go on, 
 and I trust that your good sense will enable you 
 to feel that it is no jesting matter that I am 
 now speaking of. This season, Kate — this Lon- 
 don season, I mean — will be rendered peculiarly 
 interesting to all persons in the higher classes of 
 society, by the introduction among them for the 
 first time of one of the most distinguished 
 young noblemen in Europe. I am speaking, 
 my dear, of the young Lord Goldstable. He 
 has just attained his majority, Kate, and I 
 believe our ball will be the first large assembly 
 of the fashionable world at which he has ever 
 appeared. Now, listen to me with attention, 
 my dear, that you may properly appreciate the 
 nature of the position in which we are placed, 
 and be prepared to act accordingly. Lord 
 Goldstable has eighty thousand a-year, Kate, 
 beside a vast amount of ready money. He has 
 been educated in strict privacy, and has hitherto 
 seen nothing whatever of the world ; so that 
 simple tastes, and virtue, and everything of that
 
 182 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 sort, so very desirable, you know, in a husband, 
 my dear Kate, is in this particular instance 
 perfectly assured, and, in fact, a matter of abso- 
 lute certainty. He has, as yet (except his great- 
 aunt, Lady de Paddington), no friends, nor even 
 acquaintances in London, and naturally, of course 
 you know, he is very shy ; but this must give 
 such a charming freshness of mind and manner, 
 as every one of right feeling must be delighted 
 with. Now I happen to know, Kate, that this 
 admirable young nobleman has heard of you in 
 a manner that has very strongly impressed him 
 in your favour ; and, in short, I have every 
 reason to think it extremely likely that he will 
 propose to you, Katherine; and if this most 
 happy chance should befall you, my dear love, 
 I surely need hardly tell you that your accept- 
 ance of him will make your excellent father and 
 myself the very happiest parents in the world." 
 
 " Oh, mamma ! mamma !" ejaculated Kate, 
 with something very like a groan. But in the 
 next moment she felt again inclined to laugh, 
 so truly comic did this specimen of maternal 
 partiality appear to her. 
 
 Jfc 4If 4I» «M» 
 
 "7T "71* "Tr •7V' 
 
 But her Ladyship said no more than the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 183 
 
 truth, when she stated that the young Lord 
 Goldstable had been already strongly prejudiced 
 in favour of Kate ; but the means taken for im- 
 pressing his simple Lordship thus favourably, 
 had indeed been rather stronger, and more direct 
 in their nature, than Lady Augusta deemed it 
 expedient to avow to her daughter. 
 
 The poor unfledged recluse was, in fact, most 
 painfully anxious about his debut in fashionable 
 life. He had notions rather vague, yet pretty 
 strong too, concerning the conspicuous place 
 which he was destined to fill in the world, but 
 these notions were painfully blended with an 
 indistinct sort of consciousness of his own unfit- 
 ness for the career before him. 
 
 In him the fear of ridicule — as is generally 
 the case in weak minds — was so extreme, as 
 almost to amount to agony, and the clever Lady 
 de Paddington had pitched on this point of 
 character whereon to rest the fulcrum of her 
 lever. 
 
 She had represented to him that she fortu- 
 nately had it in her power to present him to the 
 family of a young lady who was the present 
 reigning beauty of the town, the admired of all 
 admirers, for whose hand nearly all the leading
 
 184 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 unmarried nobles of England were competitors. 
 She informed him also that this lovely creature 
 had hitherto refused all the splendid offers 
 which had been made to her, from an uncon- 
 querable dislike to the bold, confident and 
 greatly sophisticated manners of the fashionable 
 town-bred men of the present day. She also 
 recounted in the most easy and pleasant 
 manner possible, that she had mentioned him 
 as a near relation, for whom she felt the most 
 affectionate interest, to the young lady's family ; 
 and that when the lovely daughter heard her 
 say that the life of her amiable young nephew 
 had been hitherto passed wholly in the country, 
 she had exclaimed with great enthusiasm : 
 
 " Well, then, once in my life, I have a chance 
 of seeing some one that I shall really like." 
 
 The young man listened to all this with a 
 heightened colour, and with such a look of 
 interest and curiosity that the skilful neo-ociator 
 was tempted to proceed. 
 
 " Sweet pretty creature !" she exclaimed. 
 " I do assure you, my dear Goldstable, that I 
 would have given a great deal at that moment 
 if you could only have looked at her, for I really 
 don't think that any man could have looked at
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 185 
 
 her with indifference as she said this. There 
 was something so beautifully innocent, yet so 
 sweetly animated in her countenance, that, if 
 you are not in love already, my dear nephew, 
 she must, I think, have captivated you." 
 
 " But why should you wish for that, aunt ?" 
 returned the blushing young nobleman, laugh- 
 ing. " I don't think it's very likely that I 
 should have a chance, when all the handsomest 
 fellows in London have been refused." 
 
 " Well, Edward," pursued the clever old 
 lady, with an admirable air of simple sincerity, 
 " I am not much surprised at your laughing at 
 me, because as you have never seen this lovely, 
 gentle, admirable girl, you can have no notion 
 of what she is, or of the perfectly good reasons 
 I have for wishing what I certainly do wish, 
 my dear nephew — namely, that you shall have 
 the happiness and the honour of carrying her 
 off from all competitors. You have no idea, 
 Edward, how everything, and everybody is 
 canvassed in the fashionable world ! Great 
 people, you know, have no business to occupy 
 them, and I suppose that is the reason why 
 they occupy themselves so much about the 
 affairs of other people ; and the consequence of
 
 186 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 this is, that no new person can make his or her 
 appearance in this said fashionable world with- 
 out being talked over in every drawing-room. 
 Now there is yourself for instance, my dear 
 Edward, you would hardly believe how much 
 you have been talked of already." 
 
 " Of me, my dear aunt ? How is it possible 
 that any one can talk of me ? I don't know 
 anybody in London." 
 
 " That makes no difference whatever, or 
 rather it causes you to be still more talked of 
 than if you were known," replied the old lady. 
 " That you are personally a stranger in the 
 circles of fashion is quite certain, but that by no 
 means impedes your being talked of. You 
 have a Viscount's coronet on your head, my 
 dear nephew, and moreover it is well known 
 that your income is large, and that your 
 minority was long ; neither is it any secret, my 
 dear, that your education has been a very 
 singular one, and that you have been brought 
 up in very strict retirement. The natural 
 consequence of which is, of course, that there is 
 a strong propensity among our gay nobles, both 
 male and female, to suppose that you will be 
 found excessively shy ; and I rather suspect that
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 187 
 
 some of these gay young lordlings enjoy not a 
 little the idea of being able to throw you into 
 the background, notwithstanding your title and 
 your noble estate." 
 
 " Then I am sure it is a great folly in me to 
 come to London at all, aunt," he replied ; " and 
 to tell you the truth, I do not think it was very 
 wise, or very kind of you, to urge my doing so in 
 the way you have done. If you had not told 
 me to come, I should have put off all that 
 bore about taking my seat, for I don't know- 
 how long." 
 
 " And it was for that very reason, Edward, 
 that I was so very anxious that you should 
 come at once. Nevertheless, my dear nephew, 
 I do not think I should have had courage to 
 urge your doing so in the manner I have done, 
 had I not clearly seen my way before me, and 
 felt very sure that instead of having the morti- 
 fication of seeing you puzzled, I might have 
 the extremely great pleasure of seeing you quiz 
 everybody." 
 
 " And pray, how is that to be managed, 
 aunt ?" returned the sensitive rustic, very 
 eagerly. " Prove your words in this respect,
 
 188 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 and I will thank you heartily, for it is just 
 exactly the thing I should best like." 
 
 " And it is very natural that you should like 
 it, Edward. All men like it, and more parti- 
 cularly, I believe, all young men. The way, 
 my dear boy, is very easy. I have told you 
 that all the fine fashionable men about town 
 have absolutely lost, not only their hearts, but 
 their heads, from their admiration of my beautiful 
 young friend Kate Harrington. Had I seen 
 any chance of her being persuaded to accept 
 any one of the splendid offers that were made 
 her, I most assuredly would have done nothing 
 to prevent it, for I should have considered the 
 doing so as nothing short of a sin ; but when, 
 on the contrary, I saw her weeping day after 
 day, because her parents were displeased at her 
 so perseveringly refusing all the proposals that 
 were made to her, my heart ached for her, and 
 I determined to make her tell me why it was 
 that she continued to act in a manner which 
 evidently rendered her unhappy, as well as her 
 parents. Dear child ! She really is an angel, 
 Edward ! I am sure I shall never forget her 
 answer."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 189 
 
 " But what was her answer ?" demanded the 
 young man. " May I not hear it ?" 
 
 " Yes, my dear," replied the old lady, after 
 the meditation of a moment. " I really do not 
 see that there can be any harm in telling you 
 what she said ; her answer was this : ' My dear 
 Lady de Paddington,' she said, ' I would do 
 anything in the world to please my dear father 
 and mother that I did not think wicked. But 
 I do assure you, that it would be very wicked in 
 me to marry any one of the young noblemen 
 that have proposed to me, for in the very bottom 
 of my heart I hate them all ! What other girls 
 seem to admire,' she continued, ' I positively 
 detest. I cannot bear their conceited air of 
 fashionable assurance. I would rather die an 
 old maid ten thousand times !' " 
 
 " What did you say in reply ?" said Lord 
 Goldstable, opening his eyes very wide, and look- 
 ing greatly interested. 
 
 " I only said very quietly," returned Lady de 
 Paddington, " ' Well, Kate dear, if you are re- 
 solved to die an old maid you must, so I do not 
 see the use of teazing you any more about 
 marrying.' 
 
 " ' It can be of no use indeed, Lady de Pad-
 
 190 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 dington, as long as I am asked to marry such 
 men as have had their heads turned by being 
 worshipped by all the ladies in London. I hate 
 such men ! and I think it very hard that they 
 cannot be contented to marry some of the young 
 beauties who all seem dying for them, instead 
 of tormenting me. But I cannot help thinking 
 sometimes/ she added, ' that I am very unlucky, 
 for if any young man who was not spoiled by 
 London conceit were to fall in love with me, I 
 feel almost sure that I should fall in love with 
 him.' This it was, Edward, that made me so 
 urge your coming to London, and it is this 
 which makes me so anxious that you should see 
 this celebrated beauty. If you admire her as 
 much as I think you will — and on this point I 
 have little doubt — your London career will indeed 
 open most brilliantly. Propose to her at once, 
 my dear Edward, and instead of being stared at 
 and quizzed by all the conceited puppies who 
 have vainly sought her hand, you will burst 
 upon the town at once as the winner in the 
 hottest race that has been run for years !" 
 
 The shaft was well aimed, and so keenly pointed 
 that the noble mark was pierced to the centre 
 as soon as hit.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 191 
 
 Poor Lord Goldstable poured out his silly 
 soul in gratitude to the scheming old lady ; and 
 it was decided that he should be presented to 
 Kate Harrington on the night of Lady Augusta's 
 ball, which was to take place on the following 
 night ; and that if he then found that he admired 
 her as much as he expected to do, his proposals 
 should be made with as little delay as possible. 
 
 All this was of course duly and accurately 
 reported to Lady Augusta ; and far as was our 
 simple-minded Kate from filling, or having 
 dreamed of filling, the place in the public eye 
 which Lady de Paddington had assigned to her, 
 her mother judged, and correctly enough per- 
 haps, that she possessed abundantly sufficient 
 charm, both of person and manner, to sustain the 
 part that had been allotted to her, before more 
 critical and experienced eyes than those of Lord 
 Goldstable. 
 
 Lady Augusta's interview with her daughter 
 
   was very skilfully brought to a conclusion, by 
 
 her Ladyship's hastily starting up and declaring 
 
 that one of Weippert's men was waiting for her,
 
 192 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 that the exact place for the orchestra might be 
 finally arranged ; and Katharine, to do her justice, 
 very soon forgot the nonsense her mamma had 
 been talking, by the simple process of remem- 
 bering that all mammas were said to fancy that 
 gentlemen were ready to fall in love with their 
 daughters.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The important evening of Wednesday, 25 th 
 June, at length arrived, and found the house and 
 family in Vale Street duly prepared for the great 
 occasion. The first floor was as brilliant as a 
 profusion of wax-lights, and a profusion of 
 flowers could make it ; the supper, which was 
 to be served at two, a.m., had been prepared in 
 Gunter's very best style ; the music was excel- 
 lent ; and any one unaccustomed to such things 
 might really have supposed that they were going 
 to enjoy themselves exceedingly, if they had 
 taken a review of the preparations before the 
 arrival of the actors who were destined to fill 
 the scene. 
 
 Our readers, however, are, of course, not so 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 rustically ignorant, and so wholly unaccustomed 
 to fashionable parties, as to suppose anything so 
 preposterously ridiculous, and so utterly unlike 
 the truth. They know, unless indeed they are 
 absolutely and altogether nobodies, how much, 
 and how little, of real enjoyment is to be hoped 
 for, when space enough for one hundred is to 
 be occupied by three. 
 
 The Doctor had petitioned hard for a whist-table 
 in the boudoir beyond the second drawing-room, 
 but this had been very properly and prudently 
 refused by the judicious Lady Augusta. This 
 charming little third drawing-room, this " sweet 
 boudoir," was destined for a far different pur- 
 pose ; nor was there a pretty woman in the room, 
 or a pretty man either, who would not have 
 been ready to declare that placing a card-table 
 in it would have been absolute profanation. 
 
 A profusion of the most beautiful hot-house 
 flowers, in gorgeous perfection of bloom, were 
 grouped whimsically, but very gracefully, about 
 the entrance, so as at the first glance to suggest 
 the idea that no ingress to it was intended ; but 
 these enticing obstacles were speedily discovered 
 not to be invincible, and once passed, something 
 like a fairy bower was found within.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 195 
 
 Experienced mammas will readily understand 
 me, when I say that such a spot is of as much 
 important use to their operations, as a landing- 
 net to an angler. 
 
 The door had been removed from its hinges, 
 but its place was admirably well supplied by the 
 graceful folds of a floating curtain of delicate 
 muslin, the drooping festoons of which, mingling 
 with the boughs of the plants beneath, rendered 
 the retreat within almost as effectually hidden 
 from passing eyes as if it really had not been 
 open to all who deemed it proper to penetrate its 
 verdant recesses. 
 
 The other rooms were, as we have said, very 
 brilliantly lighted ; but here one alabaster lamp 
 alone hung from the ceiling, and shed a deli- 
 cately tempered light, which bore about the 
 same proportion to the glare of the drawing- 
 rooms, as that of the pale moon does to the 
 lustre of the garish sun. 
 
 In the centre of this pretty trap, was — not a 
 morsel of toasted cheese, but a bewitching little 
 table with a set of chess-men upon it, and with a 
 small sofa behind it, and a large arm-chair in 
 front; moreover, there lay beside the chess-board 
 a small portfolio of drawings. Playing chess, and 
 
 o 2
 
 196 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 looking at drawings, are by no means among 
 the least important, or the least useful occupa- 
 tions, that can be found to vary the monotony of 
 waltzing. 
 
 Having been very officially and effectually 
 warned off from the boudoir, together with his 
 whist-table, the Doctor had proposed to establish 
 himself and it in Kate's cell ; and to this ar- 
 rangement she had very willingly consented, 
 having, however, very carefully taken precautions 
 before the great day arrived so to stow away her 
 secret treasures of all sorts, as to permit the 
 profane vulgar to approach the sacred precincts 
 without danger. 
 
 In the midst of all these busy preparations 
 for worldly, and therefore undeniably sinful, 
 amusement, it must not be doubted that Lady 
 Juliana suffered various great and grievous 
 pangs ; but she assured herself, as well as every 
 one else who would listen to her, that it was 
 her duty as a Christian to submit herself meekly 
 to the yoke which she had been appointed to 
 bear ; moreover, she also felt it her duty, in 
 return for her sister's hospitality in affording her 
 a home which she could not very conveniently 
 have afforded to herself, to comply with her
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 197 
 
 taste and wishes in respect to her attire, and she 
 therefore appeared on this great occasion dressed 
 in the most becoming manner, and in the 
 extreme of the reigning mode ; and having thus 
 in all things meekly resigned herself to the 
 doing her duty in that state of life to which it 
 had pleased God to call her, she proposed to 
 watch with a scrutinizing eye all the little insects 
 that were about to play around her, unconscious 
 of their doom, and mark them all sliding down 
 into the deep gulf of eternal perdition, with that 
 fervent species of holy satisfaction which must 
 naturally arise from the delightful consciousness 
 that she was not " of them." Her friend and 
 faithful ally, Miss Mary Jane Wigginsville, was 
 quite ready, and even eager to confess, that she 
 certainly did not think balls " consistent," but 
 professed the most amiable and flattering willing- 
 ness to be guided in her conduct on the present 
 occasion wholly by Lady Juliana's high principle 
 and excellent judgment ; and after a long and 
 edifying conversation which they held together 
 on the subject, she became persuaded that if it 
 were not her own fault she might convert the 
 abomination into a blessing, for she might place 
 herself near her devout and noble friend, and
 
 19S UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 listen to the pious and eloquent outpourings 
 of her spirit as she uttered those solemn pre- 
 dictions of the wrath to come, with which 
 she never failed to be inspired whenever she 
 saw people who appeared to be enjoying them- 
 selves. 
 
 Henry Harrington had undertaken to con- 
 stitute himself his Uncle Walter's cicerone for 
 the night. He was too much blase' to find 
 much pleasure and amusement in a ball, or at 
 least in such a ball as his lady-mother was 
 likely to give under the reverent roof of his 
 respected father; but he thought that very 
 considerable entertainment might be found in 
 listening to his fresh-minded old uncle's re- 
 marks, and in listening to all the questioning 
 he anticipated from him concerning all he 
 heard and saw ; for Walter's curiosity concerning 
 the whole process was evidently excited in no 
 common degree. 
 
 Lady Augusta meanwhile, though a slight 
 shade of care rested on her brow, was still her- 
 self, and like a consummate general on the eve 
 of an important action, felt that she could 
 depend upon her own resources, and was confi- 
 dent of success, though at the same time anxious
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 199 
 
 and vigilant to neglect nothing that might con- 
 tribute to it. 
 
 The first carriage is heard ! This is always 
 a nervous moment, when it suggests the question, 
 " Is everything ready ?" But most fortunately 
 Lady Augusta had given orders ten minutes 
 before that the candles should be lighted : the 
 rooms therefore were not in total darkness, al- 
 though considerably less than half that operation 
 had been as yet achieved. 
 
 " I will bet a thousand pounds that it is now, 
 as always, that detestable Miss Puddingthwaite," 
 exclaimed Lady Augusta, " who is here half an 
 hour before anybody else ! She does it on 
 purpose, in the hope of catching us with the 
 servants and ladders in the room, and the 
 candles not half lighted !" 
 
 " Why should she wish that ?" asked Walter, 
 determined to lose no opportunity of informing 
 himself of everything connected with the details 
 of the curious ceremony which was about to 
 take place, the whole of which appeared to him 
 unintelligible, and mysterious in no common 
 degree. 
 
 " Why ?" returned Lady Augusta, in a tone 
 of considerable acrimony, and with a shrug
 
 200 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 which she intended should he very expressive, 
 but which in no degree assisted the comprehen- 
 sion of Walter. " Why ?" she repeated bitterly, 
 " because she knows perfectly well that her 
 doing so will plague us ! Nobody, I believe, 
 likes to be caught in the very act of preparation 
 at all better than I do, and she is not at all 
 likely to forget that the lighting two or three 
 hundred candles before it is necessary, is what 
 nobody in their senses would choose to do if they 
 could help it. I know perfectly well now, and 
 always, that she does it on purpose to plague 
 me !" 
 
 " Then why ask so very spiteful and odious a 
 person to your house ?" said the investigating 
 Walter. 
 
 " Miss Puddingthwaite goes everywhere," was 
 the reply, and it was uttered in an accent which 
 plainly expressed that the information it con- 
 veyed was not of a nature to leave any doubt as 
 to its authority. 
 
 The puzzled Walter stared at her, and as he 
 had deliberately given himself up upon this 
 occasion to the study of the new scene and the 
 new people about him, he would probably have 
 proceeded farther with his inquiries had not his
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 201 
 
 sister-in-law stopped him by an expressive sign, 
 and by whispering almost in his ear the words, 
 " Hush ! she is here !" 
 
 And Miss Puddingthwaite it certainly was. 
 Lady Augusta's long experience and intimate 
 knowledge of the spinster's ways had not de- 
 ceived her. She stepped most cordially towards 
 her, however, and holding out both her hands, 
 cried in most affectionate accents : 
 
 " How very kind this is of you, my dear Miss 
 Puddingthwaite ! We were just saying that 
 we hoped you would come early ! It is so 
 friendly !" 
 
 " I was sure you would say so," replied the 
 smiling persecutor, casting round her a sharp 
 scrutinizing glance. " I certainly do like to see 
 the rooms everywhere before the crowd comes, 
 and you know you must let me go on in my own 
 way, and look at everything. What a magnifi- 
 cent show of flowers ! But isn't it a pity when 
 one thinks how soon they will begin to look 
 faded ? for, of course, we all know that not 
 quite all the blossoms we see, grow on the stems 
 which they now decorate so cleverly. However, 
 you certainly beat Lady Mary Compton in your 
 exotics, my dear ! By the way, I happened to
 
 202 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 be with her this very morning when the gar- 
 dener's bill for her last fete came in ; and it was 
 no trifle I assure you !" she added, directing a 
 sharp glance towards the Doctor, for the amiable 
 creature thought it by no means improbable that 
 Lady Augusta had been exceeding the limits 
 prescribed to her, and that she might produce a 
 somewhat uncomfortable feeling in the minds 
 both of the husband and wife by this statement 
 of costs. Lady Augusta, however, answered very 
 quietly : 
 
 " Yes, indeed, these things are shamefully 
 dear, like most other luxuries ; it is impossible 
 to do things liberally without paying for it. 
 But you know, my dear Miss Puddingthwaite, 
 that I am a very prudent person, and I limited 
 Jackson to forty pounds." 
 
 " Many of the specimens here are cultivated 
 with great difficulty in this country," said 
 "Walter; this subject being probably the only 
 one concerning the preparations for the evening 
 upon which he could have hazarded an opinion. 
 
 But his having made this remark caused 
 Lady Augusta to say: " My brother-in-law, Miss 
 Puddingthwaite. Mr. Harrington is a recent 
 accession to our circle." Miss Puddingthwaite
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 203 
 
 immediately honoured the old gentleman with a 
 sharp look of observation, and a low sweeping 
 courtesy, after which she prepared herself to pur- 
 sue her voyage of discovery round the rooms. 
 
 " Well done, Lady Augusta," she exclaimed, 
 after contemplating for a moment the meta- 
 morphosed boudoir ; " how beautifully you have 
 arranged that little back drawing-room. I do 
 declare it is perfectly charming ! such a Paphian 
 bower ! is it not ? But I can't help thinking, 
 my dear friends — I know you will excuse me 
 for making the remark — that it is not quite 
 impossible that ill-natured people might hint 
 something rather saucy and disagreeable, in the 
 way of quizzing I mean, on the perfect — seclu- 
 sion — I suppose we must call it of this delicious 
 retreat. One might almost fancy that it had 
 been arranged for the express purpose of favour- 
 ing a tender tete-a-tete. He, he, he ! You 
 must forgive me for laughing at my own ridi- 
 culous idea. But all joking apart, you know 
 the real fact is, that there are some people so 
 abominably censorious and ill-natured, that I 
 should not be in the least degree surprised if 
 disagreeable observations were to be made about 
 it. If I were you, Lady Augusta, I really think
 
 204 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 I should be inclined to remove those pretty 
 delicate curtains, or at least I would loop them 
 up a little higher." And Miss Puddingthwaite 
 gently extended her long arm, and raised the 
 drooping drapery as she spoke. 
 
 " Indeed ! do you really think so ?" returned 
 Lady Augusta, with an aspect so indifferent and 
 so immovable, that Miss Puddingthwaite must 
 have been tempted to wish herself at home 
 again, enjoying the luxury of her own sofa for 
 another hour or so ; nor were the words of her 
 philosophical hostess at all more satisfactory 
 than her looks, for she only added, in the very 
 gentlest tone imaginable : " Do you really think 
 so ? Gliddon's people put them up as you see 
 them, and they have a very general reputation 
 for understanding this sort of thing. They are 
 thought, I believe, to know what is graceful and 
 pretty better than anybody, so I think we had 
 better let them alone. And as to the dangers 
 and difficulties of the retreat, everybody must 
 judge for themselves." 
 
 While this conversation had been going on 
 in the second drawing-room, Walter, who had 
 withdrawn himself from the group in which it 
 had taken place, was receiving his first lesson
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 205 
 
 from his nephew, Henry, in the first and finest 
 apartment of the suite. 
 
