UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILLINOIS LIB' my 
 
 AT URBANA-CH/ AiGN 
 
 BOOKSTACK 
 
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 of lUinois Library^ 
 
 L161-H41
 
 PIN MONEY; 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 BY THE AUTHORESS OF 
 
 ''THE MANNERS OF THE DAY. 
 
 » 
 
 "Here's something to buy pins ; — marriage is chargeable." 
 
 VENICE PRESERVED. 
 
 \^r\-r\e. Q^x^p^Q.^ Fru.Y\ce^ t^y\oo.\.\ 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 '<■ v: 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 NEW BURLINGTOX STREET. 
 
 1831.
 
 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
 
 2Vb 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It has become so much the custom to connect 
 every character introduced into a work of fic- 
 tion with some living original, that the writer 
 of Pin Money feels it necessary to declare its 
 incidents and personages to be wholly imagi- 
 nary. Exhibiting an attempt to transfer the 
 familiar narrative of Miss Austin to a higher 
 sphere of society, it is, in fact, a Novel of the 
 simplest kind, addressed by a woman to readers 
 of her own sex ; — by whom, as well as by the 
 professional critics, its predecessor, *' The 
 Manners of the Day," was received with 
 too much indulgence not to encourage a further 
 appeal to their favour 

 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 When a couple are to be married, if their goods and chattels 
 can be brought to unite, their sympathetic souls are ever ready 
 to guarantee the treaty. The gentleman's mortgaged lawn 
 becomes enamoured of the lady's marriageable grove ; the 
 match is struck up, and both parties are piously in love — 
 according to Act of Parliament. 
 
 GOLDSMITH. 
 
 "A MOST unexceptionable proposal, my 
 dear sister ! " said Lady Olivia Tadcaster to 
 Lady Launceston, in the secrecy and private 
 audience of her dressing-room. " Frederica is 
 a lucky girl ; and I recommend her to accept 
 Sir Brooke Rawleigh with as little fuss or 
 delay as possible. Let me see ! — we are in 
 the first week of June; Maradan, Kitching, 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 PIN MONEY. 
 
 and the Irish soUcitors will manage to keep 
 the matter drawling on for eight or ten weeks ; 
 and I shall not get off to Carlsbad before the 
 end of August, unless my niece can make up 
 her mind without further difficulty/* 
 
 " You are always in such a hurry, Olivia ! 
 Sir Brooke only made his proposal last night, 
 while we were waiting for the carriage to draw 
 up at Almack's; and as I had no notion of 
 what was going on, I kept begging Frederica 
 to tie her boa closer; and keep her mouth shut, 
 for fear of the east wind ; — so that a definitive 
 answer was out of the question." 
 
 " Well ! and as soon as she reached home 
 and informed you of what had passed, you 
 wrote to Sir Brooke for an explanation of his 
 intentions ; — eh ! my dear !" 
 
 ^' No, indeed ; I am not so fond of business 
 and explanations as you are." 
 
 " But you desired Frederica to take up her 
 pen 
 
 and *' 
 
 "On the contrary, I begged she would take 
 some arraroot and go to bed ; for I assure you 
 the wind was frightfully keen as we crossed the
 
 ■0 
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 pavement in King-street. Since the new open- 
 ing into St. James's-street, there have been 
 more colds caught at Ahnack's than I can bear 
 to think of. Well, — please God ! I hope she 
 will be happy. Frederica is a very amiable 
 creature, — an excellent disposition, — only I 
 never can prevail upon her to take proper care 
 of herself." 
 
 '^ And Sir Brooke Rawleigh has a very pretty 
 little estate in Warwickshire, of which I under- 
 stand he takes veri/ good care. It is just the 
 sort of property a man likes to come into ; — he 
 succeeds two old bachelor uncles, who never 
 allowed an axe or a surveyor to come within 
 reach of the premises. Old Sir Brooke con- 
 sidered the family timber as inviolable as the 
 family diamonds." 
 
 " The young man is very well spoken of. 
 His aunt, Mrs. Martha Derenzy, was saying 
 the other day that there is not a finer young 
 man in town; — so steady, and so unHke the idle 
 dashers of the day! He will spend a quiet 
 evening playing dummy whist with her, and 
 then go home with his umbrella in the rain, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 PIN MONEY. 
 
 with as much good-nature as if he had been 
 doing the thing he hked best in the world." 
 
 ** Umph ! — rather creepmousy for a young 
 man of eight-and-twenty ; I would sooner hear 
 of him in the House, or making himself useful 
 in his county. However, Frederica is not with- 
 out spirit; and I trust she will inspire him 
 with a little more energy, or I shall disown 
 her as my godchild. But now, my dear, 
 about settlements. I conclude your errand 
 with me is to consult about your terms with 
 Sir Brooke?" 
 
 " Terms? — surely I told you before, that 
 Frederica acknowledges having always felt a 
 preference for Rawleigh over the rest of her 
 admirers; and that I entertain no doubt she 
 will accept him at once." 
 
 " Yes — yes ! I understand ! — She will ask 
 ' time to become better acquainted with him ;' — 
 eat half-a-dozen dinners in his company ; — spoil 
 a row or two of netting while he sits whisper- 
 ing nonsense and pulling her workbox to pieces; 
 — and finally vouchsafe to give that consent 
 at the end of a fortnight, which she might
 
 -PIN MONEY. ^ 
 
 bestow with quite as good a grace this very- 
 day. All those young-lady etiquettes are per- 
 fectly understood. But what do you mean to 
 ask for her?" 
 
 " Ask for her ? " said the mystified Lady 
 Launceston. 
 
 "Yes! — what does your man of business 
 think you have a right to expect ? " 
 
 " Thank heaven, I have no man of business ; 
 for yours, my dear sister, appears the plague 
 of your life." 
 
 " Well then — yourself; what provision shall 
 you require for your daughter?" 
 
 " Why you say Sir Brooke has a very pretty * 
 estate ; so Frederica will be tolerably well off." 
 
 " But I am speaking of her jointure — her 
 pin money." 
 
 " Oh ! I suppose Sir Brooke's lawyers will 
 settle all that, while the carriage is building 
 and the wedding clothes in hand." 
 
 " Sir Brooke's lawyers ! " cried Lady Olivia, 
 raising her eyes and hands in contemptuous 
 compassion of her sister's ignorance of the 
 world; — or at least of such of its legal and
 
 6 PIN MONEY. 
 
 financial departments as formed the delight of 
 her own existence. '^ My dear Sophia ! upon 
 an occasion like this, you really must: exert 
 yourself. Recollect you are the sole guardian 
 of your daughter's interests. She has ten thou- 
 sand pounds, which may prove extremely con- 
 venient to pay off mortgages, besides very fair 
 expectations; and altogether you have a right 
 to look for liberal overtures." 
 
 *' Well, I will look for them, since you insist 
 upon it," said Lady Launceston, gathering up 
 her shawl for departure, and smiling at the 
 solemn earnestness of her sister. " You know 
 I have no head for business. Launceston always 
 used to settle every thing of that kind; and 
 the utmost extent of my domestic management 
 is limited to stretching my jointure so as just 
 to cover our expenses; which, thank God, I 
 have always been enabled to do." 
 
 " That is exactly the point to which I wished 
 to bring you. What would you have done with 
 your expenses, if i/ou?' father and mother had 
 thought and talked with as much levity on the 
 subject of settlements as you do ? "
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 / 
 
 '' Oh ! I suppose Lord Launceston made the 
 necessary arrangements for me. I recollect we 
 all signed something on a sheet of parchment 
 the day before my marriage ; but Gray was 
 waiting in the other room with my jewel-box, 
 which occupied my attention far more agreeably. 
 Then, when I lost my poor husband, I was in 
 too much affliction to inquire about settlements ; 
 —my son was very considerate in letting me 
 know that I was to have two thousand a-year, 
 and Frederica ten thousand pounds — an ar- 
 rangement which, I conclude, was made in the 
 will. Poor dear Launceston could not endure 
 to see a woman worldly-wise ; he never suffered 
 me to talk to him about his pecuniary concerns ; 
 and used to say that a managing woman de- 
 served to wear a beard by way of penance." 
 
 " Ay ! — I have not forgotten his polite ani- 
 madversions upon my chancery-suit with my 
 father's executors ; I know he hated to see me 
 under his roof, because he saw / was not a 
 person to be hoodwinked like some of my 
 family. But even Lord Launceston, with all 
 his arbitrary notions of female delicacy and
 
 8 PIN MONEY. 
 
 feminine nonentity, would not have wished to 
 see his daughter defrauded of her just preten- 
 sions." 
 
 " I tell you what we will do," said Lady 
 L., penetrated with a bright thought of es- 
 caping all the vexatious arithmetical combina- 
 tions she saw impending over her. *^ Come 
 back with me to Charles-street, and talk the 
 matter over with Frederica ; — you have a much 
 better head for this sort of thing than I have. 
 Do now — there's a good creature ! It was 
 sprinkling when I came in; but the pavement 
 must be dry by this time, and with your clogs 
 and a good warm shawl — or shall I send back 
 the chair for you ? " 
 
 " With the thermometer at 68°, I have very 
 little apprehension of catching cold ! But I 
 expect a man with silks from Harding's at one ; 
 — at half-past, Mawe's people are coming to 
 clean my alabaster vases ; — at two, Ridgway's 
 clerk will be here to see how many of the pam- 
 phlets I keep; — and from that time till three, 
 I have appointments with my Worcestershire 
 agent, — Pi'ofessor Muddlewell, about the mining
 
 g. - PIN MONEY. y 
 
 business in Flintshire, — General Popplestone, 
 to whom I wish to refer for Frederick's com- 
 mission, — Lady Ulster, about getting young 
 Shakes into the Academy of Music; — besides 
 two notes, which I must positively answer, rela- 
 tive to a neo'otiation for an introduction between 
 
 Lady Barbara Dynley and the Duke of D ; 
 
 — she is expiring to get to his parties." 
 
 '^ And j/ow, I should imagine, my dear Olivia, 
 of your labours ! — Goodness ! how will you get 
 through all these perplexities?" 
 
 " You shall judge if you please ; for at four I 
 have ordered the carriage to go to Knight's, at 
 Chelsea, with a beautiful new annual I have 
 just received from my nephew Tadcaster, whom 
 I fitted out last year for Swan River." 
 
 " I thought Knight, the bookseller, lived in 
 Pall Mall ? " 
 
 " And at five," resumed Lady Olivia, who 
 seldom troubled herself to enlighten the cre- 
 puscular mind of her sister, " I will look in at 
 Charles-street, and hear what arranoements 
 have been talked of between Sir Brooke and 
 Frederica." 
 
 B 3
 
 flnnP' 
 
 10 PIN MONEY. 
 
 At five, accordingly, Lady Olivia Tadcaster 
 drove to the door ; and during the ten minutes 
 devoted on the hall-steps by this notable econo- 
 mist of time and space, to directing her foot- 
 man by what short cuts and obliquities he must 
 contrive to deliver seven cards, two notes, a 
 parcel and a message, to turn to account the 
 lapse of her family consultation, — Miss Rawdon 
 was explaining to her lover the necessity for 
 admitting and conciliating this fussiest of aunts ; 
 w^ho would otherwise beset their union with a 
 thousand well-meant impediments. She con- 
 cluded her preliminary counsels in time to re- 
 ceive Lady Olivia and her congratulations, 
 with just the flushed, fluttering, hysterical 
 tremour of perfect felicity, with which young 
 ladies listen to the assurance that they are 
 angels ; and contemplate, for the first time, the 
 career of human happiness and worldly pros- 
 perity arising from matronly importance. 
 
 In truth, poor Frederica's prospects, although 
 irradiated at the age of twenty-one by the 
 auspicious sunshine of " measureless content,^' 
 had not been without their clouds and passing
 
 PIN MONEY. 11 
 
 showers. It was now nearly a year since a 
 visit to the county of Warwick introduced Sir 
 Brooke Rawleigh to her notice, as the most 
 charming of mankind ; for a man is naturally 
 twice as highly valued in his own county as in 
 any other, or in London. He had passed a gay 
 Christmas with her at her brother's seat at 
 Marston Park; — had taken a daily ride with 
 her — read with her — talked to her — smiled upon 
 her — sighed for her, — done every thing, in 
 short, but tender himself and Rawleighford to 
 her acceptance. After his departure, her 
 brother incessantly rallied her upon his attach- 
 ment; while her female cousins expressed their 
 indignation at his desertion, in terms which 
 frequently brought tears into Frederica's hazel 
 eyes; — for, alas ! it was known that Sir Brooke 
 had quitted Marston only to venture upon a 
 visit to a certain Lady Mapleberry — an active- 
 spirited woman of her aunt Tadcaster's class, with 
 six unmarried daughters ; — one of those large, 
 lively, goodhumoured, singing, dancing, riding, 
 chatting families, where a young man seeking 
 a wife is apt to fall in love with the joint-stock
 
 12 PIN MONEY. 
 
 merit and animation of the group ; and to feel 
 quite astonished on discovering, after his union 
 with Harriet or Jane, how moderate a proportion 
 he has received in his lawful sixth of the music, 
 information, accomplishments, and good-hu- 
 moured gossipry of the united tribe. Much to 
 the astonishment, however, of the Jane, Harriet, 
 Eliza, Margaret, Laura, and Anna, in question, 
 Sir Brooke Rawleigh quitted Mapleberry quite 
 as free in hand, and far more free in fancy, than 
 he had found himself when his britschka glided 
 through the lodge gates of Marston Park. 
 
 From the meeting of parliament in the en- 
 suing spring, till the auspicious second Wednes- 
 day of the month of June, — poor Miss Rawdon 
 was destined to undergo all the little fretful ir- 
 ritations of love and suspense. She had been 
 invited to Devonshire House on the alternate 
 Thursdays, with those which extended his 
 Grace's hospitality to Sir Brooke; and had 
 been omitted altogether from Lady Mapleberry's 
 never-ending still-beginning bread-and-butter 
 dances. Sir Brooke, in defiance of her daily 
 rides with her brother in Hyde-park, had 
 
 /
 
 PIN MONEY. 13 
 
 mounted a new phaeton, and was never to be 
 seen without the reins in his hand ; and had 
 appropriated to himself a stall at the Opera, 
 from which, by no process of vertebral disloca- 
 tion, could he catch a glimpse of Lady Laun- 
 ceston's box. — Nay ! for two succeeding Al- 
 mack's he had danced two succeeding qua- 
 drilles and galoppes with Laura Mapleberry ; 
 and consequently, for two succeeding Thurs- 
 days Miss Rawdon had been destined to the 
 martyrdom of a nervous headache; and Lady 
 Launceston and the apothecary to the gratifying- 
 excitement of an indefinite and highly-pro- 
 mising indisposition. But at length Frederica, 
 after taking torrents of camphor-julep, took 
 courage ! Instead of following her irreso- 
 lute admirer in his flirtations with burning 
 eyes and a beating heart, she began to turn 
 the former with some show of graciousness 
 upon her brother's friend. Colonel Rhyse, of 
 the Guards ; and subdued the perturbation of 
 the latter, till she could manufacture a smile 
 for Sir Robert Morse and young Lord Putney, 
 two of her frequent partners.
 
 14 PIN MONEY. 
 
 The charm was eminently successful. Sir 
 Brooke grew agitated in his turn ; — for a 
 whole evening Laura Mapleberry sat unno- 
 ticed -J — and by the end of a week, Frederica's 
 headaches were convalescent, — for her hand 
 was pledged to the man of her heart. Al- 
 though an amiable, engaging, accomplished 
 girl, Miss Rawdon had no preternatural pre- 
 tensions to perfection. She was but a woman; 
 and when she found herself warmly solicited 
 by Sir Brooke for a promise that in accepting 
 his proposals she would attempt at some future 
 time to return his affection, did not think it 
 necessary to magnify his triumph and depre- 
 ciate herself and her sex, by a confession of 
 having forestalled it by her own preference. 
 Not a single word did she communicate touch- 
 ing her nervous indisposition and the camphor- 
 julep ! 
 
 They were just pausing at this degree of 
 tender confidence, and Lady Launceston was 
 smiling her maternal satisfaction upon them 
 both, with no greater motive of inquietude for 
 either than their position between the draughts
 
 PIN MONEY. 15 
 
 of a closed window and a listed door, when Lady 
 Olivia Tadcaster flustered her way into the 
 drawing-room, with her lustring pelisse rustling 
 at every step like a plantation of aspens. She 
 soon despatched her satisfaction in " welcoming 
 into her family the nephew of her estimable 
 friends the late Sir Brooke and Sir Robert Raw- 
 leigh;" glanced at "a valuable stratum of blue 
 clay she had discovered on occasion of a visit to 
 Rawleighford twenty years before, — and which, 
 as she could not prevail upon her host to regard 
 it with sufficient attention, she would have will- 
 ingly farmed upon her own account, more espe- 
 cially as there had been a talk at that time of 
 carrying the Wardingsley canal within a stone's 
 throw of the estate;" — grumbled over an 
 extra turnpike she had discovered at EarPs- 
 court in her morning's drive ; — explained the 
 mode of cultivation to be bestowed upon some 
 New Zealand spinach she had purchased at 
 Knight's, of which a plant would cover three 
 quarters of an acre, — and of which Sir Brooke 
 very judiciously begged an ounce, in order that
 
 16 PIN MONEY. 
 
 he might reassure the horticultural misgivings 
 of his future aunt, by making the experiment 
 at Rawleighford ; — and finally anchored herself 
 upon the history of an arabesque handle, which 
 Mawe's people had broken from her Aldobran- 
 dini vase, in their cleansifications. When she 
 had proceeded as far in this episode as her pur- 
 chase of the alabaster vessel at Florence, and 
 its embarkation on board an English trading- 
 vessel at Leghorn, Sir Brooke uttered a profound 
 sigh, made a profound bow, muttered something 
 about " business " in Lincoln's Inn, and took 
 refuge in his phaeton; while Frederica be- 
 stowed a glance as nearly resembling an angry 
 look as she was capable of assuming, on the 
 aunt, who not only detained her from the furtive 
 delight of peeping behind the damask draperies 
 at Rawleigh's noble charioteership, but actually 
 followed up his exit with an exclamation of — 
 
 '' Well ! I am glad he is gone at last ; — now 
 we can be a little comfortable ! — Frederica, my 
 dear child, I have a thousand things to say 
 to you."
 
 PIN MONEY. 17 
 
 " Pray do not say them just now, if they 
 require a thousand answers ; for I have at least 
 a thousand other things to tliink of." 
 
 " As you please," replied Lady Olivia, look- 
 ing very much affronted; more particularly as 
 she remembered her footman's multitudinous 
 errands, and that — even making allowance for 
 the short cuts — she could not possibly command 
 the use of her carriage for the next half hour. 
 " I trust I am not in the habit of intruding my 
 advice; but I came here by my sister's desire 
 to talk with you." 
 
 " My dearest aunt ! — did you but know how 
 much I have been talked to for the last three 
 hours!" 
 
 '^ I conclude so, my dear ! — I conclude so ! " 
 cried Lady Olivia, unable to preserve her ill- 
 humour, when the prospect of a little business 
 to be managed presented itself to her hopes. 
 '^ And now tell me all about it. Has Sir 
 Brooke behaved handsomely ?-^What does he 
 offer?" 
 
 '* His hand and heart, — or you would not see 
 me so happy ! " replied Miss Rawdon, rising
 
 18 PIN MONEY* 
 
 and seating herself nearer to her mother, as the 
 thought that she must shortly leave her glanced 
 across her mind, and produced a momentary 
 emotion. 
 
 " My dear Fred. ! " said Lady Launceston, 
 "do not hang over that Gardenia; you will get 
 another of your nervous headaches.'* 
 
 Frederica obeyed with a smile ; for she began 
 to suspect that her disorder was radically cured ; 
 or that perhaps it might have found its way to 
 Laura Mapleberry. 
 
 "And your settlements, child? " inquired Lady 
 Olivia, despising them both with an air of stern 
 disdain worthy of Catherine of Russia. 
 
 " Sir Brooke appears to dislike business as 
 much as I do," said Lady Launceston, rolling the 
 long silky ear of her lapdog round her knitting- 
 pin. " He said he begged to offer me carte 
 blanche; which I suppose means that the law- 
 yers will settle it amongst themselves." 
 
 " Did he — did Rawleigh offer you carte 
 blanche?^' exclaimed Lady Olivia, jerking to- 
 gether the clasp of her bag, in which she was 
 searching for a memorandum or an old letter,
 
 PIN MONEY. 10 
 
 which might prove more amusing than the yea- 
 nay conversation of her sister and niece. " Well, 
 my dear Sophia, — under such circumstances, 
 you must decide every thing without delay. 
 With Fred.'s ten thousand pounds, I should 
 certainly demand three thousand a-year join- 
 ture, and five hundred pin money." 
 
 ''Ask for a jointure ! — make a bargain with 
 the prospect of Rawleigh's death ! " exclaimed 
 Miss Rawdon with indignation. 
 
 " Pray, my dear niece, do not affect to be so 
 much more delicate and fastidious than the rest 
 of the world ; all women who marry in a respect- 
 able way, have a respectable jointure and pin 
 money settled upon them; or they might per- 
 haps at some future time become a burden to 
 their own relations." 
 
 " No ! not all women," said Lady Launceston, 
 still busy with Chloe^s ear — while her daughter 
 had again recourse to the Gardenia to conceal a 
 smile. " 7, for one, never had any pin money. 
 Launceston was very liberal, and chose that we 
 should have a common purse."
 
 20 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " It must have been a very w/icommon one, if 
 it did not give you occasion to repent the bar- 
 gain. A man who sets out by telling his v^^ife, 
 ' as long as I have a shilling, sixpence of it is 
 yours,' generally takes care never to have more 
 than a shilling at his disposal. I have always 
 observed that money paid in small sums appears 
 a tremendous concession, compared with a spe- 
 cific allowance, paid quarterly by the banker or 
 the steward.*' 
 
 " Which places one exactly on a level with 
 the butler or the dairymaid ! " 
 
 " No ! Frederica ; which places you on a 
 level with women of your own rank in society. 
 Do you suppose the Duchess of Middlesex, or 
 Lady Rosebank, or any other person of fashion 
 of your acquaintance, condescends to go blush- 
 ing to her husband for a twenty pound note, if 
 she wishes to perform some charitable action — 
 or subscribe to some laudable institution — or 
 pay Melnotte's bill ? " 
 
 *' But I trust Rawleigh and myself will per- 
 form our charities together; and I am not fond
 
 PIN MONEY. 21 
 
 of seeing female names figuring in the lists of 
 institutions. I shall leave that portion of our 
 expenses to Sir Brooke." 
 
 " And Melnotte's account ? — Shall you go 
 barefoot in the punctiliousness of your delicacy; 
 or — 
 
 " No ! — " said Frederica, musingly. " I cer- 
 tainly should not like to trouble him with my 
 personal expenses. It is unwise on the part of 
 any woman to allow her husband to discover of 
 what shreds and patches her sex is composed.'' 
 
 " Very true, my love ! " observed Lady Laun- 
 ceston ; " for when they do trouble themselves 
 with such matters, they so strangely exaggerate 
 all one's little follies and their own ge- 
 nerosity! I recollect Launceston gave me a 
 five hundred pound note when your brother 
 was born ; and for two whole years afterwards, 
 whenever I presented him with a bill, or put 
 my hand into his escrutoire, he used to ex- 
 claim, ' What, Sophy? — all that five hundred 
 gone so soon!' though after all, it was only a 
 year's allowance." 
 
 " Well then, dear mamma," said Frederica,
 
 22 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " make what arrangements for me you think 
 best; only pray do not let Rawleigh suppose 
 I have any mercenary views in my marriage. 
 Ask merely what is necessary for me. You 
 have hitherto been so kind as to give me all I 
 could desire, without suffering me to trouble 
 myself with money or its value; and I was 
 in hopes it might have been so still; — but I 
 cannot expect any one else to be so considerate 
 of me as my own dear mother." 
 
 Lady Launceston threw her arms round the 
 neck of her child; while Lady Olivia placed 
 herself at the table, and in five minutes left 
 upon the Russia blotting-book half a sheet 
 of hieroglyphics, and an address to Messrs. 
 Marwill and Makewill, New-square, Lincoln's 
 Inn. 
 
 " There, Sophy," said she to her sister, with 
 a glance of pity at the filial embrace, which 
 she styled poor Frederica's heroics, — " I have 
 already given you my advice, — I now give you 
 my solicitor's direction. In pity to my journey 
 to Carlsbad, see him as quickly as you can; 
 and do not give your daughter cause to re-
 
 PIN MONEY. 23 
 
 proach you hereafter with your inactivity in 
 her behalf." 
 
 And so deeply did her ladyship's counsels 
 sink into the minds of her sister and niece, 
 that within six weeks, as rigid an act of mar- 
 riage settlement was signed in the drawing- 
 room in Charles-street, as if Sir Brooke and 
 Lady Rawleigh were about to marry chiefly 
 in contemplation of a divorce ,* and . to swear 
 an eternal unity of mind, body, and estate, 
 chiefly for the maintenance of separate interests 
 and opposing rights.
 
 24 PIN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 No, I'll resign tliem, sweet! and anchor here — 
 Here in the holy quietude of home ! — 
 The world is all contentions — ^jealousies — 
 Strifes urged by interest and foul enmitj ; 
 While on the waves of this calm lonelj^ stream, 
 The halcj'on broods unscared. — I'll anchor here ! 
 
 TOBIN. 
 
 Sir Brooke Rawleigh, the willing victim 
 of Lady Olivia Tadcaster's cupidity, was in 
 truth a very pleasing, well-looking, gentle- 
 manly young man, calculated to pass through 
 life with credit to himself, without splitting 
 the trumpet of fame by the magnitude of 
 his sayings or doings. But all that was 
 wanting in brilliancy of talent was made up 
 by sterling principles of honour and honesty; 
 and his abilities were peculiarly adapted
 
 PIN MONEY. 25 
 
 to the judicious management of a tolerably 
 extensive landed estate, and to the steady- 
 maintenance of those collateral links which 
 unite the proprietor to his county, and his 
 county to the kingdom. His financial discern- 
 ment might not have shone in Downing-street, 
 or made a plausible figure on the treasury- 
 bench ; but it was sufficient to keep Mr. Ruggs, 
 his steward, within reasonable bounds of pe- 
 culation, and had more than once attracted 
 the sapient reverence of his brethren of the 
 petty sessions. His eloquence would scarcely 
 have suspended the breath of five hundred 
 startled senators, like one of Canning's elec- 
 trical orations ; or in a seven-hours' process of 
 argument have kept their eyelids unsealed, like a 
 discussion by Brougham. Nevertheless it made 
 a very respectable stand at the after-dinnev 
 debates of the squirearchy of his neighbour- 
 hood; and his maiden speech at a county 
 meeting, on the poor-laws, or the corn-laws, 
 or the anti-slavery, or anti-knavery associa- 
 tions, or some of those cut-and-dried themes 
 for full-grown gentlemen, — which, like huge 
 
 VOL. I. c -
 
 26 PIN MONEY. 
 
 stones upon a hill, are rolled upwards and 
 downwards with succeeding vehicles without 
 a chance of being crushed into the beaten 
 track, — had found its way into the County 
 Chronicle, well italicized with ^^ hear, heari'^ be- 
 sides being honoured with ten lines of great- 
 letter eulogy from the pen of the editor. 
 
 Sir Brooke Kawleigh, in short, was gifted 
 with just that measure of intellectual power 
 which is either made or marred by education. 
 A preceptor of strong or elegant abilities might 
 have done wonders with him; but his uncle 
 and guardian Sir Robert, who was something 
 of a humourist, contended that wonders were 
 by no means necessary for a young man whose 
 chief business in life would be the management 
 of his Warwickshire estate. Instead, therefore, 
 of sending him to a public school, to become 
 a classical scholar and universal dunce, — and 
 to a crack college to become a fox-hunter and 
 a man of the world, — he was educated at Rugby 
 and Aberdeen; — passed his vacations at his 
 uncle''s country-seat, under the vigilant super- 
 intendence of a neighbouring curate ; — and on
 
 PIN MONEY. ^1 
 
 attaining his majority, and a very ancient 
 baronetcy, made his first appearance in town 
 with notions rather too narrow for the fashion- 
 able clubs, and a coat much too narrow for 
 Almack's. In spite however of these demerits 
 and circumscriptions, he was soon discovered 
 to be a very gentlemanly good-tempered young 
 man; and in return for the favourable ver- 
 dict of society, condescended to sacrifice his 
 old-fashioned tailor and old-fashioned ways. 
 After flirting through half a dozen seasons, 
 yachting through as many summers, and divid- 
 ing the same portion of winters between Paris 
 and Melton, Sir Brooke Rawleigh came to be 
 regarded in the neighbourhood of Rawleighford 
 as a miracle of fashion, — a model of manners ; 
 and when, at eight-and-twenty, an ox was 
 roasted in honour of his union with Frederica 
 Rawdon, the whole county was of opinion, with 
 Lady Olivia Tadcaster, that it was " an unex- 
 ceptionable match ;" and that the new menage 
 would form a very advantageous addition to the 
 neighbourhood at large. 
 
 There was only one individual immediately
 
 28 PIN MONEY. 
 
 concerned in the alliance, who appeared at all 
 inclined to question the superlative superiority 
 of Sir Brooke, or the eminent luck of Frederica. 
 The anticipations of the reader are completely 
 at fault : — it was no person of the name of Ma- 
 pleberry, no Sir Robert Morse, no Lord Putney; 
 — no envious cousin — no officious aunt ; — it was 
 her brother, Lord Launceston. By nature gifted 
 with one of those frank and easy dispositions 
 which qualify a man to be called "an off-hand 
 fellow," — he was so apt to put the whole world 
 in his own confidence, that he could not fail, to 
 regard by comparison, his new brother-in-law as 
 unnaturally reserved and cautious. When he 
 found that Rawleigh had purchased his six- 
 years' experience of London and Paris society, 
 at no heavier expense than bad debts to the 
 amount of a few dirty hundreds among his in- 
 timate friends, — the purchase of three lame 
 horses, — and a damaged cabriolet, — he pro- 
 nounced the Warwickshire baronet too prudent 
 by half. He had himself been duped to a larger 
 extent long before he left Eton ; and when, on 
 arriving in town for the signature of his sister's
 
 PIN MONEY. 29 
 
 settlements, he accidentally learned from Lady 
 Olivia (with whom he had become a great 
 favourite by resigning into her hands the pay- 
 ment of a mortgage on his estate, and half-a- 
 dozen troublesome annuities), that Rawleigh 
 had rebelled against the article of pin money, 
 and had even succeeded in reducing it from five 
 to four hundred a-year, he began to vote him a 
 very shabby dog, and to hope his little Fred, 
 might not live to repent her choice. 
 
 " But, my dear Launceston," said his mother, 
 who entertained a very high opinion of Sir 
 Brooke, because he travelled in a comfortable, 
 with magnesia lozenges in his dressing-case, and 
 made it a rule never to sit in wet boots, — " I 
 assure you that the diminution was made at 
 Frederica's desire; and that Rawleigh objects 
 to pin money upon principle." 
 
 " Half the dirty things in this world are done 
 ' upon principle !' — the word is a universal gag, to 
 prevent people from exclaiming against meanness. 
 I, for instance, am going to give up the Marston 
 hounds this winter, because I find them too
 
 30 PIN MONEY. 
 
 heavy'a pull ; and I mean to do it ' upon prin- 
 ciple.' " 
 
 " And what principle can you possibly put 
 forward, without unhandsomely compromising 
 the memory of your father, by whom they were 
 established?" 
 
 " Why, you see, it is my intention to marry 
 next season, — " 
 
 '' Indeed ! '' 
 
 " Must, my dear mother ! — no other resource ! 
 involved beyond all redemption but an heiress. 
 So I intend to feel persuaded (upon principle) 
 that it would not suit the future Lady Launces- 
 ton to have the bachelor's wing at Marston Park 
 filled with riotous fellows, from October till 
 March; or to begin her matrimonial reign by 
 evacuating the territory, and dislodging her 
 husband's chosen associates; — and thus, 'upon 
 principle,' my whole hunting establishment is 
 already on its road to Tattersall's ; and I shall 
 clear off an item of five thousand from my an- 
 nual expenses, and save my principle and my 
 principal at one and the same time."
 
 PIN MONEY. 31 
 
 "I rejoice to hear it ! — I detest fox-hunting 
 in all its branches/' replied Lady Launceston, 
 whose mind was any thing but inferential; 
 "those horrible hounds were the bane of my 
 wedded happiness. I shall never forget poor 
 dear Lord Launceston's attack of pleurisy, after 
 riding home twenty miles at a foot's pace with 
 a broken collar-bone, in a mizzling rain ! I am 
 very glad you have got rid of them, my dear 
 William, principle or no principle; and I sin- 
 cerely hope you may make as prudent a matri- 
 monial choice next season as Frederica/' 
 
 " I dare say I shall marry some poor curate's 
 daughter, — or a popular actress, — or Lady Ma- 
 pleberry's governess; for I have made up my 
 mind to an heiress, — and I never executed a plan 
 of my own in my life." 
 
 *' I wish you would execute one of mine and 
 your father's, and marry your cousin. Lady Mary 
 Trevelyan; who has a clear ten thousand a-year." 
 
 " And twenty thousand French fopperies, 
 and Irish vulgarisms, to balance her rent-roll. 
 No ! mother ; — I shall come to town early in the 
 "winter; get a card for the city-assembly, and
 
 32 PIN MONEY. 
 
 bring you home a daughter from Aldermanbury, 
 with the dowry of a Persian princess, and the 
 dialect of a hackney-coachman." 
 
 But in the winter, the inconsistent and 
 fickle Lord Launceston, driven from home by 
 his resignation of the Marston hounds, found 
 himself very comfortably established at Raw- 
 leighford; having overcome his prejudice against 
 the prudential qualities of his brother-in-law, on 
 finding him a tolerable judge of a horse, and 
 very willing to find his way to cover, provided 
 the hounds met within a moderate distance, 
 and Mr. Ruggs could be persuaded to dispense 
 with his master's society. 
 
 A strong proof that Sir Brooke Rawleigh 
 was neither so reserved in heart and hand 
 as had been announced by Lady Olivia, and 
 dreaded by her rattlepate nephew, was his par- 
 tiality for the society of Frederica's wild brother; 
 and his warm hospitality not only to Lord 
 Launceston, but even to such of his intimate 
 friends as he chose to introduce at Rawleish- 
 ford. Aware that a long series of extravagance 
 had embarrassed the finances of his brother-
 
 PIN MONEY. 33 
 
 in-law, and estranged him from the habits of 
 tranquil domestic life, Sir Brooke entered with 
 cordial eagerness into the hopes of his mother 
 and sfster, that a prudent marriage might serve 
 to ahenate him from his boyish follies and ex- 
 pensive companions, and restore to Marston 
 Park its reputation of hereditary respectability. 
 It was nevertheless true that Rawleigh, during 
 the confection of his marriage settlements, had 
 made many more journeys to Gray's Inn than 
 were good for the wheels of his phaeton, or for 
 his credit with any member of the family, — 
 excepting Lady Olivia Tadcaster. Frederica 
 herself, although as indifferent respecting money 
 matters as prosperity and ignorance of the 
 world could render her, was somewhat dissatis- 
 fied that her lover should wish to dispense with 
 the provision allotted for the maintenance of 
 her personal expenses ; and without conjecturing 
 that Rawleigh's demur arose from a dread that 
 the management of too large an income might 
 rouse in his bride the latent love of business so 
 offensive in her aunt, or the taste for profusion 
 
 C 3
 
 34 PIN MONEY. 
 
 wliicli had proved so fatal to the interests of her 
 brother, she was tempted to suspect, at the 
 united instigation of these two relatives, that the 
 advice of Mrs. Martha Derenzy and Mr. Huggs, 
 might possibly have infected her beloved Raw- 
 leigh with an over-solicitude for the things of 
 this world. 
 
 In the unqualified happiness of her wedded 
 life, however, Frederica's apprehensions soon 
 wore away. She saw her husband respected 
 by his tenants, his household, his family con- 
 nexions; she saw that his establishment Vv'as 
 arranged upon a liberal plan, and its hospitali* 
 ties cordially extended to her brother, mother, 
 and relations, even unto the uttermost cousin. 
 The fgimily diamonds had been reset for her 
 use, a handsome equipage appointed for her ser- 
 vice ; — and having chanced, during her bridal 
 excursion among the Scottish lakes to express a 
 fancy for a pony phaeton, she was greeted on 
 her arrival at Rawleighford with the sight of a 
 pair of grays, whose silken tails swept the 
 ground like pleureuse feathers ; and an accom-
 
 PIN MONEY. 35 
 
 panying garden-chair, whose fairy dimensions 
 might have been suggested by the wand of Cin- 
 derella's godmother. 
 
 Under such cheering circumstances, the very 
 name of pin money was forgotten. Among the 
 wedding presents provided by the kind and 
 thoughtful Lady Launceston for her daughter, 
 was a purse of her own workmanship, contain- 
 ing one hundred bright new sovereigns ; — and 
 Frederica, amply supplied in her trousseau with 
 every imaginable object of feminine luxury, 
 and uninvited by the habits of her country-life 
 to frivolous expenses, — found little occasion 
 to visit this maternal treasury ; except from 
 occasional motives of benevolence, towards 
 persons whose equivocal reputation excluded 
 their unequivocal wretchedness from the tender 
 mercies of the Rawleighford kitchen, and the 
 official patronage of Mr. Ruggs ! 
 
 One morning, however, — one of those weary 
 winter mornings, when Sir Brooke was tempted 
 away by her brother to try a new purchase with 
 the hounds, — Lady Rawleigh having devoted 
 the time of their absence to a visit to a distant
 
 36 PIN MONEY. 
 
 neighbour, long owed, and long talked of, 
 chanced to be smitten with all the vehemence 
 of a woman's predilection for a certain white 
 marble fountain in the form of a water-lily 
 with its leaves, which graced the centre of Lady 
 Lawford's little flower-garden. During the 
 solitude of her homeward drive, she could 
 dream of nothing but the enchanting effect a 
 similar fountain would produce in an American 
 garden, which Rawleigh had lately projected 
 for her in a rocky dell of the park, and 
 which was now nearly completed ; and some 
 slight recollection of his imputed economical 
 turn disinclining her to propose this luxurious 
 addition to its expenses, she resolved to indulge 
 herself in the purchase on her own account. 
 
 " I will make myself a cadeau out of my 
 pin money ^^ said Frederica ; as the monotony of 
 a solitary journey and the regular rising of her 
 postilions in their stirrups, caused her to close 
 her eyes in the corner of one of Adams's som- 
 niferous barouches, — while she smiled at the 
 sound of a word which had proved so unpala- 
 table from the lips of her aunt Tadcaster.
 
 PIN MONEY. 37 
 
 " Lady Lawford assures me that beautiful foun- 
 tain cost her only seventy guineas; and as I 
 never want any money, I cannot employ my 
 allowance better than in the embellisimient of 
 Rawleighford.'' As soon as she arrived at 
 home, the order was eagerly despatched to Lord 
 Lawford's statuary in Portland-road; and Fre- 
 derica, by way of rendering the affair a pleasing 
 surprise to her husband, was careful never to 
 allude to the flower-garden at Elvington. She 
 entertained not the slightest suspicion that Sir 
 Brooke had already commissioned Lady Olivia 
 to procure him from her agent at Florence, a 
 far more beautiful fountain ; with a view to per- 
 fect the fairy retreat he had provided for his 
 adored wife ! 
 