 " Now then, Henry," said he, " you must 
 begin your duties by explaining to me, first, 
 why this Miss Puddingthwaite, being so very 
 disagreeable a person as she seems to be, should 
 be invited at all anywhere, and still more why 
 she should, as your mother says, be invited 
 everywhere? And, secondly, why her being 
 invited everywhere else, is any reason for your 
 mother inviting her here, notwithstanding the 
 strong feeling of dislike with which it is evident 
 she has inspired her? Both these points seem 
 to me to be full of mystery. But I presume 
 that, notwithstanding all that is so highly objec- 
 tionable in her character and disposition, she 
 must nevertheless possess some marked talent, 
 or some noble trait of heart, or intellect, suffi- 
 ciently valuable to over-balance all that has 
 been stated against her ?" 
 
 " One answer, oh, most methodical investi- 
 gator, may reply to both your questions," 
 returned Henry. " All Miss Puddingthwaite's 
 acquaintance dislike her as much as my mother 
 does ; and all invite her for the same reason, 
 namely, because all the rest do. To the best
 
 206 UNCLE WALTER 
 
 of my knowledge and belief, she has no good 
 quality either of heart or head to recommend 
 her ; but she goes everywhere, and there is 
 no one of whom this is said, who could by 
 possibility find the very slightest difficulty in 
 going anywhere. You must be pleased to under- 
 stand, oh, most unsophisticated uncle, that all 
 the denizens of this our mighty Babylon are 
 ever and always engaged in a vehement twofold 
 struggle, consisting on the one hand of a con- 
 stant effort to get pulled up into the social 
 level just above them by a sort of moral 
 clinging to the skirts of their superiors in 
 the great hierarchy, and on the other by an 
 equally increasing endeavour to shake off, and 
 kick down, those who from below are striving 
 to cling to them. All this is very hard work, 
 and requires an immensity of patient perse- 
 vering exertion ; but it is really wonderful to 
 see the unwearying courage with which this 
 ceaseless labour is pursued ! If the same 
 principle of our nature could by any accident be 
 set to work upon learning to fly, depend upon 
 it you would speedily see the whole atmosphere 
 •crowded by ladies and gentlemen meandering 
 between earth and the blue expanse of heaven.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 207 
 
 Such ardour and perseverance must succeed 
 in the long run, let it aim at what object it 
 will. But to return to our Miss Pudding- 
 thwaite. It so happens that she has, and is 
 perfectly well known to have, a particularly 
 tight hold of the skirts of the Duchess of 
 Benlomond, and my good mother, therefore, 
 clings with an equally tenacious grasp to her 
 skirts. In such a struggle as this, it is evident 
 that if we seem to fail, we fail ; and if Miss 
 Puddingthwaite were not here to-night, it would 
 be deemed a certain symptom that the star of 
 the house of Harrington was sinking, which 
 would be seen, noted, and perhaps triumph- 
 antly hailed by some of our most particular 
 friends." 
 
 " Our name stands in the list of the knights 
 who fought and conquered at Cressy," said 
 Walter, laughing, " but I do not remember that 
 of Puddingthwaite either there or in any similar 
 chronicle." 
 
 " There be many among us, good uncle," 
 replied the nephew, " who in our millocratic 
 philosophy have deemed it ' wisest, discreetest, 
 best,' to discard altogether the old-fashioned 
 pride of ancestry. Ancestry, Uncle Walter,
 
 208 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 will not enable a man to give a good ball, or 
 even a good dinner. It is possible, certainly, 
 that a man who traces his pedigree to the 
 Conquest, may be admitted into the charmed 
 circle of fashion, but most assuredly he will 
 seek to enter it in vain, if he have no claims 
 which entitle him to a more substantial and 
 younger-born sort of sympathy." 
 
 " Really ?" said Walter, with the air of one 
 who meditates upon a proposition that is new 
 to him ; and after a minute so spent, he added : 
 "Well, perhaps it is more reasonable that it 
 should be so ; but it is an innovation, 
 Harry." 
 
 It was evident that Walter's education was 
 going on very prosperously, but it was inter- 
 rupted ever and anon by the arrival of more 
 guests. We shall not trouble the reader with 
 the bead-roll of them. There were of course 
 the usual proportion of wits and fools, of 
 beauties and frights, of quizzers and quizzed — 
 in short, the usual proportion of the usual 
 types ; for the social world may always be 
 ranged under a few strongly marked classes, 
 each cast in its own mould, for very rarely 
 indeed do we meet with an individual who has
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 209 
 
 a mould to himself; and when we do, we shall 
 find that the world looks on him as a mon- 
 strosity, and generally treats him as the herd, 
 full of the pasture, does the solitary stricken 
 deer. 
 
 TV* X TT 
 
 Lord Goldstable was among the early 
 arrivals. Of course, he appeared with his 
 great-aunt, Lady de Paddington, and was duly 
 presented by her to every individual of the 
 Harrington family. His arrival caused no 
 little sensation among such of the company 
 as were already assembled, for no sooner had 
 his name been pronounced, than he was at 
 once recognised as the newly- emancipated 
 minor whose great possessions had for some 
 time past been canvassed and estimated by all 
 the mammas, a good many of the daughters, and 
 not a few of the gay young sons, who constituted 
 the " fashionable world," of the present season. 
 
 The poor golden calf himself, whom all these 
 various devotees were zealously preparing to 
 worship, was very far indeed from being in a 
 state of enjoyment. He was a tall gawky lad, 
 with large heavy features, which though not 
 particularly ill-formed were utterjy devoid of all 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 intellectual expression, or any such degree of 
 animation as might redeem their heaviness. 
 His complexion was ruddy and betokened 
 abounding health, his eyes bashful and dull- 
 looking, and his straight hair of a light straw 
 colour. 
 
 The poor boy's face became positively purple 
 as he advanced up the room to the group of 
 which Lady Augusta was the centre, and every 
 feature, every limb, and every movement gave 
 token of shyness and embarrassment. Poor 
 fellow ! he would at that moment have thank- 
 fully given a large slice out of his wide-spread 
 acres could his so doing have enabled him to 
 look, and to feel, like any one of the gay and 
 graceful young men whom he saw around him. 
 The only redeeming peculiarity of his appear- 
 ance, which was a look of unmistakable good- 
 humour, could not avail him now, for he looked 
 and felt infinitely more disposed to cry than to 
 laugh. 
 
 Kate's reception of him was admirable, and 
 such as nothing but a large share of good sense 
 could have enabled her to achieve under the 
 existing circumstances ; for most assuredly if it 
 had been Lady Augusta's object to make her
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 211 
 
 daughter look and feel annoyed and awkward, 
 upon seeing him, instead of graceful and 
 gracious, she could have done nothing more 
 likely to produce such a result than what she 
 had done. 
 
 But our quiet Kate appeared not to be in 
 any degree affected by it. The very keenest 
 eye — and there were several very keen eyes 
 fixed upon her — could not detect the slightest 
 shade of greater or of less empressement, of 
 greater or of less courtesy, than the occasion 
 called for. 
 
 Had she indeed never heard of the awkward 
 and painfully shy young man before, she would 
 very probably have been induced by his evident 
 suffering to take some pains to put him at his 
 ease, by at once entering into conversation with 
 him. But this she did not do. Her mother's 
 harangue concerning him was too fresh in her 
 memory to permit it, and this omission was the 
 sole effect as yet produced by it. But if Kate 
 did not converse with him, her mother did ; for 
 passing her arm under that of her dear friend, 
 Lady de Paddington, she led her, accompanied 
 of course by her young nephew, to the second 
 drawing-room and thence into the sweet dimlv- 
 
 p 2
 
 212 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 lighted retreat afforded by the boudoir. And 
 here for a few moments the young novice 
 almost enjoyed himself, for he cordially agreed 
 in the opinion expressed by his great-aunt that 
 it certainly was the very prettiest thing in the 
 world. Moreover, he had the satisfaction of 
 hearing the sound of his own voice again, for 
 the easy, amiable questionings of Lady Augusta, 
 as to what he had seen in London, and how he 
 liked it, made the effort of replying to her won- 
 derfully more easy than he could have believed 
 possible before their conversation began. 
 
 Lady de Paddington perceiving that her pro- 
 tege was getting on admirably well, ventured to 
 leave him for a few minutes, that she might 
 indulge herself by a short tour round the rooms, 
 chiefly for the purpose of turning the heads of 
 all the mothers and daughters she met by 
 making them comprehend that the first match 
 of the season had been brought to the identical 
 ball-room where they now found themselves by 
 her, that she should be delighted to introduce 
 this darling nephew to them, &c, &c. And 
 then perceiving in the most satisfactory manner 
 that she had made herself of immense conse- 
 quence to them all, and that dinners and opera
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 213 
 
 boxes would be speedily at her feet, she sud- 
 denly bustled back to the boudoir, declaring that 
 her dear Edward would think she had forsaken 
 him. 
 
 She found her friend Lady Augusta still 
 busily engaged in convincing Lord Goldstable 
 that he was the most lucky fellow in the 
 world, for having made acquaintance so early in 
 his career with such a very kind and charming 
 person as Lady Augusta Harrington ; for she 
 had already given him to understand that in 
 consequence of the tender friendship existing 
 between his admirable Aunt de Padding ton and 
 herself, she felt the truest interest for him, and 
 that she hoped and trusted that whenever he had 
 an hour to spare he would bestow it upon them ! 
 An hour to spare ! He who had not the very 
 slightest idea what he was to do with himself 
 during all the multitude of hours that he was 
 going to pass in London ! Certainly, Lady 
 Augusta Harrington was the most delightful 
 woman he had ever seen in his life ; and if the 
 beautiful daughter was but as kind to him as 
 the mother, it should not be his fault if he did 
 not give the go-by to all the young fellows in 
 London, and carry her off as his bride.
 
 214 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 He had very fully arrived, at this con- 
 clusion, when his aunt, Lady de Paddington, 
 re-entered the boudoir. The two ladies inter- 
 changed one rapid glance ; it was very rapid, 
 yet it said plainly, " All goes well," on the part 
 of Lady Augusta, which the answering glance 
 said as distinctly, assisted by a very slight move- 
 ment of the head, " Go then, and leave me with 
 him." 
 
 Need it be said that Lady Augusta took the 
 hint? 
 
 " Now then, dear Edward, tell me what you 
 think of a London ball-room ?" said Lady de 
 Paddington, gaily. " Can you deny that there 
 is something enchanting in the whole scene ?" 
 
 " It is all beautiful, aunt !" eagerly responded 
 the young man. " It is almost midnight, I 
 believe, yet I will be hanged if I don't think it 
 is lighter than mid-day." 
 
 " And the splendid dresses, Edward, and the 
 beautiful women ? I flatter myself that you are 
 not conscious of any feeling like disappoint- 
 ment." 
 
 "Not I, indeed, Aunt de Paddington. But 
 I can tell you that the girl you called Miss Har- 
 rington is the handsomest of them all. She is
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 215 
 
 for all the world like what one sees in a picture. 
 I don't at all wonder at what you told me, 
 about all the young fellows wanting to marry 
 her." 
 
 " It will be your own fault, Edward, if any 
 young man succeeds in that quarter except 
 yourself. Just remember all I told you about 
 her dislike to all young puppies. But hark 1 
 they are beginning to play a w T altz. Come 
 directly, and ask her to dance. As you are the 
 stranger, and the man of greatest consequence 
 in the room, it is absolutely necessary that she 
 should open the ball with you. Come with me 
 directly, Edward. There she is !" 
 
 Not one word of all his aunt had told him 
 respecting Miss Harrington had escaped his 
 memory ; and it was therefore with a stouter 
 heart than he had himself dared to hope for, 
 that he now approached her, and said in a much 
 steadier voice than might have been expected : 
 
 " Aunt de Paddington says, Miss Harring- 
 ton, that you and I ought to dance the first 
 waltz together. Will you, please ?" 
 
 " I would have done so with pleasure, my 
 Lord," she replied good-humouredly, " but that 
 I am engaged."
 
 216 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " Dear me !" returned the young peer, look- 
 ing considerably disappointed, " I wonder what 
 we had better do, then ? I will go and ask her, 
 shall I ?" And away he went to consult his 
 instructress on this unforeseen emergency. 
 
 Kate, meanwhile, stood up to dance with 
 Mr. Caldwell, the young barrister, and her doing 
 so was in fulfilment of an engagement of some 
 days' standing. 
 
 It had by this time become sufficiently clear 
 both to the gentleman and lady, as well as to 
 Uncle Walter, that the moments they spent 
 together were far sweeter than any other mo- 
 ments in their lives. The young man, indeed, 
 had very stoutly made up his mind to attempt, 
 without further delay, to secure a continuance 
 of these delightful moments for life ; and it 
 would be inconsistent with the veracity of her 
 historian to pretend that no idea of the same 
 sort had ever presented itself to Kate. In truth, 
 Kate knew perfectly well, or to speak more 
 correctly, she believed without any mixture of 
 doubt, that she w 7 as beloved ; nor did she make 
 any attempt to conceal from herself that the 
 love she had inspired was reflected back again 
 from her own heart, and that nothing less than
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 217 
 
 the breaking of that heart could destroy the 
 image impressed upon it. Kate was very young, 
 and very young people are generally sanguine 
 in the view they take of the future ; had she 
 been a few years older, her imagination might 
 not have passed so rapidly, or so easily, over 
 the impediments which were pretty sure to 
 intervene between her and her hopes. 
 
 As to the young man himself, though he 
 was a good ten years her senior, he was, to say 
 the least of it, fully as sanguine as her hopeful 
 self in his contemplation of the future. But 
 his hopefulness was of a totally different kind. 
 Perhaps he knew, even better than Kate her- 
 self, how utterly her mother, and it might be 
 her reverend father too, would scorn, and how 
 resolutely they would reject, such an offer as he 
 could make her. But the conviction of all this 
 did not discourage him. Frederick Caldwell 
 was in many respects a singular young man ; 
 and the view which he took of the probable 
 result of the step he was resolved to take, was 
 more influenced by his own character than by 
 the apparent circumstances of the case. 
 
 He felt quite certain, and his opinion on this 
 point was perfectly correct, that he should not,
 
 218 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 and could not, have fallen in love with Kate had 
 she in any particular, or in any degree, inherited 
 the intellectual peculiarities, or the social views 
 and opinions, of her parents. 
 
 The beauty of the young girl had certainly 
 appeared to him of a peculiarly captivating cha- 
 racter, but this would never have sufficed to 
 induce him to seek her as a wife. But it had 
 chanced that they had more than once fallen 
 into conversation together, in a strain not quite 
 so common-place as he had usually found to 
 prevail among the young and lovely of his 
 female acquaintance ; and the opinions he con- 
 trived to elicit from her were for the most part 
 so exceedingly unlike what he probably expected 
 from the daughter of the Warden of All Saints, 
 and the Lady Augusta his wife, that he was 
 caught almost as much by the feeling of sur- 
 prise as of admiration. 
 
 One of the earliest thoughts suggested to 
 him by the closely observant study which he 
 bestowed upon her character, was that such a 
 creature as Kate Harrington would never permit 
 herself to be wooed, and won, by any man whose 
 chief claim to her favour consisted either in 
 rank or in riches. He was himself a gentle-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 219 
 
 man by birth and education ; and though his 
 fortune was not such as to justify his feeling 
 himself independent of the profession which the 
 father he had so recently lost had chosen for 
 him, it was sufficient to make him feel very 
 nearly indifferent to the fact that the young lady 
 he loved was comparatively rich. 
 
 Never for an instant did the idea occur to 
 him that her being so would influence her recep- 
 tion of his proposal ; and as to the opposition 
 which, as a matter of course, he knew would 
 arise from the evident vanity and ambition of 
 her parents, he looked at it certainly without 
 alarm, and almost with indifference ; for who, 
 knowing Kate as he knew her, could believe 
 that she would permit herself to be the victim 
 of such opinions, or yield to any authority which 
 would seek to enforce them ? 
 
 As yet, however, he had not proposed to her, 
 but Kate, as we have said, was pretty certain 
 that he would ; and the nonsense which her 
 mother had talked about Lord Goldstable, was 
 most assuredly not remembered by her as being 
 sufficiently important to increase any difficulties 
 she might have to encounter, when she declared 
 it to be her intention to accept his hand.
 
 220 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 But neither the gravity of this her fixed 
 determination, nor any doubts or fears respect- 
 ing its effect upon her family, could prevent her 
 enjoying the happiness of the passing hour ; for 
 was she not dancing to sweet music ? and was 
 not the man she loved her partner ?. And she 
 yielded herself to the influence of these circum- 
 stances, according to the ancient and immemo- 
 rial custom of eighteen. 
 
 Before this first dance was over, Lord Brand- 
 ling, a College friend and companion of Mr. 
 Caldwell's, had engaged her for the ensuing 
 quadrille, so that a second application from poor 
 Lord Goldstable proved as unsuccessful as the 
 first. But on this subject his aunt had in the 
 interval given him a useful hint, by which he 
 immediately profited, for when refused for the 
 next dance, he boldly begged to be accepted for 
 the one after ; and this was accorded to him. 
 
 Lady de Paddington had meantime found a 
 moment to ask Lady Augusta hurriedly what 
 was the meaning of the strange mischance which 
 had occurred ? and what her daughter could be 
 thinking of? Lady Augusta declared herself, 
 and with very perfect sincerity, to be excessively 
 ansrv.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 221 
 
 " It is impossible to understand it," she ex- 
 claimed, " but I will speak to her instantly." 
 And she drew near her beautiful daughter ac- 
 cordingly, and said in an angry and hurried 
 whisper : 
 
 " Good Heaven! why are you not dancing 
 with him? What are you dreaming of?" 
 
 " Do you mean Lord Goldstable, mamma ?" 
 replied Kate, quietly. "I am going to dance 
 the next dance with him." 
 
 " And take care, if you please, that I see 
 no levity of any kind !" again whispered her 
 mother. " Your whole life may depend upon 
 this evening. For goodness sake be careful !" 
 And so saying the anxious mother and the 
 gracious hostess glided away to a distant part 
 of the room, leaving Kate to finish her dance 
 with Lord Brandling ; but this time the poor 
 girl thought more of the difficulties before her, 
 and vastly less of what she was doing, than 
 before this first change of partners had taken 
 place. But on the second change, which made 
 the blushing Lord Goldstable her partner, she 
 really exerted herself to be agreeable, for she 
 was full of good-natured consideration for his 
 evident shyness ; and so well did these efforts
 
 222 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 succeed, that before the dance was ended the 
 poor boy began to feel that his excellent great- 
 aunt was quite right, and that the very best 
 thing he could do would be to marry Miss 
 Harrington directly. 
 
 The unaffected good-humour and quiet sim- 
 plicity of her manner, had in truth made him 
 feel completely at his ease, and so perfectly 
 happy and comfortable, that he was quite ready 
 to declare a fine London ball-room to be the 
 most agreeable place in the world, and falling 
 in love there the most agreeable, as well as the 
 most natural occupation. 
 
 Nevertheless he discreetly determined that he 
 would not be too much in a hurry, and there- 
 fore very deliberately decided that he should 
 postpone the making an offer of marriage to 
 the charming young lady, so skilfully and so 
 kindly selected for him, till the next quadrille, 
 for which he engaged her as soon as she had 
 given him to understand that the next dance 
 was a polka, for his Lordship did not "polk" 
 (the last May Fair supplement to " Johnson's 
 Dictionary," if we be correctly informed, con- 
 tains this verb), and therefore his rival, his per- 
 fectly unconscious rival, Mr. Caldwell, had the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 223 
 
 advantage of being her partner during the inter- 
 vening dance. Now this trifling delay caused, 
 as it turned out, an important change in the 
 aspect of Kate Harrington's affairs; and it 
 furnishes an important lesson to all young men 
 at present entering upon life, by showing the 
 immense importance that may, and probably 
 must, attach to their learning to polk. 
 
 At the conclusion of the quadrille a pause 
 ensued in the dancing, occasioned by the en- 
 trance of half a dozen ice-trays, which had to 
 win their by no means easy way round the ball- 
 room. 
 
 " The whist-table is in your cell, Miss Har- 
 rington, is it not ?" said Mr. Caldwell. " Shall 
 we pay your father a visit ? The crowd here, 
 just now, is perfectly overpowering." 
 
 " It will indeed be a great relief to get into a 
 cooler atmosphere," replied Kate ; and they 
 made their way accordingly through the ice- 
 eaters who had established themselves on the 
 staircase, and succeeded, though not without some 
 little difficulty, in getting to the card-room. 
 
 Here they found eight very comfortable look- 
 ing ladies and gentlemen, so quietly amusing 
 themselves at whist that they really looked as if
 
 224 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 they intended to exhibit the strongest possible 
 contrast to the scene below, to all such as might 
 seek refuge there from the brilliant suffocation 
 of the ball-room. 
 
 Kate paused behind the chair of her father 
 for a moment ; but that moment was a critical 
 one, for the fate of the rubber depended upon 
 the odd trick, for which the parties were in the 
 very act of struggling. 
 
 " Well, papa, how goes the game?" said 
 Kate. 
 
 " Lost ! if you come and talk to me, my 
 dear," replied the Doctor. " Pray go away," 
 he added, very gravely. 
 
 Whereupon his daughter, who really felt 
 shocked and penitent at having been guilty of 
 so ill-timed an intrusion, took advantage of the 
 open window which led to her recently com- 
 pleted conservatory, and stepped out into the 
 midst of her own roses and geraniums. And it 
 so happened, that before she stepped in again 
 she had accepted Mr. Caldwell as her affianced 
 husband, just as her father exclaimed in a voice 
 of triumph the important word, " Won." 
 
 Miss Harrington danced the next quadrille 
 according to promise, with Lord Goldstable.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 225 
 
 They spoke but little during the dance, for Kate 
 was rather absent, and her noble partner was 
 screwing his courage to the sticking place and 
 considering how best to word the proposal, 
 which he had determined to make the moment 
 he had led her to a seat. Nor did he, even 
 when this tremendous moment arrived, shrink 
 from his purpose. 
 
 " Miss Harrington," said he, placing himself 
 beside her in a corner which was fortunately at 
 that moment perfectly unoccupied, " my aunt, 
 Lady de Paddington, Miss Harrington, who 
 knows London well and all the people in it, I 
 believe, my aunt tells me that my having such 
 a large fortune and a coronet too, you know, 
 would be enough to make all the pretty girls in 
 it quite ready to marry me. I am quite sure 
 you won't say yes to me for that reason, because 
 you are and must be, so very much above any- 
 thing of the kind — but yet I hope and trust 
 you won't say no. Do be so very good as to 
 accept me, will you? It would make me so 
 very happy ! And I should love you so very 
 much; and we should be so very happy toge- 
 ther. Do say yes, will you ?" 
 
 The astonishment of Kate at this unexpected 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 address was so great as positively to deprive her 
 for the moment of all power to answer it. And 
 then indignation or something like it succeeded 
 to surprise, and her complexion which had been 
 considerably paler than usual but a moment 
 before, became flushed, and her eyes flashed too. 
 But before she could turn their angry glances 
 full upon the offender, she became so conscious 
 of the absurdity of her own situation and of 
 his, that if she had looked at him at all she 
 would very probably have committed the ex- 
 treme impropriety of laughing. 
 
 The feelings which led to this were not, how- 
 ever, likely to last long ; she felt that however 
 ludicrous his mode of wooing her might be, it 
 must very gravely and very effectually be put an 
 end to ; and the anger of her indignant mother 
 then came before her with so much distinct- 
 ness, that the drollery of the business was very 
 speedily forgotten. 
 
 Lord Goldstable meanwhile stood beside her 
 twitching the tips of his gloves, and shifting 
 from one foot to the other in an agony of un- 
 certainty as to what was to be done or said 
 next. At length, however, Kate turned gravely 
 but gently towards him, and said :
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 227 
 
 " Your opinion of me is very flattering, my 
 Lord, but believe me you will spare both your- 
 self and me pain if you will say no more upon 
 the subject." 
 
 Her voice betrayed agitation, which the young 
 man immediately perceived, and that with very 
 considerable satisfaction, for he thought to him- 
 self that it was as clear as daylight that they 
 both felt just the same. It was therefore with 
 renewed spirit that he replied : 
 
 " Not say any more upon the subject? How 
 can you say such a thing? But you can't 
 think it, I am sure of that. Not say anything 
 indeed ! Oh ! Miss Harrington, I don't think 
 I shall ever be able to talk about anything else I 
 No, then, I know I shan't, so it's no good to 
 expect it. -And then they say — that is, she 
 says — that it is the very best thing in the world 
 for me to do. Come, now, do say yes ! But 
 at any rate don't say no ! — Silence you know ! — 
 Eh ! Miss Harrington ? Well, then, only just 
 say that you will dance with me again after the 
 next polka. How I do wish I could dance the 
 polka." And as he said this he turned sud- 
 denly towards her, and attempted to take her 
 hand. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 She rose suddenly for the purpose of leaving 
 him, for at that moment she felt she had no 
 power of bringing this most absurd scene to a 
 conclusion in any other way. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! oh, dear !" he cried, " you are 
 not going away, are you ? Pray don't, Miss 
 Harrington ! I am not going, you know, to 
 think that you are in love with me now, I don't 
 expect such a thing. But indeed, indeed I'll do 
 everything you like ; and upon my honour I'll 
 make you quite comfortable and — and — all right 
 now, isn't it?" 
 
 At this moment a rapid step approached, 
 and on looking up Kate saw Mr. Caldwell 
 standing close to her. She instantly passed her 
 arm under his and walked away, flattering her- 
 self that the reception she had given to the 
 young rustic's strange attempt at love-making, 
 was such as would effectually prevent his re- 
 newing it.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 229 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Lady de Paddington's first care on learn- 
 ing from her hopeful protege that he had 
 actually " popped the question," as he gracefully 
 expressed himself, and that " though the young 
 lady had not said yes, she had certainly not said 
 no," was to assure him that he ought to feel 
 extremely flattered and perfectly satisfied with 
 this, for that no reasonable young man, let him 
 be whom he would, could expect more under 
 the circumstances. 
 
 " I don't mean to blame you, Edward," she 
 continued, very affectionately, " quite the con- 
 trary, I assure you ; but you certainly were rather 
 hasty, you know, and her not refusing you out- 
 right is quite proof sufficient that she means to 
 accept you — therefore, on the whole, I am rather
 
 230 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 glad that you lost no time about it. But I 
 certainly did not expect that you would be quite 
 so much in a hurry. I thought that you might 
 begin to be a little particular perhaps, and that 
 at supper you might have hinted that you were 
 charmed with her more than you had ever been 
 with anybody. But I had no notion, my dear 
 boy, that you would absolutely propose before 
 the end of the second dance." 
 
 " Hinted !" exclaimed the youth in an accent 
 indicative of something very like contempt. 
 "Why, didn't you tell me, aunt, that all the 
 finest young fellows in London were after her ? 
 Much good I should have done by hinting 
 shou'dn'tl?" 
 
 This lively sally was received with a gracious 
 nod, and an approving smile, by the scheming 
 aunt, who forthwith hurried off to report pro- 
 gress to Lady Augusta. 
 
 " And what did Kate say ? What answer 
 did she give him?" returned Lady Augusta, 
 colouring with sudden emotion. " He has 
 been determined to lose no time, at all events," 
 she added. 
 
 " Thanks to my priming," returned Lady de 
 Paddington, laughing. " Just look round at
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 231 
 
 all the bright young eyes, and at all the motherly 
 glances directed towards him, and then say 
 whether I was not right when I resolved that 
 no time should be lost ?" 
 
 " Oh ! perfectly right ! most perfectly right," 
 was Lady Augusta's grateful rejoinder. " But 
 I should like to know how Kate received it," 
 she added. " We can scarcely expect that she 
 should manifest an equally sudden attachment, 
 you know ; not that I shall permit any shilly- 
 shally nonsense on her part; nor would her 
 father permit it either. It will all end as it 
 ought to do. You may depend on us for that. 
 But she must have been a good deal surprised, 
 I think." 
 
 " That is just what I said to Edward," replied 
 her friend ; " but though he did not tell me in 
 reply exactly her very words, he seemed to be 
 perfectly contented with them. He only stated 
 in a general way, that he had not been refused ; 
 and that he had given her to understand, when 
 somebody came up and interrupted them, that 
 he considered everything was right between 
 them." 
 
 " Of course, after what I said to her," re- 
 turned Lady Augusta, " there could be no
 
 232 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 danger of her offering any serious opposition ; 
 but girls will be girls, you know ; and they 
 don't always like to let things of this kind be 
 settled too easily. However, I will no more 
 quarrel with our bride for being trop facile, 
 than he will quarrel with her for being trop 
 belle. Everything is just as it ought to be, 
 dearest Lady Paddington ; and depend upon it 
 I shall never forget the friendly feelings you 
 have manifested on this occasion. Kate shall 
 be a good niece to you ; I will take care of 
 that." 
 
 And then the ladies parted, " that they 
 might not," as Lady de Paddington said, " be 
 suspected of plotting together." 
 
 Lady Augusta, perfectly satisfied by what 
 she had already heard, nodded her approval of 
 this discreet separation, and then stepped 
 forward among her guests with a prouder eye, 
 and a prouder step, than before ; for the news 
 she had heard was glorious news, and the value 
 she put upon it was not small ; it might 
 be perhaps a little beyond what it was 
 worth. 
 
 Meanwhile, the affairs of another pair of 
 mortals were, to all appearance, progressing
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 233 
 
 towards their desired termination. By means 
 of Henry Harrington's good-nature, and ha- 
 bitual indifference to everything like right 
 honourable etiquette, Mr. Garble, the young 
 attorney, who has been already presented to 
 the reader, received a card of invitation to 
 this splendid and every way important ball, 
 and he and pretty Miss Mary Jane Wigginsville 
 employed nearly the whole evening in " taking 
 sweet counsel together." 
 
 It was in vain that the Lady Juliana made 
 not the slightest effort to conceal her profound 
 disgust and indignation thereat, for the holy 
 flirtation had gone a great deal too far to be 
 checked by any harmless, although vehement 
 opposition. It was in vain that her moody 
 Ladyship had the courage to utter very 
 audibly the words, "low worlding," to her 
 sister, the Lady Augusta, as they passed toge- 
 ther within hearing of the tender pair. It 
 touched them not, or, at any rate, it seemed 
 not to touch them. And yet the epithets, 
 alas ! both epithets, were merited. 
 
 To the censure conveyed by the painful 
 epithet low, he was decidedly obnoxious ; for 
 not only was he a special attorney, but no one
 
 234 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 had ever heard any reference made to the fact 
 of his having had a father ; and as to the 
 charge of his being a worlding, we have strong 
 reasons for suspecting the circumstances of his 
 second birth to be quite as doubtful and unsa- 
 tisfactory as those of his first. 
 
 Nevertheless, pretty little Miss Mary Jane 
 found the attorney's sweet counsel too pleasant 
 to be sacrificed, even to her habitual reverence 
 for her noble friend's title or her godliness. 
 It was very plainly evident, indeed, that Miss 
 Mary Jane nourished the hope that they might 
 " walk together in the house of God as friends" 
 — nay, it might be perhaps as something more ! 
 
 It really seemed fated that this very remark- 
 able evening should be to her, as well as 
 to Kate Harrington, the most memorable she 
 had ever passed ; for before the end of it 
 Mr. Garble found courage, notwithstanding the 
 dazzling station of the friends by whom she was 
 surrounded, to ascertain distinctly what might 
 be his chance of obtaining a comfortable provi- 
 sion for life through the agency of her fair hand 
 and tender heart. 
 
 Nevertheless, although Mr. Garble was not a 
 man generally troubled by nervous weakness, he
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 235 
 
 deferred the decisive question till the genial 
 hour of supper. 
 
 Seated close beside her, while the eyes and 
 thoughts of those around were occupied by 
 other things, he felt that he might speak and 
 she might hear what could not so safely be pro- 
 nounced at any other time. Not that the hours 
 preceding supper were idly spent by him; far 
 from it. He was indeed but a novice in the 
 peculiar phraseology of godly love-making ; but 
 some few holy phrases were familiar to him, and 
 he felt certain that he should be able to intro- 
 duce them to great advantage. Before we give 
 any specimen of the skill with which this was 
 achieved, it may be as well to mention that the 
 eloquence of Mr. Garble had on all subjects one 
 marked peculiarity, namely, that of constantly 
 removing the letter h from the beginning of 
 every word where it usually appeared, and aton- 
 ing for the theft by scrupulously prefixing it to 
 every word where it did not. 
 
 " Oh, dearest Miss Mary Jane !" he mur- 
 mured, "if it were the Lord's blessed will 
 those lips could eal the eart those heyes ave 
 wounded, and that only by letting judgment go 
 for the plaintiff. Grant me my suit, Miss
 
 236 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Mary Jane, and this will be the appiest our of 
 my life !" 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Garble !" was the only reply Miss 
 Mary Jane could articulate. 
 
 " Surely, it would be for the glory of eaven," 
 he resumed, " that two serious earts should 
 hexecute a bond and covenant on ymen's 
 halter !" softly whispered the attorney. 
 
 " A holy love is indeed a blessed thing," 
 returned the gentle lady, with a sigh ; " but, oh, 
 Mr. Garble, this carnal scene is not a place 
 to speak of such a subject." 
 
 "But only tell me that my hanxious eart 
 may ope," he replied in the very tenderest of 
 whispers ; " only promise that you will consult 
 the Lord in his good time. Let me take a 
 rule nisi. Oh, dearest Miss Mary Jane, grant 
 me a rule nisi /" 
 
 Miss Mary Jane returned a look by no means 
 calculated to generate any feeling of despair ; 
 and then she suffered the ardent little man 
 to take her hand furtively beneath the sheltering 
 table-cloth, and press it in his own. 
 
 After this it would be surely unjust to accuse 
 Mr. Garble of presumption, even though he did 
 lay down to rest that night without feeling the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 237 
 
 poisoned horror of despair rankling in his 
 heart. 
 
 J&. jl, ^t ja. .aa, 
 
 TT TT TV TT TT 
 
 Let it not be supposed that the hour of 
 supper had arrived, without Lord Goldstable's 
 having been presented to sundry thoughtful 
 mothers and pretty daughters, none of whom 
 were inclined to neglect this fortunate opportu- 
 nity of entering themselves for the " great Gold- 
 stable stakes." It was of course to Lady de 
 Paddington that all petitions for an introduction 
 were addressed, and these petitions it was in 
 most cases of course impossible to refuse; but 
 true as steel to her purpose of bestowing this 
 great prize on the daughter of her devoted 
 friend, Lady Augusta, she invariably accom- 
 panied every introduction by the following words, 
 whispered in the ear where it was most import- 
 ant they should be registered : " Only fancy ! 
 so very young as he looks, that he should be 
 engaged already." 
 
 This was certainly under the circumstances 
 the best and most easy course to take, and it 
 promptly and effectually nipped many young 
 hopes in the bud, or, in other words, it served 
 to warn trespassers off the preserves, and that
 
 238 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 too in a manner which could not be called 
 otherwise than civil. 
 
 Nevertheless, there was one enterprizing indi- 
 vidual whose steadfast purpose was not to be 
 checked by any such gentle means ; nay, the 
 startled Lady de Paddington was soon made to 
 understand that not even a point-blank refusal, 
 though uttered in the most direct and unmiti- 
 gated manner, could avail her. 
 
 But this individual was of a species known 
 to be by far the most dangerous extant. Not 
 the loveliest and most designing daughter, nor 
 the shrewdest and most intriguing mother, could 
 be compared to her, for this individual was a 
 widow ! — young, lovely, intriguing, designing, 
 shrewd — and a widow ! But this widow is by 
 far too important a personage to be introduced 
 at the end of a chapter.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzjames, so was this beauteous young 
 widow called, was a lady who would never have 
 been found at the house of Lady Augusta and 
 Doctor Harrington by their own good will ; but 
 she had been brought thither by a very free and 
 easy person and one whom they neither chose 
 to offend, namely, the identical Miss Pudding- 
 thwaite who has already been introduced to the 
 reader. 
 
 It is not exactly correct, however, to say that 
 she was brought thither by this accommodating 
 and passe par-tout lady, for not even the 
 temptation of showing herself at so brilliant a 
 party as that now given by Lady Augusta Har- 
 rington, could have induced Mrs. Fitzjames to
 
 240 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 have made a toilet so hurried as would have 
 been required, to enable her to accompany that 
 reconnoitring lady, at the early hour at which 
 she had chosen to make her appearance there. 
 Nay, even if the elaborate business of dressing 
 could par impossible have been got through in 
 time, yet still Mrs. Fitzjames would not have 
 accompanied her at that hour, for she knew too 
 well what she should lose by it. 
 
 A very well-dressed, and very beautiful 
 young woman cannot be seen under any cir- 
 cumstances without creatine; a certain degree 
 of attention, admiration, and curiosity ; but 
 far different is the degree in which these 
 desirable effects are produced if she be first 
 looked at when weary of waiting in a half- 
 filled room, instead of being for the first time 
 seen to make her slow and graceful entry 
 through an admiring crowd, whose eager glances 
 both excite, and account for, that pretty fascinat- 
 ing expression which hovers between coquetry 
 and embarrassment. 
 
 It was thus that Mrs. Fitzjames chose to 
 make her entree into every ball-room, and it 
 was thus she made her entree now into that 
 of Lady Augusta Harrington.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 241 
 
 The maiden name of Mrs. Fitzjames was 
 Barlow. She was the daughter of a broken- 
 down, but very gentlemanlike and handsome- 
 looking Colonel Barlow, who, having sold his 
 commission, as well as nearly everything else 
 which he could convert into ready money, had 
 systematically taken to living upon his wits just 
 about the time that his daughter had completed 
 her seventeenth year. 
 
 The poor girl's mother had, at this time, been 
 several years dead, but it was only upon the 
 death of her maternal grandmother that she 
 had been handed over to her precious father 
 for protection. It is highly probable that this 
 protection would have been altogether refused, 
 had the young lady been as plain as she was 
 strikingly the reverse ; but no sooner had her 
 admiring father looked at her after the interval 
 of about seven years, than he decided that he 
 would himself take the charge of her. 
 
 What his projects were concerning her, may 
 be doubtful ; they might be no worse than 
 having for their object the selling her as a wife 
 to the first man, old or young, handsome or 
 ugly, worthy or worthless, who was rich enough 
 
 vol. I. R
 
 242 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 to bid for her ; but the ruined gambler had 
 a run of ill-luck, which settled the matter at 
 once. A certain Major- General Fitzjames 
 happened to win of him a sum considerably 
 larger than he was able to raise, whereupon 
 his unfortunate daughter's fair hand was gene- 
 rously accepted as payment in full for the debt, 
 without entering very scrupulously into the 
 question of whether the blooming Sophia were 
 willing or not. 
 
 But even had the parties considered this 
 branch of the subject as being of any real 
 importance, it is probable the result would have 
 been the same ; for the blooming Sophia was 
 already extremely disgusted with her papa's 
 style of housekeeping, which consisted of eternal 
 scoldings because she spent too much, and 
 eternal complainings because his luxuries were 
 too few. And so, without the shadow of a 
 principle to keep her right, and every species 
 of inclination to go wrong, the beautiful girl 
 of seventeen became the dashing bride of the 
 debauche of forty-seven, and took up her 
 residence in a smart-looking lodging, au 
 troisieme, on the Boulevard des Italiens at Paris.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 243 
 
 Her father, however, very soon changed his 
 quarters from Paris to New Orleans, and his 
 daughter never heard of him more. 
 
 She lived with her gay husband for about 
 a dozen gay, though not particularly respectable 
 years, and was then left considerably improved 
 in beauty, and considerably deteriorated in cha- 
 racter, with the pension of a General's widow, 
 and a good many gay trinkets. 
 
 She might certainly have lived much better 
 on her pension in Paris than in London ; but 
 Mrs. Fitzjames was not without ambition, and 
 as yet she had not felt any of the illness that 
 attends it. Miss Puddingthwaite was her 
 father's first cousin, nay, it had once been 
 rumoured that there had been some passages 
 of love between them ; but, be this as it may, 
 it is certain that when the strikingly lovely and 
 very stylish-looking Mrs. General Fitzjames 
 claimed kindred with her in all the modest 
 elegance of black and grey, Miss Pudding- 
 thwaite received her very graciously, and speedily 
 determined to extend to her a little of the 
 influence, which she had contrived from various 
 lucky accidents to have acquired in the fashion- 
 able world. 
 
 r 2
 
 244 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Nevertheless, this much-needed assistance was 
 not bestowed without some mixture of inte- 
 rested calculation on the part of the bestower, 
 for Miss Puddingthwaite, although from many 
 fortunate accidents she had obtained a footing 
 in very high society, was by no means un- 
 mindful that such a face, figure, and general 
 appearance as those of her cousin, Mrs. General 
 Fitzjames, might often be useful to her. 
 
 In short, the claims of her Parisian cousin 
 to her friendship were welcomed, rather than 
 repelled ; and having once determined upon this 
 line of conduct, Miss Puddingthwaite was not a 
 person to be turned out of her path by any 
 one. She had, therefore, upon this occasion, as 
 well as upon many others where large parties 
 were given, asked and obtained, a card of 
 invitation for her cousin ; and in this way, 
 the beautiful Mrs. General Fitzjames was al- 
 ready beginning to be talked of as one of the 
 lovliest women in London in many drawing- 
 rooms ; and it may be that, in more than one 
 club-room, these speculations upon her beauty 
 were accompanied by less flattering speculations 
 respecting her character. 
 
 Her husband had been dead about two years
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 245 
 
 at the time our narrative falls in with her at the 
 house of Dr. Harrington, and she was now 
 thirty-one years old. But not a shadow of 
 diminution had as yet fallen upon her beauty ; 
 on the contrary, she was decidedly more capti- 
 vating now than she had been at the time of 
 her marriage. An extremely beautiful woman, 
 while under five-and-twenty, is apt to show her 
 consciousness of the power which she never can 
 altogether resist ; and though many may be 
 ready to declare that this naive vanity becomes 
 her, it is nevertheless pretty certain that she 
 may employ her power with more assured 
 success, when she has learnt to conceal the 
 youthful consciousness that she possesses it. 
 
 At any rate, Mrs. General Fitzjames was 
 unquestionably more passionately admired now 
 than she had ever been at any former period of 
 her life ; and she was fully aware of this, and 
 also very fully determined to profit by it. In 
 one word, she was as fully entitled to be called 
 a dangerous woman as any to whom the phrase 
 was ever applied. She was in figure tall, and 
 decidedly more slight and fragile in appearance 
 than plump ; nevertheless, she possessed in an 
 eminent degree that peculiar feline grace of
 
 246 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 movement, and natural picturesqueness of atti- 
 tude which is never found to accompany any 
 form of bony angularity. Her hands and feet 
 were models of delicate symmetry — the long 
 lithe throat which sprung proudly from her 
 skilfully half-dropped shoulders, rescued the 
 whole figure from any charge of insignificance ; 
 and the small Greek-shaped head, wreathed 
 with the luxuriant tresses of her dark brown 
 hair, though not perhaps formed to excite the 
 adoration of Messieurs Spurzheim and Gall, 
 would have assuredly received due worship 
 from Titian or Correggio. 
 
 But the face — yet why should we say but ? 
 — the face was beautiful, decidedly, unde- 
 niably beautiful. It had beauty of outline, 
 beauty of feature, and beauty of colouring ; but 
 those who were gifted with the power of looking 
 at her, without falling in love at first sight, 
 might see on it occasional shadows of meaning 
 which were certainly not lovely. 
 
 Her dark eyes were bright and sparkling, in 
 truth, they almost glittered with the brilliancy 
 of foil ; but the small, bright red mouth, with 
 its rapid and often recurring smiles, was 
 frequently at variance, as it were, with the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 24 7 
 
 expression of those glittering eyes ; and this, to 
 a keen observer, imparted a character of insin- 
 cerity to the whole countenance. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzjames, however, laughed musically ; 
 talked fluently, wittily, and occasionally without 
 much restraint ; she moreover danced like a 
 fairy, sang like a nightingale, and was, in fact, 
 what all fast young men call in their vulgar 
 jargon " a splendid creature." 
 
 With all those gifts and graces, and with the 
 countenance of Miss Puddingthwaite, and of 
 one or two aristocratic connexions of her 
 husband, she had contrived without much 
 difficulty to obtain a certain footing in a certain 
 set, consisting principally of that section of the 
 fashionable world whose mode of life and con- 
 duct would be " really too bad for anything," 
 if they were not members of the fashionable 
 world. 
 
 Now, the beautiful Mrs. Fitzjames was quite 
 aware that she was an extremely lucky lady in 
 finding herself so placed, and she was very fully 
 determined not to waste the brief space of time, 
 during which she might still hope to obtain 
 a permanent position in the brilliant set who 
 seemed to be so very good-natured to her; in
 
 248 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 a word, she felt that this was her time, or none, 
 to open for herself " the world, her oyster," and 
 in such a sort too, as to make her independent 
 of all its caprices for the entire term of her 
 natural life. 
 
 Such was the lady who appeared suddenly 
 before the eyes of Lord Goldstable, just after 
 Kate had withdrawn herself from his sight. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzjames had already made herself 
 acquainted with all the most interesting parti- 
 culars concerning him ; and having learnt these, 
 she looked at him. She looked at him, indeed, 
 very attentively ; and most certainly there was 
 no want of " speculation in the eyes that she 
 did look withal." She addressed herself to 
 Lady de Paddington, and requested that she 
 would do her the favour of introducing her 
 young nephew to her. To this request she 
 received a positive refusal, upon the pretence 
 that Lord Goldstable was so shy, that it was 
 painful to him to be introduced to strangers. 
 But Mrs. Fitzjames was not likely to be so 
 easily defeated. Of course she uttered no word 
 of remonstrance, but bowing slightly, and 
 smiling rather more slightly still, she passed 
 on. Lady de Paddington walked on likewise,
 
 UNCLE WALTER, 249 
 
 and immediately left the ball-room in search of 
 Lady Augusta, being eager to tell her of the 
 dangerous request which had been made, and 
 also the ready wit with which she had refused 
 it. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzjames watched her as she left the 
 room, and then gently and gracefully drew near 
 to the young man, and having caught his eye 
 she looked at him timidly, yet smilingly, for a 
 moment, and then said : 
 
 " Lord Goldstable, you have no recollection of 
 me, I dare say?" 
 
 " Recollection, Ma'am ? no, Ma'am, I can't 
 say I have ; I'm afraid not !" said Lord Gold- 
 stable, colouring violently. 
 
 " Nay," she replied, with a smile of irresist- 
 ible sweetness, " I am not the least surprized to 
 hear you say so : it is so very natural that you 
 should have forgotten me ! But I remember 
 well having seen you, I won't say how many 
 years ago, in Scotland. Our fathers, Lord 
 Goldstable, were great friends at that time ; but 
 when my poor dear father settled abroad, his 
 Scotch friends saw no more of him. I do not 
 see, however, why we should not renew our old 
 acquaintance. My name now is Mrs. Fitzjames,
 
 250 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 but you never heard of me by that name, I dare 
 say. However, you must have heard of me, I 
 think, as Sophia Barlow." 
 
 Lord Goldstable heard that name now for the 
 first time, and it would have been equally new 
 to his noble father had he been there to hear it 
 now ; nor had the beautiful Sophia ever been at 
 any period of her existence within some hundred 
 miles of the " land of cakes." But what did 
 that signify ? 
 
 The notion, however, of meeting an old friend, 
 though an unremembered one, was very pleasant 
 to the shy youth ; so colouring up to the roots 
 of his pale hair, partly from embarrassment, and 
 partly from pleasure, he stammered out : 
 
 " I'm sure you are very kind, Ma'am. I 
 dare say I might, if I was to try to recollect — 
 I'm sure I don't know — " 
 
 And there he stopped. But the more fluent 
 lady relieved his embarrassment by continuing, 
 with gay and smiling rapidity : 
 
 "Well then, now we must be very great 
 friends ; I am sure we ought, dear Lord Gold- 
 stable, for many reasons. We ought to be 
 friends, because our fathers were friends before 
 us; and I think, too, we ought to be friends
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 251 
 
 because we both seem to be strangers in this 
 immense crowd." 
 
 " Indeed, yes, Ma'am," said Lord Goldstable, 
 looking at her more steadily, and thinking as he 
 did so, how very, very beautiful she was. 
 
 " Oh, don't say Ma'am," she replied, with a 
 still kinder smile ; " it sounds so very formal. 
 Your dear father always used to call me Sophia. 
 I was but a baby then, to be sure, but yet the 
 idea of it is pleasant to one who has so few 
 friends as I have now. I am so perfectly a 
 stranger here, Lord Goldstable, that the name of 
 an old friend goes to my very heart." 
 
 " Dear me," returned Lord Goldstable, " I 
 should think that everybody in the world must 
 be your friends — and I did not suppose that 
 any one could be a stranger here, excepting 
 myself." 
 
 " Alas ! no one can be so completely a 
 stranger as I am," she replied, and with a 
 movement that seemed most perfectly natural in 
 so old an acquaintance, she passed her beautiful 
 white arm under his. 
 
 " You have lost your father," she resumed, as 
 they slowly walked on together, " and so have I,
 
 252 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 dear friend ; but I have lost my poor husband 
 too ! It is true he was as old, or, I believe, 
 rather older, than my dear papa, and therefore I 
 was never, you know, what people call in love 
 with him, but he was always very kind and 
 good to me. I used to call him, my dear old 
 Robin Grey. Do you know the song of ' Old 
 Robin Grey,' Lord Goldstable ?" 
 
 " Oh yes, I know that to be sure ; that is a 
 real old Scotch song, you know." 
 
 ' Well, then, if you will come and call upon 
 me to-morrow, I will sing it to you," said she 
 kindly, " and then we really shall be like old 
 friends. Will you come, dear Edward ?" 
 
 " Yes, that I will," replied the greatly delighted 
 youth, giving a friendly pressure to the fair arm 
 which rested on his. " How good-natured it is 
 of you to call me by my name. How did you 
 know that my name was Edward ?" 
 
 " Because I remembered it, old friend," she 
 unblushingly replied. 
 
 And, in truth, she did remember it, and the 
 recollection served her well. She had read, not 
 only his name and age in the peerage, but the 
 names of all his race, and of all their mansions,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 253 
 
 and she knew them as well by heart as she did 
 the christian appellation which she now so dex- 
 terously ventured to give him. 
 