 At length, in despite of the foxhunters, and 
 of the grumbling of Mr. Ruggs, the warm 
 breath of April came sighing over the lawns 
 of Rawleighford. The verdure and reviving 
 flowers soon gave tokens of its influence ; and, 
 on the first promise of returning summer, Sir 
 Brooke and Lady Rawleigh set forward to take 
 possession of the smoky, dingy, inconvenient
 
 38 TIN MONEY. 
 
 house in Bruton-street, which six hundred 
 guineas was to make their own for the season. 
 The prospect of being once more settled near 
 her mother, fortunately closed the ears of Frede- 
 rica against the discontents of her whole esta- 
 blishment. No sooner had they arrived in 
 town, than away she flew to Charles-street, 
 leaving the housekeeper to despond over the 
 deficiency of blankets, stoves, and store-rooms ; 
 and the butler giving warning to Sir Brooke, 
 that so damp a pantry was incompatible with 
 the interests of his gout, and of the service of 
 plate. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh was already prepared, by a 
 letter from her mother, to find a stranger in- 
 stalled in her establishment; — a young per- 
 son named Elbany, who had been well recom- 
 mended to her as companion ; for poor Lady 
 Launceston, having no longer Frederica's music 
 to cheer her dowager evenings, Frederica's 
 bright eyes to thread her needles, and Frede- 
 rica's sore throats to task her maternal anxieties, 
 had begun to fancy herself most desolately 
 lonely ; and had finally been compelled to have
 
 PIN MONEY, 39 
 
 recourse to the Morning Post advertisements of 
 ''A young lady of genteel connexions, unex- 
 pectedly reduced from affluence, &c. 8ic/' Her 
 daughter, indeed, was too affectionately dis- 
 posed towards her to feel any thing but satis- 
 faction that she should have been enabled to 
 domesticate under her roof a person so accom- 
 plished, so goodhumoured, so companionable, 
 and so meritorious, as this Miss Elbany was 
 described to her by Lady Launceston. Still, 
 Frederica could not help feeling that the curtsey 
 dropped to her, and the glance bestowed upon 
 her by " the companion " on quitting the draw- 
 ing-room, were somewhat more familiar and in- 
 quisitorial than she had been prepared to expect 
 from such a personage. The first impression 
 was decidedly unfavourable to the young lady 
 of genteel connexions. 
 
 Nor, in the course of her next morning's con- 
 versation with Lady Launceston, did her feel- 
 ings soften towards this paragon of the toad- 
 eating species. Lady Rawleigh had arrived in 
 Charles-street, overflowing with such filial 
 yearnings of Jieart as an only daughter might
 
 40 PIN MONEY. 
 
 be supposed to feel after a separation of eight 
 months — the first of her Hfe — from her only- 
 parent ; for in spite of Sir Brooke's invitations, 
 her ladyship of Launceston had been far too 
 apprehensive of damp beds, and inn-infections, 
 to venture as far as Raw^leighford. And novr, 
 w^hen poor Frederica had so much to say of her 
 new home, — her domestic arrangements, — her 
 brother's reformation, — her pony phaeton, her 
 harp, her flov^^er-garden, — and all the innume- 
 rable instances of Rawleigh's kindness, — her 
 narratives were nipped in the bud by the eager- 
 ness with which Lady Launceston proceeded 
 to enlarge on the excellences of her new 
 companion. Nay ! once when Lady Rawleigh 
 was describing to her mother how considerate 
 an assistant she had found at Rawleighford rec- 
 tory for her charitable labours, and how ortho- 
 dox and exemplary a curate they possessed in 
 Dr. Fisher, she was cut short by her preoccupied 
 auditress, with " Dr. Fisher ? — a medical man ? 
 Do you know, my dearest Fred., I could not 
 persuade Miss Elbany to see a medical man 
 last week, all that I could say ordo ! — although
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 41 
 
 I assure you she had a catarrh which would 
 have made many people look serious ! At 
 dessert, she sneezed four or five times running ; 
 and yet she would not hear of a basin of gruel 
 when she went to bed." 
 
 " And Wrightson's gruel is so excellent," ob- 
 served Lady Rawleigh, — angry with herself for 
 being angry with her mother's foible. " How- 
 ever, my dear mamma, you will not require so 
 much of Miss Elbany's attention now that / am 
 come back. I shall be constantly here of an 
 evening, and you must let me prepare your 
 work, and read to you, as I formerly did ; — 
 and our dear happy old times will come over 
 again, — only that we shall now have a cheerful 
 addition to the family circle." 
 
 " Ah ! my dear Fred., you show your usual 
 discrimination ! Miss Elbany will, indeedf be 
 a cheerful addition to our family circle. But 
 do not talk of the good old times coming over 
 again ; those days, child, are past for both of 
 us. When a woman marries, it is written that 
 she shall leave father and mother, and cleave 
 to her husband ; and when I went up to sit
 
 42 PIN MONEY. 
 
 and cry in your dressing-room, my dear Frede- 
 rica, on your wedding-day, I felt that you were 
 lost to me ; — that you never would or could be 
 with me again as in times past," 
 
 There were many things in this speech which 
 grated on the ear of Lady Rawleigh. In the 
 j&rst place, her "cheerful addition" had re- 
 ferred unequivocally to her husband, — she was 
 by no means anxious to regard the companion 
 as a fixture in the domestic circle'; — and having 
 at present no family of her own, to estrange her 
 affections and divert them into a new channel, 
 she thought her mother a little premature in 
 announcing their alienation. But she came 
 there to be kind and happy; and was deter- 
 mined not to indulge her own petulance at the 
 risk of vexing Lady Launceston. 
 
 Again she plunged into the history of her 
 country neighbourhood ; — her presidency over a 
 ball at [the county town ; her plans of London 
 gaiety ; her ensuing presentation, her first ap- 
 pearance at Almack's as a bride, and all those 
 numerous feminine trivialities, which had for- 
 merly excited the coincident interests of mother
 
 PIN MONEY. 43 
 
 and daughter. But although Lady Rawleigh 
 received with great indulgence and sympathy 
 the interruption of Lady Launceston in an- 
 nouncing the distribution of Chloe's recent 
 nursery of puppies, she was again moved almost 
 to an irritable feeling, when her mother startled 
 her in the midst of a description of the gray 
 chintz-drawing-room opening into the] conser- 
 vatory at Rawleighford, with '' You cannot 
 imagine, Fred., how much Miss Elbany has im- 
 proved the appearance o^your old room, by mov- 
 ing the bed nearer to my dressing-room door, 
 and placing the wardrobe next the window. It 
 really looks quite a different place now; so 
 much more light and cheerful. But then she 
 always has things in such order ! — You will 
 find her, my dear, a very superior young 
 woman." 
 
 Frederica took leave as speedily and affec- 
 tionately as she could ; — but in truth there was 
 something in all this she did not like. It ap- 
 peared to her that had her mother quitted for 
 ever an habitual chamber in her house, she 
 would have retained every object sacredly in
 
 44 PIN MONEY. 
 
 its original position ; nor permitted a stranger — 
 an hireling — to pollute it by her habitation. 
 She recollected how Lady Launceston used to 
 creep into that room at night when she had re- 
 tired to rest indisposed, especially with the 
 memorable post-Almack's nervous headaches ; — 
 how often she had woke and found her mother 
 sitting watching by her bedside ; and she could 
 not bear to think of " the companion" living in 
 the same close and affectionate vicinage to Lady 
 Launceston's apartment. She arrived in Bru- 
 ton-street, and dressed for dinner, in any thing 
 but charity with Miss Elbany and her multifa- 
 rious virtues and qualifications.
 
 PIN MONEY. 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Petit monstre divin, lutin indechifFrable, 
 Qu'il faudroit etoufFer — si elle n'etoit adorable. 
 
 LA COQUETTE CORRIGEE. 
 
 Had it not been for the warmth of fiUal 
 duty and affection which recalled her to her 
 mother's neighbourhood, Frederica would have 
 been well contented to pass the first spring of 
 her married life at Rawleighford. At a distance 
 from Almack's and the Opera, and all the 
 pomps and vanities of London life, her contempt 
 for the mere frippery of society had been ex- 
 tremely philosophical. She listened to the 
 nightingales at Rawleigh-glen, and cared not 
 for Pasta ; she sentimentalized over the setting 
 sun upon her own Avon, and cared not for the 
 brilliant ball-room at Devonshire House.
 
 46 PIN MONEY. 
 
 But " Vappttitj^ says the proverb, " vient en 
 7nangeant" After a morning's round of busy- 
 idleness — after having seen a case just arrived 
 from Herbault unpacked in Maradan's ante- 
 room, and perceived the contemptuous glance 
 cast by Devy on her last season's bonnet, — she 
 began to experience a reviving interest in the mi- 
 nutise of female existence. She felt that the finery 
 of her trousseau, vs^hich had w^orn the newest 
 gloss of novelty in Warwickshire, w^as obsolete 
 in town; that her waist was too short, her dress 
 too long, to appear with credit in a London 
 ball-room ; — and by the time she had paid her 
 subscription at Ebers's, purchased a few new 
 canezous at Harding's, replenished her dressing- 
 box at Delcroix's, and her writing-box at 
 Houghton's, she found herself in that elation 
 of spirits which a first morning passed in the 
 hurry of the metropolis is apt to infuse into 
 a person, whose head is bossed with the organ of 
 acquisitiveness, and whose pocket is garnished 
 with a well-filled purse. Her last errand was a 
 morning visit to her friend Mrs. William Ers- 
 kyne, whose career of fashionable girlhood had
 
 PIN MONEY. 47 
 
 been contemporary with her own ; and to whom 
 she had officiated as bridesmaid a few months 
 previously to her own marriage. Louisa Erskyne 
 was a very popular little woman, with no greater 
 sin upon her shoulders than a very empty head 
 with a very pretty face ; — keeping her husband 
 and father in a perpetual consternation of anxiety 
 by her inconsiderate levities, but remaining a 
 prodigious favourite with the world in general. 
 
 " My dearest — dearest Frederica ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Erskyne, throwing her arms round Lady 
 Rawleigh, " how happy I am to have you here 
 again. How do you like my new house and all 
 my belongings ? — For my part I am growing ex- 
 ceedingly disgusted with them ! Ever since I 
 paid a visit to Lady Axeter, in Belgrave-square, 
 I have detested the sight of this old family man- 
 sion, with its square staircase and narrow door- 
 ways; and I intend that Erskyne shall neither 
 eat, drink, nor sleep, — or what he cares for more, 
 neither hunt nor shoot, — till he has settled me in 
 the Belgrave quartier, and let this ponderous 
 old relic of the middle ages to some city knight.
 
 48 PIN MONEY. 
 
 It would be the very house for a popular den- 
 tist, oil Von fait antichambre." 
 
 " It is well for you that Lady Drusilla Ers- 
 kyne cannot rise from her grave and hear you 
 utter such treason !"- — 
 
 " xA.nd now tell me a little about Warwick- 
 shire ; — are the people tolerably humanized ? — 
 How glad I am that Erskyne is not afflicted 
 with a family-seat ! — I should so abhor the 
 sight of the avenue — the sound of the dinner- 
 bell, and the rooks, and the still more atrocious 
 cawing of the country neighbours!" — 
 
 " But we have neither avenue nor rooks at 
 Rawleighford ; and our neighbourhood is con- 
 sidered remarkably good." 
 
 " Spare me the definition of what is called a 
 remarkably good neighbourhood; — I know it by 
 heart. A fat D.D. rector, with two exemplary 
 daughters in green veils; — a Sir Marmaduke and 
 Lady Domesday, with their park-paling white 
 with age, like their own wigs, and covered with 
 lichen like their own chins; — anew Lord Furbish, 
 with a new Nashional palace, — his plantations
 
 PIN MONEY. 49 
 
 too young to furnish a birch broom, and his 
 service of plate deeply pitted with the recent 
 impressions of Goldsmith's Hall ; a — '* 
 
 '' No, no, no !" cried Frederica, laughing. 
 *' Wrong from beginning to end ! — Sir Brooke, 
 the only baronet in the neighbourhood, dates 
 from the Restoration : our neighbour the Lord 
 Lieutenant, is of Norman extraction, and derives 
 his coronet from the field of Cressy ; v^^hile our 
 rector is a fashionable dean, his lordship's 
 youngest brother !" 
 
 '^ Well, well ! — I may have exaggerated the 
 sins of your neighbourhood, but I have ocular 
 demonstration, my dear, of your own. Are you 
 not ashamed to show yourself in that quizzy 
 pelisse ? — fringed too ! — my maid has thrown 
 away hers these three months. I do not think 
 I shall allow you, Fred., to pass another winter 
 in Warwickshire, to get tanned, and shapeless, 
 and unfashioned in this way. While you have 
 been leading the life of a cauliflower, / have 
 had such a delightful season at Brighton ! — a 
 succession of dinner-parties and balls — quite an 
 echo of London. Do you know I have not 
 
 VOL. I, D
 
 50 PIN MONEY. 
 
 passed a tete-a-tete evening with Erskyne, half a 
 dozen times since we married : — after all, there 
 is nothing so vejy tremendous in the dulness of 
 domestic life !" 
 
 " We are rather foiid of the seclusion of 
 the country. I came up to town chiefly to see 
 my mother.'' 
 
 " Yes, yes ! people generally have a conve- 
 nient dowager mother, or grandfather, whom 
 they fly to town to visit when they grow tired 
 of themselves, and their country-seat. And 
 now tell me, love, how do you mean to amuse 
 yourself? What have you done — ^what are you 
 going to do ? As soon as you have made your- 
 self fit to be seen, I conclude you will want to 
 show your diamonds at Almack's ? You must 
 
 call on Lady J , and write your name at 
 
 Prince Leopold's, and the Duke's ; and after 
 you have been seen there, you will be asked 
 every where. — ^What box are you to have at the 
 Opera?" 
 
 ^' None," replied Frederica, blushing of as 
 deep a ponceau as her ribbons ; " Rawleigh is 
 not particularly fond of music ; and as he has
 
 PIN MONEY. 51 
 
 had a great deal to do in furnishing his house 
 this year, I have promised him to dispense with 
 the indulgence.'* 
 
 " But you used to be so passionately fond of 
 the Opera?'' 
 
 " And am so still ; but I should not like 
 him to incur an expense which might be 
 inconvenient." 
 
 " Nonsense, expense ! — how I do detest these 
 workhouse grumblings. Have you not seven or 
 eight thousand a-year?" 
 
 '* Which, as you must be aware, will only 
 just serve to maintain our establishment, and 
 bring us to town for the season.'* 
 
 " When I see Rawleigh I shall insist on 
 his opening his purse-strings ; — the first season 
 is much too early a date for stinginess." 
 
 " Pray do not even mention the subject. I 
 cannot bear him to think I have a wish ungra- 
 tified." 
 
 '' While I am only bent upon the actual 
 gratification of mine. I had set my heart, 
 Fred erica, on your sharing my box : I like no 
 female society half so much as yours; and 
 
 D 2
 
 52 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ■what can that miserable hundred pounds sig- 
 nify to Rawleigh, compared with the pleasure 
 we shall have in being together?" 
 
 " A hundred pounds ! — Is it only one hun- 
 dred pounds ? — Oh ! then I can easily afford 
 myself this little gratification out of my pin 
 money. I have four hundred a-year, and have 
 spent nothing at present." 
 
 a While I have five, and am over head and 
 ears in debt ! — Then I shall consider the matter 
 settled, dearest Fred erica; and you belong to 
 me for the season. — May I expect you to- 
 night?" 
 
 *' On Saturday, if you please," said Lady 
 Rawleigh, rising and taking her leave. " I will 
 not disgrace you by my appearance, till I have 
 in some measure humanized away my barbarous 
 Warwickshire air." 
 
 This little affair had been arranged w^ith so 
 much haste and facility, that it never occurred 
 to Frederica she could experience the slightest 
 embarrassment in explaining it to her husband. 
 Yet when she found herself actually seated 
 opposite to Sir Brooke at dinner, listening to .
 
 PIN MONEY. 53 
 
 all the news he had heard at the Traveller's, 
 and all the messages he had received for her 
 from different friends in the Park, she began to 
 premeditate her opening phrase for the dis- 
 cussion — a circumstance of rare occurrence w^ith 
 the frank and warmhearted Frederica. But 
 her attention was soon diverted from herself 
 and her opera-box, by the name of " Miss 
 Elbany." 
 
 " I looked in at your mother's as I came 
 home, Fred., to inquire whether she had any 
 tidings of Launceston. You did not tell me 
 what a beautiful girl she has got for a com- 
 panion; positively I never saw a more superb 
 creature." 
 
 " Those are exactly the terms in which you 
 usually praise Launceston's bay hunter ! — Miss 
 Elbany is a fine showy vulgar-looking girl ; but 
 much too forward in her manners for her situa- 
 tion in life.'' 
 
 " You pretty little slight goddesses of beauty," 
 said Sir Brooke, laughing, ^^are always in- 
 veterate against the ox-eyed Junos — such as 
 Miss Elbany: but really, although both tall
 
 54 PIN MONEY. 
 
 and fully-formed, your mother's young friend is 
 neither coarse nor vulgar." 
 
 "Pray do not call her my mother's young 
 friend; — I trust this paragon is not to be 
 brought forward in that capacity. — I conclude 
 her office in Charles-street is limited to winding 
 silk for Lady Launceston — opening and shutting 
 the wicket of Chloe's basket — and playing 
 piquet when mamma is out of spirits." 
 
 " Very much like the sentence of condemna- 
 tion passed upon Squire Thornhill in the Vicar 
 of Wakefield, as a punishment for ranningaway 
 with Miss Primrose ! — But seriously, my dear 
 Frederica, I never heard you speak or j udge so 
 ungenerously before." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh blushed over her wing of the 
 chicken, for her conscience convicted her of all 
 the meanness of jealousy; — not of the superior 
 charms of this importunate MissElbany, but Qf 
 the interest she had^ contrived to excite in the 
 bosoms of all her nearest relatives. Never, in 
 fact, had poor Frederica passed a more com- 
 fortless dinner ! She had a circumstance weigh- 
 ing on her mind which she was reluctant to
 
 PIN MONEY. 55 
 
 report to her husband; and she could forgive 
 neither her mother's companion, nor her mo- 
 ther's daughter, for their rivahy in Lady Laun- 
 ceston's affections. 
 
 " I have promised to go to Lady Huntingfield 
 to-night," said she, in a somewhat peevish ac- 
 cent, as she sipped her coffee : " she is to have 
 some very good music; and I ventured to an- 
 swer for you." 
 
 "Did you?" said Sir Brooke, who had 
 niched himself into one of Gillow's anodyne 
 chairs, and was enjoying that species of chaotic 
 mental vagary, in which country gentlemen, 
 who devote six months of the twelve to the 
 suppression of the fox, are dozily apt to in- 
 dulge after a dinner of three courses. " I 
 am sorry for that ; — I hate dressing after din- 
 ner, just when one wants to be comfortable. 
 And do you know I half promised we would 
 drop in on your mother; — she has a bad cold 
 — and said something about whist ; — and there, 
 you know, my boots will be admissible." 
 
 " I am sure some men look on the faculty 
 of wearing dirty boots as one of the main in-
 
 56 PIN MONEY. 
 
 dulo-ences of human existence ! " murmured 
 Frederica. 
 
 " I have been riding all the morning, or I 
 should not have appeared at table w^ith i/ou in 
 my boots/' said Rawleigh, somewhat roused by 
 this conjugal reflection; and exhibiting a pair 
 of Hoby's faultless productions with their 
 French varnish most blamelessly unspecked. 
 And he hitched himself still more commodiously 
 into his Morocco dormitory, doubly resolved not 
 to go to Lady Huntingfield's. 
 
 " Mamma keeps such early hours when she 
 is indisposed/' resumed Frederica, sorry she 
 had unnecessarily affronted her husband's boots, 
 '^that perhaps I had better order the carriage 
 without further delay ? " 
 
 '^ The carriage ? — oh, no ! — do let us walk ; 
 it is a beautiful night, and we can take the key 
 and cross the square to Charles-street; unless, 
 indeed," continued Sir Brooke, opening his 
 sleepy eyes, and fixing them good-humoured ly 
 upon his lovely wife, " you intend to crush poor 
 Miss Elbany's pretensions at once, by appearing 
 in full-dress?"
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 57 
 
 ^' Miss Elbany ! — I had forgotten hev very 
 existence ! — and I will be ready for you in 
 a moment," said Lady Kawleigh, ringing for 
 her maid and her sha,wl, that she might 
 incm- no further suspicions of coquetry by 
 retiring to her dressing-room. And being 
 speedily equipped in her Rawleighford garden 
 attire, she looked so pretty, and reminded him 
 so strongly of home, that Sir Brooke, in spite of 
 her sarcasm on his negligence of dress, held her 
 very closely and fondly upon his arm during 
 their short journey to the residence of Lady 
 Launceston. 
 
 The ears of the gentle Frederica, which had 
 prepared themselves for the pianissimo tones 
 exacted by her mother on occasion of colds or 
 headaches, or such minor indispositions as could 
 be permitted to take their course without the 
 aid of a nightcap and Dr. Camomile, were 
 something startled as she trod upon the muf- 
 fling Axminster stair-carpet, — where the " blind 
 mole" was rarely permitted to 'Miear a foot fall," 
 — ^by peals of vehement laughter proceeding from 
 the drawing-room; and the words, '^ that horrid
 
 58 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Miss Elbany ! " were rising to her lips, when 
 the announcement of "Sir Brooke and Lady 
 Rawleigh, my lady ! '' whispered towards her 
 mother's easy chair, produced a shout of " Ha ! 
 Rawleigh, my dear fellow — I'm glad to see you!" 
 from her brother. 
 
 Lord Launceston, who was unceremoniously 
 stretched at full length upon his mother's da- 
 mask sofa, with boots far less guiltless of 
 offence than those of Sir Brooke, having arriv- 
 ed unexpectedly in town to dinner, had found 
 his spirit moved by the sight of Lucy Elbany's 
 bright eyes, to exert himself far more for the 
 amusement of his ladye-mother, than he had 
 ever done before in the course of his six-and- 
 twenty years ; and it appeared to Frederica that 
 her visit to Charles-street, which was to cost 
 her the sacrifice of Lady Huntingford's concert, 
 was any thing but acceptable to the parties 
 most concerned. She thought "the companion" 
 made more fuss than was necessary in ring- 
 ing for an addition to the tea-table, and in 
 hoping Lady Rawleigh would not find the 
 room too warm ; while, in fact, poor Frederica
 
 PIN MONEY. 59 
 
 was only hurt to find any person but her mother 
 doing the honours of that room to her at all. It 
 had been the scene of her own prooress from 
 childhood to maturity ; of her affectionate at- 
 tendance upon her parents; of the courtship 
 and acceptance of her dear Rawleigh ; and there 
 — even there — sat the companion ; — hoping she 
 did not feel the wind from the door, and in- 
 quiring whether she preferred black or green 
 tea. — Officious creature ! 
 
 But if her presidency at the tea-table was 
 offensive; what could be said of her interference 
 at the whist-table; — wheeling round Lady 
 Launceston's chair, adjusting the candle- 
 shades, sorting her cards, counting her tricks ! 
 Frederica actually shrugged her shoulders with 
 irritation ! — for even Sir Brooke, usually so 
 quiet and reserved in his address to strangers, 
 took it into his head to utter the most extrava- 
 gant compliments to Miss Elbany's graceful 
 assiduities ; while Lord Launceston made secret 
 signs to her of somewhat contemptuous ad- 
 miration of his mother's protegee, and of Raw- 
 leigh's undisguised admiration.
 
 60 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Surprised, vexed, and mortified. Lady Ravv- 
 leigh lost rubber after rubber, to the indig- 
 nation of her brother, and the triumph of her 
 husband; and she was heartily glad when 
 her mother's small covered basin of Dresden 
 china made its appearance, wdth two taper sticks 
 of dried toast; and when, at this accustomed 
 signal, Chloe jumped up from her basket to 
 yelp her vesper adieu to the butler, and give 
 the signal for a general move. 
 
 " Now then ! " thought she, as she found 
 herself once more among the rustling lilac- 
 bushes in Berkeley-square, " now, while he 
 cannot observe my embarrassment, I will tell 
 him the history of the opera-box. — I have been 
 committing a little extravagance this morning,'' 
 said she aloud, somewhat intimidated by the 
 sound of her own voice. 
 
 " So I perceived'' by the silver paper parcels 
 lying on your dressing-room table. I hope 
 there is a handsome present for me in the 
 collection ? " 
 
 " Oh ! something far worse than you dream 
 of! — Those were little mother-of-pearl fopperies
 
 PIN MONEY. 61 
 
 for my boudoir at Rawleighford ; but my crime 
 is one of far greater enormity than could be 
 committed at Howell and James's." 
 
 " I do not believe it, Frederica, for two 
 reasons ; first, because you are too reasonable 
 to be wantonly extravagant at any time ; — and 
 secondly, because I ventured to confide to you 
 the necessity for a little prudence, to set us off 
 clear in the world next year." 
 
 " But this weighty affair does not concern 
 Mr. Ruggs and his financial budget; it is a 
 private business relating to my pin-money." 
 
 Frederica fancied she could detect a little 
 start on the part of her companion at the word, 
 as if it were displeasing to him. 
 
 '^ If it is a private business, my love, you need 
 scarcely confide it to me." 
 
 " Oh ! it is only private as far as regards the 
 ways and means. ; it involves your person and 
 consent quite as much as mine. I have en- 
 gaged to take half Louisa Erskyne's opera-box ; 
 and I hope you will not refuse me the favour of 
 accepting one of the tickets ? " 
 
 Unfortunately they had just arrived at the
 
 62 PIN MONEY. 
 
 interposing gate of the square ; and Sir 
 Brooke deliberately unlocked, swang open, and 
 relocked it, and even crossed over to the pave- 
 ment, before he attempted a reply. Frederica 
 was apprehensive she should have to repeat 
 the phrase she had found it so inconvenient 
 and disagreeable to utter ; — and when at length 
 he commenced his answer, it was far more 
 formal and unafFectionate than she was in the 
 habit of receiving from his lips. 
 
 " I was not aware that I had ever refused 
 any request of yours ; — and when I proposed to 
 you to forego the Opera for the present season, 
 I acted, my dear, on your assurance that you 
 had not the smallest inclination for a box, and 
 that yoQ should find your private engagements 
 quite a sufficient tie upon ^our time. I am 
 sorry you deceived me; and still more sorry 
 that the first use you make of your inde- 
 pendence, will bring you in such close contact 
 with a woman so notoriously giddy and mis- 
 guided as Mrs. William Erskyne." 
 
 " I have no reason to think ill of my friend 
 Louisa/' said Lady Rawleigh, with her heart
 
 PIN MONEY. 63 
 
 swelling under the first reproof she had ever re- 
 ceived from her husband. " You always desire 
 me to consult my own inclinations on such 
 trivial occasions ; and I conceived it must be 
 a matter of indifference to you whether one 
 hundred pounds of my allowance were paid 
 to Ebers, or to Girardot. — Hov/ever, since you 
 disapprove this Opera scheme, I will write to 
 Mrs. Erskyne, and persuade her to excuse me." 
 
 " By no means ! — I would on no account 
 have you provoke the attention of one of the 
 most mischievous tongues in London to any 
 difference of opinion existing between us. 
 Nay ! — to show you that I entertain no harsh 
 feeling on the subject, I accept your proffered 
 ticket : and will share with you an amuse- 
 ment which you rejected a fortnight ago, — as I 
 then hoped — in compliment to me. And now 
 let us discuss something else. — Did you ever 
 see Launceston in such spirits? — He talks 
 of passing the season in town, — asked me to 
 look out for a pair of horses for him, — and 
 wants you to make a water-party." 
 
 " And include Miss Elbany?"
 
 64 PIN MONEY, 
 
 " I should think you very unkind to omit 
 her; and so handsome and agreeable a girl 
 would make a charming addition. I am glad 
 we took this house in Bruton-street/' he con- 
 tinued, knocking at his own door, " instead 
 of the one Mrs. Derenzy wrote to us about 
 in Cavendish-square. It will enable us to see 
 a great deal of your mother ; — and really, Fre- 
 derica, we can now make up a very pleasant 
 little family-party among ourselves." 
 
 ^' Again that odious Miss Elbany!" thought 
 Frederica, as she ran up stairs towards her 
 dressing-room. And she closed her eyes that 
 night, with a heart more resentfully disposed 
 towards Sir Brooke, than she had ever known 
 it since the days of Laura Mapleberry and the 
 nervous headaches.
 
 PIN MONEY. 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 All highex* knowledge in her presence falls 
 Degraded — wisdom in discourse with her 
 Loses discountenanced — and like follj shows. 
 
 MILTOX. 
 
 The following morning had been anticipated 
 by Lady Rawleigh as one of considerable per- 
 sonal interest. She was to decide on the dress 
 for her presentation; and Mrs. Erskyne had 
 good-naturedly promised to come and assist 
 her choice with oil the discrmiination of her 
 feminine tact and experience. But Frederica 
 felt so discomfited by the strong disapproba- 
 tion expressed by Sir Brooke of her friend 
 Louisa, that all her coquetry on the sub- 
 ject of her dress was chilled into indifference; 
 and she would have been perfectly satis-
 
 66 PIN MONEY. 
 
 fied to make her appearance at St. James's 
 in the train of rose-coloured brocade, in which 
 Mrs. Martha Derenzy paid her devoirs to 
 Queen Charlotte on occasion of the birth of 
 the Bishop of Osnaburg; a substance boast- 
 ing the consistency of a wainscot of moderate 
 solidity. 
 
 At two o'clock, however, when the purple- 
 edged bandboxes of Madame Girardot were 
 deposited by Mademoiselle Estelle upon the 
 sofas and tables of her dressing-room, and 
 when — with closed doors and the gallery cleared 
 — the blondes, and satins, and moires, were 
 exhibited to the admiration of Louisa, of her 
 fair self, and of Mrs. Pasley her lady-ia- 
 waiting, the thermometer of Frederica's vanity 
 rose even to fever heat; and she soon be- 
 came as deeply involved in the comparative 
 merits of jonquil and amber, as the renowned 
 Mrs. Bellamy in those of her Statira costume ! 
 On finding from Mademoiselle Estelle that her 
 former rival, Laura Mapleberry, was to be pre- 
 sented at the same drawing-room in her bridal 
 capacity as Lady Lotus, she actually caused
 
 PIN MONEY. 67 
 
 her jewel-box to be opened, that she might 
 try the effect of her wheat-ears and diamond 
 necklace upon the violet satin and vert-bou?^- 
 geon velvet, between which her choice was 
 undecided ! 
 
 " But my dear," exclaimed Mrs. Eskyne, 
 " surely you are aware that it is de rigueur 
 for a bride to be presented in white ? " 
 
 " But Lady Lotus is to make her appear- 
 ance in the spotless purity of white crape and 
 pearls; and as I have really no intention of 
 contending with the dazzling insipidity of her 
 flaxen locks and snowy apparel — " 
 
 " You think of crushing her in diamonds 
 and imperial purple ! — Quite right, my sv/eet- 
 est Frederica; I am charmed to perceive 
 that you assume a little spirit. You must 
 have a flounce of that beautiful blonde to 
 relieve your splendours, and you will be gran- 
 diose comme une reine ! " 
 
 Lady Rawleigh was by no means satisfied 
 that her dear friend was not quizzing her 
 vanity; but between hers, and Estelle's, and 
 Mrs. Pasley's flatteries, and the tempting union
 
 68 PIN MONEY. 
 
 afforded by the brilliants and the glistening 
 satin as it was confronted with the sunshine 
 by the expert hand of the 7nodiste, she was 
 prevailed on to select a dress at least thrice as 
 splendid as she had originally intended. 
 
 " I own I am anxious that Rawleigh should 
 be gratified by my appearance on such an 
 occasion," thought Frederica, as she replaced 
 the sparkling wheat-ears in Pasley's hands. 
 " And as no one has any right to interfere 
 with the distribution of my pin money, my 
 pardonable extravagance will in this instance 
 pass unreproved." 
 
 "Heigh-day ! — the doors locked ? — what mys- 
 teries are on foot ? " cried a loud voice in the 
 corridor, while the handle of the dressing-room 
 door was violently agitated. " My dear Fre- 
 derica, I beg I may not intrude, — I would not 
 disturb you for the world ; — -but I have some- 
 thing very particular to say to you, and I 
 met Sir Brooke in Bond-street, who assured 
 me that I should find you at home, and dis- 
 engaged. Yes ! my dear, — I left a very inte- 
 resting sale of marbles unfinished at Stanley *s
 
 PIN MONEY. 69 
 
 in order that I might not lose the opportunity 
 of finding you alone." 
 
 " Not alone, — but always very happy to wel- 
 come you/' said Lady Rawleigh, unlocking the 
 door to admit Lady Olivia Tadcaster, whom she 
 sincerely wished back again in the Rotterdam 
 steam-packet. 
 
 " What have we here, my dear, w^hat have 
 we here ? — You know I like to see pretty 
 things ! — Oh ! — your court-dress ; — well, what 
 have you chosen? — not violet I hope. — You will 
 be taken for a Bishop's wife, or daughter, — or 
 grandmother, if you intend to bury yourself in 
 that horrible flounce ! " continued Lady Olivia, 
 as Mademoiselle obligingly withdrew the rus- 
 tling tissue-paper from the cases, to gratify the 
 inquisition of a lady whom she eyed with 
 some contempt, askance, as having " hien rair 
 d'une coynmere-tpicih'eJ^ 
 
 " Ah ! my dear Mrs. Erskyne, how do you 
 do? — Sorry I have not been able to leave a 
 card at your door, but I only returned from the 
 continent three days ago ; and I have been all 
 the morning at the Treasury, tiying to get a
 
 70 PIN MONEY. 
 
 private order to pass my baggage. I fancy I 
 am as well known at Dover as the signal-post; 
 I often tell Bermingham the Commissioner, he 
 ought to give me a per-centage for helping him 
 through his business. — My dear Frederica, you 
 are keeping this young person waiting ; do send 
 her away with her rattle-traps, for positively I 
 cannot allow you to be imposed upon with the 
 purchase of such obsolete splendours ; you will 
 look like a last year's number of the Journal 
 des Modes. — Mademoiselle, these flowers are 
 quite out of date ; — I w^as with Herbault only 
 last week, and — " 
 
 " C'est possible, Miladi/' said the little mo- 
 diste, her eyes darting pins and needles at the 
 intrusive advice of a w^oman in a hat like a 
 custard-cup ; " 7nais cependant—" 
 
 '* Cependant/' said Lady Rawleigh, deter- 
 mined to maintain her independence, " I have 
 or delved my dress ; and I am satisfied Ma- 
 dame Girardot will give it an air distingue, 
 however faulty may have been my own taste in 
 the selection." 
 
 " Girardot ! ! — I cannot hear of your having
 
 PIN MONEY. 71 
 
 your dress of Girardot ! — Mrs. Pasley, have the 
 goodness to show that young person down stairs ; 
 I wish for a little conversation w ith my niece. 
 My dear Frederica ! are you mad to throw away 
 your money in this sort of frivolous manner ? 
 My carriage is waiting ; — I have twenty minutes 
 to spare ; and I will take you to Sewell and 
 Cross's, or Waterloo House, where we can in- 
 quire the price of white satin ! — I dare say 
 Mrs. Erskyne will come with us?" 
 
 " Thank you, Lady Olivia ; I have no hope 
 that my life will last long enough, to waste any 
 part of it in dancing attendance at the counter 
 of a bargain-shop. Maradan and Triaud save 
 me the degrading detail of knowing how many 
 yards of tiffany and ribbon it requires to make 
 me endurable. Farewell, — dearest Fred. — 
 I shall see you to-morrow night at the Opera; 
 and pray bring me word that you have com- 
 mitted no infidelities to Girardot and the violet 
 satin." 
 
 " That is a very lightheaded unprincipled 
 little person \" said Lady Olivia, throwing her- 
 self upon the sofa, and crushing a bouquet of pink
 
 72 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Cactus, left there advisedly by Mademoiselle 
 Estelle. " I hope, my dear niece, you will not 
 pass much of your time in her society ; — I shall 
 certainly give my advice to Sir Brooke upon 
 that subject, the very first time we meet. 
 Well, — Frederica, I have been sitting with 
 your mother this morning ; and my visit has 
 made me very uneasy on her account.*' 
 " Indeed ! is her cold increased?" 
 " Increased ! — how could it possibly increase ? 
 I drove down yesterday to the Strand, to the only 
 shop in London where one is sure of getting 
 genuine Welsh flannel, and bought two yards, 
 which I wadded into a breastplate with my own 
 hands. — Did you ever see what I call one of my 
 W'Oollen cuirasses ? — And then I went on to 
 Newbery's in St. Paul's Churchyard, for some 
 pectoral essence of Tussilago, and some coltsfoot 
 lozenges in case she should not like it in a 
 fluid state ; — so that, of course, I was not sur- 
 prised this morning when I breakfasted with 
 her to find her greatly relieved." 
 
 " Then what makes you anxious about 
 mamma?"
 
 PIN MONEY. 73 
 
 " Her folly, my love, — her folly ! — What 
 madness can possibly put it into her head to 
 settle a designing young creature like that 
 odious Miss Elbany, in the house with my 
 nephew?'* 
 
 " But Launceston never lives in Charles- 
 street ; he is staying at the Clarendon." 
 
 " I can only assure you I found him quietly 
 taking his chocolate in my sister's dressing-room 
 this morning ; with that Miss Elbany smiling 
 and blushing at him like a crocodile/' 
 
 "Artful creature! But, my dear aunt, you' 
 must be dreaming ! — Launceston was never out 
 of his room in London before twelve o'clock in 
 his life. Nothing less important than a fox 
 persuades him to overcome his natural in- 
 dolence." 
 
 " And a greater fox than your mother's com- 
 panion never put forth its attractions." 
 
 " I am quite of your opinion; my prejudices 
 against that Miss Elbany require no aggrava- 
 tion. But what can we do ? — To warn Laun- 
 ceston against the danger would perhaps in- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 PIN MONEY. 
 
 sinuate a notion into his head, which might not 
 otherwise find its way there." 
 
 " Oh ! I see exactly how it will be ! — My 
 poor nephew, who is too indolent to go through 
 the labour of making himself agreeable in his 
 proper sphere, will be captivated by the cunning 
 of a fine showy girl, — always at hand to amuse 
 and flatter him ; — and Marston Park will be- 
 come the prey of a pack of needy adven- 
 turers." 
 
 " And poor William fall into hands unworthy 
 to influence his fine ingenuous disposition !" 
 
 " Believe me I am much too well acquainted 
 with his fine ingenuous disposition to think of 
 opposing his evident admiration for this vulgar 
 creature, — who looks just like the heroine of a 
 parody at the Porte St. Martin ; for I know 
 if he suspected a combination against him, he 
 would run away with her to-morrow to prove 
 his independence. But you must persuade Raw- 
 leigh to pass a great deal of his time in Charles- 
 street, and be on the look out." 
 
 '' I trust Sir Brooke will be frequently there, 
 
 1
 
 PIN MONEY. 75 
 
 because my chief object in town is to attend 
 upon mamma; but I certainly should never 
 dream of taking the liberty to request my hus- 
 band would act as a spy upon Launceston and— 
 the Companion." 
 
 " Thank Heaven, I am not so scrupulous when 
 the honour of the family is at stake ! — / shall 
 make it a point to carry this Miss Elbany about 
 with me on all occasions; — /will take care she 
 is seldom left in Charles-street, in my nephew's 
 way; — and / know he would as soon find his 
 way into my carriage as into an apothecary's 
 shop. I make it a rule to keep aniseed in the 
 pockets to guard the lining against moths." 
 
 '' But you cannot always be driving about," 
 said Lady Rawleigh, with an involuntary smile. 
 *' Besides, my mother must not be left too much 
 alone." 
 
 " Oh! no, — certainly not; but then I shall 
 make it a rule to dine and pass the evening 
 with my sister, — whenever I have nothing else 
 to do." 
 
 " That is very kind of you." 
 