 For the arrival of the youthful nobleman in 
 London, was by far too interesting a fact to be 
 long a secret to any whom it might concern, 
 even to the far-away gossipings of many who 
 might live and die without beholding him ; and 
 that the piercing intellect of Miss Pudding- 
 thwaite should have speedily acquired all the 
 information it was possible for her to obtain 
 concerning him, was truly a matter of course. 
 In addition, however, to all that her patronising 
 cousin could tell her on the subject, Mrs. Fitz- 
 james had the good sense to seek for all the 
 solid information that the peerage could give 
 her, and this enabled her with the most easy 
 and graceful assurance to carry on her " old 
 friend" fable, without the slightest fear of 
 making any important blunder. 
 
 As to Lord Goldstable himself, he was 
 speedily becoming a new man under the happy 
 influences of this cleverly-imagined old friend- 
 ship; he was not only rapidly recovering the 
 power of speech, but was every instant be- 
 coming more thoroughly aware of the value of
 
 254 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 his eyes. He not only totally forgot all that his 
 aunt had said to him about Miss Harrington, but 
 all and everything which he had so lately spoken 
 to that young lady in consequence of it. 
 
 From having felt so painfully overpowered 
 by the newness of everything around him, that 
 he would almost have given one of his fingers 
 to have found himself fairly rid of it all, and 
 snugly tucked up in his bed ; he suddenly began 
 to fancy that he had never been so happy 
 before in the whole course of his life, and that 
 there was no danger of his ever feeling shy 
 again, so that he could but keep out of the way 
 of all stiff, formal people, and always keep near 
 such a dear, delightful, beautiful old friend as he 
 now felt gently leaning upon his arm. 
 
 " Well to be sure," he exclaimed, in a tone of 
 the most innocent and heartfelt satisfaction, 
 " nothing was ever farther from my thoughts 
 when I came in here, than that I should meet 
 an old friend. It is such an unaccountable 
 piece of good-luck, that I feel as if I could 
 never be thankful enough for it. And now I 
 think we ought to begin and tell one another 
 everything that has happened to us since we 
 used to play together in Scotland. Where did
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 255 
 
 you go to school ? Or did you have a gover- 
 ness at home, in the same way that I had a 
 tutor ?" 
 
 " Did vou never 2:0 to school, dear Edward ?" 
 returned the lady, bending forward, and looking 
 innocently up in his face. " Now that is another 
 odd resemblance between us, for I never went 
 to school either. My poor dear papa under- 
 took the care of my education entirely himself." 
 
 "Only think of that now," cried the de- 
 lighted Lord Goldstable, who really began to 
 fancy that he must have known her in some 
 previous state of existence, because, as he told 
 her, he had felt so delightfully free from shyness 
 with her from the very first. 
 
 And then, before they began dancing together, 
 which of course they had agreed to do, Mrs. 
 Fitzjames declared that she was perishing for 
 want of a little change of air and refreshment, 
 and that he must take her down stairs to the 
 supper-room. 
 
 The delighted boy, whose shyness seemed 
 completely banished, leaving nothing but the 
 very happiest hilarity in its place, agreed to the 
 proposal by a declaration that it was exactly 
 the thing he should like best in the world ; and
 
 256 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 accordingly they set off together arm-in-arrn, he 
 carrying her bouquet in his right hand, while 
 she playfully threw her lace scarf over his left, 
 upon which arm her own delicate hand still 
 rested. 
 
 Just as they reached the door leading out 
 upon the staircase, they found themselves 
 exactly in front of Lady de Paddington, who 
 had placed herself near it for the sake of 
 imbibing; a little fresher air than the ball-room 
 afforded. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzjames was not quite a novice, but 
 was, on the contrary, fully aware of all the 
 disagreeable feelings which were likely to agitate 
 the breast of the dowager, upon perceiving how 
 little she had gained by refusing the introduc- 
 tion she had asked for, and, to say the truth, 
 she enjoyed this little vengeance exceedingly. 
 
 Lord Goldstable's first notion on seeing her, 
 was that he must of course immediately intro- 
 duce to her the charming old friend whom he 
 had had the great good-luck to stumble upon ; 
 but the skilful Sophia whispered close, very 
 close to his ear, " Not now !" 
 
 And then, drawing him on immediately 
 before the old lady in order to pass through
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 257 
 
 the door, she said, in accents very distinctly 
 audible : 
 
 " Tell me, dear Edward, who is that old lady 
 you came with ?" 
 
 " Hush !" whispered Lord Goldstable, " she 
 will hear you !" But that was all he said, and 
 they passed down the stairs closely linked 
 together, and without taking any farther notice 
 of the frowning great-aunt. Lady de Padding- 
 ton felt as if she must sink on the floor, and 
 really looked very much as if she were about to 
 be visited by a fit of apoplexy. No words are 
 strong enough to describe her astonishment and 
 indignation. When asked for the introduction 
 she had so unceremoniously refused, she had 
 soothed herself with the complacent feeling of 
 being wide-awake, muttering to herself as she 
 turned away from the beautiful but disappointed 
 petitioner : 
 
 " Introduce him to her ! A very likely thing, 
 of all the women in London ! It would be as 
 good as throwing up the game at once !" 
 
 Yet now, what had this refusal availed her ? 
 Had it not just sufficed to prove that she had no 
 efficient power either to grant or to refuse ? For 
 three miserable moments and a half she remained 
 
 vol. i. s
 
 258 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 on the spot where they had left her as if para- 
 lyzed ; but then she recovered herself sufficiently 
 to call to our friend Mr. White, who was at no 
 great distance, and in a very coaxing accent, 
 said to him : 
 
 " Do, dear Mr. White, have the great kind- 
 ness to find out my nephew, Lord Goldstable, 
 for me. I think he is gone into the supper- 
 room. Will you, my dear Sir, be so extremely 
 good as to tell him from me, that I suddenly 
 feel myself extremely unwell, and that it is abso- 
 lutely necessary that I should go home imme- 
 diately. Say immediately, absolutely this very 
 moment, my good Sir, and that I am only 
 waiting for him." 
 
 Mr. White, after delaying for a moment to 
 profess his profound regret at the nature of the 
 message he was commissioned to carry, darted 
 down the stairs with headlong speed to perform 
 his errand. It was the first occupation of any 
 kind that he had had that evening, and he felt it 
 to be quite a blessing. 
 
 He had to return, however, not with Lord 
 Goldstable, but with Lord Goldstable's answer, 
 which he distinctly delivered in these words : 
 
 " Lord Goldstable desired me to teJl vour
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 259 
 
 Ladyship, that he is exceedingly sorry to hear of 
 your Ladyship's indisposition ; but that you need 
 not trouble yourself about waiting for him, for 
 that he was not near ready to go yet, and that 
 the carriage of a very old friend of his would set 
 him down when the ball was over." 
 
 This most alarmingly independent reply was 
 a severe and most unexpected blow to Lord 
 Goldstable's great-aunt ; but she felt that for 
 the moment, at least, all interference and all 
 remonstrance must be vain ; but not choosing 
 that the detestable Mrs. Fitzjames should have 
 the triumph of witnessing her discomfiture, she 
 persevered in her intention of going home, sooth- 
 ing her wounded feelings as well as she might, 
 by meditating upon the very spirited and decisive 
 line of conduct she should pursue on the morrow. 
 
 Meamvhile, Mrs. Fitzjames, who understood 
 the meaning of Lady de Paddington's embassy a 
 good deal better than the unsuspicious individual 
 to whom it was addressed, w 7 as not idle ; nor 
 was she slow in deciding upon the line of con- 
 duct which it would be best for her to pursue 
 under the circumstances. 
 
 A short interval of silence followed the dis- 
 missal of Lady de Paddington's messenger ; and 
 
 s 2
 
 260 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 then the beautiful dark eyes of Mrs. Fitzjames 
 were timidly and almost tenderly raised to the 
 face of Lord Goldstablc. 
 
 " My dear Edward," she then said, while a 
 sigh agitated the delicate lace which shaded' 
 without concealing, her bosom. "My dear 
 Edward, do you know, that though I felt so very 
 happy a few moments ago, I have now some 
 very miserable thoughts tormenting me ?" 
 
 " What about?" said Lord Goldstable, press- 
 ing her pretty arm very lovingly. " I won't let 
 you have any disagreeable thoughts. Tell me, 
 what is it ? What is the matter ?" 
 
 " Yes, I will tell you !" she replied, in an 
 accent of affectionate confidence. " My mind is 
 tormented about that great-aunt of yours, that 
 stern-looking Lady de Paddington. It has 
 always been a name of ill omen to me, and now, 
 if, in addition to all the rest, she should be the 
 means of prejudicing your mind against me, it 
 would be dreadful, indeed ! I do think it would 
 break my heart !" 
 
 Lord Goldstable was of course greatly de- 
 lighted, but he was greatly puzzled too. 
 
 " Prejudice me against you?" he repeated, 
 looking at her very lovingly. " Why should
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 261 
 
 she prejudice me against you ? And what else 
 is it that she has already done to vex you ? Do 
 tell me all about it ; you may depend upon it, 
 Sophia, that I shall take your part ?" 
 
 Sophia thanked him by again pressing the arm 
 she held, and then said : 
 
 " Can I trust you with the confidence you 
 ask for ? Yet, alas ! whom should I trust, if not 
 the oldest friend, or rather the earliest friend I 
 ever had ? The son of my poor father's faithful 
 friend ought to be my faithful friend also, and I 
 will, and do believe that you will prove so. But 
 you must promise me, dear Edward, you must 
 solemnly and faithfully promise me, that no 
 syllable of what I am going to say to you shall 
 ever pass your lips. Nay, you must not let any 
 allusion to it escape you. It would, believe me, 
 be doing me a cruel, in fact, an irreparable in- 
 jury." 
 
 Of course " dear Edward" vowed the required 
 vow, and that too, with very hearty energy, and 
 a very sincere intention of keeping it. 
 
 " Now then, listen to me," resumed the fair 
 deceiver, " and I will tell you all ! A singular 
 accident brought to my father's knowledge, the 
 disgraceful fact that Lady de Paddington had
 
 262 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 been unfaithful to her husband ! and there were 
 some unfortunate circumstances connected with 
 the affair, which rendered it absolutely incumbent 
 upon my poor dear father, who was the very soul 
 of honour, to communicate to the unfortunate 
 Lord de Paddington the fact of his dishonour ! 
 He did so, Edward, and the undying hatred of 
 that most wicked woman to my poor father, and 
 to me, his unoffending child, has been the 
 result. There is nothing, Edward, no, nothing, 
 that she would not either do or say to injure me, 
 and I foresee, but too plainly, that she will forbid 
 all farther intercourse between us." 
 
 " Forbid ! Goodness gracious, my dear Sophia, 
 what a fool you must take me for ! She forbid 
 our intercourse ? By Jove, that is a good joke ! 
 If it is to come to that, I can promise her wicked 
 old Ladyship that I shall clear off, and get out 
 of her house in double quick time. Perhaps she 
 may not remember that I am twenty-one — but 
 I do !" 
 
 " Not for worlds would I be the cause of any 
 disagreement between you, and any friend you 
 valued. Oh, not for worlds !" vehemently 
 exclaimed the lady. " Only promise me that 
 you will not listen to any of the infamous false-
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 263 
 
 hoods that I know she is continually inventing 
 against me — only promise me this, and I shall 
 be satisfied. Oh no ! I do not wish you to 
 quarrel with her, or with any one else in the 
 whole world, on my account. Only do not let 
 her deprive me of your friendship ! I am so 
 very much a stranger in England, and have so 
 few friends, that the loss of one so very long 
 known to me, would be a cruel blow !" 
 
 And here a delicately embroidered handker- 
 chief was pressed to eyes, which Lord Goldstable 
 believed at the very bottom of his heart to be 
 the most beautiful in the world. 
 
 It was not very likely, therefore, that he should 
 refuse to give the promise required of him ; on 
 the contrary, he gave it again and again, and 
 moreover, he swore by Jove, and with sundry 
 other mighty oaths, that Lady de Paddington 
 would soon find that he was not quite " raw 
 enough to swallow all the gammon she chose 
 to poke down his throat." 
 
 And so they parted, but not before Mrs. 
 Fitzjames had given her valued friend the number 
 of her lodging in Jermyn Street.
 
 264 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 On the morning following this important 
 ball, both Lady Augusta Harrington and her 
 new ally, Lady de Paddington, awoke with the 
 consciousness of having a great deal of import- 
 ant business before them. 
 
 The latter felt that it would be absolutely 
 necessary that before the day was over she 
 should confer at length with the former ; but 
 she had another interview before her quite as im- 
 portant, and still more immediately necessary — 
 namely, the one she intended to hold with her 
 great-nephew at the breakfast-table. 
 
 Lady Augusta, too, felt that it would be 
 absolutely necessary that she should see Lady 
 de Paddington before the day was over ; but she,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 265 
 
 too, felt also that she had business to do that 
 was more pressing still — namely, the reporting 
 progress to the Doctor, and then entering upon 
 the very decisive conversation which it was her 
 purpose to hold with Kate. 
 
 The Dowager Lady de Paddington inhabited 
 a stately, but grim and melancholy-looking 
 house in Charles Street, St. James's Square. 
 The mansion was a world too wide for her 
 Ladyship's dowager establishment and moderate 
 jointure ; but she inhabited it rent-free : for it 
 was her son's property, and he was abroad. 
 
 It may easily be supposed, that a very stingy 
 and not very rich old dowager did not make so 
 great an innovation on the habits of herself, 
 and her small household, as must, of course, 
 follow upon Lord Goldstable's visit to her, 
 without the hope, or rather the certainty, of 
 obtaining a satisfactory quid pro quo for it. 
 
 This branch of the subject was very far from 
 being indifferent to her ; but the notion which 
 she had taken into her head, that this ar- 
 rangement might, must, and certainly would 
 give her great influence on the important point 
 of disposing of his hand and coronet in 
 marriage, was, in her estimation, of much greater
 
 266 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 importance still. But in order not to be 
 defrauded of her just and reasonable expecta- 
 tions in both matters, it was, as she was 
 already become fully aware, absolutely necessary 
 that she should bestir herself. 
 
 She might, perhaps, after so late a party, 
 have preferred the dowager indulgence of taking 
 her breakfast in bed ; but if she did that, Lord 
 Goldstable might be up and out before she left 
 her room ; and thus, a very important move in 
 the game she had to play would be lost. By ten 
 o'clock, therefore, she was at the breakfast-table, 
 with her great-nephew sitting opposite to her. 
 
 After the morning salutations had been 
 exchanged, and the question of " Tea or 
 coffee ?" answered, she began her operations. 
 " Well, Edward," said she, smilingly, " I have 
 to congratulate you, on having made a most 
 favourable impression on the whole of the 
 Harrington family. I told you, if you re- 
 member, that I was sure your shyness would 
 not injure you in that quarter; and it is quite 
 evident that I was right. You will indeed be a 
 very fortunate, as well as a greatly envied man, 
 when you have made that charming Katherine 
 Harrington your wife."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 267 
 
 " Good gracious, Lady de Paddington ! 
 What chance is there that I should ever make 
 her my wife ?" replied Lord Goldstable, very 
 gaily. " Did I not tell you last night, that 
 though she did not say no, when I asked her, 
 she most certainly did not say yes ?" 
 
 " What you told me last night, my dear 
 Edward, was in every respect calculated to set 
 my heart at rest upon this very important 
 subject. No young lady in the world, brought 
 up in the dignified and proper manner that 
 Miss Harrington has been, could possibly, on 
 first listening to such a proposition as you last 
 night made her, do more than give token of 
 acceptance by modest and maidenly silence. I 
 know the world better than you can yet do, 
 my dear Edward, and I do assure you that it 
 was quite impossible her acceptance could be 
 more properly expressed." 
 
 His young Lordship on hearing this, looked 
 greatly more surprised than delighted. 
 
 " Well now, Aunt de Paddington," he replied, 
 with considerable augmentation of colour, " that 
 certainly docs seem very comical to me. At 
 any rate, I must think a little more about it, if 
 you please, before I make up my mind. I felt
 
 268 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 so frightened just at first, last night, that I 
 hardly knew what I said." 
 
 " Unfortunately, Edward, it is not at all 
 likely that other people will be equally forgetful. 
 I happen to know that the sweet girl has 
 already confessed to her mother, that she had 
 never liked any one so much before in all her 
 life ; and yet, because she did not show herself 
 to be as indelicately bold as she is the reverse, 
 you seem inclined to change your mind, and 
 forsake her. What would be thought of any 
 young lady who, when a gentleman proposed to 
 her, should answer : * Yes, if you please, Sir — 
 much obliged to you ?' " 
 
 Lord Goldstable laughed heartily at this, with 
 considerably more gaiety of heart than his 
 great-aunt quite approved upon the present 
 occasion. 
 
 " My words were not spoken as a jest, 
 Edward," she resumed, " but to make you feel 
 how greatly you wrong Miss Harrington, when 
 you attribute to her the levity of having refused 
 your offer of marriage, when it was so perfectly 
 her intention to accept it." 
 
 " Well, aunt, we shall see bye and bye how it 
 will all turn out," replied the youth, presenting
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 269 
 
 his coffee-cup to be replenished, with so very gay 
 and happy a countenance, that her Ladyship 
 became very seriously alarmed at the little effect 
 her words seemed to have upon him. She, 
 therefore, after filling the said coffee-cup, re- 
 turned to the charge. 
 
 " Believe me, Edward," said she, with great 
 solemnity, " that you have totally deceived 
 yourself, if you have really taken it into your 
 head to believe that it was the intention of 
 Miss Harrington to refuse you ; on the contrary, 
 I can assure you, that if you should now 
 unfortunately fancy that you no longer wished 
 to marry her, you would find it very difficult to 
 shake off the engagement. Her father, mother, 
 uncle, aunt and brother, all look upon your 
 marriage with her as perfectly settled ; and, you 
 may depend upon it, they would call upon you 
 to explain this very extraordinary change of 
 purpose on your part, in a manner that you 
 might find exceedingly disagreeable." 
 
 " Do you mean, aunt, that some of the ladies 
 and gentlemen belonging to her, would be 
 wanting to fight me ?" said he ; and the light- 
 hearted lad, who was thinking what good fun it 
 
 V
 
 270 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 would be to tell his old friend Sophia the 
 whole story, again laughed heartily. 
 
 This strong symptom of gay indifference, 
 considerably alarmed the old lady ; for not only 
 did it prove that his promising love-fit for Miss 
 Harrington was already passed and over, but 
 that he had in no degree the fear of her 
 indignation, or that of her family before his eyes. 
 Still, however, she cheered her spirits by re- 
 membering that there was the unlimited fund 
 of the poor boy's profound ignorance to draw 
 upon, and she showed not the least sign of 
 being disconcerted as she replied : 
 
 " It is very evident, my dear Edward, that 
 you do not understand these things. Not only 
 would the young lady's family, and society in 
 general, consider that you were bound in honour 
 not to recede from the proposal which, accord- 
 ing to your own statement, you made to her 
 last night, but even by the law of the land you 
 would be considered guilty of breach of promise 
 of marriage ; the consequences of which would, 
 I fear, be considerably more serious than you 
 are aware of. Depend upon it, Edward, that 
 after what passed last night, you may have an
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 271 
 
 action brought against you for breach of pro- 
 mise of marriage." 
 
 " No ! you don't mean that ?" said he, with 
 a look of dismay which she did not at all like ; 
 for though it proved that her statement was 
 believed, it proved also that he had neither 
 intention or inclination to fulfil this imaginary 
 engagement. 
 
 " Not mean it, Edward !" she repeated with 
 great solemnity ; " indeed, indeed, I do ! Did 
 you not offer to marry her ?" 
 
 " I said to her the nonsense that I told you 
 of last night," replied the young man, in an 
 accent which was by no means either gay or 
 good-humoured. 
 
 " And did she say in reply that she would 
 not accept your hand ?" demanded Lady de 
 Paddington. 
 
 " She did not say exactly that, but she walked 
 off without saying anything," he replied. 
 
 " Then it is my duty to tell you, Edward, 
 that what has passed is amply sufficient to 
 make her family consider you as her accepted 
 lover and affianced husband. But why all this 
 idle discussion, Edward, in order to prove that 
 you cannot, even if you would, escape being
 
 272 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the happiest and the most envied man in 
 London ? Do not let us waste any more time 
 so foolishly. It is particularly foolish to do so 
 just now, because there is another subject upon 
 which I wish to speak to you very seriously. 
 Tell me, how did that very objectionable, I 
 must say plainly, that very improper person get 
 introduced to you, with whom you went home 
 last night ?" 
 
 " Do you mean Mrs. Fitzjames, aunt ?" replied 
 the young man, looking steadily in her face. 
 
 " Yes, Edward, I certainly do !" she replied 
 with great solemnity. 
 
 " Mrs. Fitzjames is an old friend of mine — 
 Lady de Paddington ; and I never give up an 
 old friend," returned the youth, very evidently 
 intending to be dogged and resolute. 
 
 ' What do you mean, my dear Edward ? 
 How can she be an old friend, when she applied 
 to me last night for an introduction to you ?" 
 replied the old lady, adding in an undertone : 
 " which I, very properly, refused." 
 
 : ' She did that, because it was such a monstrous 
 long time since she had seen me ; and very 
 natural too !" he replied snappishly. 
 
 " I should exceedingly like to know how she
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 273 
 
 got to Dr. Harrington's," muttered bis aunt, 
 seemingly in soliloquy. " Really people ought 
 to be more careful who they ask to their 
 houses." 
 
 " I can ask her how she got there if you like 
 it," returned hisLordship, now evidently prepared 
 for open rebellion, " for I am going to call on 
 her directly after breakfast." 
 
 " I do most sincerely hope and trust that 
 you will do no such thing!" exclaimed her 
 venerable Ladyship, who was becoming every 
 moment more seriously alarmed. " If you 
 were a few 7 years older, my dear Edward, it 
 would be more easy to make you aware of 
 that abominable woman's real position and cha- 
 racter. And then I am quite sure you would 
 no longer feel any wish to continue your 
 acquaintance with her." 
 
 " I am quite old enough, Aunt Paddington, 
 to know that she is the most beautiful, and in 
 every way the most charming woman I ever 
 saw. So don't let us talk any more about it, if 
 you please, Lady de Paddington, because it 
 would be of no use, for it is quite clear we 
 should not agree ; and it is as well to tell you at 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 once, that say what you will about her, I am 
 quite determined not to give up the acquaint- 
 ance of so very charming a person." 
 
 This was the young gentleman's sturdy reply, 
 and it was uttered in a tone that showed him to 
 be very sincerely in earnest. 
 
 Lady de Paddington saw at once that any 
 farther opposition at this moment, could only 
 make matters worse ; so, after the interval of a 
 moment, she replied : 
 
 " Well, Lord Goldstable, a wilful man will 
 have his way, we all know that ; and I am the 
 less anxious on the subject, because I know that 
 it is impossible that many weeks, or even many 
 days, can pass away, without your finding out 
 that I am right, and then you will wish that 
 you had been guided by me in this matter. 
 However, I am truly thankful to know that you 
 are affianced as fast as the laws of the land, and 
 the laws of honour too, can make you, to so 
 every way admirable a young lady as Miss Har- 
 rington. On that point, thank Heaven! you 
 are safe. And this is a great blessing, Edward, 
 for it is impossible to say to what lamentable 
 absurdity that infamous and designing woman
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 275 
 
 might not lead you. I am thankful now that 
 you lost no time about it, for this most desirable 
 engagement renders you perfectly safe." 
 
 And with these words, her Ladyship left the 
 breakfast-room to the young man and his reflec- 
 tions. 
 
 He lost not many minutes, however, in medi- 
 tating on the lecture he had received. On the 
 subject of his engagement with Miss Harrington, 
 indeed, he felt considerably puzzled ; but as yet 
 he was not sufficiently in love with her brilliant 
 rival, to make him feel any very great horror at 
 the idea of being engaged to be married to Kate. 
 He had not as yet quite forgotten the sweet 
 voice, and the sweet smile, with which she had 
 addressed him, and which had awakened in his 
 breast the first gleam of hope that he might 
 some day or other like dancing in a ball-room 
 very much. 
 
 But still, though not very unhappy about this 
 engagement, he was a good deal puzzled. He 
 had read in the newspapers about ladies bringing 
 actions against gentlemen for breach of promise 
 of marriage, and he thought he should not like 
 to have such a thing happen to him at all, and 
 the idea of it gave him a decided qualm. But 
 
 T 2
 
 276 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 then, on the other hand, something which very 
 strongly resembled instinct, created a feeling of 
 doubt in his mind as to the probability of Miss 
 Harrington's doing anything of the kind, even 
 if she really were very much in love with him, 
 on account of his not being so conceited, as all the 
 other young gentlemen of her acquaintance were. 
 In short, he did not very well know what he 
 thought, or what he ought to think, on the sub- 
 ject ; and it was in this frame of mind that he 
 set forth on his expedition to Jermyn Street, 
 whither we should have much pleasure in accom- 
 panying him, were it not absolutely necessary 
 that we should attend at a conference in Vale 
 Street, between the Doctor and his lady, pre- 
 paratory to the important conversation which 
 Lady Augusta purposed holding with her 
 daughter immediately afterwards.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 277 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The total dislocation of all his usual habits 
 caused by the ball and its attendant miseries, 
 joined to the operation of three or four glasses 
 of champagne and a supper of lobster salad, 
 had, in some degree, exacerbated the usually 
 placid temper of the excellent divine, and 
 caused him to reply to his lady's amiable 
 salutation by growling forth his conviction that 
 if the necessities of a London season often 
 entailed such persecutions and sufferings as 
 those occasioned by the entertainment of last 
 night, Oxford would be a far preferable resi- 
 dence during the spring. 
 
 " Perhaps it would, my dear," replied Lady 
 Augusta, meekly, for she was an admirable
 
 278 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 proficient in the suaviter in modo system, " but 
 at present," she continued, with a sort of tender 
 smile, " I want to speak to you on much more 
 important matters. You have not as yet, I 
 presume, heard from Kate what passed between 
 herself and Lord Goldstable, last night ?" 
 
 " No, I have heard nothing, Lady Augusta. 
 You mean that he asked her to dance, I 
 suppose ?" quoth the Doctor surlily. 
 
 " No, Dr. Harrington," she replied, with 
 solemnity, " that is not what I mean. I am 
 come here to inform you that Lord Goldstable 
 has asked her to marry him." 
 
 " Good Heavens, Lady Augusta ! what is it 
 you say ? You cannot mean it seriously : it is 
 impossible !" 
 
 Lady Augusta only smiled and nodded her 
 head in reply. 
 
 " What !" resumed the electrified Doctor, 
 "the first time of seeing her?" But after 
 meditating with a look of exceeding benignity 
 for a minute or two, he added, with a shrug : 
 " Well ! so much the better, my dear. So 
 much the less trouble, you know, in balls and 
 parties, and all follies of that sort. And it is 
 all positively settled then ? Pretty, dear Kate !
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 279 
 
 She is a lucky girl, Lady Augusta, and I 
 congratulate you also, my dear, with all my 
 heart." 
 
 " The offer has certainly been made, Dr. 
 Harrington," resumed the lady gravely, " and I 
 will not deny that this is a subject of con- 
 gratulation; nevertheless, we must not be too 
 hasty in supposing that the marriage is ab- 
 solutely settled. You have yet to learn what 
 your daughter's sentiments may be." 
 
 " Gracious Heaven, Lady Augusta ! why do 
 you talk such nonsense?" cried the dismayed 
 Doctor, while a very apoplectic flush impurpled 
 his face, " you do not mean to tell me that there 
 is any chance of her refusing his offer ? Refuse 
 eighty thousand a-year, with large accumu- 
 lations in the funds and ministerial interest ! 
 It is quite impossible ! It is utterly incredible, 
 Lady Augusta! What on earth could have 
 put such an idea into your head ?" 
 
 " The real fact is, Dr. Harrington, that Kate, 
 on receiving the proposal, walked away without 
 saying a single word, I believe. At least, that 
 is all I can make out from Lady de Paddington's 
 account ; and her authority, of course, is her 
 nephew."
 
 280 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " Mere shyness ! Mere childish shyness ! 
 Where is Lord Goldstable? I wish to speak 
 to him myself. The error must be remedied 
 immediately. I am confident that his Lordship 
 will not take offence at the silly shyness of so 
 young a girl. On the contrary, I should think 
 he would like her the better for it. She is a 
 mere child, Lady Augusta, a mere child !" 
 
 And here the Doctor, whose emotion had 
 caused him to rise from his chair, was compelled 
 by difficulty of breathing to resume it. 
 
 Lady Augusta, who had not forgotten that 
 he had threatened to make her pass the London 
 seasons at Oxford, was malicious enough to 
 remain silent. 
 
 "Am I to understand by your silence, 
 Madam," thundered the Doctor, " that your 
 Ladyship acquiesces in this preposterous ab- 
 surdity, and very evident mistake ?" 
 
 ' Why what would you have me do, my dear 
 Doctor ?" returned his wife, with very provoking 
 meekness and resignation. 
 
 " Do, Madam ! I would have his Lordship 
 made aware, that, whatever movement might 
 have been dictated by the shy young girl's 
 agitated feelings at the first hearing his
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 281 
 
 flattering, but very sudden declaration, she 
 never had any idea of indicating a refusal by it. 
 And, moreover, he should be given very clearly 
 to understand that her family accept his very 
 flattering offer with gratitude." 
 
 " That has been already done, Dr. Harrington, 
 with the exception of the gratitude, which I 
 did not think it necessary to mention," replied 
 her Ladyship, with something like a noble 
 sneer. 
 
 " Well, well, Lady Augusta, very well," 
 growled the Doctor, partly in manifestation of 
 standing corrected, and partly in token of being 
 in some degree satisfied. 
 
 " Does nothing else occur to you, as proper 
 to be done under the circumstances ?" rejoined 
 the lady, with something of reproof in her 
 tone. 
 
 " Assuredly it would be desirable to ascertain 
 that his Lordship's sentiments remain un- 
 changed." 
 
 " And about Kate's sentiments, Dr. Har- 
 rington ?" returned Lady Augusta, very quietly, 
 but throwing a glance full of meaning at the 
 Doctor's face. 
 
 That illuminated and illuminating beacon,
 
 282 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 instantly indicated an enormous change in the 
 moral attitude of his spirit. In speaking of 
 " his Lordship's sentiments," there was all the 
 intense reverence of tone and manner, with 
 which such members of the Church are apt to 
 mention all members of the House of Lords. 
 But now it was with a bent brow and a fiercely 
 raised voice, that he said : " My daughter's 
 sentiments, Lady Augusta, are, it is to be 
 presumed, in no way discordant or contradictory 
 to those of her parents ; or the Christian 
 teaching which it has pleased Providence to 
 provide for her, has been of little avail. I beg, 
 if you please, that I may not hear of any folly 
 or wickedness on Kate's part, in this very 
 important affair : none of the silly speeches of a 
 child, under such circumstances, ought to be 
 attended to, or repeated." 
 
 Lady Augusta perfectly well understood this 
 to mean, that any trouble, or difficulty, or 
 disagreeables of any kind, which the task of 
 coercing Kate's inclinations might entail, should 
 be borne wholly by her mother, and in no 
 degree by her reverend father. But this she 
 did not intend should be the case. She 
 therefore replied : " Would it not be better, Dr.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 283 
 
 Harrington, that you should hear from her own 
 lips, what her feelings are upon this subject ? 
 I have not myself spoken to her at all, since 
 Lady de Paddington announced to me that the 
 ofTer had been actually made." 
 
 "No, Lady Augusta, I decidedly think that 
 it would not be better," replied the Doctor, very 
 authoritatively, "she might be too much overawed 
 by the presence of her father, to have the power 
 of speaking her sentiments freely. It is a 
 mother's duty, Lady Augusta, to be the 
 counsellor in matters of this sort." And the 
 last words were spoken with a very striking 
 degree of moral dignity. 
 
 " Well, Dr. Harrington, so be it, then," 
 replied his obedient wife, " I will see Kate, and 
 hear from her what she may wish to say upon 
 the subject, and what explanation she may 
 choose to give of her having ran off in so 
 extraordinary a manner. But I warn you 
 beforehand, Mr. Warden, that it will probably 
 be necessary for you to exert a father's au- 
 thority in this matter. Lord Goldstable has 
 been assured by his excellent aunt, that her 
 conduct was entirely the result of girlish folly 
 and bashfulness, and that it meant nothing in
 
 284 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 the least degree approaching a rejection. So 
 far all is well ; but I will own to you that, from 
 what I heard last night, I think there may be 
 reason to fear, that Kate has much worse 
 nonsense in her thoughts than any which 
 can be characterized as mere girlish shyness. 
 If this should prove to be the case, is it your 
 pleasure that she should be permitted to follow 
 the dictates of her own whim, or of her own 
 heart, as she would be sure to call it ?" 
 
 "Lady Augusta," replied the exemplary 
 divine, in a tone in which indignation and 
 surprise seemed to contend for mastery, " it is 
 exceedingly vexatious, and I must add that it is 
 not consistent with your usually admirable 
 sense of decorum, to put such a question to me, 
 or even to conceive such an hypothesis. Is it 
 my pleasure that my daughter should be 
 permitted to throw herself away, without a 
 saving hand stretched out to save her? Gra- 
 cious Heaven ! what a question ! No, Lady 
 Augusta, it is not my pleasure, and so both you 
 and the young lady shall find, if — if you should 
 find it necessary, as I trust you will not, ever to 
 allude again to so very disgraceful a sup- 
 position."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 285 
 
 "That is quite sufficient, my dear Doctor," 
 returned her Ladyship, with two or three sig- 
 nificant little nods ; " now that I am in pos- 
 session of your views on the subject, I doubt 
 not that we shall be able to act together in a 
 way that may enable us to settle this very 
 important business as it ought to be settled. 
 Kate is a very good girl, and though she might, 
 like other young things of her age, be guilty of 
 folly, I believe her to be incapable of disobeying 
 her parents. I will now go to her, and I will 
 not trouble you again unless it should be ab- 
 solutely necessary." 
 
 And so saying, the excellent mother walked 
 up stairs to her boudoir, and immediately 
 dispatched a note to Kate, intimating that she 
 was to come to her there. 
 
 The poor terrified girl was expecting the 
 summons, and instantly obeyed it. 
 
 She found her lady-mother radiant in smiles, 
 and with every outward appearance of being in 
 the happiest state of spirits imaginable. 
 
 " Well, Kate," she began, " I know you have 
 great news to tell me. But your news is no 
 news, my dear, for I heard all about it last 
 night from our excellent friend, Lady de
 
 286 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 Paddington. I have just been telling your 
 father, my dear child, that all my brightest 
 hopes have been more than realized, by Lord 
 Goldstable having proposed to you last night. 
 He is, I need hardly tell you, my dear Kate, 
 as much delighted with the tidings as I am 
 myself, and most sincerely do we both con- 
 gratulate you. You have a high destiny before 
 you, my dear child, and you will, I am certain, 
 wear your honours gracefully and well. Both 
 your good father and myself, are confident 
 that you will be everything that you ought to 
 be in the very exalted station which awaits you. 
 But what is it, my love, that your too devoted 
 lover has got into his head about your having 
 left him, before he could express one-half of all 
 the happiness he felt? Did you really forsake 
 him so very cruelly, Kate? However, it was 
 not very difficult to guess how the matter really 
 stood, and that you made your escape, in order 
 to prevent his raptures from attracting too 
 much attention. And, upon my word, I cannot 
 blame you for this — and so I told Ladv de 
 Paddington: and I flatter myself I have set 
 everything right. You will soon give him a 
 little more usage du monde, Kate. Meanwhile,
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 287 
 
 I have guarded against all mistakes, and the 
 happy young peer considers your engagement 
 as indissoluble as it is delightful." 
 
 " My dear mother," murmured the agitated 
 Kate, blushing and turning pale with rather 
 alarming rapidity, " my dearest mother, I am 
 deeply grieved that you should have been led 
 into such an error ! I neither am, nor ever can 
 be, engaged to Lord Goldstable ; and there was 
 no mistake in his supposing that I left him so 
 abruptly, in order that he might at once under- 
 stand that it was not my intention to listen to 
 him. Had the manner of his proposal been 
 less abrupt, mamma, the manner of my rejec- 
 tion would have been so likewise." 
 
 These words were spoken with the utmost 
 gentleness, but with a good deal of firmness 
 also, and there was a short pause after she had 
 ceased speaking, as if the adversary was pre- 
 paring for an effective attack. 
 
 " Let us understand one another clearly, 
 Kate," said Lady Augusta, at length, speaking 
 in a low quiet tone, that seemed to express both 
 wisdom and gentleness, " let us understand one 
 another. Young ladies often talk a great deal 
 of very pretty bashful nonsense about taking
 
 288 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 time, and not knowing their own hearts, and so 
 forth ; and all this does very well, and may he 
 excusable, perhaps, when they are discussing 
 such a subject with their young friends and 
 companions. But with a mother, Kate, the 
 case is wholly different. In speaking to your 
 mother, and especially on the present occasion, 
 when speaking of a match which is decidedly 
 the most brilliant that can by possibility be 
 offered to you, such childish folly is sadly out of 
 place, and we must have no more of it. This 
 is a business of very serious importance, not 
 only to yourself personally, but to every 
 member of your family, and as such, if you 
 please, we will now speak of it. Lord Gold- 
 stable offers you his hand in marraige — he 
 offers you his coronet and eighty thousand a- 
 year. Am I to understand, that you wish to 
 reject this offer ?" 
 
 " Yes, mamma," replied Kate, very firmly 
 and distinctly, " yes, mamma, I do wish to 
 reject it ; and I do and must reject it." 
 
 " Very well, Kate. Now listen to me," 
 returned Lady Augusta with a cold, quiet 
 firmness in her manner, that had more of 
 steadfast determination than gentleness in it.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 289 
 
 ;£ Such perversity, and such unnatural disobe- 
 dience as you now exhibit, might justify my 
 withdrawing my care and affection from you 
 altogether, by permitting you to rush un- 
 checked on your own destruction. But it is 
 not in my nature so to treat a child, to whom 
 from its birth I have used nothing but affection 
 and gentleness. No, Kate, I will not so 
 abandon you to the fate you deserve. You will 
 marry Lord Goldstable : it is best that I should 
 at once tell you so. In talking of rejecting 
 him, you speak with equal ignorance and 
 presumption. You are a minor, an infant in 
 eye of the law, and therefore, most fortunately ! 
 you have no power, either to reject or to accept 
 any such proposal, without the consent of your 
 parents. If your own good sense is not 
 sufficient to convince you that your father and 
 mother must be the best judges of what is best 
 for you ; if, unhappily, your sense of religious 
 duty is not sufficient to induce you to yield 
 obedience to your parents, it is fortunate that 
 the law of the land provides a remedy. Our 
 glorious constitution has not left the well-being 
 of families, and of society in general, to the 
 judgment of wrong-headed children like your- 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 self. Now retire to your room, think over 
 what I have said, and remember that we 
 consider you, and that you must immediately 
 learn to consider yourself, as the affianced wife 
 of Lord Goldstable." 
 
 Kate rose from her seat, and leaning on the 
 table with both her hands — for she was 
 trembling in every limb — she said in a low 
 voice, " It is absolutely necessary before I go, 
 mamma, to confess to you another fact, which 
 makes it impossible that any law should compel 
 me to be Lord Golds table's wife: — I am 
 affianced to another, mamma ; and I was so at 
 the time Lord Goldstable proposed to me." 
 
 "What words are you saying?" cried Lady 
 Augusta vehemently. But immediately re- 
 suming her former cold and quiet tone, she said, 
 with a bitter sneer, " And is it your purpose to 
 favour me, by communicating the name of the 
 gentleman ?" 
 
 " It is Mr. Caldwell, mamma," faltered Kate, 
 almost inaudibly. 
 
 " Infamous ! It is too bad to be possible ! 
 It is absolutely infamous !" cried Lady Augusta, 
 in a tone considerably more vehement than 
 ladylike. "For you, poor silly child," she
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 291 
 
 added, " I can almost pity you, for you must 
 have been most basely beguiled into this 
 disgraceful conduct. But in what words can I 
 describe the conduct of the villain, who has thus 
 beguiled you '? He knew, if you did not, that 
 a child of tender years can give no promise of 
 marriage without the sanction of her parents. 
 And well, too, did he know that your parents 
 would never consent to such an alliance." 
 
 " Speak to my Uncle Walter on the 
 subject, dear mamma," said Kate, gently. " I do 
 not believe that he thinks Mr. Caldwell's 
 alliance would be objectionable." 
 
 " Your Uncle Walter ? It is he, is it ? But, 
 no, I will not believe anything so very dis- 
 graceful ! Yes, I will speak to your Uncle 
 Walter on the subject. And now, once more, 
 I tell you to retire to your room. But do not 
 let your meditations there deceive you. You 
 are not to become the wife of a man, who has 
 got to work for the means of existence. But 
 you are to become the wife of a highly 
 descended young nobleman, with an income of 
 eighty thousand a-year. A cruel alternative ! 
 Is it not ?" and as she spoke, the Lady Augusta 
 
 u 2
 
 292 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 waved her daughter from her presence with a 
 degree of dignified scorn, which was intended to 
 be overpowering. 
 
 But poor Kate saw it not. She did not 
 wait to hear her dismissal again repeated, but 
 crept to her cell, and shut herself up therein, 
 with no very hopeful or happy feelings. 

 
 UNCLE WALTER. 293 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 We left our poor Kate, at the conclusion of 
 the last chapter, frightened and alone, to do 
 battle, as best she might, with the first great 
 misfortune of her life. As far, indeed, as threat- 
 ening her with the hand and coronet of Lord 
 Goldstable was concerned, the whole thing ap- 
 peared to her deliberate judgment to be too 
 monstrous, too absurd, to justify any very serious 
 alarm about the consequences. 
 
 Had there been no Mr. Caldwell in the case, 
 she would probably have very soon recovered 
 her tranquillity ; for with all her young ignorance, 
 she was fully aware that the laws of the land 
 would be quite as effectual to prevent a forced 
 marriage as an imprudent one ; and though the
 
 294 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 idea of opposing both father and mother with 
 such resolute firmness, as must oblige them to 
 abandon their hopes of making her a peeress 
 was very painful, she still felt that she could do 
 it — that she ought to do it — and that it would 
 be done. 
 
 But she was far less sanguine as to the result 
 of her attachment to Mr. Caldwell ; for even if 
 he would consent to wait patiently till she was 
 of age, she did not feel so sure of being right in 
 marrying in direct contradiction to the wishes of 
 her parents, as in refusing to marry in direct 
 contradiction to her own. 
 
 The more she thought about it, the more she 
 doubted, and, as a matter of course, the more 
 miserable she became. Long did she sit with 
 her aching head resting on her hand, and her 
 unconscious eyes fixed upon one particular star 
 in her carpet without advancing a single inch 
 one way or the other ; for neither did she teach 
 herself to feel that it would be at all pos- 
 sible to live without Mr. Caldwell, nor yet that 
 she should ever have sufficient strength of dis- 
 obedience to many him in opposition to the will 
 of her father and mother. 
 
 In the very midst of this melancholy and
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 295 
 
 well nigh hopeless musing, a bright thought 
 suggested itself to her, which came like a gleam 
 of sunshine to her heart : " She would go to 
 her Uncle Walter, and tell him everything !" 
 
 The interval between the thought and the 
 deed, was no longer than was needed to climb 
 the attic stair which led to her uncle's little 
 sitting-room, and after one moment's pause at 
 the door to collect her scattered thoughts, and 
 recover her breath, she gave the usual little 
 knock by which she was accustomed to give 
 notice of her approach. 
 
 " Come in, Kate ! — come in, my child ! I 
 know your knock, Kate, and your step too," 
 were the words which greeted her from within. 
 
 She entered, and found the old man busily- 
 engaged with his eye at the magnifyer, and his 
 hand at the object-glass of his microscope, while 
 a large manuscript volume lay open on his desk, 
 ready to receive his observations. 
 
 "You are just in time, Kate, to note down 
 for me the particulars of my examination ; so 
 take that pen, my dear, and scribble away from 
 my dictation." 
 
 As he said this, the old gentleman's steady- 
 eye and hand were still employed w T ith the busi-
 
 296 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 ness he was upon ; but the very first sound of 
 Kate's voice, as she answered him, at once 
 arrested his attention, and caused the microscope 
 to be instantly laid aside. And then poor Kate 
 began to feel timid and embarrassed. The con- 
 versation which she had determined to have with 
 her uncle seemed much more difficult to begin 
 now, than it had done before she mounted the 
 stairs ; and it was with rather a faltering voice 
 and frightened manner that she began to explain 
 her errand, while her uncle led her to a chair, 
 and placed himself in another by its side, still 
 retaining the hand he had taken in his own. 
 
 " I came, Uncle Walter," she began, " I came 
 to you, because I thought that you would kindly 
 listen to me while I told you something that 
 has happened, which has pained and frightened 
 me very much." 
 
 " Come, come, darling, look up at me ! It is 
 nothing very bad, I dare say," said Walter, 
 smiling cheerily, as he bent his head to look into 
 her downcast eyes. " But whatever it be, Kate, 
 scruple not to speak to me with entire confi- 
 dence ; and whatever your trouble be, I dare say 
 that, between us, we shall find out a remedy." 
 
 " Dear uncle ! I know I may count on your
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 297 
 
 kindness ; but I know also that it is very pos- 
 sible you may think me too resolute, and too 
 self-willed, if I tell you everything." 
 
 "It certainly may seem likely enough, Kate, 
 to you, and to everybody, that no two creatures 
 could be found more widely sundered than an 
 old forest-bred barbarian, past seventy, and a 
 blooming young London lady, in her teens. 
 Yet, nevertheless, Kate, I have a pleasant sort of 
 notion that there are some points of sympathy 
 between us." 
 
 " It was something of the same sort of feel- 
 ing, I believe, Uncle Walter, which prompted 
 me to run up stairs to you in my trouble," said 
 Kate ; " and this trouble is no light one, dear 
 uncle ; and I don't see very clearly how you or 
 any one else can help me." 
 
 " Tell me what it is, my dear, at any rate. 
 And if I cannot help, I may try at least to 
 comfort you under it. Speak then, dear child, 
 and tell me all about it." 
 
 " Yes, I will tell you everything," she re- 
 plied. 
 
 " Last night at the party, Uncle Walter, 
 there was a young nobleman called Lord Gold- 
 stable. In the very strangest and most sudden
 
 298 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 manner in the world, he told me that he wished 
 me to marry him." 
 
 " Impertinent scoundrel !" muttered Walter 
 Harrington. " Do you think he was tipsy, my 
 dear Kate ?" 
 
 "Oh! dear no, Uncle Walter, not at all. 
 Strange as it seems, I believe he spoke quite 
 seriously ; and his aunt, Lady de Paddington, 
 and my mother too, I believe, knew what he 
 intended to do. At least, mamma has spoken of 
 it to me, as if she did not think it strange at 
 all — and she wants me very much to accept 
 him." 
 
 "How long have you and your mother 
 known him, Kate ?" inquired Walter. 
 
 " We never saw him before last night, Uncle 
 Walter," she replied. " He is a perfect stranger 
 to us all." 
 
 " And what answer did you make to this 
 presumptuous gentleman, my dear," said her 
 uncle. 
 
 " Indeed, Uncle Walter, I don't think I said 
 anything; but instead of speaking, I walked 
 away from him directly." 
 
 "Well, Kate, and I really know not that 
 you could have done anything better. Perhaps
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 299 
 
 it was the least objectionable way of giving him 
 to understand, that you do not wish to have 
 anything more to do with him. It certainly 
 was rather a startling adventure, Kate; but I 
 do not see why it should make you look so 
 unhappy." 
 
 " I should not look unhappy, Uncle Walter, 
 if that were all. But I have a great deal more 
 to tell you ! Mamma says that I ought to marry 
 him, and that I must marry him," rejoined 
 Kate, mournfully. 
 
 " And from what motive does she wish you 
 to marry this perfect stranger, my dear child ?" 
 said the old man, looking at her anxiously. 
 " Are his parents among your mother's particu- 
 lar friends ?" 
 
 " No, Uncle Walter," replied Kate, blushing 
 violently. " But mamma thinks it a great ad- 
 vantage to be so rich as he is." 
 
 Something like a groan burst from the broad 
 chest of the old man, and for a moment, his 
 singularly benign aspect was changed to a look 
 of great anger, but this lasted but a moment 
 
 only. 
 
 " One may live long, Kate, and study nature 
 through a microscope daily," he added, with a
 
 300 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 smile, as he pointed to the instrument on the 
 table, " and yet we must be contented to pass 
 off into a higher sphere, without being able to 
 comprehend one half of the phenomena, either 
 physical or moral, which surround us in this. 
 But do not let us quarrel with this glorious 
 portion of creation on that account, my dear 
 child. If you and I were more intimately 
 acquainted with the philosophy of mind, and all 
 the puzzling series of causes and effects by 
 which all minds are actuated, I dare say we 
 should be more disposed to laugh than to cry 
 at what now appears so terrible to us." 
 
 Kate listened to him very meekly, but not 
 much as if she was likely to find consolation 
 from his speculations ; and despite all her efforts 
 to prevent it, her eyes were full of tears. 
 
 " My dearest," he exclaimed, " do not let me 
 see you so overcome by discovering that all 
 people do not feel and think alike ;" and then 
 added, laughing : " Fear not, sweet w r ench ! 
 They shall not touch thee, Kate ! I'll buckler 
 thee against a million !" 
 
 " Then to you, and your influence, I will 
 trust myself, my dearest uncle," replied the 
 comforted girl, with a smile that spoke hope
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 301 
 
 and confidence. " And yet," she resumed, 
 while a warm blush mantled her cheek, and a 
 look of sorrow again took possession of her 
 features, " and yet I have hardly a right to say 
 that either — for — you do not know all — you do 
 not know that my mother has said that Mr. 
 Caldwell — you do not know that she has de- 
 clared that I shall marry Lord Goldstable ! And 
 how can I deny that she is right, when she tells 
 me that it is my duty to obey her ?" 
 