 " My dear Frederica, I never scruple to sacri- 
 
 E g
 
 76 PIN MONEY. 
 
 fice my time to the interests of my family. To 
 be sure, to-day I dine with Lady Quidley, who 
 is shut up with a sprained ancle ; to-morrow, 
 with old Mrs. Warde, for whom I have brought 
 over a great lumbering commode, from Paris; 
 on Thursday, with the Wermingtons, whose son 
 made himself so very useful to me at Carlsbad; 
 Friday a formal dinner in Piccadilly, — all the 
 Tadcaster family to meet me at the Duke's 
 on my return; Saturday I have promised to 
 go down to Richmond, to show the lions at 
 Hampton Court to a charming family of the 
 ancient Bohemian noblesse, whom I met in the 
 packet-boat on the Rhine: and on my return, 
 poor Lady Henry Vardon, the divorcee, pays me 
 her annual visit. While she is with me, you 
 know my dear, I become a dead letter; for I 
 can neither receive visitors, nor take her to other 
 people's houses, — who, entre nous, look upon 
 her as an inadmissible impropriety; and so I 
 generally occupy myself while she is with me 
 in looking over and sorting my papers, — an 
 swering my letters, — verifying the inventories 
 pf my plate, linen, books, and furniture ; — and
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 77* 
 
 receiving the annual documents of my Shrop- 
 shire estates/' 
 
 '' Very amusing for poor Lady Henry! — But 
 I suppose she finds it preferable to her solitary 
 cottage at Bedfont." 
 
 " But I am idling away my morning here ! '* 
 cried Lady Olivia, suddenly starting up, " and 
 I have fifty appointments before dinner-time. 
 Now do not make yourself uneasy my dear 
 Fred., about what I told you respecting your 
 brother ; for though I have no doubt in my own 
 mind that he will throw himself away upon this 
 artful, sycophantic creature, there can be no 
 reason for you to distress yourself on the sub- 
 ject. Good-bye, my love : — as I pass Compton 
 House, I shall look in, and send you a few silks 
 for your selection, for this unfortunate court- 
 dress of yours; — something of a pale blue, or a 
 topaz, would look very well with your com- 
 plexion. Good bye, my dear; — don't trouble 
 yourself to ring the bell, — I shall find my ser- 
 vants in the hall ; I never allow them to go down 
 stairs in any one's house except Archdeacon 
 Drinkwater's, where the golden rule is written,
 
 78 PIN MONEY, 
 
 framed, and glazed, in the servants' hall. I 
 have got a little something for you, Frederica, 
 among my baggage, when I can get it up from 
 Dover; a trifle from Giroux, in the Rue du Coq, 
 just to show you, my dear, that I thought of my 
 dear niece when I was in the Splendid City. 
 Well, — I shall certainly stop the carriage, and 
 speak a word or two to Launceston if I happen 
 to meet him; — ^but, for goodness' sake, not a 
 word of the little hint I have given you, if he 
 should happen to call here this morning !" 
 
 " You may rely on me," said Lady Raw- 
 leigh, as the receding murmurs of Lady Olivia 
 Tadcaster's 505^e?2M^o-accompaniment of twad- 
 dle, rose fainter and fainter up the well staircase 
 from the hall ; and right glad was she to perceive 
 on looking from her dressing-room window in 
 order to assure herself of the actual departure 
 of the fidgetting aunt, that her own britschka 
 was in waiting, to convey her from the united 
 vexations of Miss Elbany — the court-dress — the 
 opera-box — the indiscretions of Mrs. William 
 Erskyne — and the officious interference of Lady 
 Olivia.
 
 PIN MONEY. 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A city dame. 
 Born to adorn with ample garniture 
 The pageants of the Guild — and melt awajr 
 Sir Frugal's ingots in the busy mart 
 Of west- world foppery, — the play, the ring, 
 The motley masque. 
 
 vane's heraclea. 
 
 Lady Ravvleigh, who had msensibly .sub- 
 sided from the giddy animation of her early 
 career of fashionable dissipation into the calm 
 domesticity of a country life, persuaded herself 
 during the perfect contentment of her existence 
 at Rawleighford, that she had completely lost 
 her taste for the glare of the ball-room — the 
 stirring tones of the orchestra — the glittering 
 of gaudy apparel. While loitering with Sir
 
 80 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Brooke among the clay-trenches, and gravelly 
 excavations, and burrows of bog-earth, — forming 
 the chaos which promised to assume the 
 horticultural perfection of an American Eden 
 some future summer, — she was tempted to ex- 
 claim, like Wolsey at the gates of Leicester 
 Abbey — 
 
 Vain pomp and glorj of the world — I liate ye ! 
 
 But the heart of the country clodpole re- 
 sponds not more readily to the pipe and drum 
 with which the cunning sergeant baits his 
 recruiting-hook in the village market-place, than 
 that of a woman born and educated in and for 
 the great world, to the harmonious discords of 
 clashing carriages, yelling link-boys, swearing 
 coachmen, and reproving police-men. Seated 
 beside her friend Louisa Erskyne in the un- 
 lucky opera-box, with the consciousness of 
 Nardin's hand in the matchless distribution of 
 her curls, and of Storr and Mortimer's supreme 
 art in the arrangement of the emeralds, her 
 mother's gift, which shed their pale reflections 
 for the first time upon her cheeks, — she fancied
 
 PIN MONEY. 81 
 
 that her vivid impression of self-satisfaction 
 was solely derived from the pathetic tones of 
 Mali bran, the well-attuned precision of the 
 symphonies breathed in her ears, and the com- 
 prehensive charm of a combination of " sweet 
 sights, sweet sounds, sweet sentiments." 
 
 But it was not so ! — Lady Rawleigh's ani- 
 mated interest in the scene arose chiefly from 
 the gratification of her own vanity; combined 
 with that buoyancy of temperament which is 
 the result of youthful health and innocence of 
 heart. She would in fact have been quite 
 satisfied with herself and all around her, had 
 not Mrs. Erskyne in a momentary tete-a-tete 
 interlude of the successive coterie which had 
 enlivened their box, congratulated her at once 
 on her good looks and good fortune. 
 
 " You are en honheur to night, Frederica, 
 I never saw you so pretty ; and Lord Calder 
 evidently visited us to form his judgment of 
 the debutante," 
 
 " What debutante ? — Is there a new dancer ? '* 
 
 "Dancer? — absurd! — as if a man with a 
 claim upon the subscription of Chalk Farm 
 
 E 3
 
 $2 PIN MONEY, 
 
 would bury himself at the back of a box Rke 
 this, to decide on the merits of a dancer ! — It 
 was yourselff my dear, on whom he was 
 passing sentence ; and by to-morrow night your 
 fate and fashion will be decided in all the clubs 
 of St. James's-street." 
 
 " Lord Calder did not appear satisfied with 
 his opportunity of observation," said Lady 
 Rawleigh, smiling — but not disapprovingly — 
 at the levity of her friend ; " for he has given 
 me a general invitation to his suppers/' 
 
 ^' And shall you go to-night ? " inquired 
 Louisa in a tone of chagrin that the distinction 
 had not been extended to herself. 
 
 " To night I have promised to go to Mrs. 
 Luttrell's ball, who hves somewhere at the an- 
 tipodes, — in the Regent's-pavk." 
 
 "On Saturday, then? " 
 
 '^ Oh, no — certainly not ; — we never keep 
 late hours on Saturday night, on account of their 
 influence on the order of our establishment on 
 Sunday morning." 
 
 " What a prim little Mrs. Goodchild it is ! " 
 cried Louisa, with an ironical laugh. ''But
 
 PIN MONEY. 83 
 
 next Tuesday — surely you will go to Calder 
 House on Tuesday ? " 
 
 " Most likely not. — Rawleigh knows very 
 little of Lord Calder ; and I am not anxious 
 to entangle myself in his set. I am too vain, 
 and perhaps too proud, to like the society of a 
 man of his description." 
 
 " What description ? — your vanity must be 
 ravenous indeed to be dissatisfied with Calder's 
 evident admiration." 
 
 ^' But my pride w^ould shrink from all the 
 adulation and petits soins requisite with a 
 man of his supremacy, to maintain a place 
 in his good opinion. A sensualist of a cer- 
 tain age, endowed with the gift of a princely 
 fortune to further his inclinations, delights to 
 grace his circle with all the young and pretty 
 women of society; just as Lord Stafford 
 achieves the acquisition of a new work of art, 
 or you and I, Louisa, adorn our drawing-rooms 
 with rose-trees." 
 
 " A very laudable instance of good taste." 
 
 " In my opinion nothing can be so hu-
 
 84 PIN MONEY. 
 
 miliating as the exactions of such a coterie. 
 ' A younger man would consider his gallantry- 
 taxed to make himself doubly agreeable, lest 
 he should be eclipsed by the splendours which 
 surround him ; whereas at Lord Calder's — " 
 
 " We are all expected to be at his feet. Very 
 true; and the obligation defaire sa coitr to any 
 thing but royalty, is a degradation not to be 
 endured by a woman who finds herself an ob- 
 ject of adoration elsewhere." 
 
 '^ And of respect in her own happy home," 
 added Lady Rawleigh, in a lower voice, — as if 
 dreading the raillery of her companion. 
 
 " The eagerness which all Lord Calder's set 
 display in their rivalship for his notice cer- 
 tainly does provoke me at times ; and, after all, 
 I am very glad he has never invited 7ne to his 
 suppers." 
 
 "After all? Why had you ever an incli- 
 nation to belong to that clique ? " 
 
 " Oh ! dear, no ; — I love my liberty and my- 
 self far too well ! — But it does look odd, you 
 know, to live so much in the same set, and
 
 PIN MONEY. 85 
 
 never be invited to his parties ; which, let the 
 host be w^hat he may, are certainly the best to 
 be had for love — -or fashion." 
 
 Mrs. Erskyne did not think it necessary to 
 enlarge on this vexatious topic ; or to inform 
 Frederica that she had heard in confidence from 
 the dear friend of a dear friend, of a very dear 
 friend of his lordship, that she had been unani- 
 mously blackballed on a proposal for her admit- 
 tance into the coterie at Calder House ; on the 
 grounds of 
 
 That sarcastic levity of tongue, 
 
 w^hich never fails to create bitterness and mis- 
 understandings, among a set of idle people 
 devoted to scandal and tittle-tattle, but mor- 
 bidly sensitive whenever the slightest whisper 
 appears to reflect upon themselves. 
 
 " Mrs. Erskyne is a pretty piquante little 
 creature," had been Lord Calder's sentence of 
 exclusion; ^' but too tracassitre to be permitted 
 to ruffle the smooth surface of society with which 
 I am desirous of surrounding; myself Even 
 summer lightning — pretty and playful as it is — is 
 formed by the reflection of some distant storm."
 
 86 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Sir Brooke now made his appearance in the 
 box, accompanied by a tall, thin, eager-looking 
 man ; whom he named to Lady Rawleigh as his 
 friend Mr. Lexley, and to whpm Mrs. Erskyne 
 extended a bow of abhorrent recognition. 
 In truth, she was rejoiced that none of her own 
 fashionable and fastidious danglers happened 
 to be present, to be driven away by the ap- 
 proach of a bore pre-eminently and universally 
 recognised, such as Mr. Lexley ; — a man so flus- 
 tered with hurry, that he always appeared to have 
 left his mind behind him ; and whose unconnected 
 discourse, and uncollected features, seemed to 
 have been dispersed by the arduous perplexity 
 of business weighing on his responsibility: 
 while, in fact, the only business he had ever 
 transacted in his life, was to sit, session after 
 session, upon a hard bench ; and say, " Ay," 
 or " No," in the name of one of the most in- 
 active and longsuffering boroughs in his ma- 
 jesty's dominions! 
 
 " Malibran has been delightful this evening," 
 observed Frederica, anxious to bestow a gra- 
 cious reception upon any person qualified by
 
 PIN MONEY. 87 
 
 Sir Brooke as his " friend ; " — however raar&ed 
 his locks, and uncouth his mode of retaining 
 possession of a full-grown morning hat, bearing 
 visible tokens of Strand manufacture. 
 
 *' Indeed ! — I am glad to hear it. I have 
 only been here a few minutes, and was detained 
 in passing through the room by Lord War- 
 spite ; — a little Admiralty business to be talked 
 over." 
 
 " Every one dines so late now," resumed 
 Lady Rawleigh, "that gentlemen have very 
 little chance of hearing any thing of the Opera, 
 unless a few determined amateurs who come 
 for the 'premier coup d'archet." 
 
 " Dine ! " exclaimed Mr. Lexley, horrified 
 that any person could believe him guilty of the 
 sin of a late dinner during the sitting of parlia- 
 ment ; " I wish I could flatter myself of being 
 so agreeably detained from any engagement 
 for some time to come ! — I don't suppose I have 
 passed two hours at table for the last two 
 months ! " 
 
 " A very harassing session," observed Sir 
 Brooke, sympathizingly.
 
 88 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Mr. Lexley shook his head with a contracted 
 eyebrow, and a desponding Hp ; while he 
 thumbed his great heavy hat with the industry 
 ©f a kneader of pottery-ware. 
 
 " Any thing doing to night in the house ? '* 
 
 " Nothing very important \ — the last reading 
 of the salt-water canal bill, — all smooth sailing, 
 or you would not have seen me here. I left 
 Lumber on his legs, and Trap had thrown in a 
 few of his keen discouraging sentences." 
 
 '' Like so many drops of vitriolic acid," ob- 
 served Mrs. Erskyne, without diverting her 
 gaze from the ballet. 
 
 '* And of course Sir Bumble Drone, and the 
 other county member, must go through their 
 short generalizing answers. All that will last 
 till a quarter before twelve, when the whale- 
 fishery business comes on ; — and I must be back 
 at one for the division, or I shall get into dis- 
 grace and the minority," said Mr. Lexley with 
 a grim smile, and an elevation of his camelo- 
 pardic throat, intended to imply the proud 
 consciousness of independence. 
 
 " I wonder you venture to be out of the way,'*
 
 PIN MONEY. 89 
 
 said Mrs. Erskyne gravely. '' Even on ques- 
 tions where it is not your intention to speak, I 
 have no doubt you are incessantly bored by 
 reference for precedents. Erskyne tells me 
 that no one could get on without you; — now 
 this whale-fishery ! — I dare say, if the truth was 
 known, Mr. Lexley, you were in the secret of 
 that article on the subject in the Quarterly ? 
 Surely, surely, you ought not to be out of the 
 way when it is before the house ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I have still twenty-five minutes at 
 my disposal,'' said Lexley, taking out a watch 
 of the shape and dimensions of a mortar; " even 
 allowing five, to go round by Arlington-street 
 and pick up my friend Phaganhurst, whom no 
 one can get away from his claret but myself; — 
 we shall want his vote to-night. In the 
 mean time, I have just got a word or two to 
 say to Lord Wilchester, about the Helvoetsluys 
 beacon business, of which he has given notice 
 for Thursday se'nnight; I fancy he is some- 
 where in the house.'' 
 
 " You will find him in his stall behind the 
 double bass," said Mrs. Erskyne, eager to get
 
 90 PIN MONEY. 
 
 rid of their visitor on any terms. '^ His bald 
 head is as prominent a feature as that of the 
 new palace.'* 
 
 " Thank you, my dear Mrs. Erskyne — thank 
 you ! I never venture among the stalls. . If 
 you hazard a w^ord in a tone louder than the 
 pianissimo of Nicholson's flute, every member — 
 that is every dilettante — turns fiercely round, 
 as if you were out of order." , 
 
 " Do you intend to stay out the ballet?" 
 inquired Sir Brooke, disgusted by the want of 
 courtesy displayed by Mrs. Erskyne to his 
 friend. " If you think of going to Mrs. Lut- 
 trell's, had I not better inquire for the car- 
 riage?" 
 
 " Pray do," replied Frederica, as Louisa 
 turned to welcome the entrance of Sir Robert 
 Morse, the mutual flirt of their young-lady 
 days, " or rather let us go at once." 
 
 *^ Well, my dear Fred. !" exclaimed Rawleigh, 
 drawing up the window of the chariot, while — 
 after a fierce contention with a wrangling mob 
 of coachmen, and a confused phalanx of car- 
 riages, they worked their way through Regent-
 
 PIN MONEY. 91 
 
 street, in the direction of the Regent's-park, — 
 " how glad I am to find myself once more 
 alone with you; I have something of conse- 
 quence to say." 
 
 " Nothing about Launceston, I hope?" 
 
 " No ! — nor about Miss Elbany, — in spite of 
 Lady Olivia's agonies I" 
 
 '^ She has confided her apprehensions to you, 
 then r 
 
 " Actually stopped her carriage opposite to 
 Boodle's this morning, and sent in her footman 
 to desire I would come and speak to her. There 
 I sat closeted with her for a quarter of an hour, 
 listening to her predictions of a marriage be- 
 tween your brother and your mother's compa- 
 nion in an atmosphere resembling that of Sa- 
 vory and Moore's shop ; and with the certainty 
 of being quizzed to death on my return to the 
 club, touching this family consultation. But 
 enough of Lady Olivia — mi/ business is of a 
 more important nature. Do you know Fre- 
 derica that, with Lexley's assistance, I have 
 just now a most favourable opportunity of get- 
 ting into parliament.'^
 
 92 PIN MONEY. 
 
 *' But is it worth while to go through all the 
 trouble and expense, with a general election so 
 near at hand V* 
 
 '' The trouble will consist in passing a couple 
 of hours at the Blue Lion or Black Boar at 
 Martwich; and the expense will of course be 
 commensurate with the diminished value of 
 the seat. Still it is an expense ; and my only 
 demur on the subject arises from a disinclina- 
 tion to appropriate a considerable sum to the 
 indulgence of my own selfish predilections, after 
 urging economy in our general establishment." 
 
 " My dearest Rawleigh ! — ^you talk as if I 
 did not participate in your personal pleasures 
 and distinctions ; — as if we had separate in- 
 terests." 
 
 " And so we have !" aswered Sir Brooke, 
 between jest and earnest, but affectionately 
 pressing her hand ; " remember the pin-money 
 and the opera-box, Frederica. However, I 
 shall write down to Ruggs to-morrow, for 
 the surveyor's report on the timber of the 
 Oxley estate. Indeed I am pretty sure I can 
 raise the necessary sum without much incon-
 
 PIN MONEY. 93 
 
 venience ; provided I can persuade you to make 
 the sacrifice of the new conservatory, and to 
 forgive me if I occasionally bring forward the 
 subject of economy in our domestic arrange- 
 ments/' 
 
 " You can have very little confidence in me 
 to make my concurrence a matter of doubt," 
 said Lady Rawleigh, gratified by an opportunity 
 of marking her eager sympathy in her hus- 
 band's interests ; " I will become as prudent as 
 Mrs. Martha Derenzy, emulate her lectures on 
 the advantage of ready-money and discount; 
 and you shall reward me with ^\q franks a-da^^ 
 But what has that tiresome Mr. Lexley to do 
 with the business ?" 
 
 " I hope you do not allow yourself to be in- 
 fected by all the silly prejudices and antipa- 
 thies of your friend Mrs. Erskyne ? — Lexley is 
 not a lady's man, I acknowledge ,* but he is a 
 very useful and active member of society." 
 
 "Of society ? — ^he appears to me to forget 
 that he is any thing but a member of — parlia- 
 ment." 
 
 Perhaps he may be a little too fond of 
 
 IC
 
 94 PIN MONEY. 
 
 fetching and carrying, in the petty business 
 of the House ; but notwithstanding his foible, 
 he is a very estimable man, — with very clean 
 hands, and a very sound heart." 
 
 " Very dirty gloves, and a very intrusive hat ! 
 But how is he to assist you in this borough 
 affair?" 
 
 ** Why he happens to be just the sort of man 
 people are apt to refer to in the agency of 
 this species of confidential traffic. He has a 
 friend with a seat to dispose of, just now, under 
 circumstances highly advantageous to me ; and 
 I have promised to dine with him to-morrow, 
 and settle the business." 
 
 They were now in the string of carriages 
 leading to Mrs. Luttrell's/e^e, and within view 
 of those elaborate festive preparations, with 
 which persons of moderate means, moderate 
 mansions, and an acquaintance of the moderate 
 class, affect to rival the hospitalities of the 
 Duke of Devonshire or Lady Londonderry. 
 The front of a tolerably proportioned house 
 overlooking the Regent's-park, was converted 
 by the temporary aid of floor-cloth and tar-
 
 PIN MONEY. 95 
 
 paulin, into a conservatory smelling more of 
 Downing's manufactory than of roses and jes- 
 samine; while stars of ill-trimmed variegated 
 lamps, flaring and smoking, added their un- 
 lucky odours to the malaria of the spot. The 
 hall of Mrs. LuttrelPs abode v^^as metamor- 
 phosed by a screen of w^ithering laurel-branches 
 into a rural retreat; in which some eight or ten 
 footmen, — with the glaring liveries of the fa- 
 mily, hanging voluminously upon the shoul- 
 ders of half the gang, and betraying them as 
 hirelings for the occasion, — exerted the utmost 
 fury of their lungs to announce the entering 
 guests. It would have been difficult to decide 
 which was the preponderating discord in this 
 house of feasting ; — the yells of a band of ill- 
 bred servants, — or the twang of an orchestra, 
 of which the musicians appeared to measure 
 their own merit by the volume of sound they 
 could severally produce. 
 
 At the door of the ball-room stood the curt- 
 seying and over-heated Mrs. Luttrell ; charmed 
 to behold the extent of the mob she had col- 
 lected to stare at her diamond tiara, and ar-
 
 96 PIN MONEY. 
 
 rayed in a silver tissue robe, studded all over 
 with bouquets of foil, which compelled this 
 most brilliant of hostesses to a standing position. 
 She took care to be engaged in eager con- 
 versation when the announcement of " Sir 
 Brooke and Lady Rawleigh," met her ear, 
 in order that her vulgar butler might think 
 it necessary to indulge in a stentorian repeti- 
 tion of the gratifying sound for the edification 
 of the company near the door. Poor Mrs. 
 Luttrell, being strictly confined within the limits 
 of mediocratic society, conceived that a lady- 
 ship of any sort was good for something ; and 
 had already made up her mind that, since her 
 distant relative had been so aspiring as to unite 
 himself with the daughter of a Viscountess, the 
 name of the Honourable Lady Rawleigh should 
 grace her Morning Post advertisement on the 
 morrow, — in company with " Messrs. Rosin's 
 incomparable band, and Messrs. Gunter's deli- 
 cacies of the season." 
 
 Escaping as quickly as they could from 
 the courtesies of a lady who " 'oped they had 
 got up to the door without much difficulty,"
 
 PIN MONEY. 97 
 
 the Rawleighs manoeuvred their way round the 
 skirts of a quadrille, which shook the very 
 foundations of the house by its saltatory exer- 
 tions, into the second drawing-room ; where 
 Frederica, by the aid of certain old-fashioned 
 diamond-aigrettes with which she had been 
 intimately acquainted for the last five years, 
 contrived to recognise divers ancient matrons 
 and untireable chaperons — Lady Launceston's 
 former contemporaries at the card-table. 
 
 But what was her amazement on perceiving 
 in the midst of one of these grisly groups, her 
 giddy brother ! — listening without much show of 
 impatience to the obsequious discourse of a fat 
 middle-aged woman, arrayed in a turban which 
 might have served the Pacha Abomelique in a 
 representation of Blue Beard, at the Theatre 
 Royal, Birmingham ! — Lord Launceston started 
 with surprise, but speedily rose and joined his 
 sister and her husband. 
 
 " What on earth are you doing here?" whis- 
 pered Frederica. 
 
 " Business, Fred., business ! — You see I have 
 a better excuse than yourself; for I should 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 PIN MONEY. 
 
 hardly think you would plead either business or 
 pleasure as your inducement." 
 
 " Hush ! Mrs. Luttrell is a distant connexion 
 of Rawleigh's." 
 
 " Is that a reason for suffocating yourself 
 with the vapours of lavender-water, huile antique, 
 and hired argands ? " 
 
 " Have 7/ou any better motive for your devo- 
 tion to yonder fair Odalisque?" 
 
 " That is my future mother-in-law," said 
 Lord Launceston calmly. " You know I have 
 long been in search of an heiress; and these 
 people, who are soapboilers or some such thing, 
 were so obliging as to fall in love with me at 
 Cowes last summer, and save me all further 
 trouble." 
 
 " My dear Launceston, you do not really 
 mean that you have serious thoughts of allying 
 yourself with that horrible woman?" 
 
 " I never ^had serious thoughts of any thing 
 in my life ; except once when I was going to be 
 flogged at Eton, and had some notion of caning 
 the Doctor by way of preventative. But Mrs. 
 Waddlestone has very serious thoughts of allying
 
 PIN MONEY. 99 
 
 herself with me. Would you like to see my 
 bride elect?" 
 
 " Certainly not as your bride-elect," replied 
 Lady Rawleigh ; turning with a look of anxious 
 inquiry towards the quadrille, and fixing her 
 eyes upon a juvenile mummy forming a most 
 afflicting miniature of the lady in the turban. 
 
 " Quite wrong, Fred ! — You have not the least 
 touch of animal magnetism in your composition, 
 or you would have found out your future sister 
 at first sight," said Lord Launceston ; smiling, 
 and nodding with an air of good understanding 
 to a fairer and more graceful sylph than ever 
 graced the aristocratic boards of Willis's : — danc- 
 ing with the gentle tranquillity of Madame 
 Michau's choicest scholar, and dressed with a 
 perfection of elegance which neither the fastidi- 
 ous Louisa Erskyne, nor the still more fastidi- 
 ous Mademoiselle Estelle could have taxed 
 with an error of taste. 
 
 " Is not Leonora charming ? " said Lord 
 Launceston with an ironical smile. 
 
 " Charming, indeed ! — but no Leonora Wad- 
 dlestone I am persuaded. She must have been 
 
 F 2
 
 100 PIN MONEY. 
 
 changed in her cradle by a fairy or an Irish 
 
 nurse." 
 
 " The strawberry ripest grows beneatli the nettle !" 
 
 theatrically mouthed her brother. " You fine 
 ladies, who fancy there lies no salvation without 
 the pale of Almack's, know very little of the 
 superiority of beauty and accomphshment to be 
 met with in the secondary set of London society. 
 Fortunately for me, my beggary brought me 
 among these soapboilers, and brewers, and other 
 nonentities; and I shall consequently bless 
 myself with the prettiest as well as the richest 
 wife in the peerage." 
 
 ** But in sober sadness, I hope you entertain 
 no thoughts of forming this mesalliance?" said 
 Lady Rawleigh, and she began to think that 
 even the companion — (if an orphan) — might 
 have been preferable to a Leonora Waddlestone, 
 with such a mother. 
 
 " No treason against my Leonora ! " said 
 Launceston gravely. 
 
 " But against your mother-in-law V* 
 ' " What possible fault can you find with her? 
 That crimson satin robe was part of the spoil of
 
 PIN MONEY. 101 
 
 Tippoo Sai'b's wardrobe — she told me so herself; 
 and only look at her pearls ! — 
 
 ' Each pendant in her ear shall be a province.' " 
 
 " Frightful creature !" 
 
 "If you utter one injurious sentence respect- 
 ing her, I will instantly present her to you ; — a 
 punishment I assure you of some severity — for 
 she will take particular care neither to forget 
 nor be forgotten by you." 
 
 " She certainly appeared very satisfactorily 
 engrossed by her conversation with t/ou when 
 I entered the room." 
 
 " I flatter myself she already loves me like 
 a son ; and I am certain that she loves me like 
 a lord, — which is a degree of far greater warmth 
 in Mrs. Waddlestone's estimation." 
 
 '' Dearest Launceston ! — I am beginning to 
 shudder when you pronounce that detestable 
 name ! " 
 
 " Leonora will lose it you know in becoming 
 your sister. I have been dancing with her all 
 the evening, and have only resigned my place 
 to your old friend Colonel Rhyse, that I may 
 enjoy a little of Mrs. Waddlestone's conversa- 
 tion."
 
 102 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ''Again ! — Waddlestone ! — The sound an echo 
 to the sense.'' 
 
 " Launceston!" said Sir Brooke, who had 
 been detained from their dialogue by the civili- 
 ties of Mr. Luttrell, a respectable gentleman 
 with very large calves and a powdered head, 
 whom strangers usually mistook for the butler, 
 ^* it is a rare thing to meet you in a ball-room. 
 Will you make my excuses to Lady Launceston, 
 my dear fellow, and tell her she must be 
 satisfied with Frederica alone to-morrow; for 
 I am obliged to dine with Lexley on particular 
 business." 
 
 ** I should think you would dine with the 
 brute on no other motive. However, I will 
 take care of my sister ; — ^there will be a large 
 party in Charles-street to introduce Miss Elbany 
 to all the family." 
 
 '^ I really think mamma is bewitched by that 
 girl," cried Lady Rawleigh. 
 
 " Who is not ? " replied her brother, with 
 something very much resembling a sigh. 
 
 " You had better invite your favourite, Mrs. 
 Waddlestone, to join the circle," said Frederica, 
 peevishly.
 
 PIN MONEY. 103 
 
 " Certainly, if you wish it," observed Lord 
 Launceston, gravely; and he moved eagerly 
 towards the lady with the pearl pendants, who 
 fanned herself in joyful agitation on his ap- 
 proach. 
 
 But Frederica, apprehensive that her giddy 
 brother might really execute his threat of in- 
 troducing her to his very uninviting friend, now 
 whispered to Rawleigh her anxiety to leave 
 the room. Compassionating her affected fa- 
 tigue. Sir Brooke extricated her from the 
 crowd; and after standing for a moment in 
 the evergreen hall, — at the door of a supper- 
 room glittering with caramel baskets and py- 
 ramids of foil, and savouring horribly of ham 
 sandwiches and negus — Lady Rawleigh's car- 
 riage " stopped the way." She arrived in 
 Bruton-street only half recovered from the 
 shock of her astonishment and consternation.
 
 104 PIN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A stately palace built of squared brick 
 
 Which cunningly was without mortar laid, 
 
 Whose walls were high, but nothing strong or thick, 
 And golden foil all over them displayed, 
 
 That purest sky with brightness they dismayed. 
 High lifted up were many lofty towers 
 
 And goodly galleries far over laid ; 
 
 Full of fair windows and delightful bowers. 
 
 SPENSER. 
 
 The following morning was devoted by Lady 
 Rawleigh, according to a previous engagement, 
 to a humdrum drive in the suburbs with 
 Mrs. Martha Derenzy, her husband's favourite 
 aunt ; when for two long hours she found her- 
 self condemned to listen to the rheumatic old 
 lady's diffuse details of the domestic arrange- 
 ments of her neighbours, a Mrs. Scott, a Miss 
 Hunter, and a Mr. Wilson, persons who be-
 
 PIN MONEY. 105 
 
 longed of a sufficiently unpretending degree of 
 life to be within reach of the attractions of her 
 tea-table ; and whom Frederica very sincerely 
 wished had superseded her in the pleasures 
 of the present airing. Her thoughts were na- 
 turally engrossed by the approaching introduc- 
 tion of a " Miss Waddlestone" into the house 
 of Rawdon! — At one moment, she resolved to 
 exert her most anxious efforts for the prevention 
 of such a catastrophe; at another, the interest- 
 ing figure of Leonora recurred to her recollec- 
 tion; forcing her to admit that not a single 
 young person of her own rank in society — not 
 even the heiress, her cousin Lady Mary Trevel- 
 yan, the object of her former speculations for her 
 brother — rivalled the pretensions of the soap- 
 boiler's lovely daughter. 
 
 She could not but reflect with some amuse- 
 ment on the needless pains which poor Lady 
 Olivia Tadcaster had been giving herself, to 
 
 I 
 
 intercept any possibility of a tcte-a-tete between 
 Lucy Elbany and Lord Launceston; for although 
 the companion had very judiciously declined 
 the favour of accompanying her ladyship in 
 
 F 3
 
 106 PIN MONEY. 
 
 her morning's tour of the bargain-shops, she 
 had not been able to elude the vigilance with 
 which the sister of her patroness thought pro- 
 per to establish herself daily in Charles-street, 
 during the hour devoted to Lady Launceston's 
 siesta, a crisis generally selected by the young 
 lord for his visits of fihal duty. Frederica was 
 even cogitating over the necessity of acquaint- 
 ing her aunt with her brother's actual matri- 
 monial views and engagements, when Mrs. 
 Derenzy, suddenly pulling the check-string 
 opposite the entrance-lodge of an immense 
 house at Kensington Gore, put a period to her 
 meditations. 
 
 A porter, covered with lace and aiguillettes, 
 having answered the summons, Mrs. Derenzy 
 tendered her visiting card, with the imprudent 
 additional message of '' Her compliments — and 
 she was sorry she could not get out, as she had 
 a lady with her in the carriage." Away they 
 drove again ; and Lady Rawleigh had not even 
 the curiosity to inquire to whom the house be- 
 lono-ed and the message was addressed ; when in 
 a few minutes the carriage stopped suddenly.
 
 PIN MONEY. 107 
 
 " What is the matter," cried the old lady in 
 a fidget of alarm. " Any thing wrong with the 
 harness V And she let down the window in a 
 prodigious fluster, when a panting footman in a 
 gorgeous livery, similar to that of the porter 
 aforesaid, made his appearance sans hat, sans 
 breath, sans manners ; — '^ Mrs. Waddlestone's 
 best respects, ma'am, and she hopes you'll turn 
 back, and '11 be very happy to see the lady." 
 
 " What shall we do, my dear Lady Raw- 
 leigh?" 
 
 " Waddlestone !" faltered Frederica; "the 
 soapboiler V 
 
 " I fancy Mr. W. is in some kind of business 
 in the city ; but their style of living at the west • 
 end is quite superior. I assure you nothing can 
 equal the beauty of their gardens ; and if it 
 would not be asking too great a favour of you, 
 my dear niece, I should really be glad of an op- 
 portunity to visit them this fine morning." 
 
 " By all means then, let us turn back ; but 
 as a favour in return, pray dear Madam let 
 me exact a promise of you not to 7iame me to
 
 108 PIN MONEY. 
 
 the family ; I have motives for the request which 
 I will explain hereafter." 
 
 '^ Certainly — certainly ; — but what can I call 
 you ?" 
 
 " Your niece ; — which will fully satisfy the 
 curiosity of Mrs. Waddlestone, touching a per- 
 son in a shabby bonnet and last year's pelisse." 
 
 In fact Lady Rawleigh rather congratulated 
 herself on this opportunity of inspecting the 
 domestic habits of a family, with which she 
 was so soon likely to be connected ; and when, 
 on approaching the mansion, she perceived its 
 long vista of conservatories, the marble stands 
 of exotics gracing the lawn, and the swarm of 
 domestics congregated at the hall-door, she was 
 willing to admit that if affluence were the sole 
 object of her brother's matrimonial choice, he 
 was decidedly fortunate in having passed the 
 preceding summer at Cowes. 
 
 " Remember !" she whispered emphatically 
 to Mrs. Derenzy, in assisting her up the vast 
 flight of steps. 
 
 " I give you my word of honour not to men-
 
 PIN MONEY. 109 
 
 tion your name," answered the old lady, con- 
 ceiving that this whimsey on the part of her 
 nephew's noble bride must originate in family 
 pride. 
 
 " Under any circumstances ?'' persisted Fre- 
 derica. 
 
 "Under any circumstances!" echoed Mrs. 
 Derenzy, casting a glance upon the great Buhl 
 clock which graced a pedestal of giallo-antico 
 in the hall, in the hope that luncheon-time — 
 the hour of pate de Perigord, and pine-apples, 
 at Waddlestone House — was not far distant. 
 
 Even Frederica, accustomed as she was to 
 the dwellings of the great, felt startled by 
 the profusion and selection of the objects of 
 virtu which met her eye on every side. — The 
 staircase was modelled after one of Gaudy's 
 superb architectural designs ; — and the vestibule 
 through Vv'hich they passed into the drawing- 
 room, was ornamented by fine copies of the 
 Whetter and Dying Gladiator, and by an ori- 
 ginal Diana with a greyhound, from the clas- 
 sical chisel of Schadoff. — The soapboiler was 
 evidently a patron of the fine arts.
 
 110 PIN MONEY. 
 
 The saloon into which they were now ushered, 
 was one of those luxurious retreats, which 
 modern refinement delights to decorate with all 
 the triumphs of human genius, and all the use- 
 ful inventions of human industry. Opening 
 into a conservatory in which tropical plants 
 threw up their palmy leaves into a dome where 
 the slender threads of a jet d'eau produced a 
 . succession of rainbows, overarching blossoms 
 bright and evanescent as their own hues, it was 
 loaded with all those inviting means of repose, 
 afforded by cushioned ottomans and chairs at 
 every angle of inclination suggested by the 
 fancy of indolence. Jardinieres bright with 
 flowers, were intermingled with triangular per- 
 ambulators filled with the last new works of 
 the day ; and although five pictures only graced 
 the walls, covered with velvet hangings of a 
 pale fawn colour, — they were five chef d'auvres 
 from the hands of Claude, Hobbima, Ruys- 
 dael, Salvator Rosa, and Vandyke ; such as 
 the intellectual eye delights to rest upon 
 with daily increasing partiality, till they become 
 familiar and precious in its estimation as the
 
 PIN MONEY. Ill 
 
 faces of those it loves. On one side of the sa- 
 loon stood a magnificent organ and harp, sur- 
 rounded by a scattered profusion of music ; and 
 near the fireplace a cabinet of exquisite minia- 
 tures, which might have been adjudged as the 
 works of Isaac Oliver or Petitot, had not a half- 
 finished performance of similar merit appeared 
 on a little ebony bureau beneath ; accompanied 
 by a palette and brushes and the various imple- 
 ments of a fairer artist. 
 
 Frederica was startled from an examination 
 of this beautiful collection, by the vociferous 
 entrance of Mrs. Waddlestone; and she had 
 just time to drop the thick Chantilly veil over 
 her face, and hear herself casually announced 
 by Mrs. Martha, as " My niece, from Warwick- 
 shire." She had not been deceived in antici- 
 pating that the Waddlestones would resolve a 
 nameless niece, in a dress of Quaker-like sim- 
 plicity, into a poor relation, — a species of un- 
 salaried Lucy Elbany; and she was consequently 
 permitted to seat herself at a very satisfactory 
 distance from her hostess, and to listen unmo- 
 lested to the dialogue with her humdrum relative.
 
 112 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ^^ La ! — Mrs. Derenzy, my dear Madam ! how 
 could you hesitate about bringing your own 
 niece to Waddlestone House ! Pray be assured 
 I shall always feel particularly gratified in see- 
 ing any of your family, cliez moi" 
 
 " You are extremely polite, Ma'am ; — I am 
 sorry that the state of my health does not more 
 frequently permit me to make inquiries after 
 yours and Miss Waddlestone's." 
 
 " Thank you, my dear Madam,— thank you ; 
 Leonora is as well as the dissipation of the 
 season will allow; — torn to pieces, Mrs. De- 
 renzy, torn to pieces with the pleasing toils of 
 the grand monde. — Ah ! here she comes, — poor 
 dear ; — quite languid with the ftte of last 
 night ; I assure you it was le point de jour be- 
 fore we reached Waddlestone House." 
 
 Leonora, dressed in the utmost simplicity 
 of morning dress, now made her appearance 
 from the conservatory ; and after a graceful 
 recognition of her mother's elderly guest, seated 
 herself in a much more courteous vicinity to 
 the anonymous niece, than Mrs. Waddlestone 
 considered due either to her degree or her pe-
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 113 
 
 lisse. Already slie had entered into a desultoiy 
 conversation with the stranger, touching the 
 state of the weather and its influence upon her 
 flowers ; when the attention of both ladies was 
 arrested by the sound of Lord Launceston's 
 name uttered by Mrs. Waddlestone ; and nei- 
 ther of them found it possible to maintain their 
 separate dialogue, while so interesting a topic 
 was discussed within their hearing. 
 
 '^ Yes, Ma'am ! — a more charming entertain- 
 ment I think I never beheld. Mrs. Luttrell is 
 a sweet woman ;. — she has diamonds enough to 
 form a moderate-sized chandelier, and I must 
 say she does them ample justice ; — one seldom 
 sees her without them, except at church." 
 