 " Obey !" shouted the old man, in a tone 
 which Kate feared would convey to the whole 
 household the subject of their conversation. 
 " Obey ! You do not, I presume, mean me 
 to understand that your parents, either one or 
 the other, would lay on you as a parental com- 
 mand, the injunction to marry a man whom 
 your own feelings did not prompt you to marry ? 
 You cannot mean to say, my dear, that they 
 have the slightest wish of the sort? Kate 
 Harrington, I neither do nor will believe any- 
 thing so shocking and preposterous !" 
 
 Another knock was at this moment heard at 
 the door of the attic study of Mr. Harrington ; 
 and this was immediately followed by the en- 
 trance of Henry.
 
 302 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 " What ! Kate here !" he said ; " I fear 
 from the looks of you both, that I have in- 
 terrupted a very interesting tete-a-tete. I came, 
 uncle, to propose to you a visit to the Esqui- 
 maux family, exhibiting at the Egyptian Hall. 
 But there must be something stranger than 
 they are, here ; for Kate looks melancholy, and 
 Uncle Walter angry. And this must betoken 
 something very extraordinary. I hope, Kate 
 has not been doing anything very naughty, has 
 she, uncle ?" 
 
 " What she has done, Henry, is this. She 
 has suspected her father and mother of intending 
 an infamous atrocity," replied Walter. 
 
 " What awfully strong expressions, uncle !" 
 returned Henry, " we do not believe in infamous 
 atrocities now-a-days, in polite society. What 
 is your account of the matter, my little Kate ?" 
 
 " I am shocked, Henry, to have appeared to 
 Uncle Walter to make such an accusation ; but 
 perhaps, Henry, I may seem less blameable to 
 him, if you should agree with me in thinking 
 that my fears are not quite unreasonable." 
 
 " In Heaven's name what is that you are 
 looking and speaking so solemnly about? Tell 
 me what has happened, Kate ?" said her brother
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 303 
 
 gravely, and with every appearance of real in- 
 terest. 
 
 " This it is, Henry," she replied. " Mamma 
 has just told me that she wishes me to marry 
 a man whom I have never seen but once, and 
 whom I never want to see again ; and I was 
 telling my uncle of my distress at finding myself 
 obliged to make such a marriage, or else of 
 disobeying the command of my parents. But 
 Uncle Walter thinks it wicked and absurd in 
 me, to suppose that any such obedience could 
 be required of me." 
 
 "I am afraid," replied Henry, with a touch 
 of his usual sardonic gravity, "lam afraid that 
 my uncle is not sufficiently acquainted with the 
 habits and customs of the gr-r-rand monde, to 
 judge very accurately what they may be ex- 
 pected to do, or not to do. We are very highly 
 civilized, Sir, in this part of the world." 
 
 " Am I to understand then, Henry, that you 
 too are of opinion that it is the wish of your 
 father and mother to coerce the affections of 
 their daughter, in order to give them an op- 
 portunity of selling her ?" 
 
 " My dear uncle ! what very shocking words 
 you use," cried the young cynic. " I declare," 
 he continued, affectedly casting down his hand-
 
 304 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 some eyes, " that it seems to me to be positively 
 indecent to speak of such things. There is 
 no refinement, no delicacy in your language, 
 Uncle Walter, so that it is almost unintelligible 
 to polite organizations." 
 
 " Harry ! Harry !" returned the old man, 
 shaking his head, " this is no subject for jesting. 
 Tell me plainly, boy, is it your opinion that my 
 brother and his wife could be guilty of this 
 enormity ?" 
 
 " If it be so, Uncle Harrington," replied the 
 young man more gravely, " I do assure you 
 that they would be doing nothing out of the 
 usual course." And then resuming his former 
 tone, which was but too natural to him, he added, 
 " It is, I assure you, usual, and doubtless alto- 
 gether proper, that parents should advise their 
 children, especially their daughters, on a subject 
 of such great importance ; having, of course, 
 their happiness solely in view. And it is 
 generally found, I believe, that those daughters 
 who decline taking such advice, very frequently 
 find the paternal roof rather a disagreeable shelter 
 afterwards. Indeed, in some instances, I believe, 
 their young lives become rather a burden to 
 them than otherwise." 
 
 " Alas ! alas ! If this be true, it is worse
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 305 
 
 than madness !" groaned Walter. " First to 
 cherish and foster every feeling of delicacy, and 
 then — " 
 
 " Nay, lialte la /" interrupted Henry, " for 
 now, at least, you are doing our social system 
 injustice. My sister Kate's education may 
 have been somewhat neglected in this respect, 
 but as a general rule, I must protest that the 
 young ladies intended for the market, are care- 
 fully and admirably trained to prepare them 
 for it. I can assure you, uncle, that our 
 practice in that respect puts the method of the 
 Constantinople dealers to shame. There the 
 fair ones, we are told, do shrink painfully from 
 the exhibition made of them, and evidently 
 dislike the trotting out. But with the superior 
 methods of training for our market, the pretty 
 creatures are fully as anxious for the sale, as 
 the seller." 
 
 " Oh, Henry !" broke in poor Kate, who for 
 some minutes had been sitting with her face 
 buried in her hands ; " for my sake do not 
 say such dreadful things ! and in that jesting 
 manner too !" 
 
 " My dear Kate," returned her brother, " I 
 really am very sorry for it, but unfortunately 
 vol. i. x
 
 306 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 it is often the case in this world, that truths 
 sound much more terrible than the falsehoods 
 we are in the habit of uttering, instead of them. 
 But that is not my fault." 
 
 "What then, Harry, is your conception of 
 the duty of a young female in such a case as 
 that of which you have been speaking?" de- 
 manded Walter. 
 
 " I have always been taught, uncle," replied 
 the young man demurely, and exactly with the 
 air of a child saying its catechism, " I have 
 always heen taught that marriage is a holy 
 state instituted for the better securing of a 
 handsome establishment and equipage, and that 
 it is the bounden duty of a well-principled 
 young lady to obey her parents, and keep these 
 objects steadily in view in forming a matrimonal 
 connection." 
 
 " And what becomes of her affections ?" de- 
 manded the old gentleman. 
 
 " My dear uncle," replied the nephew, " we 
 find it much more consistent with propriety to 
 ignore all such secondary considerations. Any 
 examination and investigation of that part of the 
 subject would lead at once to objectionable 
 topics, and infallibly suggest what my father 
 would call very dangerous doctrine."
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 307 
 
 Having quietly listened to this speech, Walter 
 Harrington crossed the room to the chair in 
 which Kate was sitting, at two strides, and 
 laying his large hand upon her shoulder, he 
 said : 
 
 " Now then, my niece, hear my doctrine, dan- 
 gerous it may be, to some of the framework of 
 the blundering and corrupt social system under 
 which you appear to be living, but it may prove, 
 Kate, a very ark of safety to the pure of heart. 
 I cannot be mistaken, my dear child, in thinking 
 that I perceive in you such instincts as to what 
 is right, as fairly to suggest the hope and ex- 
 pectation that you will not wilfully do what is 
 wrong. And be assured of this, Kate — for it is 
 as true as that the sun shines in the firmament — 
 that no law, no sanction, no duty, authority, or 
 any consideration whatever, can justify or excuse 
 a woman for giving herself to any man whom 
 she does not love. The doing so, my child, is 
 an outrage against nature, and the God of 
 nature. It is, perhaps, the worst and most 
 mischievous departure from nature's law that 
 can be committed by a young and hitherto 
 innocent female, and it is accordingly followed 
 bv the heaviest retribution. An union formed 
 
 x 2
 
 308 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 wholly from the dictates of passion is a grievous 
 error ; it is a wrong and disloyalty done to the 
 higher portion of our nature ; and it is an error 
 which, I believe, rarely escapes its merited result 
 of disappointment, sorrow, and suffering. But 
 she who has accepted knowingly and consciously 
 an unloved husband, has inflicted on her soul a 
 stain from which recovery can hardly be hoped ; 
 for she has crushed out and destroyed in her 
 heart all nature's promptings, and this can never 
 be done with impunity. But if, in addition to 
 this ill-judged self-sacrifice, the motive be the 
 very basest possible, if gold be the bait, if the 
 transaction be one of absolute and literal sale, I 
 should not choose to use in your hearing any 
 language adequate to express the depth of its 
 infamv, or the frightful nature of its results." 
 
 The old man paused, and looked at Kate, as 
 if he feared that he were treating her too 
 roughly ; and, in truth, the tears were trickling 
 between her fingers as she hid her face behind 
 the hand which rested on the table. Walter 
 took a turn or two across the little room in 
 silence, and then, turning to Henry, he said, in a 
 lower tone : 
 
 " Is it not inconceivable, Henry, that the
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 309 
 
 same society which thinks no language strong 
 enough to upbraid the degraded creature who 
 sells herself, when the price paid is to save her 
 from starvation, should smile upon and approve 
 the very same act, when not the necessaries, but 
 the luxuries of life are the legalized payment? 
 Not to mention that, in the latter case, the addi- 
 tional impiety is incurred of invoking the sanc- 
 tion of religion upon the sacrilegious atrocity ?" 
 
 " The feelings of society on the subject are 
 rather anomalous, it must be owned," replied 
 the more civilized nephew, with his usual cold- 
 ness, " but really I don't see how it would hold 
 together at all, if many people were to insist 
 upon describing its doings in such very plain 
 language as yours. If you do not conceal your 
 opinions, my dear Sir, you will be voted the 
 most troublesome, improper, indeeent, and above 
 all, the most dangerous person going. Ay, 
 Uncle Walter, dangerous is the proper word ; 
 for who is there who has married a daughter, or, 
 especially, who is hoping to marry a daughter, 
 for title, estate, opera-box, or any other such 
 natural consideration, but would listen to you 
 with equal fear and aversion ?" 
 
 " Have I then said anything that is not 
 true ?" asked the venerable philosopher, " nay,
 
 310 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 have I even said anything controvertible, or 
 even very profound ? Is not what I have uttered 
 truth of the very simplest kind ?" 
 
 " No doubt, uncle, no doubt," replied Henry, 
 smiling. " But permit me to tell you," he 
 added, " that you appear to me to be altogether 
 incapable of appreciating the enormous value of 
 cant. It is quite a vulgar error to suppose that 
 the principal or most valuable effect of cant is 
 to deceive others. This is very far from being 
 the case. Those born and bred under its influ- 
 ence, not only speak, but think cant ; and it is 
 quite certain that they must do so in order to 
 speak it well. It is like a foreign language. 
 To speak French well, you must think in 
 French. In fact, it is this alone that makes 
 our actual system of society possible. All 
 crooked paths are made to look straight, and 
 the rough places not only plain, but very parti- 
 cularly smooth. By the aid of its omnipotent 
 eloquence, all the infamies committed among us 
 are concealed even from the actors in them ; and 
 if the said actors do not appear absolutely holy, 
 they at all events appear perfectly decent. 
 Trust me, Uncle Walter, you will be held as an 
 unwelcome intruder into this part of the terra- 
 queous globe, if you persist in rudely tearing
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 31 I 
 
 down the delicate and graceful veil which cant 
 throws over us. Respectable people will, for the 
 most part, be quite ready to declare that your 
 language is that of a very dangerous libertine." 
 
 Kate had risen from her chair during the 
 latter part of this tirade of Henry's ; and she 
 now approached her uncle, and taking his ex- 
 tended hands in both hers, she said : 
 
 " You have certainly spoken much, dear 
 uncle, that it was very terrible to hear; but 
 you have at least made me feel that the course 
 before me is a clear one. I think you have 
 taught me to know real right from real wrong, 
 more clearly than I ever did before. God bless 
 you, dear uncle, and me too ; and give me 
 strength to act as I ought, let me suffer 
 what I may !" 
 
 " God bless you, my own Kate !" re- 
 turned the old man fervently. " I still hope 
 that means may be found to make the right 
 path no very painful one. We shall see." 
 
 And so saying, he led her to the door, her 
 brother following her, for he wished to learn 
 from herself the exact state of affairs as they 
 now stood between her mother and herself; and 
 he listened to her painful narrative with more 
 sorrow than surprize.
 
 312 UNCLE WALTER, 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 We must now follow Lord Gold stable in his 
 visit to Jermyn Street. It would probably have 
 been evident, to any one more versed in such 
 matters than was our noble young Scotchman, 
 that his visit was expected by the charming 
 widow. The indications of this consisted of 
 small matters ; but even those would have been 
 perfectly intelligible to an experienced eye. 
 
 He was immediately shown into a very 
 prettily arranged, but rather small back drawing- 
 room, in which he found Mrs. Fitzjames 
 reclining on a couch, in one of those elegant 
 morning attires which such ladies know how to 
 make more bewitching than the most splendid 
 dress that ever graced a ball-room ; and Lord
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 313 
 
 Goldstable accordingly thought her ten times 
 more lovely than he had thought her the night 
 before. 
 
 In truth, it would be difficult for any one to 
 imagine a greater perfection of coquetry, or a 
 prettier material on which to exhibit it than 
 was now displayed by Mrs. Fitzjames. 
 
 She had many a year yet to pass, ere she 
 reached that fatal period when candle-light is 
 more favourable to the complexion, and to the 
 eyes also, than the more truth-telling light of 
 day. Nor was it even necessary as yet for her 
 to make any skilful arrangement, in order to 
 produce a demi-jour when she expected a 
 morning visitor. 
 
 The white muslin lace-bedecked peignoir, 
 from beneath which her exquisitely-shaped feet 
 chausses to perfection, and crossed over each 
 other at the ankles, peeped forth, could not, it 
 is true, display as fully as the dress of the pre- 
 ceding evening the ivory shoulders, or the 
 beautifully-formed bust ; but it admitted of 
 being so arranged as to afford a partial view. 
 And if the single white camelia of the night 
 before, had shown to greater advantage the 
 glossy tresses of her dark-brown hair, there
 
 314 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 was something perhaps more bewitching still in 
 the pretty composition of ribbon and lace which 
 called itself a cap. 
 
 In one fair hand she held a book, with a 
 slender finger between the pages of the " Loves 
 of the Angels." It might, or it might not, 
 attract the attention, and assist the talk of the 
 expected visitor. But at any rate it had not 
 been selected at random. Yet it would be 
 doing wrong to the widow's discriminating 
 good sense, did I omit to observe that had her 
 expected visitor been a dozen years older, the 
 subject of her studies would have been differently 
 selected. 
 
 " Ah, Lord Goldstable !" she exclaimed, with 
 very conspicuous delight, the moment he ap- 
 peared. " This is, indeed, kind of you." And 
 then holding out her hand to him, without 
 changing her recumbent position, she added, 
 " I am really ashamed to receive you thus. I 
 know that I ought to have been dressed long 
 ago. But the ball of last night, delightful as it 
 was, fatigued me. I do not stand the late 
 hours of London very well. I always look like 
 a witch the next morning. Do you like these 
 very late hours ?"
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 315 
 
 " I don't think I should much in a general 
 way ; but I was pleased enough to be up last 
 night, after I met you," replied his gallant 
 Lordship. 
 
 " Ah ! that strange — that most unexpected 
 meeting !" she exclaimed, clasping her white 
 hands, and raising her beautiful eyes heaven- 
 ward." I can give you no idea of the pleasure 
 it gave me ! And then it was so delightful a 
 change for me ! Such a relief from the misery 
 of finding myself among utter strangers ! I 
 should as soon have thought of meeting the 
 sun in that strange ball-room as an old friend. 
 I do assure you, Lord Goldstable, that I don't 
 think I should forget that meeting if I were to 
 live a hundred years !" 
 
 " Don't call me Lord Goldstable ! Call me 
 Edward, as you did last night ; I like it so much 
 better," said the vouth, charmed out of all his 
 shyness, and with a secret conviction at his 
 heart, that he had never seen a really beautiful 
 woman till he met his charming; old friend Mrs. 
 Fitzjames. 
 
 " Do you really choose that I should always 
 call you Edward ?" said she, with a smile of 
 quite indescribable sweetness. " At any rate, it
 
 316 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 must only be when we are alone, you know, or 
 else people who did not know anything about 
 the intimacy of our fathers would think it very 
 odd. And, moreover, if I call you Edward, I 
 shall insist upon it that you should call me 
 Sophia. Will you ?" 
 
 " Won't I !" returned the delighted boy. 
 " But you must tell me, you dear, beautiful 
 Sophia, who are the people I must contrive to 
 get acquainted with, in order that I may be sure 
 of meeting you, for it's as plain as daylight to 
 me, that I shall not like any of the London 
 parties unless I meet you." 
 
 " Young flatterer," she exclaimed, fixing on 
 him a look half tender, half reproachful, " why 
 should you try to make me believe that? I 
 have told you that I scarcely know any one in 
 London ; so if you really wish to see me, you 
 must come and look for me in my little quiet 
 lodging here. And I will not be so — so untrue, 
 Edward, as to pretend that I shall not be glad 
 to see you." 
 
 " And don't you think I shall like to come, 
 Sophia ?" he replied. And it is astonishing how 
 rapidly the young man improved under the 
 influence of the beautiful Sophia's affectionate
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 317 
 
 encouragement. He not only enjoyed the full 
 power of speech, but used it too, without any 
 great symptoms of shyness, and became as 
 conversable as it was in his nature to be. And 
 then there followed a well-managed scene of 
 flirtation, such as may perhaps have occurred 
 before and may possibly occur again between a 
 married woman (one who has been married is 
 meant of course) and a lad. It was love-making 
 made easy, and Lord Goldstable had never been 
 in such high spirits before. And then she 
 warbled a few notes, and reminded him that 
 she had promised to sing Old Robin Grey for 
 his amusement, to which he replied very 
 eagerly : " Oh yes, do ! sing it to me this very 
 moment, my dear, dear Sophia !" 
 
 And then she led him into the other draw- 
 ing-room, and having placed him very comfort- 
 ably and very advantageously as to both seeing 
 and hearing, she kept her promise and sang to 
 him the touching ballad of "Auld Robin Grey," 
 from the first word to the last. Her voice was 
 rich and sweet, and though she had little science 
 to help her, she gave the song in a style which 
 mig:ht have enchanted more learned ears than 
 those which now listened to her. Moreover, the
 
 318 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 performance altogether was of that peculiarly 
 captivating kind, which can be only achieved by 
 ladies of her peculiar style of attraction. 
 
 After " Robin Grey " had been thus per- 
 formed, there was a pause of perfect silence 
 which lasted for a minute or two ; it seemed, 
 indeed, as if Mrs. Fitzjames shed tears, for a 
 fragrant handkerchief was pressed for a short 
 interval to her eyes, and her bosom heaved 
 with a plaintive sigh. Then, suffering her 
 handkerchief to fall (not unheeded) on the floor, 
 she again ran her slender fingers over the keys 
 of the instrument, and warbled mournfully but 
 very sweetly : 
 
 " Oh ! think not my spirits are always as light." 
 
 And with every word she said, and every 
 look she looked, and every note she sung, and 
 movement she made, the doomed Lord Gold- 
 stable fell more and more desperately in love 
 with her ; a progress of which she was as 
 perfectly cognizant, as the angler is of the 
 nibbling which his destined prey is making at 
 the bait. 
 
 While this fascination lasted, Lord Goldstable 
 forgot all about the social and legal penalties
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 319 
 
 with which Lady de Paddington had threatened 
 him, in case he should break his troth to Miss 
 Harrington. But when, at length, at about 
 five o'clock in the afternoon, he left Jermyn 
 Street (not, however, till he had given a gently 
 asked-for promise to return ere long), his mind 
 reverted with very considerable uneasiness to 
 the dreadfully precipitate proposal w T hich he had 
 been rash enough to make to Miss Harrington, 
 and then followed a terribly distinct recollection 
 of all his aunt had said upon the necessity of 
 abiding by it. 
 
 What shape his profoundly ignorant fears 
 assigned to the vague denunciations of Lady de 
 Paddington he would himself have been puzzled 
 to say ; but the general notion of being exposed 
 and exhibited to all the great unknown world 
 as having done something shocking and dis- 
 graceful, nay contrary to its usages and fashions, 
 was really dreadful to him ; and, despite his 
 violent love-fit, he felt that, come what would, he 
 could not bear it. It might be supposed, cer- 
 tainly, that this all-pervading fear of the world's 
 ban would scarcely have penetrated to the 
 remote seclusion in which this poor blundering 
 boy had been educated ; but this is decidedly
 
 320 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 one of the cases in which, as the learned express 
 it, the orane ignotum pro magnijico principle is 
 particularly active. 
 
 The power of this often heard of monster, 
 ' The World,' seems greater, from its indefinite 
 vagueness, to those whose lot has been cast at a 
 distance from its great tribunals ; just as the 
 judges of the land are objects of far greater awe 
 to the village rustic, than to the familiar habitue 
 of the Old Bailey. And thus during poor 
 Lord Goldstable's thoughtful walk homewards, 
 the consequences of being held up to the world's 
 scorn, presented themselves to his imagination 
 in shapes and forms equally undefined and 
 tremendous. 
 
 Meanwhile, the long morning which his Lord- 
 ship had passed with the too-enchanting Mrs. 
 Fitzjames, had not been permitted to wear away 
 in idleness by Lady Augusta Harrington. She 
 was determined that her ill-judging daughter's 
 destiny should not be marred for want of hearing 
 good, and what must be considered as highly 
 authoritative advice, and therefore about two 
 o'clock, having previously dispatched a note to 
 her friend informing her how matters stood, she 
 sent to inform her daughter that the carriage
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 321 
 
 would be at the door in half an hour, and that 
 she must get ready to accompany her in her 
 drive. 
 
 To refuse her attendance was quite out of the 
 question, and the suffering Kate meekly prepared 
 herself for the penance she was thus commanded 
 to undergo. But although she had certainly 
 anticipated anything than a pleasant drive, she 
 was, nevertheless, rather startled and rather 
 shocked at hearing her mother give the order : 
 " To Lady de Paddington's." 
 
 As the carriage drove off, Lady Augusta 
 turned to her daughter, and said : 
 
 ' Lady de Paddington has shown herself so 
 true and valuable a friend in this business, that 
 I think it due to her to let her know exactly how 
 matters stand." 
 
 And these exceedingly disagreeable words, 
 were the only ones spoken till the mother and 
 daughter had arrived at the dowager's door. 
 
 Lady Augusta sent up her card, which instantly 
 reversed the standing order against morning 
 visitors in her favour, and they were forthwith 
 shown into the brown-holland clothed drawing- 
 room. 
 
 " Mv dear Ladv Augusta !" exclaimed the 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 old lady, meeting her at the door with an ex- 
 tended hand, u you have arrived just in time to 
 prevent my setting off to call on you. My dear 
 Miss Harrington," she continued, turning with 
 a most affectionate smile towards Kate, who was 
 looking as pale as death, " I congratulate you 
 most sincerely on having secured the prize, for 
 which all the beauty and fashion of London are 
 on the look-out. And I assure you, that I have 
 no little pleasure in thinking that this happy 
 event is, in some degree, owing to me." 
 
 " Kate will feel all the gratitude she owes 
 you, my dear Lady, when she has sufficiently 
 recovered her startled senses to become aware 
 of what she has to thank you for," replied Lady 
 Augusta, taking upon herself to answer for her 
 mute daughter. " But at present," she added, 
 " I am sorry to say, that she appears utterly 
 incapable of forming a rational judgment on this 
 or any other subject ! It is not without a pro- 
 found feeling of shame and humiliation, Lady 
 de Paddington, that I confess to you how little 
 all the care and affection I have bestowed on 
 this ungrateful child, has availed to teach her 
 the duty she owes to her parents. You will 
 hardly believe it possible, my good friend, that a
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 323 
 
 girl so carefully brought up as she has been, 
 should declare that it is her wish to reject 
 Lord Goldstable, and that she positively refuses 
 to obey her father's will and mine, on this 
 most important affair of her life !" 
 
 " It is indeed almost impossible for me to 
 believe that any young lady, not absolutely de- 
 praved in heart and mind, should so conduct 
 herself," returned Lady de Paddington, solemnly. 
 " Nay, I will not believe it !" she added, fixing 
 her large, dull eyes with a sort of indignant 
 glare on Kate, " I will not believe that she will 
 persevere in such desperate wickedness, and such 
 desperate folly. Let her be very careful that 
 her sudden change of sentiments respecting my 
 nephew, does not get abroad before she has 
 well weighed the consequences ! I can tell 
 you, Miss Harrington, that the news of your 
 engagement to Lord Goldstable, is at this very 
 moment the talk of the whole town. Enchanted 
 and happy beyond concealment, poor fellow, 
 from the very moment that you listened to his 
 proposal without rejecting it, he not only con- 
 sidered himself as engaged to you, but he poured 
 forth his joy to me, and I considered myself as 
 fully at liberty to spread the news. If you have 
 
 y 2
 
 342 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 any regard for the honour of your family, and, 
 let me honestly add, for your own reputation, 
 Miss Harrington, you will reflect deeply hefore 
 you give the world cause to believe that this 
 greatly envied engagement is broken off. You 
 can scarcely be ignorant, I think, of what must 
 be the inevitable consequences of your breaking 
 off this marriage ? Trust me, young lady, that 
 if you persist in your present line of conduct, it 
 will be sedulously spread throughout the whole 
 of what deserves the name of society, that 
 Lord Goldstable has renounced the alliance 
 'for reasons;' and we all know, I presume, 
 the sort of construction, or, I might say, the 
 natural interpretation that will be put upon 
 this—" 
 
 Lady de Paddington suddenly paused, clasped 
 her hands together with an appearance of very 
 strong emotion, and fixed her eyes upon the 
 carpet as if she dared not look up to wit- 
 ness the misery of her unhappy friend, Lady 
 Augusta. 
 