 " She is a distant connexion of mine," said 
 Mrs. Martha, eagerly ; " but her hours and 
 habits are too fashionable for me^ — I do not see 
 much of her." 
 
 " Yes ! she is quite one of the heau monde ; — 
 excellent company at her house !— We had 
 Lady Williams, and Lady Thomas, and Lady 
 Smith, and Lady Wilson, — and a vast number 
 of people of fashion. We took our protege,
 
 114 PIN MONEY. 
 
 young Launceston, with us ; for I really can't 
 abide that Leonora should dance with indis- 
 criminate partners." 
 
 '^Lord Launceston ? '' inquired Mrs. Derenzy. 
 
 " Oh ! his lordship is quite l* enfant de la 
 famille at Waddlestone House/' said the soap- 
 boiler's lady, looking towards her daughter 
 with her mouth drawn on one side by way of 
 innuendo. " We had Launceston's sister there 
 too, — that little Lady Rawleigh; — ^but I must 
 own I didn't think much of her ; and as to Sir 
 Brooke, he has more the air of an apprentice 
 than of a man of fashion." 
 
 '* My dear mamma," interrupted Leonora, 
 distressed by her mother's superfluous sarcasms, 
 " surely it is impossible to be more elegant in 
 address or appearance than Lady Rawleigh ! " 
 
 " I don't know what you call an elegant 
 dress," observed Mrs. Waddlestone ; " but I 
 got as near her as possible, and if hers was not 
 Urling's net, I am very much mistaken." 
 
 " She is so graceful and ladylike that I own 
 I did not notice her dress, "" said Leonora. 
 
 " Sir Brooke and Lady Rawleigh are my
 
 PIN MONEY. 115 
 
 very near relatives ! " cried Mrs. Martha De- 
 renzy, gasping with consternation, but not 
 knowing how to terminate the illtimed com- 
 ments of her hostess. 
 
 '' I am sure Mrs. Derenzy, my dear Madam, 
 I ask your pardon ; — but when one hears people 
 so cried up as Launceston is always crying up 
 this sister of his, it does incline one to be a little 
 severe." 
 
 *' Brothers are partial judges," said the old 
 lady, fidgetting on her seat with alarm. 
 
 " But Colonel Rhyse is not brother to Lady 
 Rawleigh," observed Leonora ; " and he has 
 often assured me she is a model of feminine 
 gentleness." 
 
 " Oh ! Colonel Rhyse makes it a point of 
 conscience to swear to the truth of all Laun- 
 ceston's rhapsodies. However, I dare say we 
 shall have ample means of judging, — I dare 
 say we shall have plenty of Lady Rawleigh's 
 company before we die, — eh ! Leonora ? " — And 
 again she distorted her mouth by a significant 
 screw.
 
 116 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Leonora, pretending not to hear this coarse 
 apostrophe, which in fact served to colour her 
 face and throat with the deepest crimson, now 
 turned towards her silent companion with some 
 trivial observation respecting her drive ; when 
 Frederica, feeling that she was practising a 
 somewhat unfair deception by making herself 
 the auditress of Mrs. Waddlestone's notes ex- 
 planatory, inquired whether it would be taking 
 too great a liberty to beg to accompany her 
 through the celebrated gardens of Waddlestone 
 House. Leonora, ever eager to give pleasure 
 to others, and particularly anxious to divert the 
 attention of the stranger from her mother's sa- 
 tires, instantly rose; and followed by Lady 
 Rawleigh, moved towards the conservatory. 
 But Mrs. Waddlestone, who had heard the 
 petition, and considered it somewhat encroach- 
 ing on the part of Mrs. Derenzy's humble com* 
 panion, called out after her daughter — ^^ Now 
 pray, my dearest Leo., don't go to overheat 
 yourself! Put up your parasol, and put on 
 your bonnet; for you know Launceston and
 
 PIN MONEY. 117 
 
 his friend may drop in from minute to minute, 
 and his lordship can't abide to see you scorch- 
 ing your eyes out by a coup de soleiV^ 
 
 Leonora promised compliance with these 
 maternal injunctions; and in another minute 
 Frederica found herself alone with her future 
 sister-in-law^ in one of the prettiest flower- 
 gardens which ever put forth its roses since 
 those of Armida. She was delighted to per- 
 ceive that the youthful heiress pointed out to 
 her observation every plant and every rarity 
 really deserving her attention, without the least 
 parade or affectation; and as Leonora stood 
 with her slight figure and silken curls, leaning 
 against a marble vase, in the shadowy coolness 
 of a trelliced walk covered with flowering aca- 
 cias. Lady Rawleigh was so captivated by her 
 beauty, and so disposed in her favour by the 
 defence she had uttered of her own, that she 
 was half-tempted to claim her at once as a sister. 
 Fortunately, the reminiscence of Mrs. Waddle- 
 stone was still sufficiently strong upon her 
 mind, to restrain her within the bounds of 
 prudence.
 
 118 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " I could not have conceived," said Frederica, 
 " that so secluded a spot existed within a morn- 
 ing's drive of Bond-street."— 
 
 ''Except from the visits of our London friends," 
 replied Miss Waddlestone, " it forms quite a 
 lonely country-house. I am very much attached 
 to this place. I often think that small as this 
 garden is, I could be content to limit my future 
 existence within its walls." 
 
 " That notion," thought Lady Rawleigh, 
 " must certainly have originated from her tete-a- 
 tete walks with Launceston in this very ber^eau ! 
 — But Mrs. Waddlestone has been telling us 
 wonders of the dissipated life you lead," said 
 she aloud. " Surely you would not wish to 
 resign the pleasures of your London season ?" 
 
 " I would not renounce the society of my 
 intimate friends ; but I cannot say the at- 
 tractions of our general acquaintance would 
 often seduce me from my own happy home. 
 You know," said Leonora, blushing deeply, and 
 shaking away the curls from her deep blue eyes 
 with a smile of proud humility, " we are but 
 parvenus : a fact which here I can easily forget; 

 
 PIN MONEY. 119 
 
 but which is incessantly recalled to me in a 
 London ball-room, either by the want of refine- 
 ment of our equals, or by the contemptuous 
 bearing of our superiors. That very Lady 
 Rawleigh, of whom we were speaking just 
 now, rushed from Mrs. LuttrelPs party, last 
 night, only to avoid an introduction to us; — 
 a fact which I mention to excuse the asperity 
 with which she was mentioned by mamma-— 
 who has by nature the most indulgent dispo- 
 sition in the world. I should be sorry that a 
 stranger judged either herself or the object of 
 her strictures, from a few hasty words uttered 
 in a moment of vexation." 
 
 *^ Believe me, I should not take the liberty"—* 
 Frederica began— 
 
 '' Do not let us say another word on an un- 
 pleasant subject," said Leonora, rallying her 
 spirits, which were evidently in a minor key, 
 " while we have these beautiful Camellias to 
 look at. This delicate flower is the ' Lady 
 Hume's blush ;* — what a pity that any thing so 
 lovely should be scentless !" — 
 But Lady Rawleigh, in momentary appro-
 
 120 PIN MONEY. 
 
 hensicn of her brother's arrival and of the 
 annoying explanation which must ensue, hurried 
 through the lofty greenhouses glowing with 
 blossoms, on pretext of Mrs. Derenzy's impa- 
 tience; and arrived in the drawing-room at the 
 same moment with a tray, covered with a 
 greater variety of fruit than any place but 
 Ragley Castle, or Owen's shop could possibly 
 rival. She had now the nervous perplexity of 
 seeing her aunt attack a conical bunch of superb 
 Frontignan grapes, which nothing short of ten 
 minutes could possibly suffice to demolish; and 
 very earnestly did she long to take justice, and 
 Mrs. Waddlestone's scissors of embossed gold 
 into her own hands, and curtail the enjoyments 
 of poor Mrs. Martha Derenzy. Dreading every 
 moment to hear the doors thrown open, and her 
 brother announced, she attempted to beguile 
 the time by noticing the pictures decorating the 
 apartment. 
 
 " They are indeed matchless," said Leonora, 
 without any affectation of humility. " My fa- 
 ther is considered an excellent judge of pic- 
 tures; and in purchases, has the advantage of
 
 PIN MONEY. 121 
 
 being advised by the most eminent artists of the 
 day, many of whom are constant visitors here. 
 We have very Uttle to do with men of fashion, 
 or men of rank ; but my dear father is highly 
 esteemed by men of genius of all conditions/' 
 
 It was fortunate for Miss Waddlestone that 
 her mother was uttering her parting civilities to 
 Mrs. Derenzy when Leonora gave utterance 
 to so plebeian a declaration ; and she now 
 bestowed a valedictory curtsey of most con- 
 temptuous brevity on the nameless and well- 
 veiled niece who hastily followed her guest 
 from the saloon. Just as their carnage passed 
 the lodge, Frederica perceived her brother and 
 Colonel Rhyse leisurely approaching; but the 
 unknown chariot of Mrs. Martha Derenzy 
 was of far too gothic a build to attract their 
 attention ; and the remaining way from Ken- 
 sington Gore to Bruton-street, was enlivened 
 only by the old lady's exclamations concerning 
 the coarse illnature of Mrs. Waddlestone — the 
 excellence of her grapes — the beauty of her 
 daughter — and above all by her own regrets 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 PIN MONEY. 
 
 that Frederica should have exposed herself 
 to a predicament so disagreeable, 
 
 " I see your motive, my dear ma'am ; I can 
 understand your desire to form your unembar- 
 rassed observations upon a family with whom 
 you may possibly become more closely united ; 
 but I know not whether most to lament the 
 annoyance to which you have been exposed, or 
 the unequal alliance projected by my Lord 
 Launceston." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, however, entertained no 
 doubt as to the comparative magnitude of 
 the two evils ; and she dressed herself for 
 the dinner in Charles-street, without having 
 found time to communicate half her distresses 
 to Sir Brooke, or make up her mind as to the 
 extent of the intelligence due to her mother 
 and aunt. Launceston, in his well-appointed 
 but unostentatious bachelor equipage, having 
 called for her before the ceremonies of the 
 toilet were fully concluded, she desired he 
 "would proceed and send his carriage back for 
 her, to avoid the inquiries of a tete-a-tete;
 
 PIN MONEY. 123 
 
 and when his blood-horses a second time 
 skirted within a hair's-breadth the iron-rail- 
 iiigs of Berkeley-square towards their destina- 
 tion, she could not but contrast their rate of 
 speed with her morning's jog-trot with Mrs. 
 Martha ; and even with the sober pace at 
 which Sir Brooke, with his heavy Rawleigh- 
 ford-bred bays, was proceeding towards West- 
 minster and the Lexley consultation. 
 
 " And now," said Frederica, as she stopped 
 at her mother's door, " now for the forward 
 officiousness of Miss Lucy Elbany ! — Little 
 does she suspect how thoroughly all her arts 
 are thrown away upon my brother; or how dif- 
 ferently he estimates the modest simplicity of 
 the heiress of Waddlestone House, and the bold 
 glaring displays of Lady Launceston's compa- 
 nion." 
 
 G 2
 
 124 PJN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Priuli is a Senator! 
 
 VENICE PRESERVED. 
 
 Sir Brooke Rawleigh and Mr. Lexley 
 were so unfortunate as to belong to different 
 clubs; and the private residence of the latter 
 was therefore selected as the scene of their ne- 
 gotiations. It is not to be supposed that 
 wholesale and retail deafer in Parliament 
 could have fixed his domicile in any other 
 parish than that of St. Margaret, Westminster; 
 and Sir Brooke accordingly found himself 
 driven to the entrance of a paved court, — an 
 old-fashioned cul-de-sac whose heavy archi- 
 traves of carved wood-work, narrow windows,
 
 PIN MONEY. 125 
 
 and ostensible roofing of red tile, formed a me- 
 lancholy memento of the domestic architecture 
 in vogue during the early days of the Hano- 
 verian succession. A peep into the Birdcage- 
 vv^alk, at the peril of dislocation, — and he 
 unceasing carillon of St. Margaret's chimes, 
 formed the sole enlivenment of this dingy 
 senatorial retreat. 
 
 A mysterious-looking, middle-aged man, with 
 speckled stockings, powdered hair, and a slight 
 hint of a pig-tail, — who might have been in- 
 discriminately taken for a butler, a clerk, or a 
 secretary, — circumspectly ushered the expected 
 guest into his master's study ; with a whispered 
 assurance that Mr. Lexley would shortly make 
 his appearance, having probably been detained 
 at the House; and Sir Brooke, as he gazed 
 around the uninviting chamber, could not but 
 feel that he should be very unwilling to adopt 
 the habits of life of this active servant of the 
 country, in assuming a similar weight of par- 
 liamentary responsibility. He examined the 
 tall, dark, spider-legged mahogany writing- 
 t.able, — spotted with much ink, and indented
 
 126 PIN MONEY. 
 
 witli severe penmanship ; — the unsightly book- 
 cases filled with vellum-bound folios and bufF- 
 leather quartos,— (REPORTS, from Vol. I. to 
 Vol. DXXVIII.,) — and a ragged regiment of 
 loose and unconnected pamphlets ; — the chim- 
 ney-piece graced with two dusty glass giran- 
 doles and a museum of printed and wafered 
 circulars, addressed by divers clerkly hands to 
 " JohnLexley, Esq., M. P.,*' — till his mind in- 
 voluntarily reverted to his snug library at Raw- 
 leighford, Morel-and-Seddonized into the ut- 
 most refinement of literary ease, and musky 
 with Russia leather! — its scattered memo- 
 randa collected under the paper-weights 
 of VuUiamy's choicest bronze, — and its arti- 
 ficial light distributed by reading-lamps 
 and shaded candles, such as might have as- 
 sisted Methuselah or old Parr to decipher a 
 diamond edition without spectacles ! 
 
 After the miserable solitude of a quarter of 
 an hour, passed in a retreat presenting few ex- 
 traneous attractions to divert the attention of 
 its owner from the dry details to which he saw 
 fit to devote his existence, a hurried rap an-
 
 PIN MONEY. 127 
 
 nounced Mr. Lexley's return ; and having ac- 
 costed his punctual guest with an incoherent 
 explanation touching the lateness of the divi- 
 sion, — the harassed member alluded to the ne- 
 cessity of washing those hands, the cleanliness 
 of which had been so much lauded by Sir 
 Brooke to Frederica, and rushed up the creak- 
 ing stairs in his usual flurry of superfluous ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 Rawleigh, who was now growing hungry and 
 fractious, was right glad when at length he 
 found himself seated opposite to his host at the 
 dinner-table ; with a tureen of very diaphanous 
 mock-turtle, and a dish of flaccid salmon smo- 
 thered in horse-radish and surrounded by some 
 smelts of the consistency of cuttle-fish, stand- 
 ing between them. As soon as he had in some 
 degree appeased his appetite with these unin- 
 viting provisions, — which Mr. Lexley announced 
 to be " bachelor's fare," or " pot luck," or some 
 other apologetic designation of a filthy dinner, 
 — Sir Brooke, on casting his eyes around him, 
 perceived that a well stored dumb-waiter was 
 placed near his host, and another within his
 
 128 PIN MONEY. 
 
 own reach ; and that no sooner had the myste- 
 rious butler placed upon the board two bottles of 
 sherry, a saddle of rancid mutton, a hay- 
 cock of mashed potatoes, and a tepid salad, 
 than he withdrew from attendance; — closing 
 the door as charily after him as if either his 
 master, or his master's guest, were labouring 
 under a concussion of the brain. It was evi- 
 dent that he was familiarly trained to the bu- 
 siness-like privacy of Mr. Lexley's confidential 
 dinners. 
 
 " And now, my dear Sir, we are alone P^ said 
 Lexley, in an opening phrase ; twisting, as he spoke 
 his long throat over his shoulder, like that of an 
 ill-trussed ptarmigan, to ascertain that his cup- 
 bearer had left the room. Unconsciously the 
 awe-struck baronet followed his scrutinizing 
 glance, and began to feel that there was some- 
 thing inexpressibly awful in all these mysterious 
 preparations for secrecy. Nothing was wanting 
 but Miss Kelly, to render the scene a perfect 
 melodrame ! 
 
 It is to be hoped that the courteous reader 
 of these memoirs, has formed no expectation of
 
 PIN MONEY. 129 
 
 hearing what it was that Mr. Lexley thought fit 
 to utter, when he found himself " alone'' with 
 his friend Sir Brooke and the two dumb-waiters. 
 The mysteries of Isis are not more rigidly sacred 
 in our sight, than those occasionally transacted 
 in the parish of St. Margaret; and if the pro- 
 cess which sufficed to render our estimable 
 Ravvleigh sole representative of the respectable 
 borough of Martwich should ever chance to be 
 betrayed to posterity, so indiscreet a revelation 
 shall never be traced to our pages. We prefer 
 adjourning from Mr. Lexley 's second course to 
 the dinner in Charles-street. 
 
 Already predisposed against the claims and 
 encroachments of Miss Elbany, Lady Rawleigh 
 felt extremely indignant on entering her 
 mother's crowded drawing-room, to observe 
 Lord Launceston hanging over her chair ; and 
 devoting to the Companion that species of dis- 
 tinguishing incense which he had no longer any 
 right to offer except upon the altar at Kensing- 
 ton Gore. If any excuse could be made 
 for his levity, it might have been assuredly 
 found in the surpassing lovehness of the 
 
 G3
 
 130 PIN MONEY. 
 
 object of his infidelity; Frederica, who 
 had never before beheld her with the ad- 
 vantages of evening dress, was astonished by 
 the perfect symmetry of Lucy's commanding 
 figure, and by the graceful turn of her head 
 and shoulders. But her attention was not long 
 permitted to rest on details so captivating and 
 so fraught with vexation to herself. Lady 
 Olivia Tadcaster was now announced, bearing 
 upon one arm a steel-embroidered orange- 
 coloured velvet reticule emulating the di- 
 mensions of a night-bag, and gleaming with the 
 superficial splendours of the Palace Royal ; — 
 and upon the other, an elegant looking little 
 woman, rather over-dressed, whom she eagerly 
 presented to the attentions of her niece, as her 
 friend Mrs. Woodington. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh instantly recognised in the 
 sparkling miniature before her, — in which a few 
 of the defeatures of time were varnished over by 
 the hand of a skilful artist, — a very rich widow 
 who had long been the object of Lady Oliver's 
 matrimonial manoeuvres in* favour of her 
 nephew ; and Frederica could not help regret-
 
 PIN MONEY. 131 
 
 ting, as she gazed upon the elaboration of Mrs. 
 Woodington's toilet, — the waving of her feathers, 
 — the profusion of her trinkets, — and the intricate 
 precision of the plaiting of her htret sleeves, — 
 that so much labour was lavished on an in- 
 grate. It was indeed a matter of very little 
 surprise to her that Lord Launceston should 
 prefer the graceful and girlish simplicity of his 
 Leonora to the artificial and apprtte ornateness 
 of the showy little widow of Woodington Park ; 
 who was notoriously on the look out for an ex- 
 change between a poor coronet, and her liberal 
 jointure. But she felt that her brother 
 would have been far more becomingly em- 
 ployed in doing the honours of his mother's* 
 house to his mother's guests, than in listen- 
 ing entranced to the " persuasive words and 
 more persuasive sighs" of Miss Lucy El- 
 bany. 
 
 Her own attention, however, was soon 
 monopolized by the assiduities of Sir Robert 
 Morse ; who appeared as much delighted to 
 welcome Lady JRawleigh back to her former 
 haunts, as if he had never aspired to the smiles
 
 132 PIN MONEY. 
 
 of Miss Rawdon ; — as anxious to assume the 
 tone of the favoured friend, as if he had never 
 found himself a disappointed suitor. — Lord Laun- 
 ceston was compelled to do the honours of the 
 table to an old card-playing Countess Ronthorst, 
 and an ancient Lady Lavinia Lisle (a spinster, 
 whose matrimonial eno-aoements had been 
 ruptured by the loss of her lover in the first 
 American war) ; his glances straying ever and 
 anon towards the fine contour of Lucy 
 Elbany's head, which turned towards himself 
 only the chignon of its luxuriant raven hair, and 
 towards her neighbour, Sir Mark Milman the 
 lustre of its countenance; — while Colonel 
 Rhyse, who would willingly have profited by 
 his position on the left of the Companion to 
 divert himself with the liveliness of her sallies, 
 and the exquisite art with which she contrived 
 to call forth and illustrate the absurdities of 
 Sir Mark, found himself obliged to listen to 
 the nimini-pimini, underbred, officious no- 
 things of httle Mrs. Woodington, which he 
 knew were bestowed upon him solely in honour 
 of his Pyladeship with their noble host. The
 
 PIN MONEY. 133 
 
 grimacing widow was far too accurately aware 
 of the value of herself and her jointure, to 
 dream of throwing away her attentions, on any 
 other grounds, upon a mere Colonel in the 
 Guards ; fourth son to a paltry Irish earl, — the 
 list of whose offspring occupied a whole page in 
 the peerage. 
 
 The only person of the party posted to her 
 entire satisfaction, was poor Lady Launceston ; 
 who enjoyed the consciousness of a large Ja- 
 pan screen between herself and the windows, 
 of a chauffrette at her feet, and a fat comfortable 
 old dowager lord on each side, ready to talk to 
 her of the last news of the last century, in tones 
 which would not have drowned the morning 
 hymn of an humble bee. Unless with Dr. Jenner 
 on her right hand, and Sir Henry Halford or 
 her quotidian apothecary, on her left, she could 
 not have eaten her boiled chicken, and sipped 
 her toast and water in a more gratifying neigh- 
 bourhood; while the prominent, dictatorial 
 Lady Olivia, like a personification of the impe- 
 rative mood, was very aptly stationed between 
 the preterpluperfect politeness of the obsolete
 
 134 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Lord Twadell, and the subjunctive appendix of 
 Mr. Broughley's modern enlightenment. 
 
 Mr. Broughley was a learned pundit and 
 travelled man ; — had seen not only " the 
 Louvre" — (which he appeared to consider as 
 cockneyfied a monument as Aldgate pump) — 
 but the domes of Mecca, and the senate-house 
 of Washington ; — had assisted at a storthing at 
 Drontheim — a diet at Pesth; — palavered with 
 the dog-ribbed Indians, — and sat face to face 
 with the mummy of Moops, by the light of one 
 of Davy's safety-lamps, in the Great Pyramid. 
 This active member — not of society — but of all 
 the societies of modern Europe, was one of the 
 few persons to whom Lady Olivia Tadcaster 
 bowed submissive, as pre-eminent above her 
 omni-motive self. 
 
 She had originally made his acquaintance in 
 .,^hooting the falls of the Lahn, on her return 
 from the Taunus mountains, where she had been 
 passing the summer, in order to drink Selt- 
 zer water fresh from the rock; and had 
 since intersected his orbit upon her travels, — 
 once in the cabinet of the Japanese Palace at
 
 PIN MONEY. 135 
 
 Dresden, and once in that of the celebrated 
 restaurateur where the legs of geese are candied 
 in sugar, at Toulouse. He was now recently 
 returned from an Italian tour ; and it was as~ 
 tonishing how many dear old friends — Romagnese 
 Princes, Signori Abbati, learned librarians,-— 
 Arcadian academicians, blue professors, purple 
 Eminences, ruined temples, ruined roues, cap- 
 tains of banditti, and captains of the papal 
 guard, she found occasion to render the objects 
 of her inquiries. Like the French Marquis, who 
 exclaimed w^ith affectionate recognition, in some 
 royal library, " Ah ! mon cher Ciceron ! — c^est 
 le mtme que Marc-Tulle T — her ladyship in- 
 quired how the poor dear old Coliseum had 
 stood the winter, — and whether the Palazzo 
 Aldobrandini was likely to get rid of its 
 mar aria ! — 
 
 " Is there any truth, Milman," inquired Sir 
 Robert Morse of Sir Mark, in the pause of his 
 devotion to Lady Rawleigh, " in the report that 
 Rousford gives up the hounds V* 
 
 " Mere illnature, Sir — mere illnature.'*
 
 136 PIN MONEy. 
 
 " But they say his health will not allow him 
 to stand another season." 
 
 " Scandal, Sir Robert, scandal ! — one of the 
 idle reports of the day." 
 
 " I trust it may be so ; but I can perceive 
 nothing calumnious in saying that Mr. Rous- 
 ford is consumptive." 
 
 " What business has the public with any 
 man's health ? — What right have people to feel 
 Mr. Rousford's pulse ? — I say. Sir, that all 
 domestic privacy is over in this country ! — no 
 individual can put on his nightcap and die in 
 peace, but his last moments are to be dis- 
 cussed, and his medicaments canvassed just 
 as if he was public property. It is an outrage 
 to the -liberty of the subject that we can nei- 
 ther share our roast-mutton with a friend, nor 
 have a headach when it suits us, but our mo- 
 tives for the measure. Sir, are to be talked 
 about, and written about, and falsified for nefa- 
 rious purposes. Half the mischief of modern 
 society is done by this sort of invasion of private 
 life, and idle discussion of our affairs."
 
 PIN MONEY. 137 
 
 " Because you see," said Sir Robert, who — 
 never listening to long sentences of any descrip- 
 tion, and perceiving that Sir Mark had set in 
 for a prose, had wisely occupied the interval 
 with a glass of hock, and with the task of 
 helping himself to a second Jilet de canetoji, 
 " if Rousford has really made up his mind to 
 resign the hounds, he owes it to the county to 
 give us a fair chance for the new appointment. 
 The election cannot be decided in a day." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, whose notions of electioneer- 
 ing were just then confined to the vacancy at 
 Martwich and the pretensions of Sir Brooke, 
 somewhat startled her neighbour by inquiring 
 whether he had any interest in that quarter ; 
 but while Sir Robert Morse, who considered 
 the interests of the chase as sacred as Sir Mark 
 Milman appeared to regard the catarrhs and 
 tea and toast of private life, was attempting to 
 explain to her that he was an old Meltonian, — 
 incapable of seceding from his party even to be 
 Premier of the Quorn, or the Pytchley, her 
 ear was struck by the name of her cousin Lady
 
 138 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Mary Trevelyan, uttered in the dry nasal twang 
 of Mr, Broughley. 
 
 " Then you did not see my niece during your 
 stay at Rome V — Lady Olivia was inquiring. 
 
 " Lord Trevelyan was at his villa at Vico- 
 Varo during the whole period of my visit ; and 
 your ladyship will admit that the attractions of 
 the eternal city do not allow so much force to 
 the claims of friendship, as will sanction the 
 sacrifice of a morning to a country visit." 
 
 *^ A morning ? — a mere three hours' drive ! — 
 I recollect the first time I visited Horace's 
 Villa, I took the Archigymnasium della Sapienza 
 on my w^ay ; and ran through the gallery of the 
 Palazzo Ruspoli on my return."— 
 
 " Persons of inquiring minds," said Broughley, 
 with the downcast lids of ' pride which apes 
 humility,', *' cannot allow themselves to be 
 deluded with such cursory impressions as may 
 content the superficial investigations of the 
 female, the sciolist, and the tyro." 
 
 Now there was nothing so revolting to the 
 feelings of Lady Olivia Tadcaster as to be termed
 
 PIN MONEY. 139 
 
 even inferentially '^ a female^\ — a name she 
 estimated as only worthy to designate a dairy- 
 maid, a milliner's apprentice, or the gentler sex of 
 the cynocephalous species ; — she was willing at 
 all times to take her stand in any lists for the 
 equality of the sexes, and the prerogative of the 
 petticoat, which she considered disparaged by 
 such contemptuous mention. On the present 
 occasion, her ladyship contented herself with a 
 retort i//z-courteous. 
 
 *' Well, I must own I wish you had ex- 
 tended your superficial observations to the 
 beauty of my niece. Although Lady Mary 
 Trevelyan may not make so imposing a head 
 for one of the chapters of your tour as some 
 pipkin from Pompeii, or gridiron from Girgenti, 
 yet the attractions of her own are described 
 as worthy the notice of all eyes less erudite 
 than those of an F.A.S. One of the Trecentisti 
 has written three hundred and sixty-five son- 
 nets in her honour j and RanzikofF, Thorwald- 
 sen's favourite scholar, took a model of her 
 countenance for that of the mother of the 
 Maccabees in his celebrated group."
 
 140 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " Indeed ! Have I your ladyship's permis- 
 sion to record those circumstances in my Essay 
 upon the ^ Progress of Art in Modern Rome?' 
 I am under an engagement to offer copies to 
 the Pope, and several Illustrissimi ; and I am 
 anxious that no important local anecdote should 
 be omitted." 
 
 " I will write and ask my brother's leave ; 
 Prince Culminato sets off for Naples next week, 
 and will think himself fortunate to be made 
 the bearer of a letter which may serve as his 
 credentials to Vico-Varo." 
 
 '' Under your ladyship's correction," said the 
 Universal Traveller, " I fear that such a mis- 
 sion would prove a severe disappointment to 
 our young friend Prince Culminato. The other 
 day, on my return through Munich, I perceived 
 Lord Trevelyan's courier at the gate of the 
 Schwarze Adler; — I understood his lordship to 
 be on a visit at Tegernsee." 
 
 " Very strange ! — very extraordinary ! " cried 
 Lady Olivia, pushing away an untouched plate 
 offromage plombitre, " Lady Launceston, my 
 dear, when did you hear from Trevely^n ? — Mr.
 
 PIN MONEY. 141 
 
 Broughley persists that he saw him the other 
 day in Bavaria ; — as if it were a possible thing 
 for my brother to breathe on the wrong side of 
 the Alps ! " 
 
 " Ah ! you are but imperfectly aware, my 
 dear sister, of the advantage Trevelyan has 
 derived from that little prescription of Sir 
 Antony's which I forwarded to him last year. 
 Indeed I have very little doubt that if he 
 would consent to confine himself to the regimen 
 of biscuit-powder and goat's whey, he might 
 get through a winter at Trevelyan Castle with- 
 out much difficulty." 
 
 " Between ourselves, the only reason his 
 health is so much better in Italy," mur- 
 mured Lady Olivia to Broughley, " is from 
 being there beyond the reach of my sister 
 Launceston's nostrums and charlatanism. But 
 what was the date of your last letter, Sophy?" 
 
 " I declare I have forgotten! — I think it 
 must have been Parma; for I remember feel- 
 ing very apprehensive he might be tempted 
 to try that odious indigestive cheese ; and I 
 know I received it somewhere about March — •
 
 142 PIN MONEY. 
 
 for it was at the time my eyes were suffering 
 ther annual agonies from the east wind. Miss 
 Elbany, my dear, when did I hear last from 
 my brother Trevelyan ? " 
 
 " I read you a letter from his lordship soon 
 after my arrival, — and I have been with your 
 ladyship six weeks," answered the companion, 
 who instantly returned to her persiflage with 
 Sir Mark Milman ; — while Frederica mentally 
 echoed — " Six weeks ! — only six weeks, and 
 mamma already calls her ' my dear ! ' — reading 
 all the family correspondence, too — including 
 no doubt mine and my brother's. I shall cer- 
 tainly write and give my cousin Mary a hint." 
 
 <^ A very singular person that Lady Mary 
 Trevelyan ! " said Mrs. Woodington mincingly, 
 but loud enough to be heard by Lord Laun- 
 ceston; who she was aware had been united 
 in his childhood, by a sort of tacit betrothment, 
 to his wealthy cousin. 
 
 "Indeed!" cried his lordship, obedient to 
 the spur. " In what way? — is she blue — or 
 pink — or evangelical? — a flirt, a saint, or a 
 pricieuse?**
 
 PIN MONEY. 143 
 
 " Every thing by turns, — and nothing long," 
 said Broughley, pedantically. 
 
 '' We will not be so severe as to pronounce 
 her either saint or flirt/' said Mrs. Woodington, 
 charmed to have attracted his lordship's atten- 
 tion to her own radiant little person. " But 
 when I was at Rome two winters ago, nothing 
 was talked of but the feats of Lady Mary Tre- 
 velyan ; — her exploring expeditions in Apulia, 
 where the whole party remained on horseback 
 from sunrise to sunset ; — and her cruises in her 
 own yacht among the Greek islands." 
 
 " I conclude my cousin is fond of riding and 
 sailing, — no uncommon taste!" said Frederica, 
 dryly. 
 
 " Oh ! certainly," said Mrs. Woodington, in 
 a deprecating tone, " certainly ! — I am far from 
 wishing to cast any imputation on Lady 
 Mary; — only it was considered to argue very 
 unusual — courage — on the part of a young and 
 beautiful woman, to defend her father, pistol in 
 hand, when they were surrounded by banditti 
 among the ruins of Paestum ; and to command
 
 144 PIN MONEY. 
 
 the manoeuvres of her yacht when they were 
 chased by an Algerine at Lepanto." 
 
 " Admirable courage, indeed ! '* said Frede- 
 rica, warming in defence of her cousin. '' Cou- 
 rage, both moral and physical." 
 
 " What a horrid Amazon,'' observed Miss 
 Elbany, sneeringly, to Colonel Rhyse ; "worse 
 than the maid of Saragossa." 
 
 " A pretty prospect for poor Launceston ! " 
 answered the colonel, in the same confidential 
 undertone. "When he breaks off his enoaoe- 
 ment with this ferocious beauty, — as he cer- 
 tainly will, — she will probably tell him to name 
 his place and weapons, and bring him to book 
 for his desertion." 
 
 " But do you think Lord Launceston will 
 break off the engagement ? " said the artful 
 Companion, while a glance of triumph irra- 
 diated her large dark eyes. 
 
 " fa depend!" observed Colonel Rhyse, in a 
 voice both lower and more significant; — 50 sig- 
 nificant, indeed, that it brought a deep blush 
 to the cheeks of the designing Miss Elbany.
 
 PIN MONEY. 145 
 
 " There certainly were many strange stories 
 concerning Lady Mary. Trevelyan floating in 
 society at Rome last winter/' observed Brough- 
 ley, with a tone of authentication. 
 
 " Lies ! — I will answer for it ! " cried Sir 
 Mark Milman. ^^ All the stories which j^oa^ 
 in society are lies : — scum always rises to the 
 surface." 
 
 " As for instance," continued the traveller, 
 without noticino; the indisrnant vehemence of 
 the worthy country-gentleman opposite, *'the 
 epigrams which made their appearance last 
 year, in the hands of Pasquin and Marforio, 
 were traced by their witty causticity to the 
 invention of Lord Trevelyan's daughter. It 
 was even surmised that his holiness had seen 
 fit to speak to the Hanoverian ambassador on 
 the subject." 
 
 "Lies again !" said Sir Mark, angrily. "The 
 pope knows better than to provoke the British 
 parliament by an insult offered to a British 
 peer, through the means of such a piece of gilt 
 gingerbread as a Hanoverian resident. The 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 PIN MONEY. 
 
 epigrams were doubtless the production of some 
 notary's clerk of the apostolic chamber." 
 
 " I can assure you, Sir Mark, that suspicion 
 pointed very decidedly at Lady Mary.'' 
 
 '' Suspicion, Sir, is a dirty cur, — and makes 
 many a false point." 
 
 " The position of my cousin Mary," said 
 Frederica, with feeling and spirit, " is one 
 which ought to incline the world very indul- 
 gently towards her; — she lost her mother 
 during her infancy, — and has ever since been 
 the spoiled child and constant companion of a 
 father, who is not only a decided humourist, 
 but sufficiently independent to gratify all her 
 whims and fancies, and his own. Lady Mary 
 is young, beautiful, brilliantly accomplished, 
 flattered, followed, and laughed at." 
 
 '^ Pardon me ! Lady Rawleigh, not laughed 
 at ! " said Mrs. Woodington. 
 
 " Wept over, then, by the hypocritical ! " 
 
 '^ My dear Fred. ! you are quite eloquent ! " 
 cried Lord Launceston, greatly amused by her 
 vehement defence of a cousin whom she had
 
 PIN MONEY. 147 
 
 not seen for fifteen years. " You appear inclined 
 to fight under Mary Trevelyan's banners." 
 
 " I should have no fear of enlisting, from 
 any thing I have yet heard concerning her ; I 
 know my cousin, from good authority, to be a 
 fine generous creature, incapable of a bad ac- 
 tion ; and if a little headstrong, and prodi- 
 giously ignorant or contemptuous of the usages 
 of the world, I have no doubt she will find 
 abundance of friends eager to forgive such sins, 
 in favour of ten thousand a-year, and the 
 handsomest face in Europe." 
 
 "Hear, hear!" cried Lord Launceston, se- 
 cretly nettled by the ardour with which his 
 sister embraced the cause of a relative, to whom 
 he was conscious of having behaved unhand- 
 somely. Even before his acquaintance with 
 Leonora, his lordship had secretly decided 
 against the fulfilment of an engagement formed 
 by his parents in his infancy without his con- 
 currence; and his projected marriage with Miss 
 Waddlestone now appeared to render an ex- 
 planation of his intentions more peremptory 
 til an ever. 
 
 H 2
 
 148 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " It is a melancholy thing," said Countess 
 Ronthorst, dropping little dice of pine-apple 
 into a glass of old Madeira, "when young 
 women of Lady Mary's rank in life forget what 
 is due to themselves and their families ; — doh^t 
 you think so, Lord Launceston ? " 
 
 " Perhaps," observed Lady Lavinia Lisle, in 
 a querimonious voice, " perhaps this misguided 
 young creature may be suffering from some 
 disappointment of the affections; — don't you 
 think so. Lord Launceston?" And without 
 being at all aware of the origin of the confusion 
 now visible in his countenance, she cast a look 
 of timid sensibility on her own skinny fore- 
 finger; — saddled with a lozenge-shaped ring 
 of the size of a tombstone, behind whose glass 
 was braided a lock of hair from the military 
 queue of the martyred hero of the American 
 war; with a flourishing E. B. in diamond sparks, 
 forming the obituary record of Captain Edward 
 Boddingbury — the beloved victim of Bunker's 
 Hill ! 
 
 " Changeons d'entretien/' whispered Frede- 
 rica to her neighbour, Sir Robert Morse ; '^ the
 
 PIN MONEY. 149 
 
 character of poor Lady Mary has been quite 
 sufficiently anatomized/' 
 
 Now Sir Robert possessed only one intel- 
 lectual treasury on which he could draw at 
 sight — the stables! — He was one of that nu- 
 merous class of well-educated Englishmen who 
 devote their whole existence to an inferior ani- 
 mal; — and although too gentlemanly in his 
 habits to emulate the jargon and costume by 
 which certain noble youths assimilate them- 
 selves with their own jockeys, a horse was at 
 all times the thing uppermost in his thoughts. 
 
 " You don't ride this year, Lady Raw- 
 leigh ? " said he, on the spur of the moment. 
 " I have not seen you in the park once this 
 season." 
 
 " I left my horse in Warwickshire, and Sir 
 Brooke has not one which would carry a lady." 
 
 " Have you nothing fit for Lady Rawleigh V* 
 inquired Sir Robert of Lord Launceston. 
 
 " I am sorry to say I have nothing fit for any 
 one. My stud is at a miserably low ebb," said 
 his Lordship. " I sold off every thing last
 
 150 PIN MONEY. 
 
 summer except my hunters. But Fred., why 
 did you not bring up your own mare? — she suits 
 you perfectly." 
 
 '^ Yes ! and she suited you so perfectly to go 
 to cover when you were at Rawleighford, that 
 old John would not hear of my bringing her 
 to town; poor Jessy has been turned out to 
 recruit." 
 
 " What have you done with that half-bred 
 Arabian which Lady Rawleigh used sometimes 
 to ride before her marriage ? " persisted Sir 
 Robert to his friend. " That was the most 
 complete thing for a lady I ever saw\" 
 
 " Oh ! I wish I had never parted with him," 
 said Lord Launceston. '' He went on& black 
 morning, in the general turn out, to TattersalFs. 
 — By the way, Mrs. Woodington, I think I saw 
 you riding Mameluke the other morning?" 
 
 " It was lent me by my friend, Admiral 
 Manningtree," replied the widow, delighted to 
 be noticed by Lord Launceston, even on account 
 of her horse. " He wishes to part with it, as 
 being too slight to carry his weight ; and I shall
 
 PIN MONEY. 151 
 
 be only too happy to wave my claims in favour 
 of Lady Rawleigh, should you wish to make 
 the purchase.'' 
 
 " How say you, Frederica, — -if I buy Mame- 
 luke, will you ride him again V* 
 
 " Certainly not ; — he would be a very useless 
 horse to you : and you are not well provided for 
 yourself just now." 
 
 " Well, then, since you are so punctilious, 
 shall I recommend him to Rawleigh ? " 
 
 " Still less ! — Sir Brooke purchased Jessy 
 for me only last autumn." 
 
 *' One would think that matrimony had 
 
 caused a total revolution in your taste," ob- 
 served Sir Robert Morse, " so fond as you al- 
 ways were of riding ! " 
 
 " Fred, used to be as determined a centauress 
 as Lady Mary Trevelyan," observed her brother ; 
 " and I really never saw the ride so full as it 
 is this year; — it is the only place for meeting 
 every body." 
 
 " Who are those handsome girls on white 
 ponies with whom I met Sir Brooke Rawleigh
 
 152 PIN MONEY, 
 
 yesterday morning?" inquired Sir Mark Mil- 
 man of Frederica. 
 
 " I really do not know — I have not been in 
 the park this year." 
 
 " By Jove, I do believe Rawleigh was cunning 
 enough to put that whim about Jessy into old 
 John's head," said Lord Launceston, laughing, 
 " in order that he may keep the park to him- 
 self; for positively she was not out with me 
 half-a-dozen times, and is strong enough for 
 twice my weight." 
 
 " Then by ail means evade being a dupe 
 by countermining the plot," whispered Sir 
 Robert to Frederica. " Give your sanction to 
 Launceston to make Mameluke his own again ; 
 — believe me, nothing avails to counterbalance 
 the injurious effects of a London life like a 
 canter every morning." 
 
 " Or if you are too proud to ride your bro- 
 ther's horse, my dear niece," said Lady Olivia 
 Tadcaster, delighted at the notion of a deal of any 
 kind, " what can you do better with that little 
 bag of sovereigns I found yesterday morning on
 
 PIN MONEY. 153 
 
 your dressing-table, than indulge in a favourite 
 recreation ? " 
 
 Now this little bag of sovereigns happened to 
 contain the destined price of the marble foun- 
 tain which was yet incomplete ; but Frederica 
 knew she had three hundred pounds of her 
 pin money lying untouched in the hands of 
 Mr. Ruggs, of which only one was bespoken 
 for the Opera; and began to reflect that it 
 would be impossible to appropriate it more to 
 her personal satisfaction than in the purchase 
 of her favourite horse. Besides, she had very 
 little doubt that the handsome girls on the 
 white ponies were the Mapleberrys, under the 
 chaperonage of the odious Lady Lotus. 
 
 " What did Admiral Manningtree ask ? " in- 
 quired Lady Olivia of her friend. 
 
 " A hundred guineas." 
 
 " And I originally bought him for two hun- 
 dred and fifty ! '' exclaimed Lord Launceston. 
 
 " I suspect," said the managing little Mrs. 
 Woodington, who with all her finery was not 
 superior to the feminine spirit of a bargain, " I 
 suspect the admiral would be glad to part with 
 
 H 3
 
 154 PIN MONEY. 
 
 him for eighty. It is his daughter's favourite 
 horse; and as she is going abroad to die at Nice 
 and can have no further occasion for it, it will 
 only be an incumbrance to the admiral. I dare 
 say he will let it go cheap." 
 
 ''Poor Miss Manningtree ! " sighed Lady La- 
 vinia Lisle — '' she has never got over that dis- 
 appointment about Lord Putney. She is in a 
 deep decline." 
 
 " Unless she has infected Mameluke, that is 
 not our affair/' said Sir Robert Morse, as the 
 ladies rose to leave the dining-room, and he had 
 the happiness of diving under the table for Lady 
 Rawleigh's handkerchief. " Well ! — does your 
 ladyship authorize Launceston to make the 
 purchase ? " 
 
 " Inquire about it for me," said Frederica to 
 her brother, whose attention was riveted on 
 the figure of Lucy Elbany drawing on her 
 gloves. 
 
 " I will let you know to morrow," was his 
 vague reply, as his sister turned into the hall.
 
 PIN MONEY. 155 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Thereby so fearlesse and so fell he grew. 
 
 That his own wjfe and mistress of his guise 
 Did often tremble at his horrid view. 
 
 SrENSER. 
 
 When Frederica returned to Bruton-street, 
 where she found her husband extended upon' 
 the sofa in all the martyrdom of indigestion 
 proceeding from the crudities of Mr. Lexley's 
 feast, she had so much to relate touching the 
 diverting little artifices of Mrs. Woodington, 
 and the blindness of her mother to Miss 
 Elbany's designs on the thoughtless Laun- 
 ceston, that her own upon Admiral Manning- 
 tree's stables were quite forgotten. She had to 
 complain that, with a very slight preface of
 
 156 PIN MONEY. 
 
 apology to herself, her brother had insisted 
 on sending to Bruton-street for her harp, in 
 order that the Companion might indulge her 
 own vanity and his lordship's request, by an 
 exhibition of her musical talents. 
 
 '^ I wish Martin had mentioned it to me w^hen 
 I came in," said Sir Brooke, starting from his 
 recumbent position. 
 
 " Oh ! all interference would then have been 
 useless; Miss Lucy had given us half-a-dozen 
 sonatas before eleven o'clock." 
 
 " Of course ;— but if I had known there was 
 to be music, I would have put on my hat again, 
 and looked in at your mother's. Conceiving 
 there would be nothing better than Lady 
 Olivia and the whist-table, I laid myself down 
 here, and went to sleep till I heard the carriage 
 stop." 
 
 *' Your wife and the rest of the party in 
 Charles-street are much obliged to you." 
 
 '^ And how does Miss Elbany play ? — like a 
 country Miss, I suppose, with more vehemence 
 than measure ! — But she must make a splendid 
 figure at the harp"? "
 
 PIN MONEY". 157 
 
 " Very much like that colossal statue of 
 Melpomene, whose head used to reach the 
 rafters in the King's-mews ! — But I must do 
 her the justice to say that I never heard a 
 more accomplished musician, nor beheld such 
 complete mastery of the instrument combined 
 with so much exquisite musical feeling; — the 
 whole thing was perfection." 
 
 " Do let your harp remain in Charles-street, 
 Frederica ! — I should like of all things to hear 
 her," said Sir Brooke, deceived by the candour 
 of his wife into forgetting her little previous 
 jealous pique against her mother's companion. 
 " Whenever you want to practise, it will be 
 just as easy for you to play there as at home, 
 — it will remind you of old times.'' 
 
 " I have not the least desire to expose my 
 incapacity by contrasting my performances 
 with those of Miss Elbany, who was doubtless 
 educated for a public performer; but I cer- 
 tainly would comply with your request in that 
 lady's favour, were 1 not alive to the danger 
 of increasing her attractions in my brother's 
 eyes."
 
 158 PIN money; 
 
 " What can be the harm of making his 
 mornings in Charles-stre'et pass a little more 
 agreeably? — l^ow you are gone, he must find 
 his visits to his mother hang very heavily on 
 his hands ; and yet you know Lady Launceston 
 would be very much mortified to find their 
 duration curtailed." 
 
 " Perhaps so ; — ^but I have reason to believe 
 that William is under an engagement in another 
 quarter, which renders his attentions to Miss 
 Elbany rather offensive than perilous to him- 
 self; in short, his conduct towards her argues 
 a degree of heartless levity, which ought to find 
 some more becoming spot for its indulgence 
 than my mother's roof." 
 
 " My pretty little moralist, — my dear mag- 
 nanimous Reformer !" cried Sir Brooke, in 
 a tone of gaiety which betrayed the lingering 
 effects of the second bottle of Mr. Lexley's 
 ropy sherry, " you shall have it exactly as 
 you please ! — You shall send back the carriage 
 for the harp this very moment, if it suit you ; 
 and as soon as I am in the House, you 
 shall write me an oratorical burst of indig-
 
 PIN MONEY. 159 
 
 nation respecting military punishments, or the 
 slave trade. — These little severities sit so be- 
 comingly on your lips !" 
 
 But on the morrow, it became the turn of 
 Rawleigh to play the censor. Before Frederica 
 had finished her bantam's egg, Sir Brooke 
 quitted the breakfast-table to communicate, in 
 lengthy epistle to his factotum, the approach- 
 ing change in his situation ; trusting that the 
 prospect of receiving his future letters post- 
 free, might blind that narrow calculator to 
 the painful necessity of booking up to an imme- 
 diate and considerable amount. But just as he 
 had entangled himself in the middle of a very 
 long and inconclusive sentence, — having as 
 many limbs as Briareus which the baronet was 
 vainly attempting to fetter by the manacle 
 of a full stop, — the sound of another species 
 of full stop in the street below startled him 
 from the writing-table; when, looking from 
 the window, he perceived Lord Launceston 
 resigning the rein of a showy Arabian horse, 
 from which he had just dismounted, to a 
 footman holding a breakfast napkin in his
 
 160 TIN MONEY. 
 
 hand; and while his brother-in-law flew up 
 stairs, Sir Brooke was chafing with all the 
 irritation of equestrian sympathy, on beholding 
 Mr. Thomas jerking the snaffle in its deli- 
 cate mouth as if he were handling a jack- 
 chain. 
 
 " My dear fellow !" cried he, as Lord Laun- 
 ceston burst into the room, " what can tempt 
 you to confide that fine horse to a man — " 
 
 " Who passes his days in caning a clothes- 
 horse ? — Because it is not mine. Mameluke is 
 the property of your lady wife ; — so away with 
 your eggshell, Fred., and write me a draft for 
 eighty pounds upon your Mr. Ruggs or Muggs, 
 or whatever his name may be, in favour of Ad- 
 miral Manningtree. I have not a moment — 
 make haste — I must ride him round to your 
 stables, or we shall have Thomas putting his 
 head in the dry-toast rack.'* ., 
 
 "What is all this?" said Sir Brooke, as 
 Frederica calmly took his Bramah's stick from 
 his hands to comply with her brother's invita- 
 tion. " You surely do not mean that Lady 
 Rawleigh has bought that horse ?"
 
 PIN MONEY. 161 
 
 " No, I bought him, — but Fred, pays for 
 him. She was afflicted with a fit of heroism 
 last night, and by way of acquainting the party 
 in Charles-street with the disordered state of 
 my finances, refused me the pleasure of pur- 
 chasing Mameluke on my own account for her 
 service." 
 
 " Why should you encumber yourself with a 
 horse which must be perfectly useless to you?" 
 said Frederica; proceeding to write her order 
 on Mr. Ruggs, without any suspicion of her 
 husband's surprise and vexation at a measure, 
 which he conceived to have been purposely 
 effected without his knowledge. 
 
 " By Heavens ! — I have just found it out !'* 
 cried Lord Launceston, flourishing his whip in 
 a manner extremely perilous to the tables of 
 Dresden china scattered about the room. *' You 
 prevented me from making Mameluke my own, 
 fearing I might sometimes lend him to Miss 
 Elbany, and drive the whole park demented by 
 the sight of her splendid figure in a habit ! — For 
 shame, Fred., for shame ! — how did you know
 
 162 PIN MONEY. 
 
 that I was not anxious to make the purchase for 
 the sake of my own Leonora V* 
 
 " I was anxious only to prevent your throw- 
 ing away money for my sake," replied his 
 sister, quietly tendering him the cheque. " And 
 now go and settle with the Admiral, and place 
 poor dear Mameluke under the care of Raw- 
 leigh's groom; — I wonder what old John will 
 say to him ?" — 
 
 " That is more," thought Sir Brooke, " than 
 she appears to have wondered concerning her 
 husband ; who is, however, somewhat more in- 
 terested in the affair/' 
 
 " Why should you not ride to-day ?" said 
 Lord Launceston returning from the door, and 
 eao^er to conduce to his sister's amusement." 
 
 " Shall we ride to-day, Rawleigh?" said 
 Frederica. " It promises to be very fine." 
 
 *' I shall be engaged with Mr. Lexley all the 
 afternoon," replied Sir Brooke coldly. 
 
 " Then I will take care of you," cried her 
 brother, — "provided you do not share in the 
 taste of the Miss Mapleberrys for galloping
 
 PIN MONEY. 163 
 
 about the park. I shall be back from Ken- 
 sington Gore by four o'clock ; shall I tell John 
 to bring Mameluke round at that hour?" — 
 
 " Pray do ! " said Lady Rawleigh, " I shall be 
 glad to assure myself by experience, that he has 
 lost nothing of his paces in poor Miss Manning- 
 tree's possession." 
 
 Lord Launceston was off in a minute; and 
 Frederica perceiving that her husband had 
 eagerly returned to his writing, forbore to inter- 
 rupt him by her explanations; but took up "The 
 Undying One," from the sofa, and ran over 
 those exquisite lines — • 
 
 To look upon the fairy one who stands 
 Before you with her young hair's shining hands. 
 And rosy lips half parted ; and to muse 
 Not on the features which you now peruse, 
 Not on the blushing bride, but look beyond 
 Unto the angel wife — nor feel less fond ; — 
 To keep thee but to one — and let that one 
 Be to thy home what warmth is to the sun ; 
 And fondly, firmly, cling to her, nor fear 
 The fading touch of each declining year ; 
 This is true love — when it hath found a rest 
 In the deep home of manhood's faithful breast. 
 
 In this task she v^^as interrupted by the 
 audible energy of Sir Brooke's penmanship !
 
 164 PIN MONEY, 
 
 It appeared to her ears that he was unlucky in 
 sputtering and splitting pens more frequently 
 than she had ever found herself in all her expe- 
 rience of Bramah's defects ; but it never occurred 
 to her that he was in a passion. In about 
 a quarter of an hour, however, he jumped up 
 and rang the bell for a candle to seal his letter. 
 — There are few better criterions of the state of a 
 man's temper, than his mode of ringing the 
 bell; — particularly in a ready furnished house, 
 where they are seldom hung on scientific prin- 
 ciples. — 
 
 Frederica, aware of the delinquencies of the 
 bell-wire, and consequently unsuspicious of her 
 own share in the peal which now rattled in her 
 ears, thought it but an act of justice to Thomas, 
 the bell-rope, and her husband, to remind him 
 that he would find a taper and phosphoric 
 matches on her writing-table ; and Sir Brooke, 
 who was firmly persuaded that his irritation had 
 not escaped her attention, regarded this species 
 of reproof only as an aggravation of her oifence. 
 He was obliged however to profit by the sugges- 
 tion, and inform Thomas, on his panting arrival.
 
 PIN MONEY. 165 
 
 that *^ nothing was wanted ;" and while the foot- 
 man retreated, congratulating himself that the 
 house was not on fire, nor his lady in a fainting 
 fit, a match whizzed in the or-moulu vase, the 
 pungent fumes of the phosphorus tingled the 
 nose of the unlucky Rawleigh, and the little 
 taper started into light ! , 
 
 A still more perplexing trial awaits an angry 
 man in sealing a letter ! — Absent and tremulous, 
 he is sure to burn his finders ; — and this is 
 exactly what chanced to Sir Brooke. The 
 pain was exquisite; and elicited so vivacious 
 an apostrophe to the sealing-wax, that Frede- 
 rica laid down her book with amazement. 
 
 " My dear Rawleigh, have you burnt your- 
 self?" she inquired with startled solicitude. 
 
 The reply of Sir Brooke need not be 
 recorded; it was comprehended in that very 
 reprehensible adverb which is reported by Lord 
 Byron to have been the cause of his first con- 
 jugal quarrel, as a reply to her ladyship's in- 
 quiry — (probably at some moment equally pro- 
 pitious with that of poor Frederica) — " whe- 
 ther she bored him ? " Lady Rawleigh, if less
 
 166 PIN MONEY. 
 
 implacably offended, was deeply hurt by so 
 harsh a breach of respect towards herself; but 
 concluding that her husband would apologize 
 when the smart abated, she uttered not a 
 syllable of remonstrance. 
 
 It is rather surprising that, being herself 
 endued with that slight touch of jealousy 
 which is inseparable from a quick sensi- 
 bility. Lady Rawleigh should have remained 
 completely blind to the existence of a similar 
 feeling on the part of her husband. No 
 man could be more purely and affectionately 
 devoted to a woman — to a wife — than Sir 
 Brooke to herself. But, unfortunately, he 
 had passed half-a-dozen seasons in London 
 prior to his marriage ; where the adventures 
 in which he beheld certain of his young com- 
 panions engaged, and which had more than 
 once tempted his own steadiness of moral cha- 
 racter somewhat out of the perpendicular, per- 
 plexed him with a painful conviction of the 
 levity of womankind, which was in fact the 
 origin of his deliberation in tendering his pro- 
 posals to Miss Rawdon. He had perfect con-
 
 PIN MONEY. 167 
 
 4 
 
 fidence in Frederica ; — he knew Lady Launces- 
 ton to be a very worthy woman, who had 
 educated her daughter in the strict principles 
 of the old school ; — but he did not feel himself 
 the less imperatively bound to preserve the 
 flower thus delicately reared and nurtured from 
 the pollutions of the world. In uniting him- 
 self with the fair and gentle Frederica Rawdon, 
 he had uttered a secret vow to secure his wife 
 as far as the conventions of society would ad- 
 mit, from the profanation of libertine approach, 
 and the contagion of frivolous companionship. 
 
 It was this very strictness of principle which 
 in the first instance suggested his objections 
 against pin money, as a pernicious ministrant 
 to feminine independence; and which origin- 
 ated his disinclination for the opera-box, — where 
 he saw she must be exposed to the contact 
 of all Mrs. William Erskyne's train of ad- 
 mirers, — nay! perhaps of her own. He knew 
 that she was too lovely not to be courted and 
 followed; — and feared she was too guilelessly 
 unsuspecting, not to give unintentional encou- 
 ragement to this species of adulation I
 
 168 PIN MONEY. 
 
 But above all, his desire to retain the beauty 
 of his bride for his own adoration, and her 
 society for his own enjoyment, had been the 
 sole cause of Jessy's condemnation to an idle 
 spring in the Rawleighford meadows. Sir 
 Brooke was fully aware that of all the oppor- 
 tunities afforded to flirtation, a side-saddle is 
 the most propitious ; that in the hilarity of the 
 open air, the approach to familiarity is dan- 
 gerously easy; that a thousand things are said, 
 and heard, and smiled at in the publicity of a 
 morning ride, which would be resented in the 
 domestic privacy of home; and recalling to 
 mind the extreme passion of almost every 
 giddy woman of his acquaintance for exhibit- 
 ing herself on horseback in London, he judged 
 it prudent to give his hint to the old groom. 
 
 Now although perfectly satisfied that this 
 hint had never indirectly reached his wife, 
 he could not help persuading himself that Fre- 
 derica was — or at least should or might have 
 been^— suspicious of his peculiar views on the 
 subject; and he was now of opinion that the 
 submissive acquiescence with which she re-
 
 PIN MONEY. 169 
 
 ceived his sentence on her favourite mare, had 
 arisen from a pre- determination to avail herself 
 of the facilities afforded by her pin money to 
 add artifice to defiance, and secure her daily- 
 exhibition in the park. He conceived himself 
 to have been ungenerously used, both by Lord 
 Launceston and his sister; and this second 
 offence of her financial independence excited 
 such a tumult of vexation in his heart, that 
 the corrosion of the burning sealing-wax ap- 
 plied to his little finger, was by no means neces- 
 sary to torture forth from his lips the unbe- 
 coming adverb already implied. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, meanwhile, was wholly un- 
 conscious of the train leading to the mine 
 which had thus abruptly exploded ; and the 
 major and the minor of his provocations having 
 been unuttered, the conclusion assumed a most 
 inexplicable tone of violence in her ears. She 
 had as little suspicion that Rawleigh was 
 jealous, as that she wasjealous herself; and till 
 his disorder should assume the form of nervous 
 headaches, there appeared no probability that 
 her mind would become further enlightened. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 TIN MONEY. 
 
 Even when — the monumental blister of his 
 burn having duly made its appearance, and 
 given the sealing-wax and his anger ample 
 leisure to cool, — he deliberately stalked out of 
 the room with Ruggs's letter in his hand; — 
 even when, after a rattling in the stick and 
 umbrella stand in the hall, she heard the street 
 door slammed, manifestly without the interven- 
 tion of her well-trained and well-practised 
 domestics, — she never for a moment conjec- 
 tured that herself or her doings had any 
 share in the unwonted distemperature of mood 
 which tempted Sir Brooke, for the first time 
 since her marriage, to quit the house without 
 bidding her good-bye ! 
 
 " How I hate him to have any intercourse with 
 that pragmatical Ruggs ! " murmured Frederica, 
 patiently resuming her volume. " Men are always 
 out of sorts after a communication with their 
 bailiff, or an investigation of their banker's book. 
 And then he is so much interested and occupied 
 with this negotiation with Mr. Lexley; — and 
 should it succeed, his time will be so wretch- 
 edly engrossed by his parliamentary duties ! —
 
 PIN MONEY. 171 
 
 Ah ! I foresee I shall not have half so pleasant 
 a spring as I expected ; — for that impertinent 
 companion in Charles-street will prevent me from 
 consoling myself by passing the time of his 
 absence with mamma ! — I dare say Rawleigh 
 is only gone to his club, and did not think it 
 necessary to take leave of me for that half 
 hour ? — But then surely he said something of 
 passing the day with Mr. Lexley? — So that 
 perhaps he may go round to the stables for his 
 horse, after he has read the newspapers, with- 
 out coming home at all ! — How very provoking! 
 — All the pleasure of my first ride will be lost, 
 unless I see dear Rawleigh for a minute or two 
 before we set off." 
 
 It may be observed, on occasions of dis- 
 agreement in wedded life, that where a quarrel 
 has not exactly declared itself, or a state of hos- 
 tility sent forth its gauntlet of defiance, a species 
 of uneasy consciousness forewarns the pacific 
 party that something is wrong. Like the in- 
 habitants of a volcanic region, they hear strange 
 noises in the air, and mysterious sounds in the 
 
 I 2
 
 172 PIN MONEY. 
 
 earth, unnoticed of every casual passenger, but 
 prophetic of an eruption. 
 
 Between the breakfast hour, accordingly, 
 and that appointed for her ride. Lady Ravvleigh 
 endured a prolonged martyrdom of suspense ; 
 and it appeared to her as if every creature of 
 her acquaintance had entered into a combina- 
 tion against her peace. A host of early morn- 
 ing visitors seemed to league itself for her 
 torment. Lady Olivia Tad caster first made 
 her appearance with a large roll in her hand re- 
 sembling that of a paperhanger; containing 
 patterns from Besford's of garlands which 
 were to be embroidered on a coiivre pied, 
 nominally by her ladyship's own hands, but 
 virtually by those of every idle victim she could 
 manage to recruit into the service. — While 
 Frederica was listening with the most anxious 
 attention for her husband's knock,' — or, as the 
 street door would probably remain open for the 
 amusement of Lady Olivia's servants, so that 
 he might enter unobserved, — for the creak- 
 ing of the floor of his dressing-room above,
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 173 
 
 her indefatigable aunt persisted in rolling and 
 unrolling these crackUng papers, the music of 
 which mio-ht have served for a shower of hail 
 at a minor theatre !— Unless the person of Sir 
 Brooke had emulated the ponderosity of poor 
 Chuny, there could be no hope that the yield- 
 ing boards above would produce an echo ca- 
 pable of drowning the united efforts of Lady 
 Ohvia's tongue, and Lady Olivia's rattUng 
 peals of thunder. 
 
 Before her ladyship's choice had been fully 
 decided between the comparative facilities 
 afforded to the needle by the sinuosities of the 
 olive-branch, and the serrated leaves of the 
 fern, Lady Lawford — perceiving by the equi- 
 page standing at the door, that Frederica 
 was at home to morning visitors — took the op- 
 portunity of bestowing upon her a visitation as 
 long, as tedious, and as unprofitable, as if it 
 had been paid at Rawleighford on a misty 
 morning: in November; and whereas in War- 
 wickshire, she never descanted on any but 
 London topics, — fashion, scandal, and dissi- 
 pation, — in Bruton-street she judged it more
 
 174 PIN MONEY. 
 
 effective to enlarge upon her new dairy, and 
 the spinning prizes and bobbin-lace prizes 
 she had recently instituted in her own village. 
 While she was favouring them with recitals 
 and hints of her beneficent anti-pauperic plans, 
 which would really have talked well in Parlia- 
 ment, and which had only the demerit of being 
 incapable of fulfilment in any country less 
 loosely legislated than Cochin-China, Lady 
 Olivia occasionally interpolated a suggestion of 
 ■fxmelioration, borrowed from the experience of her 
 travels ; — sometimes from an ospidaletto at An- 
 cona, — sometimes from a Spinn-haus at Haer- 
 lem. These ladies talked and argued, as argu- 
 mentative ladies are apt to do, — simultaneously; 
 while Fred erica had to support the martyrdom 
 of hearing knocks at the door fired off like 
 minute guns, — without venturing such a breach 
 of decorum as to ring and inquire the names of 
 her ceremonious visitors, and deafened by her 
 vociferous companions beyond the power of dis- 
 tinguishing her husband's knock. Bull indeed, 
 must be the feminine ear which does not speedily 
 acquire that auricular instinct ! — but alas ! what
 
 PIN MONEY. 175 
 
 instinct may avail amidst the din of an oil-mill, 
 — or the rhetorical dispute of two female Utili- 
 tarians, in the healthy maturity of their lungs ! 
 At length, to her infinite joy, Lady Law- 
 ford, with her cheek bleached, and her nose 
 reddened by suppressed anger, — for Lady 
 Olivia had out-talked her, as she would have 
 done O 'Kelly's parrot which chattered inces- 
 santly for one hundred years, — rose to depart. 
 But no sooner had her carriage driven away, 
 and the victorious mistress of the field, elated 
 by her success, commenced a long diatribe 
 against the folly of Lady Launceston, in 
 forcing the company of Miss Elbany on her 
 guests, than the door burst open ; and Frede- 
 rica, in the sanguine anticipations of her af- 
 fection, half rose from the sofa, to welcome 
 her husband. — But, alas ! — it was only Mrs. 
 William Erskyne who bounded into the room ! 
 Seizing Lady Rawleigh by the hand, she cast 
 upon her aunt a glance of contemptuous de- 
 testation which would have exterminated any 
 woman of less robust health than Lady 
 Olivia Tadcaster ; — who, regarding her niece's
 
 176 
 
 PIN MONEY. 
 
 flippant friend as a species of gnat, trouble- 
 some in proportion to its insignificance, re- 
 solved to avoid the wing and sting of her insect 
 antagonist by a hasty farewell to Frederica. 
 
 " And novr, my dear," cried Mrs. Erskyne, 
 "now that sempiternal Semiramis in tiffany, 
 your respectable aunt, has taken her depar- 
 ture, — put on your bonnet and come with 
 me, v/ithout asking me why or whither. — Do 
 not look so terrified, child ! — I will not decoy 
 you to a conjuror's or a dentist's, — although 
 I make you my own in spite of your teeth." 
 
 " I am not alarmed,'' replied Frederica, 
 laughing at her mysterious eagerness; " but 
 believe me I cannot be the victim of your des- 
 potism this morning ; I ride with Launceston at 
 four o'clock." 
 
 '' And it is not yet three ! — Surely you do 
 not require more than ten minutes for the ad- 
 justment of your Calypso ?" 
 
 " Not five, I should imagine. But I am 
 waiting for Rawleigh." 
 
 " To walk with you, arm-in-arm, to the Cos- 
 morama, or Macdonald's statues, like the living
 
 PIN MONET. 177 
 
 picture of country cousinhood ? — Fie ! my 
 dear Fred. ! — will you never get rid of your 
 odious provincial habits ?— -You positively de- 
 serve to be painted, framed and glazed, and 
 hung up in the parlour of the Rawleigh arms 
 as a pendant to the gentleman in top-boots, 
 pointing out the nest of two turtle-doves to a 
 lady in yellow shoes and a blue veil, — and 
 ticketed with the pleasing title of Domestic 
 Felicity." 
 
 '' But will you really bring me back in time 
 for my ride V said Lady Rawleigh, without 
 considering to what clause of her friend's argu- 
 ment this disjunctive conjunction attached it- 
 self. 
 
 " Grant me half an hour, and afterwards I 
 am your slave till midnight ;" cried Mrs. 
 Erskyne. 
 
 " Je veux donner une heure aux soins de mon empire, 
 Et le reste du jour tout entier a Zaire." 
 
 Unused to assert her independence, and like 
 most other persons inexperienced in the world 
 peculiarly under the influence of irony, poor 
 
 l3
 
 178 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh found herself quizzed into the 
 necessity of following her friend into the cha- 
 riot waiting at the door. She had however 
 the negative consolation of learning from the 
 butler, in butler phrase, as she passed him in 
 the hall, that Sir Brooke had not " been in/'
 
 PIN MONEY. 179 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The connoisseur takes out his glass to pry 
 Into each picture with a curious ej^e ; 
 Turns topsy-turvy my whole composition. 
 And makes mere portraits all ray exhibition. 
 From various forms, Apelles, Venus drew. 
 So from the million do I copy you : 
 " But still the copy's so exact," you say ; — 
 Alas ! — tlie same thing- happens every day ! 
 
 SAMUEL FOOTE. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh was too well acquainted 
 with the nature of the trivialities as actuating 
 the incidents of Mrs. Erskyne's existence, to 
 expect any very important result from her com- 
 pliance vsdth the request thus peremptorily 
 urged ; — she anticipated the sight of some new 
 vase at Rittener's, some new ribbon at Hard- 
 ing% or some new lithograph at Colnaghi's, as
 
 180 PIN MONEY. 
 
 the utmost object of their expedition. Nor 
 were her calculations very erroneous. 
 
 As they stopped at a private door in Regent- 
 street, Louisa, assuming a smile of mysterious 
 intelligence, exclaimed, " Now you must give 
 me your candid opinion ; — remember, I brought 
 you hither for the benefit of your impartial 
 advice ! — I have no wish to be flattered, Fre- 
 derica; — a woman's flattery always sounds to 
 me as hollow as the Thames-tunnel." 
 
 Extremely puzzled as to^ the nature of the 
 occasion which could render flattery dis- 
 tasteful to a little coquette like Louisa, Lady 
 Rawleigh followed her friend into a small apart- 
 ment; in the centre of which stood an easel 
 covered with a sheet of silver paper. 
 
 " You must give me your sincere opinion as 
 to the likeness,'^ cried Mrs. Erskyne. " I have 
 been sitting to Rochard ; and to-day we are to 
 decide, with the assistance of your better 
 judgment, on the costume. There !" she ex- 
 claimed, drawing the last pin from the sheet, 
 and displaying a half-finished miniature. " Me 
 voila — comme detix gotdtes d'eau!" — when lo !
 
 PIN MONEY. 181 
 
 an exquisite likeness of Miss Lucy Elbany 
 burst upon their astonished eyes ! — 
 
 " How strange ! " cried Frederica. 
 
 " How provoking ! '^ murmured Mrs. Erskyne. 
 
 But in another moment Monsieur Rochard 
 made his appearance, to rescue his property 
 from their inopportune investigation, and to 
 produce the portrait of Louisa from a secret 
 drawer. — With a very clear conscience did Lady 
 Rawleigh assure her friend of the resemblance 
 as well as the exquisite perfection of the perform- 
 ance. It was in fact Mrs. Erskyne herself, — 
 softened by that touch of sentiment so wholly 
 wanting in her own nature, and so seldom want- 
 ing in the graceful portraits of Rochard. 
 
 After an eager discussion of the comparative 
 merits of a fashionable ball-dress, — of a Van- 
 dyke costume, — a Rembrantized pelisse, — an 
 aerial vesture of clouds — and the descriptive 
 attractions of Rebecca, Annot Lyle, Medora, 
 Yarico, a Peri, a Zingana, an Albanian peasant, 
 and a Polish princess, — which left poor Louisa 
 Erskyne doubly perplexed by the multifarious 
 suggestions of her fickle vanity, Frederica ha-
 
 182 PIN MONEY. 
 
 zarded a request for a second glance at the 
 miniature which had occupied the easel on 
 their entrance. But the obliging artist, on an 
 allusion to the subject, became suddenly as 
 mysterious as if he had arrayed himself in the 
 cloudy mantle in which Louisa had been so 
 desirous of enveloping the Iris-like outline of 
 her own portrait. 
 
 " Ah! pardon!" said Monsieur Hochard, 
 with as decided a tone as politeness would allow, 
 " mais cVabord c'est impossible, Ceite jeune 
 dame tient beaucoup au mystere; elle se fait 
 peindre pour offrir une surprise agreable a quel- 
 qu'un de safamille." 
 
 "Of my family, rather!^' thought Lady 
 Rawleigh. 
 
 " But as we do not know the lady," said 
 Mrs. Erskyne, who very seldom entered Lady 
 Launceston's dowager door, and had never seen 
 the Companion, — " we cannot betray her secret. 
 Pray let us look at it again." 
 
 " I do not wonder. Madam, at your eager- 
 ness," said the artist j " for never did so faultless 
 a model present itself to my pencil. But as I
 
 PIN MONEY. 183 
 
 have promised to secure the picture from obser- 
 vation, I am persuaded you will not desire me 
 to betray the confidence reposed in me." 
 
 Louisa, who was far more interested in the 
 successful delineation of her own face than in 
 the charms of the Venus de Medicis herself, 
 readily dismissed the subject; and after some 
 further arguments touching her dress and ap- 
 pointment for the following day, took her 
 leave, and performed her promise of conveying 
 Lady Rawleigh back to Bruton-street, whose 
 attention was now completely engrossed by the 
 mystery of Miss Elbany's sitting for her picture 
 at the cost of thirty guineas. That it was des- 
 tined for Lord Launceston she did not for a 
 moment doubt; and Frederica almost wished 
 she had accepted his oifer touching the pur- 
 chase of Mameluke, when she considered the 
 objects to which he appeared inclined to devote 
 his superfluous cash. The miniature of his 
 mother's beautiful companion could only be 
 valuable in his eyes as a specimen of virtu; 
 and his sister naturally adjudged it to be a very
 
 184 PIN MONEY. 
 
 unbecoming addition to the gallery at Marston 
 Park. 
 
 On reaching home, her first measure was a 
 repetition of her inquiry to Martin, touching 
 the return of Sir Brooke ; in reply to which, she 
 had the vexation of learning that her husband 
 had been at home for a quarter of an hour 
 during her absence. 
 
 " Did he leave any message for me V* 
 
 " No, my lady.'' 
 
 " Did he inquire for me ?" 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 
 " Did he go into the drawing-room, Martin V 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 
 " Did he say whether he dined at home V* 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 
 " Did he order his horse V 
 . "No, my lady." 
 
 " His phaeton?'' 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 But Lady Rawleigh, happening to lift her eyes 
 from the stair-carpet, at this crisis of her cross- 
 examination, perceived that the identical Thomas,
 
 PIN MONEY. 185 
 
 who had so grievously abused the fine mouth of 
 Mameluke during breakfast, was now opening 
 his own to display a row of teeth — resembling a 
 concatenation of milestones — at her expense ; 
 and she was hurrying up stairs to avoid the irri- 
 tation of witnessing his impertinence, when the 
 Jackanapes, descending from his consequential 
 altitude as a standard footman, vouchsafed to 
 volunteer some further information respecting 
 his master's movements. 
 
 ^' Sir Brooke went into the library, my lady? 
 to answer a note ; and I mentioned to him that 
 your ladyship was gone out airing with Mrs. 
 William Erskyne." 
 
 " Did he ask how long I had been gone?" 
 
 " No, my lady/' 
 
 " Did he inquire whether I had left any 
 messao'e?" 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 
 " Did he give no orders then?" 
 
 " No, my lady." 
 
 " Nor say any thing ?" 
 
 '^ Oh ! yes, my lady " —
 
 :,186 PIN MONEY, 
 
 " What did he tell you ?" said Frederica, 
 stopping short on the stairs. 
 
 '^ To shut the door, my lady/^ said the footman, 
 smothering a laugh, — with a persuasion that 
 he had succeeded in mystifying his gentle and 
 indulgent mistress. It was well for Mr. Thomas 
 that Lord Launceston, who a few minutes after- 
 wards was at the door assisting Lady Rawleigh 
 to mount her new purchase, had no suspicion 
 of his insolence ; or the whip which he placed 
 in her hands might have found a more apposite 
 employment than that of tickling the shoulders 
 of Mameluke. 
 
 " Where shall we go V said Lord Launceston. 
 
 " Any where you please," was Frederica's 
 listless reply; — and uttered with better faith 
 than usually dictates that very comprehensive 
 answer. 
 
 " Hyde Park is full of dust and dandies ; and 
 the Regent's, of exhibitions and east wind." 
 
 " Shall we go and see the Hammersmith 
 bridge?" inquired Lady Rawleigh. 
 
 " By all means !" said Lord Launceston, turn-
 
 PIN MONEY, 187 
 
 ins his horse's head in that direction. "Al- 
 though, as my friend Mrs. Waddlestone elegantly 
 observes, we may chance to be smothered in 
 onions among those detestable market gardens 
 at Battersea." 
 
 " I should imagine they were guilty of no- 
 thing less refined than strawberries and aspa- 
 ragus at this season of the year ; and every now 
 and then one is refreshed along that road by 
 the sight of a staring old red brick villa of 
 King William's time, with a cedar or two in 
 the garden, looking as if it had strayed from 
 Mount CarmeP' — 
 
 " Or been planted by the hand of Sir Hans 
 Sloane. I like those comfortable suburban re- 
 treats; they make one fancy that Orpheus has 
 been striking up his country dances in Hanover- 
 square, — beguiled its solid square mansions 
 along the Fulham-road, — and left them scat- 
 tered among plantations of Scotch firs." — 
 
 " Your friends the Waddlestones reside some- 
 where in that neighbourhood ?" said Frederica, 
 by way of affording an opening to her brother's 
 confessions.
 
 188 riN MONEY. 
 
 "Yes! — My father-in-law's soap manufactory 
 stands on the banks of the Thames some- 
 where near Battersea," said his lordship, with 
 the most unembarrassed coolness. " I under- 
 stand that neither tree nor herbage will grow 
 within an acre of its noxious vapours ; and that 
 it is indicted as a parochial nuisance once in six 
 weeks. — A nuisance ? — vile affectation ! — for my 
 part I shall prefer its unctuous exhalations to 
 the sickly aroma of Delcroix's, or of Thevenot's 
 shop. Think, my dear Fred., think how proud 
 you will be when, in washing your fair hands, 
 you detect beneath the intaglio of Windsor- 
 castle on your soap, the names of Waddlestone 
 and Co. ; — or perhaps, of Waddlestone, Laun- 
 ceston, and Co. V — 
 
 " How can you jest on such a subject?" cried 
 Frederica, vexed by her brother's tone of bra- 
 vado. " Think rather what would have been 
 my father's feelings, could he have anticipated 
 so degrading a connexion for his only son." — 
 
 " My father used to make an annual speech 
 on the amelioration of the manufacturing classes; 
 — and how can we amend tliem more satisfac-
 
 PIN MONEY. 189 
 
 torily than by a mutual exchange of our super- 
 fluous commodities — rank and wealth ? By the 
 way, Fred., I had a narrow escape of being 
 bored into my grave yesterday, by one of Raw- 
 leigh's stupid old stiffnecked relations. As I 
 was riding into the Waddlestones' courtyard, I 
 had the good fortune to encounter Mrs. Martha 
 Derenzy's ark upon wheels." 
 