 Poor Kate, however, turned an appealing 
 glance upon her mother; but she found no 
 comfort in the stern look she encountered in 
 return.
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 325 
 
 " You begin, perhaps, to perceive, Kate, some 
 of the ill-consequences likely to arise from disre- 
 garding the wishes and the counsels of your 
 parents," said Lady Augusta, in answer to her 
 mute appeal. " Believe me," she added, with 
 great solemnity, " if you were now permitted to 
 follow your own childish whims and wishes in 
 this most momentous aifair, new mischief and 
 new danger would arise around you with every 
 passing hour, and would dog your steps through 
 life. It will be a cruel return to your father and 
 myself for all our affection, if an only daughter 
 should make her first step in life, by blasting her 
 own reputation ! Yet this must be the inevit- 
 able result, if we were to be weak enough to 
 permit your acting according to your own 
 caprice in this business," 
 
 Kate did not attempt to reply to this ; it was 
 not that, after what she had listened to from her 
 Uncle Walter, she entertained for a moment any 
 doubt as to what it was her first duty to do, but 
 the difficulty which now beset her was a new 
 one. The idea of so conducting herself, as to 
 blast her own fair fame upon her first entrance 
 into the world, was certainly very terrible to her ; 
 and the only touch of comfort that cheered her
 
 326 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 heart at that very miserable moment, arose 
 from the thought that she would consult Uncle 
 Walter, and be guided entirely by his advice. 
 But though she knew it not, this blessing was 
 not at present within such reach as it had been ; 
 and she had a good deal of suffering still to 
 endure before it would be so again. 
 
 Lady Augusta's next move was to utter a very 
 dismal groan, and then to turn towards her 
 friend and say : " But you know not yet, dearest 
 Lady de Paddington, the whole extent of this 
 misguided child's perversity. I blush, I blush 
 w 7 ith shame, as I resolve to tell it you ; but I 
 owe it to your well-tried friendship to have no 
 concealments from you. You will pity me 
 when I tell you, that at the same interview in 
 which my daughter thought proper to inform 
 me that she had changed her mind with respect 
 to the proposal of Lord Goldstable, and that she 
 now wished to refuse it, she also thought proper 
 to announce to me that she had formed another 
 attachment, and was engaged to Mr. Caldwell, 
 the briefless young barrister !" 
 
 " My dear Lady Augusta ! I do indeed most 
 sincerely pity you," replied her sympathizing 
 friend, throwing up her eyes and hands in a
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 327 
 
 style expressive of the deepest sorrow and 
 dismay. " I certainly should have hoped that 
 your daughter would have been incapable of 
 forming a low attachment under any circum- 
 stances." 
 
 Kate had determined within herself to bear 
 the martyrdom her two executioners were in- 
 flicting on her, in silence. But this attack upon 
 her lover was more than she could bear, and 
 she replied, haughtily enough : " Mr. Caldwell, 
 Lady de Paddington, is not only a gentleman 
 by birth, but also by education, conduct and 
 manners." 
 
 " And fortune, of course ?" sneered the 
 exceedingly vulgar peeress in reply ; but to this 
 Kate did not vouchsafe any answer. 
 
 " Under these most unforeseen and unfortu- 
 nate circumstances, there is but one course for 
 me to pursue," resumed the indignant Lady 
 Augusta. " Of course, she will not be permitted 
 to see the insolent and presumptuous person, who 
 has thus basely abused the hospitality that has 
 been shown him. Neither shall I permit her, for 
 the present, to hold any communication with 
 that very wrong-headed and eccentric individual. 
 Dr. Harrington's brother; for I am by no
 
 328 UNCLE WALTER. 
 
 means quite sure of his principles on such a sub- 
 ject as this." 
 
 Kate started, and changed colour very visibly 
 on hearing this, of which her observant mamma 
 was quite aware ; but taking no notice of it, she 
 continued the confidential statement of her 
 intentions to her friend, by saying, with a good 
 deal of decision and firmness of manner : " My 
 purpose is to remove her at once from all possi- 
 bility of mischief from this source. I shall keep 
 this rebellious young lady strictly under my own 
 eye, till I have arranged something with her 
 father about sending her immediately into the 
 country, and I flatter myself that I shall be able 
 to achieve this, so that she shall leave town to- 
 morrow. Meanwhile, dear Lady de Paddington, 
 I trust implicitly to your good sense and discre- 
 tion. Lord Goldstable need not, I think, know 
 anything of her capricious change of mind for 
 the present." 
 
 " Never fear me, my good friend," responded 
 her worthy ally. " I think you have acted with 
 admirable judgment, in deciding as you have 
 done for the present. And for the future, let 
 us hope that we shall not always find this 
 young lady so obstinate. I trust that the time
 
 UNCLE WALTER. 329 
 
 will come, when she will be aware of her own 
 great good fortune in having had such a 
 mother !" 
 
 And thus they parted ; Lady Augusta order- 
 ing Kate to go down before her, as if she feared 
 to lose sight of her for a moment. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON* : 
 
 Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 COLBUBN AND CO.'S LIST 
 
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 FOURTH EDITION REVISED. 
 
 In One large Vol., 8vo. 15s. bound. 
 
 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK, 
 
 A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY B. DISRAELI, M.P. 
 
 From Blackwood's Magazine. — " This biography cannot fail to attract the 
 deep attention of the public. We are bound to say, that as a political biography 
 we have rarely, if ever, met with a book more dexterously handled, or more 
 replete with interest. The exertions of Lord George Bentinck in behalf of every 
 assailed or depressed branch of British and Colonial industry— the vast pains 
 which he took in procuring authentic information — and the enormous amount 
 of private labour he underwent in the preparation of those materials which have 
 thrown a novel light upon disputed doctrines of economy — are faithfully 
 chronicled in this most interesting volume. The history of the famous session 
 of 184G, as written by Disraeli in that brilliant and pointed style of which he 
 is so consummate a master, is deeply interesting. He has traced this memorable 
 struggle with a vivacity and power unequalled as yet in any narrative of Parlia- 
 mentary proceedings." 
 
 From The Dublin University Magazine. — " A political biography of 
 Lord George Bentinck by Mr. Disraeli must needs be a work of interest and 
 importance. Either the subject or the writer would be sufficient to invest it 
 with both — the combination surrounds it with peculiar attractions. In this 
 most interesting volume Mr. Disraeli has produced a memoir of his friend in 
 which he has combined the warmest enthusiasm of affectionate attachment with 
 the calmness of the critic, and in which he has not only added to his reputation, 
 but we verily believe must increase his influence even as a politician." 
 
 From The Morning Herald. — " Mr. Disraeli's tribute to the memory of 
 his departed friend is as graceful and as touching as it is accurate and impartial. 
 No one of Lord George Bentinck's colleagues could have been selected, who, 
 from his high literary attainments, his personal intimacy, and party associations, 
 would have done such complete justice to the memory of a friend and Parlia- 
 mentary associate. Mr. Disraeli lias here presented us with the very type and 
 embodiment of what history should be. His sketch of the condition of parties 
 is seasoned with some of those piquant personal episodes of party manoeuvres 
 and private intrigues, in the author's happiest and most captivating vein, which 
 convert the dry details of politics into a sparkling and agreeable narrative. 
 But the portrait which will stamp the book as one of the most extraordinary 
 productions of the time is that of Sir Robert Peel. It is written with wonderful 
 force and extraordinary impartiality."
 
 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE LITERATURE AND ROMANCE 
 
 OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 CONSTITUTING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN, 
 DENMARK, NORWAY, AND ICELAND, WITH COPIOUS SPECIMENS OF THE 
 MOST CELEBRATED HISTORIES, ROMANCES, POPULAR LEGENDS AND TALES, 
 OLD CHIVALROUS BALLADS, TRAGIC AND COMIC DRAMAS, NATIONAL SONGS, 
 NOVELS, AND SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 BY WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT. 
 
 2 v. post 8vo. 21s. bound. 
 
 " English readers have long been indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Howitt. They 
 have now increased our obligations by presenting us with this most charming and 
 valuable work, by means of which the great majority of the reading public will 
 be, for the first time, made acquainted with the rich stores of intellectual wealth 
 long garnered in the literature and beautiful romance of Northern Europe. 
 From the famous Edda, whose origin is lost in antiquity, down to the novels of 
 Miss Bremer and Baroness Knorring, the prose and poetic writings of Denmark, 
 Norway, Sweden, and Iceland are here introduced to us in a manner at once 
 singularly comprehensive and concise. It is no dry enumeration of names, but 
 the very marrow and spirit of the various works displayed before us. We have 
 old ballads and fairy tales, always fascinating ; we have scenes from plays, and 
 selections from the poets, with most attractive biographies of these and other 
 great men. The songs and ballads are translated with exquisite poetic beauty. — 
 Sun. 
 
 " We have most cordially to thank Mary and William Howitt for their valuable 
 contribution to our knowledge of the literature of Northern Europe. They have 
 effected a public good. They have offered to all classes of readers a work abound- 
 ing in original and entrancing interest, overflowing with varied matter — of criticism, 
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 sures for the gratification and enlightenment of a vast circle of minds. Our 
 authors have described to us in copious and entertaining detail the romance and the 
 poetry, the writings and the imaginations, of the Scandinavian races, interspersed 
 with abundant and well-selected specimens of the historical, romantic, legendary, 
 chivalric, ballad, dramatic, song, and critical literature of Northern Europe. They 
 have brought to light the treasures of the illustrious poets, historians and bards 
 of Scandinavia, in a work of astonishing interest." — Sunday Times. 
 
 " This work teems with information of the rarest and most curious character, 
 and is replete with interest to the scholar, the philosopher, the antiquarian, and 
 the general reader. The subject has the charming freshness of novelty. There 
 is not any other book in the English language, which presents so vivid, so 
 interesting, and so accurate a picture of the manners, customs, opinions, and 
 superstitions of our Scandinavian forefathers." — Morning Post. 
 
 " A standard work on the whole subject." — Globe. 
 
 " A valuable addition to our literature." — Daily News. 
 
 " A book full of information — and as such, a welcome addition to our literature, 
 The translations — especially of some of the ballads and other poems — are exe- 
 cuted with spirit and taste." — Athenceum.
 
 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 NEW HISTORICAL WORK BY MISS PARDOE. 
 
 In 3 vols. 8vo., with Portraits and other Illustrations. 
 
 THE LIFE OP MARIE DE MEDICIS, 
 
 QUEEN OF FRANCE, 
 
 CONSORT OF HENRY IV., AND REGENT OF THE KINGDOM UNDER 
 
 LOUIS XIII. 
 
 BY MISS PARDOE. 
 
 Author of " Louis XIV. and the Court of France in the 17th Century," 
 "The City of the Sultan," &c. 
 
 The life of the illustrious daughter of the Medici, and the no less famous 
 Queen-Regent of France, which forms the subject-matter of these volumes, was 
 one of such extraordinary vicissitude that it is probable no other page of historical 
 biography affords a similar example of the instability of human greatness. Born 
 a Princess, reared " under the purple," married in the bloom of her proud 
 beauty to one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe, wielding during her 
 maturity the sceptre of a mighty state, and ultimately wandering through foreign 
 lands in her decline a forsaken exile — forsaken alike by her children, and by 
 the haughty subject whom she had herself raised from obscurity, and invested 
 with almost sovereign authority — to perish at last of disease and want in the 
 obscure street of an obscure city : such was the fate of Marie de Medicis ; 
 while around the principal personage of the work is grouped a galaxy of those 
 undying names from which France derives much of her past glory, and many of 
 her most interesting traditions. In these pages the reader will be made ac- 
 quainted, not only with the public measures of these great men, which have 
 become matter of history, but also obtain an insight into their private thoughts, 
 feelings, and principles of action. Henry IV., Sully, Biron, Richelieu, Conde, 
 Epernon, Bassompierre, Luynes, Rohan, Gaston d'Orleans, Louis XIII., Soissons, 
 the Guises, Montmorency, Marillac, Rubens, and many other distinguished 
 warriors and statesmen are here shown " in their habits as they lived ;" while 
 the array of female celebrities is scarcely less brilliant, combining as it does, 
 the names of Marguerite de Valois, Anne of Austria, " La Belle Gabriellc," the 
 Marquise de Verneuil, Anne of Cleves Duchesse de Guise, the Princesses of 
 Conde" and Conti, the Duchesses of Nemours and Aiguillon, the beautiful and 
 unfortunate Countess du Fargis, and the martyred foster-sister of the Queen- 
 Regent, the still more unhappy Marechale d'Ancre. This work, for which a 
 wide canvass was essential from the vast amount of material which it involved, 
 and which combines the records of two reigns and a regency, will be found to 
 contain not only all the leading events of the period of which it treats, but also 
 those more minute details which tend to throw a light upon many public mea- 
 sures, of which the motives, without such a revelation, would occasionally appear 
 obscure, and even contradictory. The varied career of Marie de Medicis, 
 considered under its several phases, is assuredly one of the most striking romances 
 of real life ; and in the composition of the present volumes the greatest care has 
 been taken not to sacrifice to the fascinations of fiction the stern truths of 
 history. 

 
 6 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 NEW TRAVELS IN THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 Second Edition, in Two Vols., with Illustrations, 21s. bound. 
 
 EIGHT YEARS 
 IN PALESTINE, SYRIA, AND ASIA MINOR, 
 
 FROM 1842 TO 1850. 
 BY F. A. NEALE, ESQ., 
 
 LATK ATTACHED TO THE CONSULAR SERVICE IN SYRIA. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 " One of the best accounts of the country and people that has been published 
 of late years." — Spectator. 
 
 " A highly entertaining book, presenting a lively picture of Levantine life 
 all its varied aspects." — John Bull. 
 
 " A very agreeable book. Mr. Neale is evidently quite familiar with the 
 East, and writes in a lively, shrewd, and good humoured manner. A great 
 deal of information is to be found in his pages." — Athenceum. 
 
 " Deeply interesting volumes. We have rarely met with a work from which 
 we have derived so much pleasure and profit." — Messenger. 
 
 " We have derived unmingled pleasure from the perusal of these interesting 
 volumes. Very rarely have we found a narrative of Eastern travel so truthful 
 and just. There is no guide-book we would so strongly recommend to the 
 traveller about to enter on a Turkish or Syrian tour as this before us. The 
 information it affords is especially valuable, since it is brought up almost to the 
 last moment. The narrative, too, is full of incident, and abounds in vivid pic- 
 tures of Turkish and Levantine life interspersed with well-told tales. The 
 author commences his narrative at Gaza ; visits Askalon, Jaffa and Jerusalem, 
 Caipha and Mount Carmel, Acre, Sidon and Tyre, Beyrout, Tripoli, Antioch, 
 Aleppo, Alexandretta, Adana, and Cyprus. Of several of these famous localities 
 we know no more compact and clearer account than that given in these volumes. 
 We have to thank Mr. Neale for one of the best books of travels that we have 
 met with for a very long time." — Literary Gazette. 
 
 " Mr. Neale's book will claim the highest rank among works of this class 
 His long wandering of eight years in the regions he describes have marie him 
 thoroughly familiar with localities, and with the domestic life of the population. 
 Nothing can be more graphic than his picturesque descriptions ; nothing more 
 amusing than his sketches of native society ; more piquant or more diverting 
 than his stories, anecdotes, and adventures. He takes us out of the beaten 
 tract of tourists into the nooks and corners, as well as into the cities and towns. 
 lie tells us everything of such places as Jerusalem, Antioch, Aleppo, Beyrout ; 
 but we now go for the first time to Beilan, Nargheslik, Alexandretta, Daphne's 
 Cataracts, &c, &c. As might be expected in the narrative of one so familiar 
 with what he treats of, the book is replete with new and valuable information." 
 — United Service Magazine.
 
 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CAPTAIN SPENCER'S NEW WORK. 
 
 In 2 vols. 8vo. with Illustrations, and a valuable Map of European Turkey, from 
 
 the most recent Charts in the possession of the Austrian and Turkish 
 
 Governments, revised by the Author, 28s. bound. 
 
 TRAVELS IN EUROPEAN TURKEY 
 
 IN 1850: 
 
 THROUGH BOSNIA, SERVIA, BULGARIA, MACEDONIA, ROUMELIA, ALBANIA, AND 
 EPIRUS; WITH A VISIT TO GREECE AND THE IONIAN ISLES, AND A HOME- 
 WARD TOUR THROUGH HUNGARY AND THE SCLAVONIAN PROVINCES 
 OF AUSTRIA ON THE LOWER DANUBE. 
 
 By EDMUND SPENCER, ESQ. 
 
 Author of " Travels in Circassia," &c. 
 
 " These important volumes appear at an opportune moment, as they describe 
 some of those countries to which public attention is now more particularly 
 directed : Turkey, Greece, Hungary, and Austria. The author has given us a 
 most interesting picture of the Turkish Empire, its weaknesses, and the em- 
 barrassments from which it is now suffering, its financial difficulties, the discon- 
 tent, of its Christian, and the turbulence of a great portion of its Mohammedan 
 subjects. We are also introduced for the first time to the warlike mountaineers 
 of Bosnia, Albania, Upper Moesia, and the almost inaccessible districts of the 
 Pindus and the Balkan. The different nationalities of that Babel-like country, 
 Turkey in Europe, inhabited by Sclavonians, Greeks, Albanians, Macedonians, 
 the Romani and Osmanli — their various characteristics, religions, superstitions, 
 together with their singular customs and manners, their ancient and contem- 
 porary history are vividly described. The Ionian Islands, Greece, Hungary, and 
 the Sclavonian Provinces of Austria on the Lower Danube, are all delineated in 
 the author's happiest manner. 
 
 " We cordially recommend Mr. Spencer's valuable and interesting volumes to 
 the attention of the reader. They are replete with information upon countries of 
 which we know but little ; they will be interesting to the military man for the 
 details they give of the strength and defensive positions of the various countries 
 through which the author travelled ; to the merchant for the insight given into 
 the state of trade ; and to the man of the world as they place before his view the 
 present political and social state of an empire, whose welfare it is the interest of 
 England to promote. The work must be considered a standard production, 
 enriched, as it is, by an excellent map derived from the most authentic modern 
 charts, added to, and improved by the observations of the author during his 
 travels." — United Service Magazine. 
 
 " A work of great merit, and of paramount present interest." — Standard. 
 
 " This interesting work contains by far the most complete, the most en- 
 lightened, and the most reliable amount of what has been hitherto almost the 
 terra incognita of European Turkey, and supplies the reader with abundance of 
 entertainment as well as instruction." — John Bull. 
 
 " An excellent and admirable work. Mr. Spencer is a very able writer, a 
 shrewd, experienced and philosophical observer, an eminently thinking and yet 
 practical man. His work forms the most valuable addition that our literature has 
 lately received. He sets forth to inquire and learn ; he returns to inform and 
 suggest ; and information most valuable and interesting has he here bestowed 
 upon us." — Tail's Magazine.
 
 8 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ARCTIC MISCELLANIES, 
 
 A SOUVENIR OF THE LATE POLAR SEARCH. 
 
 BY THE OFFICERS AND SEAMEN OF THE EXPEDITION. 
 
 DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY. 
 
 Second Edition, with a new Preface and Introduction by P. O'Brien, Esq. 
 
 1 v. with numerous Illustrations, 10s. 6d., elegantly bound. 
 
 Amongst the Contributors to the " Arctic Miscellanies" are Admiral Sir John 
 Ross, Captain Ommaney, Commanders McClintock and Cator, Lieutenants 
 Osburn, Meecham, Browne, and Markham, Dr. Donnet, and Dr. Ede. 
 
 From the " Times." — This volume is not the least interesting or instructive 
 among the records of the late expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, com- 
 manded by Captain Austin. The most valuable portions of the book are those 
 which relate to the scientific and practical observations made in the course of the 
 expedition, and the descriptions of scenery and incidents of arctic travel. Many 
 of the latter possess considerable literary merit, and all are impressed with the 
 vividness of fresh observation. From the variety of the materials, and the 
 novelty of the scenes and incidents to which they refer, no less than the interest 
 which attaches to all that relates to the probable safety of Sir John Franklin and 
 his companions, the Arctic Miscellanies forms a very readable book, and one that 
 redounds to the honour of the national character. 
 
 From the " Globe." — Captain Austin's little squadron, which sailed in 
 May, 1850, in search of Sir John Franklin, consisted of the Resolute, com- 
 manded by Captain Austin ; the Assistance, commanded by Captain Ommaney ; 
 and two steamers under the command of Lieutenants Osburn and Cator. To 
 assist in whiling away the dreary time in the arctic regions, the officers and 
 sailors of the expedition contributed to a journal which was circulated amongst 
 them in manuscript, and once a month the weather-beaten tars enjoyed the 
 luxury of their own newspaper. That journal has now been brought before the 
 general public under the title of " Arctic Miscellanies," in a shape more worthy 
 of its intrinsic merits, beautifully printed, and carefully illustrated. All the 
 varied incidents, pleasant and painful, of life in the frozen zone, are vividly 
 and good-humouredly chronicled in the " Arctic Miscellanies," which contains 
 besides some capital seamen's stories superstitious " yarns " and drolleries. As 
 a record of the pastimes, adventures, fancies, and feelings of our true-hearted 
 gallant sailors, while undergoing the most appalling hardships in the frozen 
 seas, the volume is invaluable ; and it is unusually interesting as demonstrating 
 the high intellectual capacities, the mental vigour, and the refined tastes of our 
 rough-looking blue-jackets. 
 
 From the " United Service Magazine." — Beautifully got up, and 
 profusely illustrated, this most pleasant book really charms as much by its 
 appearance and its matter, as its novelty. We cannot take leave of this Arctic 
 Souvenir without expressing our admiration of it in every point of view. Such 
 productions should be encouraged by those in authority, and a copy of this 
 work ought to be found on board every ship in commission.
 
 COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 DARIEN; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 By ELIOT WARBURTON, Esct. 
 
 Author of " The Crescent and the Cross," &c, Second Edition. 3 v. 
 
 " The present production, from the pen of the author of < The Crescent and the 
 Cross,' has the same elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its 
 thousands. It is a tale of substantial interest." — Globe. 
 
 " The best work of fiction which has proceeded from Mr. Warburton's pen. 
 It is full of absorbing interest."— Messenger. 
 
 " The theme of this book is a fine one. It is full of eloquent writing." — Examiner. 
 
 " Darien, like all Mr. Warburton's previous productions, has many passages of 
 rich imaginative beauty. This eloquent narrative will be extensively read, and 
 deserves to be so." — Daily News. 
 
 " A most interesting narrative, and one in which the versatile talents of its 
 author are conspicuously and agreeably apparent. The characters are delineated 
 with delicacy and skill, and there is a vigorous vitality in the dialogue which 
 carries the reader along with a movement at once easy and rapid. The descrip- 
 tions are remarkable for splendour of illustration and brilliancy of language, and 
 the incidents are involved with such ingenuitv as to preserve the interest to the 
 last," — Morning Post. 
 
 " Few writers have so many admirers as Mr. Warburton. His ' Crescent and 
 the Cross' is one of the standard works of the English language, and we shall be 
 disappointed if the charming story of ' Darien' does not obtain an equal degree of 
 success. The vicissitudes and stirring adventures of the hero, forming such a 
 marvellous episode of real life — the beauty and striking characteristics of the 
 heroine — and the vein of pathos and romance that pervades the whole tale, give 
 the book a peculiar and irresistible charm. By those who love excitement it will 
 be read with breathless interest. Mr. Warburton excels in the delineation of 
 those incidents which call up the first powers of the novelist, and enchain the 
 sympathies of the reader. His situations are admirably conceived, and wrought 
 out with singular skill. His characters are strongly marked, and show the 
 felicitous touch of a master."— United Service Magazine. 
 
 " The scheme for the colonization of Darien by Scotchmen, and the opening 
 of a communication between the East and West across the Isthmus of Panama, 
 furnishes the foundation of this story, which is in all respects worthy cf the 
 high reputation which the author of the ' Crescent and the Cross' had" already 
 made for himself. The early history of the Merchant Prince introduces the 
 reader to the condition of Spain under the Inquisition ; the portraitures of 
 Scottish life which occupy a prominent place in the narrative, are full of spirit ; 
 the scenes in America exhibit the state of the natives of the new world at that 
 period; the daring deeds of the Buccaneers supply a most romantic element in 
 the story; and an additional interest is infused into it by the introduction of 
 various celebrated characters of the period, such as Law, the French financier, 
 and Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England. All these varied ingredients 
 are treated with that brilliancy of style and powerful descriptive talent, by which 
 the pen of Eliot Warburton was so eminently distinguished." — John Bull.
 