 " Does she visit those vulgar people ?'' 
 " She had been sitting toadying the soap- 
 boiler's wife for two long mortal hours, by way 
 of converting; the luncheon at Waddlestone- 
 house into her own early dinner. Yesterday 
 she even brought some poor relation of the 
 family to profit by the opportunity; — some silly 
 prating girl, whose forward airs completely dis- 
 gusted my poor dear timid Mrs. Waddlestone." 
 Frederica felt the colour rush into her cheeks ; 
 but suspecting that she had been detected by 
 her brother, and that he was trying to provoke 
 her into a betrayal of herself, she quietly re- 
 joined, " Poor Mrs. Martha is not rich, and 
 has a tribe of indigent nieces ; we must not be 
 too severe upon her for trying to secure a com-
 
 190 PIN MONEY. 
 
 fortable meal for one of them. — Do you often 
 dine at Waddlestone-house ?" — 
 
 " Not so frequently, perhaps, as I ought, 
 under all the circumstances. When I first came 
 to town, I was there every day; but since I 
 discovered metal more attractive in Charles- 
 street " — 
 
 " Bronze more Corinthian, you might say!" — 
 
 " I have somewhat neglected the melting 
 charms of my Leonora.'' 
 
 " An honourable alternative certainly, between 
 a tradesman's daughter and my mother's Com- 
 panion ! Oh! Launceston — Launceston ! — I 
 thought you had better judgment." 
 
 " Between the beaux yeux of the one, and 
 the heaudc yeux de la cassette of the other, my 
 heart — " 
 
 " Pray do not profane your heart by 
 mention in such a case ! By the way, as 
 Miss Leonora is so experienced an artist, and 
 Miss Lucy so admirable a model, I wonder you 
 have not brought them together for the love of 
 the arts ?" 
 
 " A good hint, Frederica ! — I will certainly
 
 TIN MONEY. 191 
 
 persuade my mother to bring down Miss El- 
 bany to Marston, and Leonora shall beguile 
 the honeymoon, by taking her likeness." 
 
 '' If such are your views, let me beg you, 
 Wilham, to refrain from mentioning the names 
 of either of these ladies to me again ; I never 
 heard you talk in a strain so little to my taste." 
 
 " You are growing fastidious and prudish 
 from living too much in provincial society. 
 But never mind, Fred., when you have passed 
 a little time with Mrs. Waddlestone, you will 
 resume all your former refinement. She will 
 talk to you of * hon ton^ and the ' beau monde,' 
 ' a pamer de rirey as she would gracefully ex- 
 press herself." 
 
 " Pray let us talk on some more pleasing 
 subject." 
 
 " Your husband's election, then. Do tell 
 me, Fred., is it true that Rawleigh has pur- 
 chased the right of ' mumbling a few words 
 inaudible in the gallery,' in the name and be- 
 half of the borough of Martwich ? " 
 
 " There is some negotiation on foot between 
 him and Mr. Lexley,"
 
 192 PIN MONEy. 
 
 " Negotiation ! I had a better opinion of 
 my friend Rawleigh. If he wants to get into 
 the House, why not wait for the general election, 
 and start for the county, like a man?" 
 
 " Because there is no vacancy; — and Sir 
 Brooke has a great respect for our present 
 county members.'* 
 
 " And no ready money to throw away on a 
 contest. Yes ! I perfectly understand that 
 sort of patriotic magnanimity ! — The truth is 
 that Rawleigh is a deuced careful fellow ; and 
 Vv^ill weigh well his thirty pieces of silver before 
 he has haggled through his bargain with that 
 dealer in parliamentary stores, Mr. Judas 
 
 Lexley.'* 
 
 Frederica fired up for her husband ; and was 
 about to retaliate on the meanness of that 
 prodigality which stoops to repair its shattered 
 fortunes in a soap-boiler's caldron, when her 
 better nature arrested the angry retort upon 
 her hps. She could not, even in defence of Sir ■ 
 Brooke, resolve to give pain to her beloved 
 brother ! Indeed it is very difficult to indulge 
 in a rancorous feehng towards any offender, on
 
 PIN MONEY. 193 
 
 a pure balmy day in May, with the young leaves 
 quivering and the blossoms opening around us ; 
 more especially when mounted on a favourite 
 horse, which has been denied to our use for 
 many previous months. 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, in the enjoyment of her ride, 
 forgot for a time all the vexations of the morn- 
 ing ; and when on her return to Bruton-street, 
 she accidentally encountered at the door the 
 beloved object of her brother's ill-natured 
 sarcasms, in whose favour her feelings were par- 
 ticularly moved by having recently heard him 
 unfairly aspersed, she invited him by so affec- 
 tionate a smile to assist her from her horse? 
 that Sir Brooke was for a moment tempted 
 to forget them also. Her eyes were so bright- 
 ened by exercise, — her cheek, glowing with 
 health and youthful animation, afforded so be- 
 coming a relief to the locks slightly disordered 
 by the effects of her ride, — that poor Rawleigh 
 saw nothing in her aspect but the beaming and 
 expressive loveliness of his own Frederica. 
 
 But as he was about to offer her his arm 
 across the hall, the recollection that all this 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 PIN MONEY. 
 
 beauty had been deliberately, and in his despite, 
 exhibited to the admiration of every libertine 
 lounger in Hyde-park, and that all this ani- 
 mated cheerfulness was probably borrowed from 
 the impulses of gratified vanity, he made way 
 for his wife to gather up the train of her habit ; 
 and followed her up stairs with a feeling of as 
 much bilious irritation, as though he had been 
 already gazetted for Martwich, and already 
 numbered in. a critical minority.
 
 PIN MONEY. 195 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Beauty, tliougli injurious, hatli strange power 
 After offence returning, to regain 
 Love once possessed ; nor can be easily 
 Repulsed, without much inward passion felt. 
 
 And secret sting of amorous remorse. 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 "Well ! my dear!" exclaimed Lady Olivia, 
 starting from an armchair to receive her, as 
 Frederica entered the drawing-room, cheered 
 by the prospect of a tete-a-tete dinner and evea-» 
 ing v;ith her husband. " Here you find me, i.a 
 undisputed possession of the garrison ! " 
 
 " You are come, I trust, to dine with us?" 
 said poor Lady Rawleigh, in a tone of deep 
 despondency, which vainly tried to sound hoiS- 
 pitable, on perceiving by her aunt's full-dress 
 
 K 2
 
 196 PIN MONEY. 
 
 cap and point-lace canezou, that it was intended 
 for an evening visit. 
 
 " I am, indeed ; — and I will explain to you 
 all the perche of the business during dinner. 
 It only wants a quarter to eight, so go and 
 change your habit, my dear child, or your soles 
 will be boiled into isinglass." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, sincerely wishing that her 
 aunt would change her habit of inquiring into 
 other people's bills of fare and accepting them 
 at sight without invitation, hastened to comply ; 
 while Sir Brooke, who had anticipated with 
 some degree of embarrassment his solitary inter- 
 view with his offending wife, and the difficulty 
 of preserving the dignified demeanour of dis- 
 satisfaction with the person who helps one to a 
 second cutlet, and waits to be invited to a glass 
 of Moselle, — and who, moreover, was aware that 
 Lady Olivia had been too long a resident on 
 the continent to entertain any disgust towards 
 gentlemen who eat their dinner in boots, — was 
 extremely courteous and cordial in his welcome. 
 By the time Frederica, rescued from her mas- 
 culine disguise and with her beautiful hair
 
 PIN MONEY. 197 
 
 recalled to its usual trimly array, re-entered the 
 drawing-room, her ladyship had got as far as 
 the second clause of her promised explanation j 
 which, without any signal of da capo from poor 
 Sir Brooke, she proceeded leisurely to recapitu- 
 late for the edification of his wife on seating 
 herself at the dinner-table between them. 
 
 '* You see, my dear Fred. — as I told you this 
 morning — I ivas engaged to your mother, who 
 is far from well, for a boiled chicken in her 
 dressing-room at six o'clock ; because I wished 
 to begin my evening early, having a conversa- 
 zione at Professor Axiom's at nine — a concert at 
 the little duchess's at ten — and the assembly 
 at Suffolk House at eleven." 
 
 '' I trust mamma was not too much in- 
 disposed to receive you V exclaimed Frederica, 
 considerably agitated. 
 
 '' No, my dear — nothing urgent ; my sister is 
 no worse than she has been for the last five-and- 
 twenty years. But unluckily, after you quitted 
 me this morning to go wandering about town with 
 that flighty young friend of yours, I took it into 
 my head to drive to the West India Docks, to
 
 198 PrW MONEY. 
 
 see whether my protege, Captain Mopsley, of 
 the Scarmouth Castle, who is just arrived from 
 Barbadoes, has brought the consignment of par- 
 rot's feathers I commissioned him to procure for 
 my friend Princess Drakouitski. I cannot think 
 what induced Mopsley to be so indiscreet, — 
 but he persuaded me to go over the ship with 
 him ; and while I was tasting a few preserved 
 limes, with an arra-root biscuit in the cabin, he 
 thought proper to mention (for the first time, 
 observe) that he had been in quarantine off the 
 Isle of Wight; — for that on the voyage home 
 the purser and one guinea-pig had died — ac- 
 tually died — of the yellow fever !— My dear 
 niece, you might have knocked me down with 
 one of the parrot's feathers !" 
 
 *^ How extremely incautious ! — how very un- 
 pleasant !'' exclaimed Sir Brooke, looking w^ith 
 some satisfaction at the voluminous extent of 
 damask table-cloth which divided Lady Olivia 
 in equidistance from himself and his dear Fre- 
 derica. " Martin, bring me a glass of Madeira, 
 and take another to Lady Rawleigh ; — old 
 Madeira is an anti-febrile specific. Lady Olivia,
 
 Pm MONEY. 199 
 
 let me recommend you a glass ; it may not yet 
 be too late." 
 
 ^^ Oh ! i consider myself more tlian safe. I 
 drove straight from Mile End to Sanger's in 
 Oxford-street, and after drinking in the shop 
 half a phial of Dr. Lotionostic's anti-pestiferous 
 drops, caused my dress to be fumigated with 
 the celebrated Zimmer Ranch, such as is used 
 by the Turkish officers of health, at the quaran- 
 tine Lazaretto in the pass of Rothenthurm," — 
 
 " I thought I perceived the pungent odour 
 of Thieves' vinegar in the drawing-room," ob- 
 served Sir Brooke; " I was apprehensive that 
 Lady Rawleigh might have been indisposed." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh felt particularly gratified by \ 
 the tone of concern in which this apprehension 
 was expressed. 
 
 ^' And so you see, my dear Fredeiica, hap- 
 pening to mention this untoward incident in 
 Charles-street, your mother became as much 
 alarmed as if I had arrived in a balloon from 
 Grand Cairo.; — nothing would induce her to sit 
 down to table with me ; — and that silly imperti- 
 nent Miss Elbany pretended to discern som^
 
 200 PIN MONEY. 
 
 livid spots about my eyes. She declared that the 
 plague was written in my aspect; and every 
 thing that she declares, you know, is authentic 
 with my sister." 
 
 " I have not the least doubt," said Lady 
 Rawleigh, " that mamma expected Launceston 
 to dinner, and that the companion wished to 
 secure her interview with him from your obser- 
 vation." 
 
 " Very likely ! — but we must defeat her 
 manoeuvres. My carriage will be here imme- 
 diately after dinner to take me to my conver- 
 sazione, and you must let me set you down in 
 Charles-street. " — 
 
 " It was my intention to go and inquire after 
 mamma before I began to dress for Suffolk- 
 house," said Frederica ; " but I have no idea of 
 visiting her e7i mouchai^de. Launceston is old 
 enough to judge for himself; and if he chooses 
 to degrade his family by a union with his 
 mother's companion" — she stopped short — for 
 a sudden reminiscence of Mrs. Waddlestone, 
 served to remind her that it was not his mai'~ 
 riage with Miss Lucy Elbany which was likely 
 to dishonour himself and his connexions.
 
 PIN MONEY. 201 
 
 Fortunately for Frederica, the attention of 
 Lady Olivia was wholly diverted from her em- 
 barrassment by the appearance of a dish of 
 coquilles mix huitres in the second course,— 
 giving rise to one of her monitory discussions. 
 
 " I was quite surprised to learn from my sister 
 the other day, that she had her oysters from 
 Grove! — As if any one in their senses, ever 
 dreamed of purchasing oysters from a fish- 
 monger!'' 
 
 " Who then ought to furnish them ; — ^the 
 baker?" inquired Sir Brooke, who partook, in 
 some slight degree of his aunt Derenzy's pre- 
 dilection for domestic details. 
 
 " It is a trade in itself," replied Lady OUvia, 
 swallowing an oyster with an air of infinite con- 
 tempt. "Do you imagine that a real gastronome, 
 in Paris, would eat an oyster from any other 
 hands than those of the shell-fish merchant who 
 sits on the stairs at the Rocher de Cancale?" — 
 
 " In Paris; — but we, who reside in London, 
 are compelled to forego that luxury. Martin, 
 luho supplies us with oysters ?" — inquired Sir 
 Brooke of his butler ; who had fixed his eyes 
 
 K 3
 
 
 202 rrb? money. 
 
 upon Lady Olivia with all the abhorrence 
 which upper servants are apt to cherish against 
 visitors who give both trouble and advice. 
 Taylor of Piccadilly, Sir Brooke." 
 Take away my plate !" cried Lady Olivia, 
 indignantly; " I would as soon swallow my 
 own kid gloves, as oysters which have been 
 swimming without their shells all the morning 
 in a fishmonger's brown pipkin of cold water." 
 
 *^ Why it stands to reason that their fla- 
 vour 7}iust evaporate," observed Sir Brooke, 
 pushing away his ow^n ; " Lady Rawleigh is 
 too inexperienced a housekeeper to enter into 
 these details at present. Your ladyship must 
 be generous enough to assist her with your 
 advice." 
 
 " Why I will tell you exactly how I manage," 
 said Lady Olivia, who had now arrived at the 
 point she desired. ^' There is a young man 
 lately set up in business at Harwich, who for- 
 xnerly lived as valet with poor dear Mr. Tad- 
 caster, and whom I consider it my duty to 
 patronize. I have given him a commission to 
 supply me once a-week during the season ; and
 
 PIN XH5NEY. 203 
 
 I will get a frank to-night at Axiom's, and 
 write to him to-monow to send a supply to you 
 at the same time. Your establishment is larger 
 than mine, so that you will require double the 
 quantity." 
 
 " Oysters are already out of season," said 
 Frederic a, negatively. 
 
 ''And once a^week !" cried Sir Brooke; — 
 '' surely it is better to depend upon Taylor for 
 a daily supply?" 
 
 " By sending the barrels round by Dodding- 
 ham, which is not above eight or ten miles out 
 of the way, I get them brought at a very rea- 
 sonable rate by an errand-cart kept by a cou- 
 sin of my own maid's. It is not many days on 
 the road, and the carter is a trustworthy man 
 who may be relied on. Well, my dear child,'' 
 said Lady Olivia, changing the conversation to 
 escape the excuse of her niece, " and how did 
 you find Mameluke this morning ? — It seemed 
 to me, when you stopped at the door, that he 
 went rather lame." 
 
 *' Oh dear no !^ — he never went better in his
 
 204 PIN MONEY. 
 
 life ; I was enchanted with him and with my 
 ride." 
 
 " Did you meet Sir Robert Morse and Lord 
 Putney ? — I fell in with them just after I left 
 you, and told them you were going out riding at 
 four, and would be glad of their escort." 
 
 " I did not happen to see them." 
 
 " Why which way did you go ? — I thought 
 they could not possibly miss you in the 
 park?" 
 
 " But we never went near the park." 
 
 ^' Only through it, not near it — the sophistry 
 of fine ladies ! " said Sir Brooke half aside. 
 
 '' Neither near it, nor through it ; — but simply 
 along Grosvenor-place, and the King's-road, to 
 Hammersmith. I had never seen the suspension- 
 bridge, and Launceston was eager to indulge my 
 curiosity." 
 
 '^ Lord ! my dear, why did you not tell me 
 you were going into the King's-road ? " cried 
 Lady Olivia. *' I would have given you a com- 
 mission to procure me some of that celebrated 
 Chelsea lavender water ; and I am sure your
 
 PIN MONEY. 205 
 
 mother, with her delicate sight, would have been 
 very glad of some rose-water; — how provoking !" 
 
 '' Will you take some strawberries, my dear 
 Frederica?'' said Rawleigh, unexpectedly grati- 
 fied by the removal of his park suspicions. 
 
 " Not any, I thank you,'' replied Lady Raw- 
 leigh, heroically. 
 
 " Some preserved ginger, then?" 
 
 " Not any, I am much obliged to you.'' 
 
 " A biscuit, Frederica?" 
 
 " I never eat biscuits." 
 
 " At least you will not refuse a glass of wine 
 with me ? " said Sir Brooke, in a tone which 
 instantly overcame the air of magnanimous ob- 
 duracy assumed by his wife. Frederica put the 
 glass to her lips with a smile which said as 
 plainly as smile could speak, " are you not 
 ashamed of having suspected me unjustly?" 
 She had at length detected the prejudice enter- 
 tained by her husband against fashionable 
 horsewomanship ! 
 
 " But why did you not tell me that you were 
 unwilling to give up your daily ride ? " said Sir 
 Brooke, replying across the table to her very
 
 206 PIN WrONEY. 
 
 intelligible smile of interrogation. " Why de- 
 prive me of the happiness of conducing to yo-ur 
 amusement by sending for Jessy ? " 
 
 ''I really believe you are jealous of Mame- 
 luke/' said Frederica, smiling again as she rose 
 to leave the dining-room with Lady Olivia. " I 
 fancy I must make him a present to Laun- 
 ceston, to ease your apprehensions. Good 
 bye ! you will find me in Charles-street, when 
 you have finished your wine." 
 
 But to the disappointment of both ladies. 
 Lady Olivia's carriage had not yet made its 
 appearance; and her unlucky niece was only 
 the more vexed at the prospect of a tete-' 
 d-tete, when she found her ladyship obsti- 
 nately bent on discovering the object of her 
 drive with Mrs. William Erskyne. In a very 
 short time, Lady Olivia's cross-examinations 
 had wormed out the whole secret of their visit to 
 Monsieur Rochard, and of Miss Elbany's mys- 
 terious miniature ! 
 
 " My dear child ! you overwhelm me with 
 horror ! " exclaimed the fussy aunt, when Fre- 
 derica reached the climax of the his^tory. " That
 
 PIN MONEY. 207 
 
 girl, — a clergyman's orphan,— a mere needy 
 adventurer, — throw away thirti/ guineas on a 
 miniature ? — Impossible ! — Where is she to get 
 such a sum? — I trust you considered it your 
 duty to lay the circumstances before Monsieur 
 Rochard, and to inquire specifically whether 
 your brother has agreed to pay for the pic- 
 ture?"-- 
 
 '' I consider it a far more urgent duty to 
 guard poor Launceston^s indiscretions from the 
 inquisition of strangers ; and even had I been 
 inclined to push my discoveries touching this 
 unaccountable miniature, the artist seemed to 
 have received his lesson, and to be as secret as 
 the grave.'' — 
 
 " Could we but prove that there exists an 
 understanding between them, of course your 
 mother would no longer hesitate to turn this 
 crafty companion of hers out of doors. It 
 would really be a most important satisfaction 
 on every account." 
 
 ^ On my brother's, I admit; but believe me, 
 Miss Elbany is much too cunning to have com- 
 mitted herself."
 
 208 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " I tell you what we will do, Frederica ; — you 
 have long been talking of presenting your own 
 portrait to my sister — " 
 
 '^ I was anxious to sit to Mrs. Robertson, at 
 the]^time of my marriage, but Sir Brooke would 
 not hear of losing so many hours of my com- 
 pany; perhaps he might think differently now 
 on the subject.'' 
 
 " Well, never mind Sir Brooke ; he has no- 
 thing to do with the matter. But you must 
 positively sit to Rochard ; — contrive to get your 
 mother and her companion to the house to look 
 at your picture ; — the mine will explode ; — every 
 thing will go right ; — Miss Elbany will be 
 turned into the street ; — and my nephew unite 
 himself with Mrs. Woodington, of Woodington 
 Park." 
 
 '^ I neither desire nor anticipate the fulfilment 
 of these two latter clauses; nor, to say the 
 truth, would it be convenient to me to throw 
 away so large a sum just now. I fear I must 
 defer my cadeau to mamma till another season." 
 
 " Why you told me the other day that you 
 had not yet found occasion to have recourse to
 
 PIN MONEY. 209 
 
 your pin money ? You have been married three- 
 quarters of a year; and the horse you have so 
 inconsiderately thought proper to buy, cost you 
 only eighty pounds; — what can you have done, 
 or rather what can you mean to do, with the 
 remaining two hundred and twenty ? " 
 
 " Put it in the savings' bank of course," said 
 Fred erica ironically, for she was by no means 
 anxious to acquaint so notorious a gossip as her 
 aunt Olivia with the private nature of her en- 
 gagements respecting the opera-box. 
 
 " Well then, I can only say that you show a 
 very strange degree of apathy touching the 
 honour and interests of your family! With a 
 settlement of four hundred a-year pin money, I 
 really think you might expend thirty, without 
 any great stretch of generosity, in forwarding 
 the welfare of your only brother.'^ 
 
 Frederica, whose hand was by Nature as open 
 as her heart, blushed to hear herself thus 
 unjustly accused of penuriousness. — " If you 
 thought my sitting to Rochard would be of any 
 real advantage — " she began. 
 
 " Oi great advantage,— of the very greatest!'*
 
 210 PIN MONEY. 
 
 cried her aunt. " I rejoice, my dear niece, to 
 perceive that your mind is under the influence 
 of rational argument, — that my representations 
 have their due effect; — and as I must pass 
 through Regent-street on my way to Professor 
 Axiom's, I sh?Jl certainly step in, and make an 
 appointment for your first sitting, — either for 
 to-morrow, or the follovv'ing day." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh saw that it was in vain to 
 resist a project so obstinately determined by 
 Lady Olivia. She knew of old the pertinacity 
 of her ladyship's resolutions ; and felt satisfied 
 that had she even determined this sitting to 
 take place in the fever-stricken cabin of Captain 
 Mopsley's Scarmouth Castle, implicit obedience 
 would have been the sole alternative. She was 
 vexed, however, to find a further expenditure 
 forced upon her incurrence ; she was vexed to 
 perceive that Sir Brooke, in spit^ of their tacit 
 reconciliation, made no movement to leave the 
 dining-room sooner than usual, in order to ac** 
 company her to Lady Launceston's ;— she even 
 fancied as she crossed the hall towards Lady 
 Olivia's carriage, that slie could hear him ^nore I
 
 TIN MONEY. 211 
 
 -—and that he could sleep, and sleep profoundly 
 too, so shortly after the first eclaircissement of 
 their first misunderstanding, was a bitter aggra- 
 vation of her woes ! Lady Rawleigh found her- 
 self ascending her mother's staircase, with a 
 persuasion that all which Milton, and Dr. 
 Johnson, and other literary miscreants, have 
 been pleased to utter touching the evils of 
 the marriage state, falls very short of the 
 afflictions poured forth from the vials of wrath 
 upon its modern victims ! Forgetting for a 
 moment the importunate officiousness of the 
 companion, she longed to weep away her heavi- 
 ness by her mother's side, and expatiate in 
 the luxury of woe with as little delay as pos- 
 sible, in order that her eyes might recover their 
 pristine brilliancy in time to grace the brilliant 
 saloons of Suffolk House. 
 
 It may be observed of women, in all condi- 
 tions of life, that however promoted by marriage 
 above their former condition, — however mag- 
 nificent the roof destined to shelter their 
 matronly maturity, home — the old familiar 
 house of their girlhood — never forfeits its spell
 
 212 PIN MONEr. 
 
 over their hearts as an unfaiUng city of re- 
 fuge. Its " ancient most domestic furniture," 
 is invested w^ith a species of holiness in their 
 eyes; — its viands have a familiarity of flavour 
 never acquired by the dainties of a more 
 splendid me7iu;-^iis sights — its sounds — its 
 associations — have a stronger bond upon the 
 affections than can belong to any future resi- 
 dence. Thei^Cj where their innocent hearts, — 
 scorning all evidence of the hollowness and evil 
 of the world as arising from misanthropic tes- 
 timony — deUghted of old to indulge in the vision 
 of human perfectibility, of mutual love, of good- 
 ness elevated above the touch of earthly passion, 
 of virtue fixed beyond the influence of circum- 
 stances; — ^/iere, where their souls were entranced 
 into a rapture of devotion unsullied by mortal 
 transgressions, unalloyed by^shame, unwedded 
 to earth by the vulgar cares of venal interest; — 
 there, even there, do they flee in their domestic 
 afflictions, for a respite from trouble and anxiety. 
 Like the dove of the deluge, they are driven 
 back to their ark by the turmoil and strife of the 
 wide ocean of the world.
 
 PIN MONEY. 213 
 
 Lady Launceston, as was usual with her on 
 her days of indisposition, — those days which 
 were of far more than red-letter recurrence in 
 her valetudinarian calendar, — was in her dress- 
 ing-room ; and Frederica remembered, as she ap- 
 proached the familiar door, the joy with which 
 on her holiday-release from the school-room, 
 awful with its charts of ancient and modern 
 history hanging from black rollers on the wall, 
 she had been wont to fly to the gentle fostering 
 love of her mother, to be petted with peppermint- 
 drops and Tolu lozenges ; — and with which, in 
 her maturer days, she used to creep in with 
 one of Andrews's marble-covered third volumes 
 in her hand with a promise " not to interrupt 
 mamma," but with an intention, duly fulfilled, 
 of pouring forth all her girlish tribulations 
 of the rivalship of Laura Mapleberry, or of 
 Sir Brooke Rawleigh's ill-natured predilection 
 for the driving-seat. She recollected, with a 
 thrill of love, the cherishing softness of her 
 mother's hand as it lingered on her shoulder, or 
 reprovingly patted her cheek ; — even the vapour 
 of ether which habitually tinged any atmosphere
 
 214 PIN MONEY. 
 
 frequented by the hypochondriac Lady Launces- 
 ton, had a peculiar charm to her senses as asso- 
 ciated with that intercourse of fiUal affection so 
 sacred to her heart. 
 
 It was with feehngs attuned by consciousness 
 such as this, that Lady Rawleigh carefully 
 turned the handle of the dressing-room door 
 that she might steal to her mother's side, and 
 console herself as of old. When lo ! — a sight 
 presented itself to her swimming eyes, which 
 Niobized her warm heart in a moment ! — 
 
 Extended on a sofa, with her feet covered as 
 usual with an eider-down quilt, lay Lady Laun- 
 ceston ! — her Mechlin cap plaited w4th its usual 
 nicety round her pale face ! — The reader, I per- 
 ceive, is becoming agitated, — anticipates a ter- 
 rible catastrophe, — sudden death, or at the very 
 least a fainting fit ; — but Lady Olivia Tadcas- 
 ter's information on the subject may be impli- 
 citly relied on ; — her sister was precisely in the 
 same state of health which had kept her in a 
 sort of chicken-broth convalescence for five-and- 
 twenty years. — What then was the motive of 
 the universal tremour which suddenly arrested
 
 PIN MONEY. 215 
 
 the steps of Frederica on entering the dressing- 
 room ? — What hideous spectacle presented itself 
 to her eyes ? 
 
 On a low stool beside Lady Launceston^s 
 couch sat Miss Elbany, with her head fami- 
 liarly reclining against the pillow of her pa- 
 troness ; whose thin delicate hand was fondling 
 the cheek of the presumptuous hireling, with 
 precisely the same gentle tenderness she had 
 been wont to bestow upon her own daughter. 
 Poor Frederica ! — The hallowed dream of 
 eighteen years vanished from around her; — 
 she saw — she felt— she knew — that she was 
 superseded in her mother's affections! — 
 
 Willingly would she have withdrawn herself 
 from the chamber, to give a free course to her 
 tears elsewhere ; but the sound of the deep 
 sigh which burst from the depths of her heart, 
 arrested the attention of the self-sufficing pair. 
 
 " Oh ! here is Lady Ravv^leigh," cried Miss 
 Elbany, in the tone of commonplace recogni^ 
 tion, which conveys a total want of interest in 
 the subject ; and she rose from her footstool 
 and wheedling attitude, to resume the habits of
 
 216 PIN MONEY. 
 
 her vocation and place a chair for the new 
 comer. 
 
 " I did not expect to see you this evening, 
 my dear/' said Lady Launceston, with the negli- 
 gent ease of a mother, who knows her daughter 
 to be surrounded in her new home with all the 
 temporal blessings of life, as well as by the fer- 
 vent affection of her husband. " I thought 
 you would scarcely have time to look in before 
 you dressed for Suffolk House." 
 
 Frederica had too much feminine pride and 
 constancy not to subdue the emotions strug- 
 gling in her bosom, and that aching pain in her 
 throat which seemed to impede her respiration. 
 " Hearing from my aunt Olivia, who dined in 
 Bruton-street, that you were indisposed, I 
 hastened hither to inquire after you," faltered 
 the deeply mortified daughter. 
 
 *' Thank you, my dear love, — thank you,'' said 
 Lady Launceston, wholly unconscious of the 
 pain she was inflicting, "but you need never 
 be uneasy on my account. Lucy is so very 
 attentive, — so kind, — and so perfectly under- 
 stands the management of a case like mine,
 
 PIN MONEY, 217 
 
 that I am becoming independent both of my 
 friends and medical attendants." 
 
 " Friends ! " — refrigerated into the compre- 
 hensive class of her mother's friends ! — Joined 
 with the multitude of Lady Smiths and Mrs. 
 Williamses, who were in the habit of sending 
 their compliments, and begging to know " how 
 Lady Launceston finds herself this morning." 
 — Poor Frederica ! 
 
 " — And when your brother ascertained that 
 my sister Olivia did not dine here, he was good- 
 natured enough to stay and eat an impromptu 
 cutlet. I am expecting him up from the dining- 
 room every moment. Ah ! there he is on the 
 stairs, — he is the only person in this house who 
 ever takes two steps at a time. — Miss Elbany, 
 my dear, ring for coffee ! " 
 
 Well did Frederica recollect the time when 
 nothing would have induced Lord Launceston 
 to take a cup of coffee in his mother's dressing- 
 room; which he was accustomed to call the 
 temple of Esculapius, and to fancy impreg- 
 nated his coat with the flavour of camphor ! 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 PIN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 When jewels are sparkling roxmd me. 
 
 And dazzling with their rays, 
 I weep for the ties that hound me 
 
 In life's first early days ; 
 I sigh for one of the sunny hours 
 
 Ere day was turned to night. 
 For one of my nosegays of fresh wild flowers, 
 
 Instead of those jewels bright. 
 
 MRS. XORTOX. 
 
 If the excitement of gratified vanity could 
 have sufficed to restore to Lady Ra\^ leigh thiat 
 happy ease of a contented heart with which 
 she arrived in London, all might have been 
 well. As Frederica Rawdon, she had never 
 passed for what is called " a beauty ; " no pe- 
 culiarities of dress or address had attracted the
 
 PIN MONEY. 219 
 
 attention of the public towards the tranquil 
 loveliness of her countenance, or the unpre- 
 tending grace of her person ; no reputation for 
 miraculous accomplishments, no notoriety of 
 flippant wit, had startled the attention of so- 
 ciety into an acknowledgment of her charms. 
 But as the wife of Sir Brooke Rawleigh of 
 Rawleighford, with her diamonds, her chariot 
 by Adams, and her definite position in the world 
 as a squiress of some eight or ten thousand 
 a-year, she became an angel at once ! 
 
 Younger brothers might now dangle after 
 her from party to ball, from park to opera, 
 without any fear that a vigilant chaperon, a 
 Lady Olivia Tadcaster, should inquire into their 
 pretensions and frown away their homage. 
 Noblemen with ragged rent-rolls, and captains 
 in the guards with no rent-roll at all, no longer 
 considered themselves debarred from the de- 
 lightful privilege of seeking her mantle among 
 those odious miscellaneous heaps of female ha- 
 biliments, which one of the vile necessities of 
 a climate between the tropic and the North 
 Pole nightly amasses in ball-giving London 
 
 l2
 
 220 PIN MONEY. 
 
 She was now approachable by married and 
 single, — availables and detrimentals ; and 
 whereas a woman who regards the whole mass 
 of fashionable society with the equalizing eye 
 of indifference, is much more at her ease and 
 much more capable of rendering herself gene- 
 rally agreeable, than the coquette whose eye is 
 ever on the watch to catch the attention of the 
 
 Duke of D , or than the flirt whose still 
 
 worse-governed feelings blind her to the pre- 
 sence of all mankind, saving some boy-captain 
 of the Blues who hovers ,round her chair, — 
 Fred erica soon became one of the most admired 
 and popular beauties of the day. The Dowager 
 Lady H. pronounced her to be a model of 
 good breeding, — her ladyship's son declared 
 her to be as lovely as a Houri, — Lord A. eulo- 
 gized the easy and original tone of her con- 
 versation, and Colonel C. asserted that her 
 dress was perfectly Parisian. It would be a 
 libel upon female nature to say that Lady Raw- 
 leigh was wholly insensible to these triumphs. 
 For her own share of the distinction thus 
 achieved, she enjoyed it with as much modera-
 
 PIN MONEY. 221 
 
 tion as Lady Grace in the play; but when it 
 glanced across her mind that Sir Brooke might 
 perhaps become less addicted to dining in boots, 
 and to running after Mr. Lexley, if he saw her 
 the object of universal idolatry, she permitted, 
 her lips to relax into smiles far oftener than the 
 sensation of her heart suggested; and even 
 with the feverish spot still burning on her 
 cheek which had been branded there by the 
 spectacle of her mother's exaggerated tender- 
 ness towards the companion, became the ob- 
 served of all observers, the leading star of 
 the brilliant assemblage at Suffolk House. — 
 Radiant with jewels, and enhanced in beauty 
 by all the auxiliaries of the toilet, she felt 
 how much her sighs would be misplaced amid 
 that smiling, sparkling, heartless, soulless 
 crowd, with whose moral or immoral conten- 
 tions her gentle nature was so little fitted to 
 struggle ! 
 
 On their entrance into the picture-gallery. Sir 
 Brooke suddenly deserted her side, to go and 
 talk county politics with a little knot of heroes 
 of the middle age, distinguished by much hair-
 
 222 PIN MONEY. 
 
 powder and much prose ; and Fredenca, who 
 in common with1:he rest of her sex and caste, 
 felt that pauperism and emigration were quite 
 sufficiently discussed in the much-enduring ears 
 of Parliament, and the long-enduring pages^of 
 the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, had very 
 little patience with his defection upon so small 
 a temptation. 
 
 Unluckily for Rawleigh, Lord Calder seized 
 this opportunity to plant himself by the side of 
 the fair and deserted Ariadne; and by his grace- 
 ful courtesies, and that varied flow of conversa- 
 tion so perfect in its tone — so potent upon the 
 interest of his auditors — by which he was ena- 
 bled to augment at will the host of his vota- 
 ries, he thoroughly captivated her attention, so 
 that she not only forgot the desertion of Sir 
 Brooke, but all her angry preventions against 
 himself: — before they parted, Frederica ac- 
 tually promised to join his lordship's supper- 
 party on the following Tuesday ! A few minutes 
 afterwards, her husband — who with difficulty 
 extricated himself from the group of political 
 economists, by whom his first and third but-
 
 PIN MONEY. 223 
 
 tons had been argued off his coat, — returned to 
 persuade her that she was fatigued, and anxious 
 to. go home; and on the whole, her evening 
 nosight have terminated agreeably, had they not 
 been detained five minutes in the vestibule, 
 waiting for their carriage to stop the way. 
 Frederica was now eagerly attacked by Mrs. 
 William Erskyne, whom they found detained 
 by a similar dilemma. 
 
 " Dearest Fred. — I have been dying to 
 speak to you all the evening; but I entertain 
 too much value for your regard to interrupt that 
 Ions: and tremendous flirtation with Lord Cal- 
 der. I did hazard to touch you once or twice 
 on the arm,, when I recollected that to-morrow 
 is not our night for the Opera, and that I shall 
 not see you till Wednesday; — ^but you wei-e 
 lending too anxious an ear to his lordship's 
 whispers to notice my importunity." — 
 
 " And what is the nature of your urgent com- 
 munication?" inquired Frederica coldly, for she 
 was vexed that her husband should be misle4 
 by so idle a misrepresentation of the fact. 
 
 " Oh ! nothing of the least importance to ^^ou;
 
 224 PIN MONEY. 
 
 nothing at all worthy to break off a tete-a-tete with 
 a man of Lord Calder's fashion. I want you to 
 take me to Almack's on Wednesday; for I shall 
 come back late from the races, and find nothing 
 but tired servants, and a husband angry with the 
 aspect of his book. Will you be so charitable?'' 
 
 "Willingly; — on condition that if you feel 
 inclined to stay late, you will find some other 
 person to take you home. My coeffeur has 
 appointed such a very early hour on Thursday 
 morning that — " 
 
 '* You are going to the drawing-room ? " in- 
 terrupted Mrs. Erskyne, with the most courteous 
 incivility. *^ Then why bore yourself with Al- 
 mack's at all, — to get up after three hours fe- 
 verish sleep with hollow eyes and pallid cheeks ? 
 — Positively Frederica, you are growing an ultra 
 rake ; and dissipation itself shall be a plummet 
 over you. Cannot you make up your mind to 
 renounce a single ball ? '' 
 
 " No, indeed ! " — cried Lady Rawleigh, 
 piqued by the sarcasms of her friend, and the 
 conjugal grunt with which they were echoed 
 by Sir Brooke, into an affectation of obstinacy
 
 PIN MONEY. 225 
 
 foreign to her nature. " I should grieve over a 
 lost Almack's, like the Roman emperor over his 
 anti-beneficent day. Depend on me, therefore, 
 for Wednesday night, — and hon soir!^' 
 
 As she w^as hurried by Sir Brooke through 
 a mob of footmen tov^^ards her carriage, Lady 
 Rawleigh began to anticipate the annoyance of 
 a sullen tete-a-tete on their homeward drive; — 
 nor was she disappointed ! Her husband pulled 
 his shapeless opera-hat over his face, and began 
 to describe circles and all manner of geometrical 
 problems with the point of his well-varnished 
 shoe upon the front of the chariot, with an 
 evident determination to be silent and sulky. 
 He was wrong ! — If men were aware of the 
 effect they produce in those nightcaps of black 
 felt, — tired, and haggard, and dusty, as seen 
 through the lurid atmosphere of a London morn- 
 ing twilight, — they would never select that un- 
 timely moment for a touch of the heroics ! — 
 
 " Perhaps it may do him good to ruminate 
 upon Louisa's representations," thought the 
 drowsy wife; as on her arriving in her Bruton- 
 street dressing-room, she resigned herself to 
 
 L 3
 
 226 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Mrs. Pasley's hands, to have handfuls of her 
 fine hair uprooted in the process of being un- 
 frizzed for the night. And with every tug in- 
 flicted by the victim who had been kept sleep- 
 less till daylight to officiate in the operation, 
 her resolution became strengthened to overcome 
 her husband's old-fashioned prejudices, and 
 make her own value evident in his eyes by an 
 unreserved intercourse with the great world, 
 and its flatteries. 
 
 We have been admonished by the royal phi- 
 losopher of the Jews, that the sun should not go 
 down upon our wrath; — but had Solomon pene- 
 trated half the mysteries of the female breast, 
 he would have additionally interdicted a sunset 
 upon our coo/wess/ — Anger is of brief endurance, 
 and soon raves itself to rest ; but coolness is as 
 long-lived as other cold-blooded animals : — it is 
 as the toad which exists for a thousand years 
 in the heart of a rock ! Were I, like Dr. Gre- 
 gory and other moral tacticians, to bequeath a 
 legacy of counsel to my daughters, I would say 
 " Never sleep upon a misunderstanding with 
 those you love ; — if you feel less kindly towards
 
 PIN MONEY. 227 
 
 them than usual, the chances run that you are 
 in the wrong.'' 
 
 This truth was very painfully manifested to 
 Lady Rawleigh when, at nine o'clock on the 
 following morning, Mr. Lexley made his ap- 
 pearance at the door in a travelling-carriage, — 
 not on his road to Hampton, but to Martwich ; 
 and succeeded in persuading her husband, who 
 gave him audience in his dressing-gown, to be- 
 come the companion of his journey. Some- 
 thino- had occurred to traverse the election 
 which rendered their presence necessary ; and 
 after scalding his mouth with a cup of instan- 
 taneous tea, and disgusting himself with a half- 
 boiled eggj the unshorn candidate for parlia- 
 mentary honours uttered a hurried farewell to 
 his wife, a parting charge to Martin, and 
 jumped into the carriage which was to convey 
 him from his distempered home to his disor- 
 ganized borough. Frederica beheld his de- 
 parture from her bedroom window; and when 
 she saw the dressing-case enveloped in its tra- 
 velling baize shoved into the chaise by Martin, 
 and placed at the feet of Sir Brooke, it did
 
 228 PIN MONEY. 
 
 most bitterly repent her that she had not on the 
 preceding evening explained away the ilhiatured 
 observations of Mrs. Erskyne, and acquainted 
 him with her engagement to Lord Calder. She 
 took refuge on her pillow against her own re- 
 flections; — and had the comfort of dreaming 
 them away till one o'clock, when she was roused 
 by Pasley with her cup of chocolate, and had 
 the vexation to behold the face of Lady Olivia 
 Tadcaster peeping over her maid's shoulder. 
 
 *^ Not up yet, my love ? — what shocking 
 habits ! — If you indulge yourself in this manner 
 at your age, Frederica, what will you be at 
 mine? — a poor fragile creature, nourished upon 
 sal-volatile, like your mother." , 
 
 '' We stayed rather late at Suffolk House." 
 '' No wonder ! — you did not make your ap- 
 pearance there till I and every reasonable being- 
 had taken leave. I was there as soon as the 
 candles were lighted ; and / was consequently 
 enabled to rise this morning at eight. I 
 hired a footman and laundry-maid for my 
 cousin Wingfield in Yorkshire^ breakfasted, 
 settled my accounts, and read half a volume
 
 PIN MONEY. 229 
 
 of Nares's Life of Burghley (which I chose, 
 because it was the thickest book in Sams's 
 library) before nine; and I have since driven, 
 with Mrs. Woodington as far as Hacknev, to 
 look for a Draconia to present to Lady Hunt- 
 ingfield on her birth-day. By the way I met 
 Rawleigh, with post-horses in a strange car- 
 riage, near the second milestone?" 
 
 '^ I am sorry to say he has been obliged to 
 go down into Cambridgeshire about this odious 
 electioneering business." 
 
 " Pray, my dear, do not indulge in such an 
 abuse of language. — Electioneering! — call it 
 borough-mongering at once." 
 • if ^ The name is nothing, compared with the 
 annoyance of Sir Brooke's departure, for which 
 I was quite unprepared.'* 
 
 *^ Unprepared ? — you are as silly as your 
 mother, whom I left just now preparing herself 
 with saline draughts for a cold, which she pro- 
 tests is hovering over her ! — For my part, I am 
 very glad Rawleigh is gone ; it will leave us 
 ample leisure for the miniature, and you are to 
 sit to-day at three o'clock."
 
 230 PIN MONEY. 
 
 " I am almost sorry I have undertaken the 
 fatigue just now. At this season of the year 
 one is worried to death by engagements; or 
 rather to a state of feverish frightfuhiess, worse 
 than death to a woman." 
 
 '* In the first place, this season of the year 
 happens to be the only season when reason- 
 able beings are to be found in London ; — and, 
 in the next place, you my dear who talk of en- 
 gagements, are the idlest, the most do-nothing 
 of human beings. — I will not call you the 
 ' xoeed' but the Iris of Lethe's wharf 
 
 " Do not call me any names,'' said Frederica, 
 languidly ; " for I am out of spirits, or out of 
 sorts, or whatever polite term is just now in 
 vogue for being out of temper." 
 
 " You — my dear child ? — why what can you 
 — the spoiled child of fortune and affection — 
 have to vex you? — Have you seen a newer 
 pattern for diamond girandoles than your own, 
 -—or has Giradot chosen an unbecoming shade 
 of green for your train ? Poor soul !" 
 
 ** You do right to laugh at me ; for I own 
 I have little pretext for murmuring against
 
 PIN MONEY. 231 
 
 Providence. Nevertheless, I am deeply mor- 
 tified by Launceston's proceedings, and at 
 the countenance with which they are sanc- 
 tioned by mamma. As we predicted, I found 
 him dining in Charles-street last night ; and 
 the hour I passed there was enlivened by Miss 
 Elbany's performances on the harp ; and by 
 my brother's persiflage respecting ^ Rawleigh's 
 objections to my riding, Rawleigh's dread of 
 my independence, and Rawleigh's anxiety to 
 put me in leading-strings to Aunt Martha 
 Derenzy.' Sir Brooke may have faults, — I do 
 not uphold him as a monster of a paragon ;— 
 but I think it extremely unkind on Launces- 
 ton's part to expose them to ridicule for the 
 amusement of that odious girl, — a stranger to 
 the family, — and a very unfit person to be in 
 trusted with its secrets." 
 
 " Depend on it, my dear, she is far too deeply 
 occupied with her own secrets to care about 
 yom'S. Did William pay her much attention?" 
 
 " I cannot say he did ; but every thing wore 
 a much worse aspect. They appeared to un«
 
 232 PIN MONEY. 
 
 derstand each other perfectly, and to be upon 
 the happiest terms of confidential intimacy." 
 
 "They are certainly engaged!" cried Lady 
 Olivia, falling back in her chair with a severe 
 concussion. " My poor, dear, infatuated sister ! 
 — my poor, dear, obstinate, ill-fated nephew^ ! — 
 the ancient House of Trevelyan, — the unsullied 
 name of Rawdon !" 
 
 " Nay, dear Aunt, I have no reason to think 
 the evil so far advanced." 
 
 " Irrevocable, irrecoverable, irremediable 
 ruin!" cried Lady Olivia, searching into the he- 
 terogeneous contents of the steel-embroidered 
 gibeciere for her handkerchief, to conceal an 
 imaginary burst of tears. " I, Frederica, who 
 am in the secret of all my nephew's embar- 
 rassments, — who have sat hour after hour upon 
 a mahogany stool in a little dusty cupboard in 
 Lincoln's-inn, filing off his unpaid bills on 
 iron skewers, lest his solicitor should audit 
 them with an imperfect scrutiny; — /, who 
 have insured his life in half the offices in 
 London, for the better security of his annui-
 
 PIN MONEY. 233 
 
 tants ; — / who have his rent-roll by heart, and 
 the list of its mortgages by head; — I, my 
 dear Lady Rawleigh, am able to appreciate all 
 the horror, all the ruin, all the wickedness of 
 this abominable connexion ! " 
 
 " When I reflect," said her niece, " that this 
 unfortunate young person represents herself as 
 a clergyman's daughter — " 
 
 " Unfortunate ! — I wish we may none of us 
 have worse luck ! — and a clergymarCs daughter. 
 My dear, that is a regular companion-and- 
 governess advertisement trap ! — What sort of 
 a clergyman do you suppose Miss Elbany's 
 father to have been ? — a respectable incumbent 
 of a respectable vicarage like your own Dr. 
 Jackson ? — No, no ! — some reverend divine such 
 as those I saw in smock-frocks selling char 
 among the Westmorland lakes; and preaching 
 on Sundays in thatched churches, large enough 
 to hold twelve persons without mvich squeezing." 
 
 ^' But those were Sectarians? " 
 
 '' As regularly ordained Church of England 
 divines as any in the diocese! — Elbany — El- 
 bany? I once had a hosier of that name, who
 
 234 PIN MONEY. 
 
 lived in liolboni, and sold the best fleecy 
 hosiery I ever used. Poor dear Mr. Tadcaster 
 used to swear by it in his fits of the rheu- 
 matism. '* 
 
 Frederica perfectly well remembered who it 
 was Mr. Tadcaster used to swear at in his fits 
 of the rheumatism. 
 
 " I have no doubt he was her uncle ! " mused 
 Lady Olivia.. 
 
 " Because you expect to be her aunt ? " said 
 Lady Rawleigh, blundering on poor Mr. Tad- 
 caster as the antecedent of the pronoun. 
 **" Nay ! — you may dismiss your fears on that 
 head; it is not my apprehension that Laun- 
 ceston will make my mother's companion his 
 wife, which disgusts me with his conduct; 
 for you must allow me to explain to you (in 
 strict confidence) that he is engaged to many 
 another person.'' 
 
 " How? — you amaze me! — worse and worse? 
 Ten to one there will be the damages of a 
 breach-of-promise action to be provided for ! ** 
 
 "No! — in spite of the ill-judged attentions 
 which Launceston allows himself to pay the
 
 PIN MONEY. 235 
 
 girl mamma has so foolishly thrown in his 
 way, I am persuaded he is sincerely attached 
 to Leonora Waddlestone.'' 
 
 " Leonora who?" exclaimed Lady Oliyia, 
 half rising from her chair. 
 
 " Alas ! my dear aunt ! I grieve to mortify 
 you by such humiliating intelligence; but 
 William is actually on the point of marriage 
 with a soapboiler's daughter.'* 
 
 " A what ? — " panted the agonized aunt. 
 
 " Witli the only daughter of Mr. Waddle- 
 stone, an eminent soapboiler." 
 
 " Of Waddlestone House?"— 
 
 Lady Rawleigh nodded assent. 
 
 " Viva! viva!'' — cried Lady Olivia, clapping 
 her hands, and starting from her seat. " My 
 dear Launceston ! — my own dear William ! — 
 my godson ! — my favourite nephew ! — I always 
 said he would live to be an ornament to his 
 family; I always knew he would distinguish 
 himself. Frederica — Frederica! why did you 
 never set me at ease on this point before ? I 
 will go directly to my sister's, and make an
 
 236 PIN MONEY. 
 
 apology to Miss Elbany for all my rudeness;— 
 I will—" 
 
 " Pardon me if I trust you will take no 
 steps in consequence of what I have communi- 
 cated. I am under a promise to Launceston 
 not to mention the subject to mamma; and 
 although you were not exactly specified in the 
 agreement, I have every reason to suppose he 
 wishes the affair to be kept a secret in the 
 family." 
 
 *' In order that he may cany on his silly 
 flirtation with poor Lucy? " 
 
 " Let us think better of him. But tell me, 
 my dear aunt, you who were so scandalized at 
 the notion of his marriage with a hosier's niece, 
 what can you see to enchant you in his union 
 with—" 
 
 " The heiress of one of the wealthiest men 
 in England ? — Every thing ! — You will find 
 my dear Fred, that in this nation boutiquieref 
 a little city gold becomes necessary once in a 
 century to assist in emblazoning the escutcheon, 
 where there is neither a coal-pit nor a lead-
 
 PIN MONEY. 237 
 
 mine on the family estate, to pay off the for- 
 tunes of the younger children, and the jointures 
 of dowagers. Why there is young Tadcaster, 
 my nephew ! — he has eveiy prospect of paying 
 7ne three thousand a-year for forty — or say five 
 forty years to come ! — a hundred and twenty 
 thousand pounds ! His estate is barely five — 
 Irish currency; — so you see he must marry an 
 heiress ! '' 
 
 " But there are heiresses who are not 
 daughters to soapboilers/' 
 
 " Not such heiresses as Miss Waddlestone ; 
 who has a hundred thousand pounds in ready 
 money, and five hundred thousand more on 
 the death of the father! — Think of that, my 
 love! — think of poor dear old Marston Park 
 with all its encumbrances paid off; — think 
 of—" 
 
 " I would rather not think of any advantage 
 achieved by such very unsatisfactory means." 
 - " Folly! — absurdity! — mere narrowness of 
 mind ; — intellectual people are above such obso- 
 lete prejudices ! Had your brother offered him- 
 self and his encumbered estates to any young
 
 238 PIN MONEY. 
 
 woman of good family as well as of good for- 
 tune, her pretensions would have been enor- 
 mous. Her father would have stifled us with 
 parchments, and demanded a settlement of 
 jointure and pin money — '' 
 
 (Frederica sighed.) 
 " enouo'h to be2:o:ar a duke ! — But with a 
 soapboiler the affair is quite different — quite a 
 matter of traffic and barter — tare and tret; — 
 pedigree against peoce, — pounds against pre- 
 cedence. Not that I should have ever recom- 
 mended 2/011, Frederica, to marry a soapboiler. 
 — The wife necessarily descends to her hus- 
 band's condition, and an Honourable Mrs.— 
 or even a Lady Frederica Waddlestone, must 
 remain a nobody for life; while Lady Launceston 
 assumes at once your brother's dignities, and 
 it matters very little, except to the compilers of 
 the peerage, by what patronymic she was 
 ushered into the world. '* 
 
 " I wish it had been any thing but Waddle- 
 stone," sighed Frederica, putting the finishing 
 stroke to her toilet — which had been proceed- 
 ing: in the interim — in the form of an enamelled
 
 PIN MONEY. 239 
 
 buckle encircled with dragons and birds of 
 paradise. 
 
 '* Mr. Waddlestone is one of the most en- 
 lightened men in England ! " cried Lady Olivia. 
 " When I was at Rome the family occupied part 
 of my hotel, and his antechamber was crowded 
 with virtuosi and dilettanti, like that of an am- 
 bassador. He swept every studio and ateher 
 in the place ; and Milor Vatilsdon became as 
 well known in Italy as Napoleon." 
 
 " But the mother — the odious mother ! " 
 
 " Is she still alive ? — alas ! alas ! — But a man 
 does not marry his mother-in-law." 
 
 " Mrs. Woodington in the drawing-room, my 
 lady,'^ said Mrs. Pasley, throwing open the 
 door in some vexation that her mistress had 
 thought proper to exclude her from the mys- 
 teries of the toilet. 
 
 " How could they admit that woman ! She 
 is my utter aversion," cried Lady Rawleigh. 
 
 *' And mine too, now that she no longer suits 
 my plans for Launceston. However, my dear 
 Fred., there is no occasion to let her know that 
 her hopes are over, for the poor silly little crea-
 
 240 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ture would break her heart ; and between our- 
 selves, she has supplied me with pines and 
 peaches from Woodington Park all the season, 
 by way of propitiating your brother's relations. 
 Good bye, my dear, — I shall meet you at Ro 
 chard's at three. In the mean time, I must go 
 and leave my name at Kensington Gore upon 
 my old friends the Waddlestones ; — one cannot 
 be too prompt in one's civilities on such occa- 
 sions.
 
 PIN MONEY. 241 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 There's na luck about the house, 
 
 There's na luck at a' 
 There's little pleasure in the house 
 
 W hen my good man's awa. 
 
 BURNS, 
 
 It is a well-known necessity in the modern 
 annals of our English constitution (both phy- 
 sical and political), that a man must eat 
 his way into Parliament ; and while Sir Brooke 
 Rawleisrh was endurino; the unctuosities of a 
 dinner at the Black Bull at Martwich, — sea*- 
 soned by the pungent varieties of twelve cockle- 
 shell saucers of pickles of divers colours by 
 way of hors d'ccuvresj — by a tumulus of blanc 
 mange with a nosegay in its bosom by way of 
 centre to a very miscellaneous second course, — 
 as well as by the presence of Mr. Amos Robson 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 PIN MONEY. 
 
 and Mr. Jeremiah Jobson (two gentlemen in 
 corduroys, deeply implicated in the interests of 
 the borough, whom Mr. Lexley called " my 
 good friends," and " these influential gentle- 
 men," every second minute), — Frederica, — " not 
 at home to any one," — was indulging in all the 
 ruminative misery of her first widowhood ; 
 having dismissed the untouched dinner-tray, 
 and wrapt her roquelaure around her in the 
 easy chair of her dressing-room. 
 
 In her hand was a volume of one of Madame 
 de Souza's most touching novels ; on the little 
 marble table by her side was a scented taper, 
 casting its pale reflection upon a bouquet 
 of Colvile's freshest roses ; at her feet the 
 velvet ottoman brought home by Lord Laun- 
 ceston from his Turkish travels; behind her 
 head the cambric pillow embroidered with her 
 own initials by her mother's hand. She looked 
 the very picture of voluptuous indolence, — luxu- 
 rious ease j and had Rochard seen her in that 
 attitude, with the scattered tresses of her raven 
 hair entangled round her beautiful hand and 
 wrist, he would have presented a fairer Lady
 
 .PIN MONEY. 243 
 
 Rawleigh to the admiration of posterity, than 
 could be hoped from the formal model she had 
 afforded with her locks tortured by a French 
 hairdresser, and her robe primly adjusted after 
 the latest fiat of Victorine ! 
 
 But, alas ! the ease of Frederica*s position 
 was wholly extrinsic. In spite of the lustrous 
 taper, her soul was dark as that of Sampson 
 Agonistes; — ^in spite of the air-stuffed cushions 
 in which she was buoyantly embedded, her 
 frame appeared encircled by one of the compres- 
 sive engines of the Inquisition; — and had she 
 swallowed all the hors (Tccuvres of the Martwich 
 dinner, her feelings could not have been more 
 acidulated against herself and all mankind. 
 
 After her morning's endurance of nearly an 
 hour of Mrs. Woodington's toadyism, which 
 she longed to curtail by a simple statement 
 that Lord Launceston's hand was already be- 
 spoken, Frederica found it necessary to prepare 
 for the miniature; and the mere necessity of 
 enduring all the martyrdom of full dress at 
 three o'clock on a summer's day, is in itself a 
 bitter trial of human patience. But when she 
 
 M 2
 
 244 PIN MONEY. 
 
 found herself actually seated to be examined 
 by the curious eye of art with the full glare of 
 a May sunshine beaming on her face, while 
 Lady Olivia, who could not be contented to 
 absent herself from the first sitting, fidgeted 
 up and down, tormenting the artist with ad- 
 vice, and her niece with comments which she 
 dared not derange her features by answering 
 with proper spirit, her heart was sickened with 
 petty irritations. Although Lady Olivia no 
 longer cared a straw whether Miss Elbany 
 chose to sit for a hundred and fifty pictures, 
 or even whether her nephew chose to render 
 himself responsible for their cost, yet such 
 was her inquisitiveness that she tortured her 
 niece by her ill-bred mode of pushing her 
 inquiries on a point which so little seemed to 
 concern her ; and Lady Rawleigh sincerely 
 rejoiced when her hour of penance was at 
 an end, and Monsieur Rochard bowed her 
 signal of release. 
 
 *' Is Storr your jeweller, my dear?'' said her 
 aunt, as they stepped into the carriage; and 
 upon Lady Rawleigh's affirmative, Lady Olivia
 
 PIN MONEY. 245 
 
 gave orders that they should be driven to Bond- 
 street. 
 
 " You must not ask me to get out," said 
 Frederica; " I was in hopes we were going 
 straight home, that I might put on my mornings 
 dress." 
 
 '^ Enveloped in your mantle, no one perceives 
 your evening costume; and I will lend you 
 my veil," said the merciless Lady Olivia, throw- 
 ing over the beautiful head of her companion a 
 white web, whose consistency might have 
 served on an exigency for a tablecloth, but 
 which called itself British lace. " You must 
 not refuse me the gratification of seeing you 
 choose a settins; for these," she continued, — 
 taking out a little box pestiferous with musk, 
 containing a set of Roman Mosaics large 
 enough to have decorated the Lord Mayor's 
 state harness. " I flatter myself they are par- 
 ticularly fine ; — they were chosen for me by my 
 poor dear friend. Cardinal Gonsalvi, and I had 
 always intended them as a cadeau for Launces- 
 ton's bride ; but since he is to marry a daughter
 
 246 PIN MONEY* 
 
 of Mr. Waddlestone, I might just as well offer 
 her a necklace of walnut-shells." 
 
 " But surely we had better defer our visit to 
 Storr and Mortimer's till a more convenient op- 
 portunity," said Lady Rawleigh, who looked 
 upon Mosaics as much fitter for the Museum 
 than the jewel-box, but who was unwilling to 
 offend her aunt by declining so handsome a 
 
 gift. 
 
 " No time like the present ! " said her lady- 
 ship, bustling out of the carriage, and waiting 
 anxiously on the stairs of the show-room, till 
 she saw herself followed by her niece; and 
 in a moment a tempting variety of beautiful 
 settings was extended upon the counter for 
 their selection, which Frederica at first mo- 
 destly left to the determination of the donor. 
 But in the course of the discussion upon filigree 
 and Gothic, matted gold and embossed, she 
 discovered that, although the Mosaics were a 
 gift from her aunt, her own jeweller had 
 been pointedly selected, that she might order 
 the mounting at her own expense; and al-
 
 PIN MONEY. 247 
 
 though she profited by this very unsatisfac- 
 tory discovery to choose the least costly mode 
 of rendering the unwelcome present available, 
 Lady Rawleigh dared not indulge her inclination 
 and declare the Roman valuables which she had 
 politely accepted as beautiful, to be in truth the 
 most hideous things in the world ! 
 
 But her misfortunes did not end here. — • 
 While she was determining the shape of the 
 comb, which was to be surmounted with views 
 of the Coliseum, — of the temples at Poestum, 
 — and the amphitheatre of Verona — (a port- 
 able abridgment of Piranesi) — she heard the 
 voice of Lord Calder at the opposite counter, 
 reproving the delay of his order for a set of 
 malachite handled knives and forks ; and felt 
 that her project of excusing herself from at- 
 tending his supper-party that night, on the 
 plea of indisposition, was now out of the ques- 
 tion. Even her momentary hope of escaping 
 his lordship's notice in an area so contracted, 
 was lost when Mrs. William Erskyne, flying 
 up the stairs, rushed towards her. 
 
 Fred. — my dear love, I saw your carriage 
 
 (C
 
 248 PIN MONEY. 
 
 waiting, and am just come to tell you that 
 I have made a most delightful party for the 
 races on Friday. I have engaged horses in 
 your name and mine : — it is only ten guineas, 
 and I know you are as rich as Rothschild. — 
 But why are you eji 7nascarade this morning?" 
 
 *' Hush ! hush ! — I have been sitting for my 
 picture. But do not let me detain you; — I 
 really cannot join your party on Friday, — I 
 will explain to you why." 
 
 *^ No, no I — I want no explanations — I never 
 listen to them, — mere fibs en habit de cour! 
 I have made up my mind to have you, and 
 never allow myself to be disappointed ; — good 
 bye ! — Good morning, Mr. Storr ! — what put 
 it into your head to send in my bill ? — I have 
 not the least idea of paying it." 
 
 " Whenever you please, Madam," said the 
 civil jeweller, too well accustomed to the caprice 
 of fine ladies to be annoyed by her impertinent 
 folly; while Lord Calder, advancing towards 
 the discomfited Frederica, addressed the most 
 gracious compliments to her upon the confession 
 he had overheard respecting her portrait ; and
 
 J»IN MONEY, 249 
 
 upon the assurance he received from her ap- 
 pearance not only that the picture would be 
 taken at an auspicious moment, but that he 
 might hope for the pleasure of her company at 
 Calder House that night. 
 
 There appeared no alternative but acquies- 
 cence ; and having gladly escaped from further 
 observation by hastily terminating her commis- 
 sion, Frederica threw herself into a coriier of the 
 carriage, completely out of humour. From Lady 
 Olivia, however, she received nothing but con- 
 gratulations on Lord Calder's flattering de- 
 meanour. Her ladyship had long regarded with 
 profound reverence his manifold virtues ; — from 
 the power of granting government franks, to the 
 presidency over the most magnificent establish- 
 ment in the three kingdoms of Great Britain. 
 The merits of his Italian confectioner alone would 
 have sufficed t» ensure her unalterable respect. 
 
 But Frederica was neither born interested, 
 nor had achieved interestedness ; her mind was 
 yet undegraded by those cares of vulgar life 
 which spring from the bills of many a Christ- 
 mas, and like certain balefu] weeds which wind 
 
 M 3
 
 250 PIN MONEY. 
 
 round some plant till they crush it into extinc- 
 tion, — destroy all the finer impulses of a noble 
 nature. Reared in the lap of prosperity, she 
 had scarcely come in contact with the words 
 *' income, allowance, expenditure, debt, credit, 
 or creditor;'* even the embarrassments of her 
 brother were on too wholesale a scale to give 
 her the slightest notion that a sovereign was 
 composed of only twenty shilhngs. She knew 
 that 'between rich and poor there existed an 
 awful discrepancy; but of the facility with 
 which the rich become poor, or the humiliations 
 arising from pecuniary distress — she enter- 
 tained a vague and shadowy conception. Even 
 among the uneasy meditations of her easy chair, 
 when she was summoning around her every 
 painful image at her command, she very slightly 
 reminded herself that she had expended eighty 
 pounds on a horse, seventy on a fountain, a hun- 
 dred on an opera-box, besides a considerable sum 
 for the court-dress ^nd the mosaic necklace ; be- 
 lieving that four hundred pounds pin-money 
 would not only handsomely cover the amount of 
 these expenses and of the miniature, but would
 
 PIN MONEY. 251 
 
 leave her, according to her mental calculations, 
 a very satisfactory balance to fulfil her usual 
 charities at Rawleighford. 
 
 Very different and far less consolatory were 
 the moral reflections which kept the volume of 
 " Adele de Senanges " unopened in her hand ! 
 - — Sir Brooke was gone, — gone for the first time, 
 — gone with a filmy veil of mutual dissatisfac- 
 tion still unremoved from between their affec- 
 tion; — gone upon a contemptible errand of brib- 
 ing his way into Parliament; — gone with that 
 hard ungainly mass of human insensibility, Mr. 
 Lexley; — gone nominally for four days,— and 
 virtually for as many more as it might suit his 
 truant fancy to determine. And how was she 
 about to beguile the period of his absence,— 
 his first absence, — his confiding absence ? By 
 engaging herself in a society which she knew 
 he must disapprove, — by visiting Calder House 
 for the first time unsanctioned by the support of 
 her husband ! — Twice she rose and seized the 
 embossed blotting-book (that prettiest of Hard- 
 ing's importations), and twice she dipped her 
 agate pen into the back of the silver tortoise
 
 252 PIN MONEY. 
 
 which graced her writing-table, to write an ex- 
 cuse. But what could she say in such an 
 emergency? — Another engagement was nega- 
 tived by her original acceptance of the invita- 
 tion ; and pretended indisposition was rendered 
 impossible by her morning's encounter. Al- 
 ready she foresaw the sneers of Mrs. William 
 Erskyne, who had witnessed the engagement, 
 and would readily detect the motive of its in- 
 fringement, on her prudish timidity; — already 
 she anticipated the reproaches of her aunt Tad- 
 caster upon her indifference towards the main- 
 tenance of a good connexion in society ; — and 
 when [at length Mrs. Pasley, after a profes- 
 sional tap at the door, ushered in the Figaro 
 of the day bearing a garland of such wheat- 
 ears as were never beheld saving in a Dun- 
 stable cornfield, or Nattier's magazin, while 
 the lady's maid assiduously lighted the 'tapers 
 on the dressing-table, Frederica threw aside 
 her pen and] Madame de Souza with an air 
 of self-resignation becoming a martyr; nor 
 allowed one smile to irradiate her lovely face 
 when she beheld it surrounded with aerial
 
 PIN MONEY. 253 
 
 curls, illuminated by the reflection of her dia- 
 mond earrings, and enhanced by a flowing robe 
 whose satin foldings would have rejoiced the 
 courtly pencil of Vandyke. — 
 
 There was just one single shade of care 
 hngering upon her brow, as she ascended 
 the princely staircase at Calder House; which, 
 unlike the laboured decorations of a Mrs> 
 Luttrell, assumed nothing more than its or- 
 dinary character of refined magnificence. — It 
 was neither divested with penurious housewifery 
 of its Persian carpeting, nor embowered with 
 temporary verdure ; — the antique statues grac- 
 ing its niches were permanent, and the bronze 
 lamps displaying their classic beauties, of 
 nightly illumination. Frederica concluded that 
 she had been preceded by the groom of the 
 chambers; for she was met in one of the first 
 chambers of the suite by Lord Calder himself, 
 who led her forward to the saloon in which 
 his guests were assembled. For a moment she 
 fancied that there was somethino- rather too 
 much resembling an ai?' de prince in the tone 
 of his reception ; but when he had placed her
 
 254 PIN MONEY. 
 
 in a fauteuil in the most advantageous position- 
 for hearing the concert now about to commence, 
 and stood beside her listening with deferential 
 attention to her flattering comments, she began 
 to think that if Lord C alder were as grandiose 
 in his address as Louis XIV., he was quite as 
 courteous, and far more entertaining; — and to 
 determine that one of her first studies should 
 be to get rid of that maiivaise honte which ren- 
 dered her conversation so unworthy the pains 
 he took to draw it forth. 
 
 It is surprising in how short a time the weari- 
 ness which had previously oppressed the spirits 
 of Lady Rawleigh, subsided under the influ- 
 ence of the thousand joyous sounds and sights 
 by which she was now surrounded; and her 
 heart became as much the lighter from its 
 previous despondency, as the sun shines with 
 a clearer radiance after the dispersion of its 
 morning mist. After the lapse of two short 
 hours she was tempted to acknowledge to her- 
 self that, in spite of her former prejudices, she 
 had never found herself surrounded by society 
 so faultlessly agreeable as that of Calder
 
 PIN MONEY, 255 
 
 House. It is true she found none of her own 
 immediate friends included in its fastidious 
 circle, — from which her mother would have 
 been rejected as insipid, her brother as a boor, 
 her husband as a nonentity, and her aunt 
 Tadcaster as the most insupportable of human 
 bores. But all its sitting members were of the 
 choicest fashion ; — women just hovering on 
 the verge of indiscretion, without having for- 
 feited their reputation ; — and men incapable of 
 uttering a word unworthy to be quoted, either 
 for its eminent wit or miraculous absurdity. 
 There was not a single person in that match- 
 less coterie otherwise than superlatively gifted 
 to conduce to the general gratification of eye 
 or ear. 
 
 As soon as the distinguished notice bestowed 
 by Lord C alder upon Frederica had pointed 
 her out to be deserving the homage of society, 
 Lady Rawleigh found herself smothered in 
 incense. But it is not with those fragrant 
 fumes first circling around us that we dis- 
 cover the paltry nature of the tribute; — in- 
 toxicated by its grateful vapour, we become
 
 256 PIN MONEY, 
 
 satisfied at once of our own divinity, and of 
 the laudable devotion of our votaries ; — and 
 time and experience alone render the unnatural 
 atmosphere oppressive to our feelings. Lord 
 Putney begged leave to present to her Mr. 
 Vaux, the most fashionable w^it of the day, 
 who had long been ambitious of the honour 
 of her acquaintance, — and poor Frederica in- 
 genuously imagined that he had been attracted 
 by the reputation of her talents; while Lady 
 Rochester, by her eager request to her brother 
 Lord Calder, for an introduction to " the beau- 
 tiful Lady Rawleigh," convinced her that all 
 London was ringing with the fame of her charms. 
 Meanwhile the following dialogue was carried on 
 at her expense on the opposite side of the room. 
 
 " My dear Vaux ! — who was that pretty crea- 
 ture whose vacant smiles you were trying to 
 Pygmalionise into intelligence just now ? '* 
 
 " Oh ! my Galatea is by no means so marble 
 as she appears. She is the wife of some booby 
 Baronet — some Warwickshire Squire, — who ap- 
 pears to have just sense enough to let her loose 
 on society, without his stupid presence hung
 
 PIN MONEY. 257 
 
 like a clog round her neck to keep her from 
 ranging. Such people generally imagine that 
 human beings are still expected to walk 
 upon the earth in couples, like their own 
 hounds ; or like the varnished wooden effigies 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Japhet, in a Dutch Noah's 
 Ark." 
 
 " And how did you coax your statue into 
 humanity, and off its pedestal ? " 
 
 '' I tell you 'tis no statue, — but a wood- 
 nymph, — a Warwickshire hamadryad ! As soon 
 as I began to indulge her rustic predilections, 
 and rodomontade to her about sunrise and 
 sunset, ' rapid Vaga,' and the Malvern hills, 
 she talked as much poetry as would have fur- 
 nished half-a-dozen very decent sonnets to the 
 best Annual going. I expected every moment 
 she would invite me to botanize with her in 
 Jenkins's conservatories, or take a stroll in 
 Kensington Gardens ; but I gave her to under- 
 stand J was a classique rather than a roman- 
 tique ; and that my rheumatism preferred a 
 vapour-bath to all the fountains of Helicon." 
 I thought her lovely face became over- 
 
 u
 
 258 PIN MONEY. 
 
 clouded by a contemptuous frown while you 
 were uttering your impertinences." 
 
 ^' Wrong — quite wrong — believe me ; — tlie 
 dear little creature is far from malicious ! — I 
 assure you she swallowed Lady Rochester's 
 civilities as eagerly as if they had been candied 
 by the Fidele Berger.'' 
 
 " And what could Lady Rochester find to 
 say to a sweet modest creature like that, on 
 whom all the glaring audacity of her wit must 
 have been so completely thrown away? She 
 has not the least notion how to talk to a 
 woman; and when repeating like a parrot or 
 a starling the phrases addressed to herself, 
 sometimes produces the most singular samples 
 of conversation ! " 
 
 *' Her business with Lady Rawleigh was 
 neither to talk nor to listen; — did you not 
 detect the motive which induced her to sail 
 across the room ? " 
 
 • " Like a yacht manoeuvring at a regatta ?— 
 No indeed ! — I saw her glass diligently applied 
 to her eye." 
 
 " Poor soul ! — she fancies that a woman's
 
 PIN MONEY. 259 
 
 complexion is as extraneous as a man's coat; 
 and on seeing a pretty person for the first 
 time, instantly tries to detect whether her 
 beauty is liquid or vegetable ; bought at Lu- 
 bin's, Delcroix's, or Bayley and Blew's. I 
 have no doubt she fancies she has found out my 
 goddess's secret, and has qualified herself to 
 offer an exact copy of Lady Rawleigh to- 
 morrow night at Almack's.'* 
 
 " As like as a crimson dahlia to a damask 
 rose !^why cannot she paint after one of her 
 own granddaughters ? — Ah ! I see the debutante 
 has met with unqualified success; — Calder is 
 taking her down to her carriage, — a thing I 
 never saw him do to any one but the beautiful 
 Duchess of Lancaster." 
 
 '' I shall leave my name with her to-morrow, 
 for I predict that she will make some stir among 
 us. So much the better! — we were sadly in 
 want of a new planet in this old solar system of 
 ours. I suspect that our fixed stars, such as 
 Lady Rochester, and Lady Waldington, Lady 
 Blanche, and the duchess, will be compelled to 
 hide their diminished heads in a total eclipse ! '*
 
 260 PIN MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 ^Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, 
 
 Another thing to fall ! — 
 
 MEASURE FOn MEASURE. 
 
 On the following day, just as Frederica, 
 after returning too late from Rochard's to 
 change her dress and finish a letter to Sir 
 Brooke in time for the post, had seated herself 
 with hurried eagerness at her writing table, in 
 the full costume of her seance, Martin sud- 
 denly threw open the door of the drawing-room, 
 and announced — " Lord Calder ! " — The sapient 
 Mr. Thomas had not chosen to conceive it 
 possible that my lady's general fiat of exclusion 
 could extend to that privileged mortal, who 
 conducted her so familiarly to her carriage on 
 the preceding night.
 
 PIN MONEY. 261 
 
 Frederlca profiting by the leisurely pace at 
 which she knew her dignified friend to be ascend- 
 ing the stairs, hastily exclaimed "How stupid ! — 
 I have letters to write for the post, and desired 
 I might on no account be interrupted ;" and ac- 
 cordingly when the attentive butler had closed 
 the door upon his mistress and her inopportune 
 guest, he issued peremptory orders in the hall 
 that " no person was to be admitted to my lady, 
 not on no account whatsoever." Now Thomas, 
 who had lived with a sufficient variety of capri- 
 cious fine ladies to perfect his education, saw 
 nothing unusual or remarkable in the order; 
 but proceeded to enforce it with so much 
 exactness, that when Lord Launceston shortly 
 afterwards knocked at the door — before which 
 Lord Calder's carria2:e and slumberino- servants 
 were leisurely drawn up — he was assured again 
 and again, that Lady Rawleigh was " not at 
 home." 
 
 Casting a suspicious glance at the sombre 
 chariot, — which, although ungraced by a single 
 .emblazonment bespeaking the rank of its owner, 
 was marked by the beauty of its horses, and the 
 
 ^
 
 262 PIN MONEY. 
 
 neatness of its appointments to belong to some 
 person of high consideration, — to say nothing 
 of the impudence of the footman, whose cane 
 and left leg were dangling over the corner of 
 the dark green hammercloth with an air of 
 defiance which plainly bespoke them to be ap- 
 purtenances to an establishment of sixty or 
 eighty thousand a-year, — Lord Launceston in- 
 quired to whom that equipage belonged. 
 
 " Really can't say, my lord : — but her lady- 
 ship is visible to nobody, on no account what- 
 ever." 
 
 Lord Launceston replied to this piece of 
 impertinence by jumping off his horse, throwing 
 the bridle to his informant, and walking de- 
 liberately into the house and up stairs ; when, 
 to his surprise and consternation, on entering 
 the second drawing-room he found his sister, 
 at five o'clock in the day, robed in white satin 
 with her arms and shoulders in the full ex- 
 posure of an evening toilet ; while Lord Calder 
 reposing in an opposite arm-chair, gazed upon 
 her loveliness with ill-concealed admiration. 
 Unfortunately Lord Launceston had just a
 
 PIN MONEY. 263 
 
 sufficient club-acquaintance with Frederica's 
 noble guest, to render that introduction su- 
 perfluous which might have disguised the em- 
 barrassment of the group ; for the cold and 
 even haughty bows which were exchanged 
 between the gentlemen only tended to heighten 
 the blushes and vexation of Lady Rawleigh, 
 on being discovered in so singular a pre- 
 dicament by her brother during the absence 
 of her husband. 
 
 " You may see by my dress that I have been 
 following the fashion of all vain women, my 
 dear Launceston," said she, attempting to 
 laugh away her distress, " by sitting for my 
 picture ; but pray do not mention it to Raw- 
 ieisfh or mamma, for I intend that it should be 
 an agreeable surprise." 
 
 " I should think it would probably be a very 
 agreeable surprise to your husband," said Lord 
 L., sarcastically. " I was not aware," bowing 
 to Lord Calder, " that your lordship was a 
 practitioner in ih^jine arts ? " 
 
 ^ You do me too much honour, and greatly 
 overi"tite my abilities," said his lordship, de-
 
 264 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ciding from the loud voice and ungracious de- 
 meanour assumed by Lady Rawleigh's brother, 
 that he was even a more uncouth savage than 
 he had always appeared in the betting-stand 
 at Ascot or Doncaster, or on the driving seat of 
 his barouche. " I should indeed despair of 
 conveying to others my own vivid impression 
 of Lady Rawleigh's countenance; and am 
 therefore disinterested enough to rejoice that 
 she has selected the pencil of Rochard to per- 
 petuate its present aspect." 
 
 " Rochard ? " said Lord Launceston with 
 an expressive glance of inquiry towards her 
 sister. " How long has this mysterious portrait 
 been projected? I was at Rochard's myself 
 a day or two ago, and did not hear a word 
 of it." 
 
 " Oh, mysterious portraits are the order of 
 the day," observed Frederica, — resuming her 
 spirit, when she perceived the unnecessary air 
 of harshness and authority assumed by her 
 brother, — a harshness which her own perfect 
 blamelessness strongly induced her to resent ; 
 " and I am determined not to tell you a single
 
 PIN MONEY. 265 
 
 word about my picture, that I may ascertain 
 whether I am as expert as yourself in keeping 
 a secret." 
 
 '^ I never had a secret bad enough or good 
 enough to be worth keeping/' said Lord Laun- 
 ceston, with increasing asperity. " Mystery 
 presupposes guilt; — a crape over the face is 
 enough in itself to proclaim the plunderer or 
 the assassin." 
 