 10 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 JUDGE HALIBURTON'S NEW HISTORICAL WORK. 
 
 In 2 vols, post 8vo. 21s. bound. 
 
 RULE AND MISRULE OF 
 
 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 
 
 By the Author of 
 "SAM SLICK," "THE OLD JUDGE," &c. 
 
 " A most attractive work." — Standard. 
 
 " The cleverest volumes Judge Haliburton has ever produced." — Messenger. 
 
 " We conceive this work to be by far the most valuable and important Judge 
 Haliburton has ever written. The exhaustless fund of humour — quiet, yet rich 
 and racy, and at the same time overflowing with the milk of human kindness 
 — which his writings display on one hand, and the wonderful knowledge of 
 man's character, in all its countless varieties, which they exhibit on the other, 
 have insured for them a high, and honourable, and enduring station in English 
 literature. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to arise from the perusal of 
 any of Mr. Haliburton's performances without having become both wiser and 
 better. His 'English in America' is, however, a production of a yet more 
 exalted order. While teeming with interest, moral and historical, to the general 
 reader, it may be regarded as equally constituting a philosophical study for the 
 politician and the statesman. It will be found to dissipate many popular errors, 
 and to let in a flood of light upon the actual origin, formation, and progress of 
 the republic of the United States." — Naval and Military Gazette. 
 
 "Those who wish for an accurate history of the rise of republicanism in 
 America to its grand development in the United States revolution, will here find 
 a narrative that is invaluable for its accuracy, its impartiality, its admirable order 
 in arrangement, and that true philosophy of statesmanship which can attach to 
 each incident a fitting moral, from which every honest politician can derive 
 instruction. The work is one equally useful in the double aspect in which it 
 may be regarded — first, an insight into the causes of past transactions; second, 
 as a warning to guide mankind amid the many perplexing political questions of 
 the day. The spirit of impartiality animates every page of this work. It is 
 deserving of a place in every historical library." — Morning Herald. 
 
 " We believed the author of this work to possess a power of humour and 
 sarcasm second only to that of Rabelais and Sidney Smith, and a genuine pathos 
 worthy of Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens. In his particular line of literature 
 we believed him to be unrivalled. In the volumes before us he breaks upon a 
 new, and — according to his method of breaking the subject — untrodden ground. 
 We hail this book with pleasure ; we cons.der it an honour to Judge Haliburton, 
 as by it he has proved himself to be a Christian, a scholar, a gentleman, and, in 
 the true sense of a mis-used word, a patriot. Mr. Haliburton places before us, 
 fairly and impartially, the history of English rule in America. The book is not 
 only a boon to the historic student, it is also filled with reflections such as may 
 well engage the attention of the legislating statesman. Mr. Haliburton also 
 shows us the true position of the Canadas, explains the evils of our colonial 
 system, points out the remedies by which these evils may be counteracted, that 
 thus the rule of the ' English in America' may be something better than a 
 history of the blunders, the follies, and the ignorant temerity of colonial 
 secretaries." — Irish Quarterly Review.
 
 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1 1 
 
 SAM SLICK'S NEW COMIC WORK. 
 
 In 3 vols, post 8vo. 31s. Gd. bound. 
 
 TRAITS OF AMERICAN HUMOUR. 
 
 Edited 
 By the Author of " SAM SLICK," &c. 
 
 "We have seldom met with a work more rich in fun or more generally 
 delightful." — Standard. 
 
 " Those who have relished the racy humour of the ' Clockmaker,' will find a 
 dish of equally ludicrous and amusing Transatlantic wit in the volumes before 
 US."— Herald. ' 
 
 "A new hook, by the author of 'Sam Slick' causes some stir among the 
 laughter-loving portion of the community ; and its appearance at the present 
 festive season is appropriate. We hold that it would be quite contrary to the 
 fitness of things for any other hand than that of our old acquaintance, the 
 facetious Judge Ilaliburton, to present to us a Christmas dish, and call it ' Traits 
 of American Humour.' But even without the recollection of 'Sam Slick' to 
 evoke the spirit of fun within us, we should have been forced to yield to the 
 racy humour of these American ' Traits.' Dip where you will into' this lottery 
 of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize." — Morning Post. 
 
 " The untravelled European who has not made the acquaintance of Sam 
 Slick, can have but little knowledge of the manners, customs, humours, eccen- 
 tricities and lingos of the countless varieties of inhabitants of North America 
 who we are accustomed to conglomerate under the general name of Yankees. 
 Assisted, however, by Sam Slick's graphic descriptions, literal reports, and racy 
 pen-and-ink sketches, gentlemen who sit at home at ease, are able to realize with 
 tolerable accuracy the more remarkable species of this lively family, to compre- 
 hend their amusing jargon, to take an interest in their peculiarities of person 
 and speech, and to enter into the spirit of their very characteristic humours. 
 No man has done more than the facetious Judge Ilaliburton, through the mouth 
 of the inimitable ' Sam," to make the old parent country recognise and appreciate 
 her queer transatlantic progeny ; and in the volumes before us he seeks to render 
 the acquaintance more minute and complete. His present collection of comic 
 stories and laughable traits is a budget of fun full of rich specimens of American 
 humour." — Globe. 
 
 " The reader will find this work deeply interesting. Yankeeism pourtrayed, in 
 its raciest aspect, constitutes the contents of these superlatively entertaining 
 volumes, for which we are indebted to our facetious old friend, ' Sam Slick.' The 
 work embraces the most varied topics, — political parties, religious eccentricities, 
 the flights of literature, and the absurdities of pretenders to learning, all come 
 in for their share of satire ; while in other papers we have specimens'of genuine 
 American exaggerations, or graphic pictures of social and domestic life as it is 
 more especially in the ruder districts and in the back settlements, or again 
 sallies of broad humour, exhibiting those characteristics which form in the 
 country itself the subject of mutual persiflage between the citizens of different 
 States. The work will have a wide circulation." — John Bull.
 
 12 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS 
 
 KHARTOUM, 
 
 AND THE BLUE AND WHITE NILES. 
 
 By GEORGE MELLY, ESQ. 
 
 Second and Revised Edition. 
 
 2 v. post 8vo., with Map and Illustrations, 21s. bound. 
 
 " Mr. Melly is an animated writer, and a quick observer — his style is buoyant, 
 lively, and agreeable, and his book is from first to last instructive and enter- 
 taining." — Morning Post. 
 
 " Independently of the amusement and information which may be derived 
 from Mr. Melly's interesting work, the references to the relations which exist 
 at this time between the Sublime Porte and Egypt are worthy of every conside- 
 ration which statesmen and public men can bestow upon them." — Messenger. 
 
 " We cannot feel otherwise than grateful to the author of these valuable and 
 useful volumes for having kept so faithful a journal, and for giving the public 
 the benefit of his adventures and experience. The manners and customs of 
 the natives, as well as the natural curiosities, and the relics of antiquity which 
 the travellers visited, in turns engage the reader's attention ; and, altogether, the 
 book is a most entertaining and instructive vade-mecum to the interesting portion 
 of the East of which it treats." — John Bull. 
 
 SCENES FROM SCRIPTURE. 
 
 By the REV. G. CROLY, LL.D. 
 
 Author of " Salathiei,," &c, 1 v., 10s. Cd. bound. 
 principal contents : — 
 
 The Last Day of Jerusalem — Esther — The Third Temptation — The Vision of 
 God — The Sixth Seal — The Power of Prayer — Belshazzar — Malachi — Balak 
 and Balaam — Ezckiel — John the Baptist — the Prophecy of Jerusalem — 
 Elisha in Dothan — The Woe upon Israel — The Judgment Day, &c. 
 
 " Eminent in every mode of literature, Dr. Croly stands, in our judgment, first 
 among the living poets of Great Britain — the only man of our day entitled by his 
 power to venture within the sacred circle of religious poets." — Standard. 
 
 " The appearance of a volume of poems from a writer of such high repute as 
 the author of ' Salathiel,' is an event in the history of modern literature. With 
 a vigour of language in harmony with the subjects he has chosen, Dr. Croly has 
 presented to us, in a poetic form, some of the most striking and instructive inci- 
 dents in the sacred volume." — Messenger. 
 
 " This volume will be extensively read and admired. It is one of great 
 interest, variety, and merit." — Post. 
 
 " This work deserves to be placed in the highest ranks of sacred poetry." — 
 Atlas. 
 
 "An admirable addition to the library of religious families." — John Bull.
 
 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 13 
 
 LOED PALMERSTOFS OPINIONS 
 
 AND POLICY; 
 AS MINISTER, DIPLOMATIST, AND STATESMAN, 
 
 DURING MORE THAN FORTY YEARS OF PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 1 v. 8vo., with Portrait, 12s. bound. 
 
 " This work ought to have a place in every political library. It gives a com- 
 plete view of the sentiments and opinions by which the policy of Lord 
 Palmerston has been dictated as a diplomatist and statesman." — Chronicle. 
 
 " This is a remarkable and seasonable publication ; but it is something more — 
 it is a valuable addition to the historical treasures of our country during more 
 than forty of the most memorable years of our annals. We earnestly recommend 
 the volume to general perusal." — Standard. 
 
 FIVE YEARS IN THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 BY CHARLES W. DAY, ESQ. 
 
 2 v., with Illustrations, 21s. bound. 
 
 " These interesting volumes possess considerable merit as regards information 
 on that important subject, the state of the West Indies as they are at present." — 
 Sun. 
 
 " It would be unjust to deny the vigour, brilliancy, and varied interest of this 
 work, the abundant stores of anecdote and interest, and the copious detail of 
 local habits and peculiarities in each island visited in succession." — Globe. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 BRITISH CONQUESTS IN INDIA. 
 
 BY HORACE ST. JOHN. 2 v. 21s. bound. 
 
 HISTORY OF CORFU; 
 
 AND OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE IONIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 BY LIEUT. H. J. W. JERVIS, Royal Artillery. 
 
 1 v., with Illustrations, 10s. 6d. bound. 
 
 " A work of great value, from the importance of Corfu in case of an European 
 war." — Literary Gazette. 
 
 " Written with great care and research, and including probably all the 
 particulars of any moment in the history of Corfu. The principal interest will 
 attach to the military details and the concluding account of the present state of 
 the island." — Athenaeum. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF COLONEL LANDMANN. 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 2 r. (Just Ready.)
 
 14 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CANADA AS IT WAS, IS, AND MAY BE. 
 
 By the late Lieutenant-Colonel Sir R. Bonnycastle. 
 
 "With an Account of Recent Transactions, 
 
 By SIR JAMES E. ALEXANDER, K.L.S., &c. 
 
 2 v., post 8vo., with Maps, &c. 21s. bound. 
 
 " These volumes offer to the British public a clear and trustworthy statement 
 of the affairs of Canada; a narrative of the late troubles, their causes and 
 consequences ; an account of the policy pursued in the colony, and the effects 
 of the immense public works in progress and completed ; with sketches of 
 localities and scenery, amusing anecdotes of personal observation, and generally 
 every information which may be of use to the traveller or settler, and the military 
 and political reader. The information rendered is to be thoroughly relied on as 
 veracious, full, and conclusive." — Messenger. 
 
 " This is the best work on Canada for every class of readers — the most 
 complete, the most important, and the most interesting. It must be considered 
 the standard authority on the subject of the history of Canada, and the actual 
 situation, capabilities, and prospects of that important colonial possession." — 
 Sunday Times. 
 
 "The best account of Canada yet published." — Critic. 
 
 " It should be read by every colonist, and studied by every statesman." — 
 Herald. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF 
 
 FIVE YEARS' RESIDENCE AT NEPAUL. 
 
 By CAPTAIN THOMAS SMITH, 
 
 Assistant Political-Resident at Nepaul, from 1841 to 1845. 
 2 v. post 8vo. 21s. bound. 
 
 SPAIN AS IT IS. 
 
 By G. A. HOSKINS, ESQ. 
 
 Author of " Travels in Ethiopia, and Visit to the Great Oasts," &c. 
 2 v., with Illustrations, 21s. bound. 
 
 " To the tourist this work will prove invaluable. It is the most complete and 
 most interesting portraiture of Spain as it is that has ever come under our 
 notice." — John Bull. 
 
 " Mr. Hoskins is a pleasant companion and a very useful guide. He describes 
 a route abounding in all the attractions afforded by noble works of art, interest- 
 ing historical association, and exquisite scenery ; and he does justice to them all. 
 His narrative is rendered both attractive and valuable by the intrinsic interest of 
 the subject, and the graphic truthfulness of description which appears in every 
 page." — Morning Post.
 
 COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 15 
 
 $hm fflmfa nf fulwn, k\ Histiiigiusljru" IDritrrs. 
 
 ADAM GRAEME OF MOSSGBAY. 
 
 A STORY OF SCOTTISH LIFE. 
 
 By the Author of 
 " Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland," " Merkland,' 
 
 and " Caleb Field." 3 v. 
 
 " These volumes have even greater merit than those which have already ap- 
 peared by the same popular author. The natural truthfulness and pathos with 
 which the narrative is delineated is fascinating in the extreme." — Messenger. 
 
 " A story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its admirable 
 pictures of Scottish life and scenery." — Post. 
 
 "'Adam Graeme' is full of eloquent writing and description. It is an un- 
 common work, not only in the power of the style, in the eloquence of the 
 digressions, in the interest of the narrative, and in the delineation of character, 
 but in the lessons it teaches." — Sun. 
 
 MARY SEAHAM, BY MRS. GREY. 
 
 Author of " The Gambler's Wife," &c. 
 
 3 v. 
 
 ADVENTURES OP A 
 
 BEAUTY. 
 
 BY MRS. CROWE. 
 
 Author of " Susan Hopley," &c. 3 v. 
 
 " A deeply interesting story."- — Sun. 
 
 " A fascinating interest pervades this tale. 
 The characters are sketched to the life, and 
 sustained in the most telling manner. The 
 talented aulhor has produced a succession 
 of tableaux vivants, pictures breathing life 
 and animation."- — John Bull. 
 
 CONFESSIONS OE AN 
 
 ETONIAN. 
 
 BY CHARLES ROWCROFT, ESQ. 
 
 Author of 
 
 " Tales of the Colonies," &c. 3 v. 
 
 HEARTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 BY ROBERT BELL, ESQ. 
 
 Author of 
 
 " The Ladder of Gold," &c. 3 v. 
 
 "A romance of absorbing interest, related 
 
 with a power of personal portraiture and 
 
 mental analysis rarely exhibited." — Globe. 
 
 The HEIR of ARDENNAN. 
 
 By the Author of " Anne Dysart." 3 v. 
 
 "This tale possesses a wonderful power 
 of fascination. It is one of the most suc- 
 cessful novels of its class." — John Bull. 
 
 CLARE ABBEY. 
 
 By the Author of " The Discipline of 
 
 Life," &c. 2 v. 
 
 " Lady Ponsonby's • Clare Abbey' is a 
 delightful book, full of powerful ami graceful 
 writing." — Standard. 
 
 EMILY 
 BY MRS. 
 
 HOWARD. 
 
 DUNLOP. 
 
 6 v. 
 
 "A most fascinating work. It has an 
 interest and originality not often met with." 
 — Sun. 
 
 RUTH GARNETT. 
 3 v. 
 
 " Full of incident, and written in a plea- 
 sant style ; this historical tale of the reign 
 of Charles II. must inevitably attract a con- 
 siderable share of attention." — Observer. 
 
 CLARA HARRINGTON. 
 3 v. 
 
 "Altogether a remarkable work. There 
 is an interest in the whole story almost 
 ana'opous tn what we tind in Rousseau and 
 Godwin." — Literary Gazette. 
 
 AURELIA ; 
 
 OR, A BEAUTY'S LIFE IN ITALY. 
 3v.
 
 16 
 
 COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 POPULAR WORKS OF FICTION. 
 
 RAVENSCLIFFE. 
 
 Bv the Author of 
 " Emilia Wyndham," &c. 3 v. 
 
 " ' Ravenscliffe' contains scenes not sur- 
 passed in power and beauty by those in 
 ' The Admiral's Daughter.' No reader can 
 bear the heroine company without feeling 
 the same sense of powerlessness to cope 
 with the fascinations of a dark destiny which 
 is conveyed by the stories of Richardson's 
 'Clarissa,' and Scott's ' Lucy Ashton.' This 
 is praise enough — yet not too much." — 
 Athenteum. 
 
 CALEB FIELD. 
 
 By the Author of 
 " Margaret Maitland," &c. 1 v. 
 
 "This beautiful production is every way 
 worthy of its author's reputation in the very 
 first rank of contemporary writers."- — Stand. 
 
 "As a delineator of manners and character, 
 this author has scarcely an equal among 
 living writers. 'Caleb Field' is a story of 
 moving interest, full of novelty, and abound- 
 ing In scenes of graphic beauty." — Sunday 
 Times. 
 
 JACOB BENDIXEN, THE 
 
 JEW. 
 
 BY MARY HOWITT. 3 v. 
 
 "This tale has the fascination and the value 
 of a glimpse into a most strange world. We 
 heartily commend the novel." — Athenteum. 
 
 MARIAN WITHERS. 
 
 By GERALDINE E. JEWSBURY, 
 
 Author of 
 " Zoe," " The Half Sisters," &c. 3 v. 
 
 " Full of cleverness and originality." — 
 Examiner. 
 
 " The best of Miss Jewsbury's novels." — 
 Critic. — —   
 
 CECILE ; 
 
 OR, THE PERVERT. 
 
 By the Author of "Rockingham." 1 v. 
 
 " We cannot too highly recommend this 
 remarkable work. It is earnest and elo- 
 quent, charitable and kindly, and full of 
 strung and genuine interest." — Chronicle. 
 
 THE LIVINGSTONES. 
 
 "This work has a real interest. Its pictures 
 of Scottish homes are excellent." — Examiner. 
 
 RALPH RUTHERFORD. 
 
 By the Author of " The Petrel." 3 v. 
 
 "Admiral Fisher's interesting nautical tale 
 of 'Ralph Rutherford' is a worthy mem- 
 ber of the Marryat class." — U. S. Gazette. 
 
 FALKENBURG. 
 
 By the Author of "Mildred Vernon." 
 " A tale of singular and fascinating beauty." 
 — Britannia. 
 
 " All discriminating readers will be of one 
 accord as to the excellence of ' Falkenburg.' 
 Be it truth or romance, it is a capital stsry. 
 The characters are well delineated and 
 cleverly contrasted — the descriptive passages 
 are full of grace and elegance — the reflective 
 full of strength and earnestness." — Post. 
 
 MRS. MATHEWS; 
 
 OR, FAMILY MYSTERIES. 
 
 BY MRS. TROLLOPE. 3 v. 
 
 " A production unique in character, and 
 of singular merit. This interesting story 
 displays remarkable knowledge of life, and 
 unites with great variety and fertility in the 
 conception of character, greater freedom, 
 energy, and minuteness of delineation, than 
 any other of Mrs. Trollope's novels." — Post. 
 
 The LADY and the PRIEST. 
 
 By MRS. MABERLY. 3 v. 
 
 " The sustained, the ever heightening 
 interest, with which the story progresses to 
 the end, and the power with which the 
 characters are delineated, together with the 
 allusions and illustrations applicable to the 
 mighty conflict of the day between Rome 
 and England, combine to make the fiction of 
 'The Lady and the Priest' one of the most 
 exquisite romances." — John Bull. 
 
 THE TUTOR'S WARD. 
 
 By the Author of 
 " Wayfaring Sketches," " Use and 
 Abuse," &c. 2 v. 
 " 'The Tutor's Ward' is a masterpiece of 
 fiction. The plot of the story is charged to 
 the full with extraordinary incidents and 
 adventures." — John Bull. 
 
 ARTHUR CONWAY; 
 
 OR, SCENES IN THE TROPICS. 
 BY CAPT. MILMAN. 3 v. 
 
 " A book of very rare merit. As a ro- 
 mance, replete with striking and affecting 
 incidents; as a picture of life in the West 
 Indies, as a delineation of tropical scenery, 
 and of the grand and mysterious visitations 
 of nature, 'Arthur Conway' stands unap- 
 proached by any modern work." — U?iited 
 Service Gazette. 
 
 A L B A N. 
 
 By the Author of " Lady Alice." 3 v. 
 
 "A remarkable novel, carried out with a 
 great deal of spirit and effect." — Critic.
 
 THE ARMY AND NAVY. 
 
 Published on the 1st of every Month, Price 3s. 6d. 
 
 COLBUEN'S UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE, 
 
 AND 
 
 NAVAL AND MILITARY JOURNAL. 
 
 The attention of the public, and particularly that of the United 
 Services and the Army and Navy of the East India Company, is 
 respectfully invited to this periodical, which has now been established 
 twenty-five years, and embraces subjects of such extensive variety and 
 of such powerful interest as must render it scarcely less acceptable 
 to readers in general than to the members of those professions for 
 whose use it is more particularly intended. 
 
 Independently of a succession of Original Papers on innumerable 
 interesting subjects, Personal Narratives, Historical Incidents, Cor- 
 respondence, &c, each number comprises Biographical Memoirs of 
 Eminent Officers of all branches of service, Reviews of New Publica- 
 tions, either immediately relating to the Army or Navy, or involving- 
 subjects of utility or interest to the members of either, Full Reports 
 of Trials by Courts Martial, Distribution of the Army and Navy, 
 General Orders, Circulars, Promotions, Appointments, Births, Mar- 
 riages, Obituary, &c, with all the Naval and Military Intelligence 
 of the Month. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 "This is confessedly one of the ablest and most attractive periodicals 
 of which the British press can boast, presenting a wide field of entertain- 
 ment to the general as well as the professional reader. The suggestions 
 for the benefit of the two Services are numerous, and distinguished by 
 vigour of sense, acute and practical observation, an ardent love of dis- 
 cipline, tempered by a high sense of justice, honour, humanity, and a 
 tender regard for the welfare and personal comfort of our soldiers and 
 seamen." — Globe. 
 
 " At the head of those periodicals which furnish useful and valuable 
 information to their peculiar classes of readers, as well as amusement to 
 the general body of the public, must be placed the ' United Service 
 Magazine, and Naval and Military Journal.' It numbers among its con- 
 tributors almost all those gallant spirits who have done no less honour 
 to their country by their swords than by their pens, and abounds with 
 the most interesting discussions on naval and military affairs, and stirring 
 narratives of deeds of arms in all parts of the world. Every information 
 of value and interest to both the Services is culled with the greatest 
 diligence from every available source, and the correspondence of various 
 distinguished officers which enrich its pages is a feature of great attraction. 
 In short, the ' United Service Magazine' can be recommended to every 
 reader who possesses that attachment to his country which should make 
 him look with thedeepest intereston itsnaval and militaryresources. "—£«;.>.
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON 
 
 COLBURN'S UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE. 
 
 " This truly national periodical is always full of the most valuable matter 
 for professional men. It abounds with excellent articles, the personal 
 memoirs of distinguished officers of both Services, results of valuable 
 military and naval experience, fragments of interesting travels, and light 
 tales of adventure, all of which are well blended, and form a most 
 harmonious ensemble." — Morning Herald. 
 
 "' Colburn's United Service Magazine' is always a welcome visitor. 
 Its numbers contain an absolute redundancy of able and important 
 articles, the value of which is not merely confined to any peculiar distinc- 
 tive interest that military and naval men may attach to them. Independent 
 of its attractions to the two Services, there is a mass of sterling reading 
 which no class of intelligent persons will fail to appreciate."— Morning 
 Post. 
 
 "A magazine which is not only an honour to the Services that patronize 
 it, but also to the literature of the country." — Standard. 
 
 "To military and naval men, and to that class of readers who hover 
 on the skirts of the Services, and take a world of pains to inform them- 
 selves of all the goings on, the modes and fashions, the movements and 
 adventures connected with ships and barracks, this periodical is indis- 
 pensable. It is a repertory of facts and criticisms — narratives of past 
 experience, and fictions that are as good as if they were true — tables and 
 returns — new inventions and new books bearing upon the army and the 
 navy — correspondence crowded with intelligence — and sundry unclaimed 
 matters that lie in close neighbourhood with the professions, and contri- 
 bute more or less to the stock of general useful information." — Atlas. 
 
 "The 'United Service Magazine' is an invaluable repository of excel- 
 lent articles on naval and military warfare, with respect to the science, 
 the statistics, and the management of the two branches of the Service. 
 It is, moreover, a most useful chronicler of all current events relating to 
 our mercantile and national marine, and to every branch of our army, 
 whether under Government or in the service of the East India Company. 
 Its attention to colonial affairs and miscellaneous subjects is most 
 useful." — Weekly Dispatch. 
 
 "This is one of the most permanently useful of the magazines, con- 
 taining matter valuable not only to the naval and military reader, but to 
 the historian and politician. It has, moreover, sketches of manners, 
 scenery, and adventure, from the pens of some of the most popular 
 writers of the day. Its digest of news is admirable, its lists of the posts 
 among which our armies and fleets are divided are of the last utility, 
 while its amusing and able correspondence is another excellent feature." 
 — Brighton Guardian. 
 
 COLBURN AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 13, Great Mnrlborous'li Street. 
 
 TO BE HAD OF AM. BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM.
 
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