 Lord Calder, perceiving from the tone and 
 emphasis of the intrusive Launceston that his 
 observations were intended to be personal, 
 although — being ignorant of the suspicious 
 negative his lordship had encountered at the 
 door, he was wholly at a loss to what motive 
 to attribute his intemperance of speech, no 
 attempted to change the character of the con- 
 versation, by generalizing this latter comment 
 and flying off to the brigands of the south of 
 Italy, and the obsolete highwaymen of Bag- 
 shot-heath. But notwithstandins: the ad- 
 mirable humour with which he described his 
 own traditional encounter with the celebrated 
 Abershavv, while yet an infant lying on his 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 PIN MONEY. 
 
 lady-mother's knees, in the now familiar haunt 
 of Park-lane, — notwithstanding his pictu- 
 resque sketch of the manner in which the 
 notorious band of Alzaretti deposited the 
 murdered body of a Romagnese physician under 
 the portico of the pope's palace on Monte- 
 Cavallo towards the Strada Pi a, during his 
 own residence in Rome, — Lord Launceston was 
 determined not to be entertained. — He sat 
 listlessly rolling up the hearth-rug with his 
 boot, as if his thoughts were wandering a thou- 
 sand miles off. 
 
 At length Lord Calder, unused to find him- 
 self de trop in any society, rose to take leave. 
 
 As he bent his low obeisance of farewell to 
 
 » 
 Frederica, he observed half interrogatively, " I 
 
 shall have the pleasure of seeing you to-night 
 
 at Almack's ? " When perceiving her brother's 
 
 angry scrutiny fixed upon her movements and 
 
 reply, she answered with the most gracious bow 
 
 she could contrive to execute, — " Certainly ! 
 
 and as I am to call for my friend Mrs. Erskyne, 
 
 I shall probably be there earlier than usual." 
 
 " Is that your ordinary mode of making an
 
 PIN MONEY. 267 
 
 assignation, Frederica?" inquired her brother, 
 when Lord Calder quitted the room. 
 
 " Pray do not interrupt me just now with 
 idle inquiries/' said she flying to her writing ; 
 *' or I shall be too late for the post ; but sit 
 down, and make me out a frank for Mart- 
 wich." 
 
 " You had better not give me any such com- 
 mission, or I may perhaps be tempted to insert 
 a postscript in the envelope, recommending 
 Rawleigh to return without delay, and inter- 
 cept the interviews between his wife and a set 
 of fashionable libertines," 
 
 " Do, if you like, — he will be delighted to 
 find me grown so popular ; but make haste, for 
 I hear the last bell — " 
 
 Lord Launceston took the letter from her 
 hands, and directed it with a gesture of impa- 
 tience. 
 
 " I think I shall go to Almack's myself to- 
 night," said he. 
 
 " By all means ! " cried his sister ; '^ you 
 have not been there this season. But how will 
 you tear yourself from Waddlestone House ? " 
 
 K2
 
 268 PIN MONEY. 
 
 *' I was there last night." 
 
 " And how will they get on in Charles-street 
 without you ? " 
 
 " I shall remain with my mother till ten 
 o'clock; after which, I shall devote myself to 
 watching over the welfare of a sister whom I 
 once believed superior to the necessity for any 
 vigilance of mine." 
 
 '' My welfare will be very ill protected unless 
 you hasten down to King-street, to look after a 
 spare ticket. The patronesses are seldom there 
 after five o'clock ; and among tJienij you will not 
 be permitted to assume the ungracious hector- 
 ing airs which the affection of your sister in- 
 duces her to pardon when exhibited towards 
 herself." 
 
 Lord Launceston, who had been looking at 
 his watch during the earlier part of this apos- 
 trophe, was half-way down stairs ere it was 
 concluded ; and had alighted at Willis's before 
 Frederica dried the flood of tears with which 
 her vexation relieved itself after his depar- 
 ture. She had lived two-and-twenty years in 
 the closest intimacy of sisterly affection with
 
 PIN MONEY. 269 
 
 her brother WiUiam, and he had never breathed 
 one syllable of harsh reproof to her before. But 
 since his familiarization with that forward and 
 impertinent Miss Elbany, Lord Laimceston's 
 manners and conversation had become strangely 
 unprepossessing ! — She consoled herself with 
 the hope and expectation that her brother 
 would find the conclave in King-street com- 
 pletely broken up ; and that he would be pre- 
 vented, by the impossibility of procuring a ticket, 
 from rendering her evening as unsatisfactory as 
 her morning. 
 
 Among the incidents and passions influenc- 
 ing the variabilities of woman's humour, few are 
 more potent, yet more indignantly disavowed, 
 than the love of finery. From the moment' a 
 girl becomes conscious of the difference be- 
 tween sky-blue and rose-colour, it is astonish- 
 ing what wonders can be wrought in the temper 
 of her mind, and mood of her feelings, by the 
 acquisition of a new dress or the sight of some 
 particular friend's Parisian bonnet ; and there 
 scarcely exists a woman wise or virtuous enough 
 to be insensible to the change produced in her
 
 270 PIN MONEY. 
 
 appearance by variation of attire. Goldsmith 
 knew more of womankind than they know 
 of themselves, when he made Dr. Primrose 
 declare that a set of new ribbons sufficed to me- 
 tamorphose his philosophical daughter Sophia 
 into a coquette ! 
 
 Lady Rawleigh, saddened by her husband's 
 absence and vexed by the contretemps, of the 
 morning, entered her dressing-room at night to 
 prepare for Almack's, with a mien of sober 
 wisdom such as might have become Mrs. Eli- 
 zabeth Carter and formed an edifying frontis- 
 piece to her translation of Epictetus. But 
 when, on opening the door, a bevy of female 
 domestics took flight like a covey of par- 
 tridges through the opposite entrance, to 
 whom Mrs. Pasley had been displaying " my 
 lady's court-dress, and my lady's sumsious 
 plume just mounted by Monsieur Nardin," — 
 and Frederica, through the door of the open 
 commode, caught a glimpse of the splendours 
 which were to enhance her public appear- 
 ance on the morrow, — she crossed the room 
 with a lighter step; and a regret arose in
 
 PIN MONEY. 271 
 
 her bosom, that Sir Brooke's absence and 
 her mother's indisposition would deprive her 
 of the support of their presence, and them- 
 selves of the gratification of witnessing her 
 triumph ; — for triumph it must be, — or her 
 second glance at the glistening satin and 
 waving feathers had strangely deceived her. 
 In defiance of her previous intentions, she even 
 complied with Pasley's request that she would 
 wear her set of turquoises at the ball, in order 
 that her diamonds might be free from a particle 
 of dust for the drawino:-room. 
 
 To own the truth, the " three-piled hyperbole " 
 of the lady's maid that my lady was in too good 
 looks to need the " forrun haid of hornament," 
 was rather less figurative than many of Mrs. Pas- 
 ley's suggestions; Frederica's cheek was flushed 
 with the flurry of her spirits, and her eyes were 
 irradiated with the unnatural brilliancy which 
 a heightened complexion naturally imparts. 
 Scarcely had she entered the ball-room at Wil- 
 lis's, when Mrs. Erskyne spitefully whispered 
 in her ear, " My dear Fred., you must have cer^ 
 tainly rubbed your face against one of the red
 
 272 PIN MONEY. 
 
 morocco library chairs, or Sir Brooke's yeo- 
 manry uniform, or your rouge is full three shades 
 too deep ! " — an observation which deepened 
 the flush of Lady Rawleigh's blushing cheeks 
 full three shades more ; while Lady Rochester, 
 no longer solicitous to decompose so exagge- 
 rated a complexion, shook her head, and com- 
 plained aloud that the true French pink had 
 never been worn by a single Englishwoman 
 since the days of the beautiful Lady Coventry ; 
 — that even Lord Calder's new Venus did not 
 find herself at all times sufficiently fair to ven- 
 ture upon rouge of real delicacy." 
 
 Delicate or indelicate, the augmented bril- 
 liancy of Frederica's complexion was received 
 with universal applause; and while she ad- 
 vanced side by side with Mrs. William Er- 
 skyne indiscreetly escorted by a single ad- 
 mirer, she found herself followed by half-a- 
 dozen; by Sir Robert Morse buzzing his in- 
 discriminate flatteries with the drone of a blue- 
 bottle fly, — Lord Putney occasionally breaking 
 forth into some bitter sarcasm, intended to 
 brand him with the reputation of romantic
 
 PIN MONEY. 273 
 
 misanthropy, — Colonel Rhyse unconsciously 
 tendering to her acceptance some of those cut- 
 and-dried sentences of ready-made admiration 
 which he had bestowed upon the successive 
 beauties of that ball-room (and Miss Rawdon 
 among the number) for the last fifteen years, — 
 a young Guardsman, galoppe-mad, tormenting 
 her to augment the list of unhappy females 
 whom his awkwardness had assisted to stretch 
 upon the slippery boards, — and Lord George 
 Madrigal, the Bayley of the aristocracy, whose 
 witticisms are unfortunately borrowed from the 
 most approved authorities, and whose poetry 
 — still more unfortunately — is unquestionably 
 original, and borrowed only from himself; a 
 young gentleman personifying, according to his 
 own lisping ptvonunthiaiho7i, 
 
 The ecthpectanthy and wothe of the fair thate ! 
 
 It was the first time Lady Rawleigh had 
 appeared in public without her husband; and 
 she was astonished to find that in her 
 independent position of matron, she was a 
 thousand times more in want of the sanction 
 of her own sex, than she had ever been as 
 
 N.3
 
 274 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Frederica Rawdon, A ball-room is the na- 
 tural element of extreme youth,— the becom- 
 ing sphere of an unmarried girl ; but a young 
 wife seems to need some excuse for her 
 presence there unsupported by her husband's 
 company. She is rejected from the sofas of 
 the elderly chaperons, — who regard her as an 
 interloper, and suspend in her presence their 
 mutual inquiries into the extent of young Lord 
 Priory's rent-roll; — the young ladies shrink 
 from her with the briefest possible replies to 
 her observations and civilities, in order that 
 they may resume their private flirtations and 
 partner-hunts; — and unless by joining in the 
 dance she chooses to avoid the perils of her 
 isolation, it passes into a general opinion that 
 she is there to flirt, and to he flirted with. 
 
 Very soon after Lady Rawleigh's entrance 
 she found herself deserted by Mrs. Erskyne, 
 who went off to waltz, and to repose herself 
 afterwards in one of the least ostensible 
 corners of the tea-room; and unwilling to 
 linger near the ropes with the homage of 
 so extensive a group devoted to herself, she
 
 PIN MONEY. 275 
 
 accepted the arm of Sir Robert Morse, — her 
 oldest and least attractive acquaintance among 
 them, — and retired to an upper sofa, on which 
 her intimate friends and country-neighbours, 
 Lady Lawford and Lady Huntingfield, were 
 seated in rigid chaperonship ; with fan in 
 hand and glassy eyes fixed upon their several 
 daughters, like the immobile effigies of the 
 Queen and Princesses arranged in chairs of 
 state at Mrs. Salmon's wax-work ! But to her 
 great embarrassment they became, on her ar- 
 rival, as mute as the puppets in question ; and 
 she found herself treated with a degree of 
 polite reserve, plainly indicating that they 
 regarded her as twenty years too young for 
 the station she had chosen. How could Lady 
 Lawford continue in her presence the narrative 
 with which she had been recreating Lady Hunt- 
 ingfield, concerning the extremely unhandsome 
 conduct pursued by Lord Putney towards her 
 niece Araminta, the preceding summer at Ryde ; 
 when it was so probable that his lordship's 
 friend. Sir Brooke Rawleigh's pretty wife might 
 acquaint him with every word of complaint
 
 276 PIN MONEY. 
 
 that proceeded from her lips ? — Or how could 
 Lady Huntingfield inquire of Lady Lawford 
 whether it was true that the estates of Lord 
 OfFaley (the father of Colonel Rhyse who was 
 dancing with her daughter Lady Margaret 
 Fieldham) were likely to come round, when 
 the affairs of Lord Launceston were so notori- 
 ously implicated in the same embarrassment ; 
 when there sat Lord Launceston's sister in judg- 
 ment upon their curiosity? 
 
 It was in vain that Frederica, with all that 
 persuasive gentleness characteristic of her de- 
 meanour, attempted to engage them in desul- 
 tory conversation, — in comments on the beauty 
 of Lady Osterley and the fascinations of Lady 
 Newby; — their monosyllabic replies plainly 
 expressed — " As Sir Brooke is boroughing 
 at Martwich, you certainly did not take the 
 trouble to dress and come to Almack's for the 
 purpose of twaddling with two respectable 
 middle-aged females who are here on busi- 
 ness, with their daughters. Do flirt with that 
 foohsh boy who is sighing his adoration at your 
 side, and leave us alone."
 
 PIN MONEY. 277 
 
 The former part of the hint, poor Frederica 
 in common courtesy was compelled to accept ; 
 for she found that it would be as easy to ex- 
 tract conversation from the posts of the or- 
 chestra as from the two chaperons, who 
 seemed as mutually engrossed as the partners 
 of a banking-house on their annual settling 
 day. But when, without adopting the latter 
 clause, she was obliged to accept faute de 
 mieux the tediousness so liberally bestowed 
 on her by Sir Robert Morse, she soon began 
 to find him encouraged by her graciousness 
 to mingle more gallantry in his humdrum dis- 
 course than suited with her taste, or amended 
 the awkwardness of her position; and as the 
 room was now crowded by the confusion follow- 
 ing the termination of a quadrille, she seized 
 the opportunity to affect an eager search after 
 her friend Louisa. 
 
 As she was about to enter the crowd, fol- 
 lowed by Sir Robert Morse with the offer of 
 his arm and an assurance that Mrs. Erskyne 
 was by no means in want of her chaperonage, 
 she noticed the stately figure of Lord C alder,
 
 278 PIN MONEY. 
 
 stationed in prominent dignity near the door, 
 — where he was enduring, with courteous pa- 
 tience, one of the most confused and elaborate 
 pieces of scandal which ever slid from the po- 
 lished lips of Lady Barbara Dynley; — one of 
 those factitious romances of fashionable life, 
 which are as deliberately narrated in the ball- 
 room or the opera-box, as if they were not ca- 
 pable of originating half-a-dozen fatal duels, — 
 a criminal trial or two, — a suicide, a divorce, 
 and the ruin of more than one family of re- 
 spectability. From such a penance, it may be 
 imagined that Lord Calder turned with unqua- 
 lified delight on perceiving the approaching 
 figure of the beautiful Frederica, arrayed in 
 more than all its usual loveliness ; nor can it 
 be concealed that when Lady Rawleigh found 
 herself, a few minutes afterwards, seated in the 
 embrasure of a window with the utmost spell 
 of his lordship's conversational powers exerted 
 for her amusement, she thought of her escape 
 from Sir Robert Morse with triumph, and of 
 
 her absence from her lord and master with 
 
 indifference
 
 PIN MONEY, 279 
 
 The vocation of libertinism is usually adopted 
 or affected with so much presumptuous vanity,— 
 it is so much the custom for men to believe that 
 it requires only an exertion of their own will to 
 become dangerous to the feebler sex, — that the 
 character of a roue is vulgarly considered to be- 
 long — like the profession of arms — ^to any fool 
 of fashion anxious to make it his own. But 
 libertinism of the higher order, — libertinism 
 which affects only dangerous and difficult con- 
 quests, — requires nearly as much talent, and 
 quite as much tact, as to become secretary of 
 state in either of its departments tripartite; 
 and Lord Calder was in the habit of exerting 
 as much diplomacy and political finesse in the 
 course of a single year in order to extend and 
 maintain his dominions in the female world, as 
 would have sufficed for the adjustment of a 
 barrier treaty, or effected a revolution in the 
 international law of half-a-dozen continental 
 states. 
 
 It is astonishing by what a singular exertion 
 of verbal and moral influence he contrived, in 
 half an houi^s conversation, to place Lady
 
 280 PIN MONEY. 
 
 Rawleigh completely at ease both with him 
 and with herself. Sir Robert Morse, in attempt- 
 ing to travel a similar road and render himself 
 personally attractive and important, had arrived 
 at a very different conclusion. His homage, 
 tender as it was, plainly implied to Frederica 
 that her accidental position was wholly mipro- 
 tected, — that she had neither husband, kinsman, 
 nor privileged adorer present to preserve her 
 from the ignominy of falling to the endurance of 
 the old Chaperons, the abhorrence of the danc- 
 inf^ young ladies, or the wretchedness of utter 
 isolation ; — and that it was her cue to receive his 
 attentions with graciousness and gratitude. The 
 consequence of this blind self-sufficiency recoiled 
 upon his own head ; she grew ashamed of her- 
 self, and disgusted with him for making her so. 
 But Lord C alder commenced his tactics in a 
 far more artificial and efficient manner, by 
 teaching her to fancy that she reigned in his 
 estimation as the queen of the ball-room ; that 
 he believed the whole assembly engaged by her 
 beauty, and devoted to her presence ; and that 
 her notice of an individual so obscure and
 
 PIN MONEY. 281 
 
 uninfluential as himself, could proceed only 
 from the unlimited benevolence of her disposi- 
 tion. His next effort was to lead her to an 
 opinion that the business of all persons not en- 
 gaged in dancing in a ball-room, is to pair off 
 and place themselves out of the way, that they 
 may not selfishly obstruct the amusements of 
 others; nor was it till he had fairly wrought 
 the mood of Lady Rawleigh to a very satis- 
 factory adoption of these principles, that he 
 attempted to produce a pleasing impression 
 upon her feelings by the high-bred grace of his 
 demeanour, and the fund of anecdote which 
 enabled him to vary its attractions. A man of 
 ordinary practice in his art, would probably 
 have turned to account the evident jealousy 
 with which his attentions were watched by 
 Lady Blanche Thornton, and occasionally in- 
 terrupted by the forward advances of Lady 
 Barbara Dynley. But Lord Calder was better 
 advised. He was well aware of the advantage 
 to be derived from rendering the interview un- 
 exceptionably calm and satisfactory, and grati- 
 fying to her feelings; he wished no unpleasing
 
 282 PIN MONEY. 
 
 association to connect itself with his friendship 
 in the mind of Frederica; — he trusted that his 
 manoeuvres would soon afford a species of habi- 
 tual repose to their intercourse ; — that 
 
 Parmi tous les gens du monde 
 On se clioisiroit tous les soirs 3 
 
 that they should shortly belong to each other 
 amid the tumult of society, by the same nega- 
 tive attraction which united the drunken ca- 
 valier and his horse, when all his companions 
 had mounted their steeds and ridden away. 
 " She is in truth," thought the wily Calder, 
 *'the most unexceptionably charming woman 
 to be found in the society I frequent; and 
 by letting her suppose that I was the first 
 to make the discovery, and determine the ver- 
 dict of the circle in her favour, her gratitude 
 will ensure me a distinguished place in her 
 preference." 
 
 *' You are going to the drawing-room to-mor- 
 row," said he. " Shall you not be annoyed by 
 making your first appearance there without the 
 sanction of your husband's attendance ? It is
 
 PIN MONEY. 283 
 
 to be lamented that Sir Brooke Rawleigh should 
 have selected so veri/ unlucky a moment to fol- 
 low the officious guidance of Mr. Lexley." 
 
 " I shall, indeed ! " replied Frederica, " and I 
 have been very anxious to postpone my presen- 
 tation. But a drawing-room is now of such 
 rare occurrence, and Rawleigh has insisted so 
 much on my profiting by the preparations I 
 have made for this disagreeable ceremony, that 
 I am obliged to persist in my original plan." 
 
 *' Oh ! if your dress is complete, I have not a 
 single word to say on the subject. I am aware 
 that the eloquence of a becoming costume is all- 
 convincing; nay, that many marriages have 
 been preserved from a rupture, merely because 
 the wedding-clothes were sent home. But who 
 presents you ? " — 
 
 " Lady Derenzy, a cousin of Sir Brooke's, — 
 and the infallible high mightiness of his 
 family." 
 
 " Quite right — my dear Lady Rawleigh ! 
 you could not have chosen better ; — a woman 
 who has totally outlived her fashion, influence, 
 and importance, but of the highest respectabi-
 
 284 PIN MONEY. 
 
 lity ; — exactly calculated to be the Mentor of a 
 young woman entering into life." 
 
 Lady Rawleigh regarding Lord C alder as 
 almost paternal in the tone of his counsels, lis- 
 tened with avidity to the suggestions of a man 
 so experienced in the customs and opinions of 
 the great world ; when, just as she was leaning 
 across the window, with her long throat bent 
 gracefully towards him, and her beautiful face 
 irradiated by a smile of gratitude for his in- 
 terest in her favour, she was suddenly struck by 
 the lowering countenance of Lord Launceston, 
 — fixed in angry scrutiny on her solitary inter- 
 view with one of the most dangerous, and dis- 
 sipated members of fashionable society! — 
 
 Involuntarily Frederica started, and turned 
 pale.
 
 PIN MONEY, 285 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Then 'gan tlie courtiers gaze on every side, 
 And stare on liim with big looks, bason-wide : 
 Wondering what mister wight he was, and whence; 
 For he was clad in strange accoustrements, 
 Fashioned with queint devices, never seen 
 In court before, — though there all fashions bin ; 
 Yet he them in newfangleness did pass. 
 
 Chaucer's " mother hubberd's tale." 
 
 '' The best method of avoiding danger/' said 
 a celebrated Hibernian orator, " is to meet it 
 plump ! *' — and the best mode of evading a 
 quarrel is sometimes by striking the first blow. 
 Lady Rawleigh having accordingly resolved to 
 forestal the expression of her brother's displea- 
 sure, beckoned him towards the window with a 
 smile of the most confiding innocency. — 
 
 " My dearest Laimceston ! what do you mean
 
 286 PIN MONEY. 
 
 by skulking at this extremity of the room, like 
 a chidden spaniel? — Notwithstanding your 
 anxiety to be here to-night, I never saw you 
 appear so little at ease." 
 
 " Nor you, my dear Lady Rawleigh, so much ; 
 — let us make a fairer and more becoming di- 
 vision of the family assurance," whispered Lord 
 Launceston, with a severe glance at her com- 
 panion. Then, appearing to repent his own 
 severity, he added " I am here with another 
 man's ticket. The lists of the two patronesses 
 to whom I applied were full, — not a single 
 ticket to be had, — but I had no difficulty in 
 persuading young Brancepeth that he was ex- 
 tremely indisposed, and might safely resign his 
 into my hands. Poor Willis is getting strangely 
 myoptic ! — for with the assistance of a bad cough 
 and a cambric handkerchief, I contrived that he 
 should mistake me for a man with a face frec- 
 kled like a Lincolnshire frog, with red hair, and 
 a snub nose ; but I am far more apprehensive 
 
 of encountering my kind friend Lady , who 
 
 made some inquiries for me among her sister 
 patronesses, and will naturally be anxious to
 
 PIN MONEY. 287 
 
 ascertain how I became more successful than 
 herself. In sot7ie things women are not so easily- 
 deceived." — 
 
 " After your recent compliments to my con- 
 fidence/' said Frederica, rising goodhumouredly 
 from her seat, to the surprise of her brother and 
 the vexation of Lord Calder, " you cannot pre- 
 sume to undervalue my countenance. Give me 
 your arm, and I will not only venture to con- 
 front the awful conclave, but to bear you blame- 
 less through their inquisitions." 
 
 Leaning upon her brother, and restored to a 
 proper sense of her own dignity by the support 
 of a person privileged to be her companion in 
 the eyes of the world. Lady Rawleigh now ven- 
 tured amid the most fastidious of the brilliant 
 groups from which she had hastily retreated on 
 the desertion of Mrs. Erskyne ; and even Lord 
 Launceston forgot his previous irritation, in the 
 gratified pride with which he observed the uni- 
 versal admiration commanded by the graceful 
 elegance of his sister. Frederica was sure to 
 please, — sure to receive a favourable award 
 from the severe jurors of society; for she formed
 
 288 PIN MONEY, 
 
 no pretensions which could jar with the interests 
 of any other person, nor affected the shghtest 
 claim upon the homage of the fashionable world. 
 Her female friends advanced to greet her with- 
 out the fear of rivalship ; and the male idlers of 
 the ball-room were satisfied that she sought no 
 partner, — no boa-carrier, — no carriage-caller, — 
 from among their well-drilled ranks. 
 
 As they quitted a little knot of friends 
 distinguished equally by rank, fashion, opu- 
 lence, and those talents of society which are ne- 
 cessary to uphold the distinction even of these 
 threefold advantages, Lady Rawleigh inquired 
 in a whisper of her brother how he should feel 
 in appearing at Almack's with the future Lady 
 Launceston ? 
 
 " My Leonora is too reasonable to be ambi- 
 tious of mingling in this gaudy throng," said 
 he, apparently more amused than vexed by the 
 query. 
 
 '^ Oh ! pardon me ! ' Every woman is at heart 
 a rake ;' and next to her coronation precedence, 
 I have very little doubt that Mrs. Waddlestone, 
 of Waddlestone House, values your privilege of
 
 PIN MONEY. 289 
 
 peerage, as her daughter's probable passport to 
 Almack's. But after all 
 
 Que vieudroit elle faire dans cette galere ? 
 
 " * To sit in a bay-window and see gallants,* 
 like Ben Jon son's heroine ; — to defy the night- 
 air and the breath of scandal, like Lord Calder's." 
 
 " My dear Launceston, you seem to have ac- 
 quired Mamma's apprehensions of catching- 
 cold ! But since you are so careful of my health 
 and reputation, why could you not, being aware 
 of Rawleigh's absence, deign to accompany me 
 hither, instead of loitering in Charles-street 
 fettered amid the doux accords — " 
 
 " Of Miss Elbany's harp ! — ^Allow me to an- 
 ticipate your retort. — Simply because you never 
 invited me to come, and because the beautiful 
 Lucy never desired me to go. I am as docile 
 as a spaniel." 
 
 " Remember then that I desire you will ac- 
 company me to-morrow to the drawing-room.'* 
 
 " I have no court-dress ready ; and I detest 
 drawing-rooms in general, and that^of to-morrow 
 in particular.'* 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 290 PIN MONEY. 
 
 '' You have your yeomanry uniform, and my 
 commands to wear it. Nay ! — do not refuse 
 me, — I have been earnestly in hopes of Raw- 
 leigh's return; — and it would be highly dis- 
 agreeable to me to find myself dependent on 
 Lady Derenzy." 
 
 " And still more so to me to find you exposed 
 to the protection of Lord Calder. Well ! — since 
 you require my attendance, Fred., I am bound 
 to devote myself to your service ; but I own T 
 have very little taste for the toil and tinsel of 
 these exhibitions." 
 
 Taking him at his word. Lady Rawleigh now 
 hastened to retire from the ball-room; and 
 on the following morning profited by his de- 
 clarations, and despatched the carriage to 
 bring him to Bruton-street, while she was en- 
 during the severe strictures of Mrs. Pasley's 
 hooks and eyes, and the still severer ones of 
 Lady Olivia Tadcaster's eyes and criticisms. 
 Her ladyship was fiercely indignant that any 
 coefFeur but Marshall should presume to plume 
 himself on distributing the plumage of a 
 court head ; and little less so, that any niece of
 
 PIN MONEY. 291 
 
 hers should venture to present herself, or be 
 presented at St. James's, without the prepara- 
 tion of a course of curtseying from Olivier. 
 " She remembered that she had been under the 
 tutorage of the celebrated Rose — (minuet Rose) 
 — six weeks previous to her own dehut ; she re- 
 collected that no young lady of her time ever 
 dreamed of appearing even at the old Duchess 
 of Cumberland's without a similar kind of train- 
 ing ; — she hoped and trusted that Lady Raw- 
 leigh would not disgrace the lappets she wore 
 by any dereliction from the habits of an ancient 
 and illustrious family." 
 
 *' My dearest aunt," said Frederica, with a 
 smile such as that ancient and honourable 
 family had rarely displayed among all its gene- 
 rations of dimples, while Pasley clasped on the 
 diamond necklace which completed her splendid 
 costume, " believe me, Marshall and minuets 
 are as obsolete as Marechal powder. You 
 might quite as reasonably require me to appear 
 in a hoop, or Launceston in red-heeled pumps." 
 
 " Well, my dear, — you will hear your mother's 
 opinion on the subject. As her rheumatism 
 
 O 2
 
 292 PIN MONEY. 
 
 would not permit her to assist at your toilet, 
 where I undertook to replace her superintendence, 
 I have promised to take you to Charles-street ; — 
 she is naturally very anxious that Miss Elbany 
 should see you." — 
 
 To exhibit herself for the amusement of Lady 
 Launceston's presumptuous companion, was a 
 provoking trial to Frederica's patience. But she 
 felt the impossibility of refusing a request 
 urged in her mother's name; an act of con- 
 ciliation for which she was rewarded on her 
 arrival, by Miss Elbany's supercilious observa- 
 tion that " the English custom of wearing 
 plumes with a French train, produced a species 
 of mermaid anomaly ; and that diamonds had a 
 miserable effect by day-light, — nothing could 
 be less becoming." 
 
 Slight as was the value attached by Frederica 
 to the judgment of such a person, all the self- 
 content with which she had contemplated her 
 own figure in the large swing-glass of her 
 dressing-room, vanished at once on hearing a 
 sentence of condemnation so coolly pronounced 
 on her appearance ; when lo ! the flush of in-
 
 PIN MONEY. 293 
 
 dignation which rose to her cheek only tended 
 to enhance the briUiancy of her beauty. A 
 moment before, she had been repining that Sir 
 Brooke was not present to give his opinion on 
 her costume; but she now rejoiced at the tardi- 
 ness of the Martwich corporation, and relaxed 
 in her enmity towards Mr. Lexley. It is aston- 
 ishing the effect that can be produced upon 
 the female mind by a single disparaging com- 
 ment; — the charming Duchess of Devonshire 
 was not more elated by the compliment of the 
 dustman who demanded a spark from her grace's 
 brilliant eyes to light his pipe, than poor Lady 
 Rawleigh was depressed by the sneer of the 
 despised Miss Elbany ! — But alas ! the future 
 mortifications of the day were destined to as- 
 sume a still more vexatious character. 
 
 Lady Derenzy, the grande dame of her hus- 
 band's family, who had undertaken the office of 
 ushering its new niece into the great world, was 
 one of those cold, hard, worldly women, who 
 regard the gentle tendernesses of Nature as 
 the portion of peasants and paupers ; yet dis- 
 dain the influence of fashion as being equally
 
 294 PIN MONEY 
 
 the dowry of parvenus and provincial aspirants. 
 — Her ladyship's notions had stopped short in 
 their progress with the close of the eighteenth 
 century. She still believed Edwin to be the 
 only comic actor on the stage; — had not yet 
 done wondering at Delpini's dexterity;- — ac- 
 knowledged her preference for Rauzzini, — her 
 adherence to Arne; — maintained that no public 
 amusement would ever rival the attractions of 
 E-anelagh, no private one the readings of Texier. 
 She was aware indeed that a few trivial changes 
 had been introduced into the march of modern 
 existence, — that such toys as steam-vessels and 
 Congreve rockets had been forced upon public 
 adoption; but she still cherished a visionary 
 notion that the good old times would one day 
 return ; — that people would once more sail to 
 Calais, in order to visit Paris, and be powder- 
 puffed by a friseur of the Faubourg St. Ger- 
 main; and that her grand nephews from Whitens 
 and the Travellers', would live to kneel and 
 crave her blessing in suits of pea-green lustring 
 or tose-coloured plush. 
 
 Even as the state-policy of the Chinese has
 
 PIN MONEY* 295 
 
 rendered contraband all human articles of mer- 
 chandise, and persists in declining the visits of 
 tour-making dandies and quarto-making lite- 
 rati, with a view to the perpetual retainment of 
 such pleasing delusions as the squareness of 
 the earth, and the unenlightenment of the in- 
 habitants of its surface, saving only those of the 
 canal-besprinkled provinces of the Celestial Em- 
 pire — Lady Derenzy discriminatingly forbore to 
 admit beneath her roof the paltry innovators of 
 the new century. She was as innocent of the 
 existence of Mechanics' Institutes, or manufac- 
 tures of useful knowledge, as the stiffest Tory 
 which ever closed its blinking eyes against the 
 new light, or contemned the rail-road of modern 
 intellectualization ; and having settled herself 
 during the reign of Strawberry Horace, in a 
 repertorium of old China, enamels, and lap- 
 dogs, at Twickenham, she rarely visited the re- 
 mote metropolis, excepting on important pub- 
 lic occasions, such as the accession of a new 
 sovereign ; or important private ones, such as 
 the marriage or death of one of the direct mem- 
 bers of the Derenzy family. She had been
 
 296 PIN MONEY. 
 
 highly gratified by the union of her favourite 
 nephew with a niece of Lady Olivia Tad- 
 caster, — whom she had regarded for the last 
 forty years as a very estimable young woman ; 
 and whereas she was in the habit of what she 
 was pleased to term, " paying her duty to their 
 majesties'' every ten or fifteen years — terrifying 
 the modern generation by the apparent resusci- 
 tation of a mummy, — she rather courted the 
 task of sponsorship to the new lady of Raw- 
 leighford. 
 
 It had been previously arranged that Lady 
 Rawleigh's carriage should follow that of her 
 antediluvian kinswoman ; and when on the re- 
 union of the two ladies in the entrance hall at 
 St. James's, amid the gold lace of the exons, 
 and the overture to the Freischiitz fiddle-faddled 
 in the quadrangle by the band of the guards, 
 Lady Derenzy perceived that Frederica had se- 
 cured the protection of her brother as their 
 escort, her ladyship launched a grim smile 
 of approbation on the person of the handsome 
 Launceston ; whose yeomanry-cavalry trappings 
 she mistook for those of the 7th Hussars,
 
 PIN MONEY. 297 
 
 and whose figure she involuntarily compared 
 with those of St. Leger and Boothby, the irre- 
 sistibles of her own day of beauty. 
 
 It was very amusing to observe the air of 
 maternal protection assumed by this ancient 
 lady towards many of her acquaintance among 
 the grisly dowagers ; who — being by ten years 
 her own juniors— she regarded as young crea- 
 tures, requiring her chaperonage as much as 
 when it first u&hered them into the coteries of 
 the Marchioness of Rockingham, or of the old 
 Princess Amelia. In many a withered fold 
 and wrinkle Lady Derenzy still beheld its ori- 
 ginal dimple, and saw nothing but the glossi- 
 ness of their long lost tresses in the frizzed 
 toupees of many a faded brow; — the immobility 
 of rheumatic joints she mistook for an air of lan- 
 guor — and the trembling of palsied heads for 
 the mincing of a coquettish demeanour. When- 
 ever Frederica could disengage her ow^n atten- 
 tion from the assiduities of which she was the 
 object on every side, and from the affectionate 
 greetings of various branches of her own noble 
 and extensive family, she could not but over- 
 
 O 3
 
 298 PIN MONEY. 
 
 hear snatches of the singular colloquies which 
 arose between her venerable companion and 
 certain of her superannuated contemporaries, 
 whose horrifically spectral appearance would 
 have entered into admirable partnership with 
 that of the phantom king of Denmark on the 
 bastions of Elsineur. And as she listened to 
 their courtly croakings, she thought of the 
 three awful '' cummers" assembled on the grave 
 stones of Ravenswood church, in the tale of 
 the Bride of Lammermuir ; of which the con- 
 clave of these ghastly antiques in velvet, with 
 diamonds glimmering like sepulchral lamps 
 beside their effigies, might have afforded a 
 parody. 
 
 " Saw you ever a more crowded drawing- 
 room V whispered Countess Ronthorst to the 
 old dowager Duchess of Trimblestown. 
 
 '' Crowded — umph !" mumbled her grace, 
 with a scowl that gleamed beneath her shaggy 
 brows like the glittering eyes of a wild beast in 
 the depths of some horrid cave overhung with 
 brambles. " Crowded like the hustings at 
 Covent Garden, and almost as noisy. — People
 
 PIN MONEY. 299 
 
 admitted who would be rejected from the long 
 parlour at the Easter dinner. It was not so in 
 the Queen's time; it all arises from the want of 
 female presidency. — Faugh ! " 
 
 " How haggard Lady Rochester is beginning 
 to look !" whispered Lady Lavinia Lisle, to 
 Countess Ronthorst. " Between ourselves, 
 they say she has had repeated paralytic warn- 
 ings, from the effects of the white lead with 
 which she has been stuccoing her face for the 
 last twenty years.'' 
 
 " Say rather from the effects of the Elixir de 
 Garus with which she has been poisoning her 
 system for the last ten. Women who begin at 
 twenty to take Eau de Cologne dropped on* 
 sugar whenever they feel out of spirits, are 
 seldom out of spirits at fifty-five. Lady 
 Rochester's necessaire has more Rosolio and 
 Alkermes in its crystal flasks, than Eau de 
 Ninon, or Bouquet des dames ! " observed 
 Lady Derenzy, joining the scandalous par- 
 liament. 
 
 " O fie ! '^ — said Lady Lavinia, affecting girl- 
 ish incredulity, yet refraining from any vivacious
 
 300 PIN MONEY. 
 
 demonstrations, lest she should unsettle the 
 factitious tresses which adorned her parchment 
 forehead. — " One should not even know of such 
 things ! '' 
 
 '' Pooh, child !" said Lady Derenzy, who 
 regarded this semi-centurian as a giddy young 
 creature, " I tell you / have seen that woman so 
 stupified with laudanum, after an execution — '* 
 
 " Oh ! horrible ! " 
 " — in her house, — or the desertion of a lover, 
 that you might have shut her hand in the door 
 without her perceiving it." 
 
 " The errors of Lady Rochester are at least 
 respectable f* grumbled the old duchess, looking 
 over her fierce aquiline nose on certain plebeian 
 intruders of the lappeted mob around her; 
 *' no one has more strictly preserved the 
 dignity of her rank in life. — The first admirer 
 for whom she forfeited her reputation, was 
 royal ,• and as to all the rest" — 
 
 *' A very comprehensive word, my dear 
 duchess V* said Countess Ronthorst spitefully. 
 
 " I do not believe she has ever strayed out 
 of the peerage."
 
 PIN MONEY. 301 
 
 '^ Oh ! fie ! " cried Lady Lavinia again, giving 
 a playful tap with her spangled fan to the 
 withered sticks shrunken within the spreading 
 velvet sleeve of the Duchess of Trimblestown. 
 
 " What creatures one sees here, now-a-days ! '* 
 said Lady Derenzy with a sneer, the acrid in- 
 fluence of which might have tarnished the gold 
 lace upon old Lord Twadell's regimentals, 
 who stood beside her, which were cut after the 
 fashion of those of the great Marquis of Granby 
 on a sign-post. " Yonder gaunt looking 
 woman, bristled like the crest of William de la 
 Mark and covered with jewels, is the daughter 
 of Lord Waldinghurst's steward." 
 
 " But with your ladyship's permission, if I 
 may venture an opinion on a point where your 
 ladyship is in all probability so very much 
 better informed," said Lord Twadell, — em- 
 izing with his well-powdered head till the 
 white particles flew in all directions, and the 
 duchess's velvet appeared to have taken 
 multure in kind from his floury abundance, — 
 '^ that lady is now the much respected wife of 
 Qne of our most eminent law-lords."
 
 302 PIN MONEY. 
 
 '^ Law-lords ! — Birmingham nobility I " cried 
 Countess Konthorst, the naturalized widow of 
 a former Austrian Ambassador, whose quarter- 
 ings would have agonized Sir Isaac Heard, and 
 required all the skill of the Ratisbon College 
 or Toison d'or to emblazon. " I do not see 
 why the Courts of Chancery and Common 
 Pleas should serve as antechambers to the 
 Court of St. James's ! " 
 
 '' I saw my chaplain and my physician bow- 
 ing to each other on the stairs," said Lady De- 
 renzy, " like too rooks noddling their heads in 
 a ploughed field." 
 
 ''The learned professions, ladies, — the 
 learned ^professions," cried Lord Twadell, inflat- 
 ing each word till it swelled out of his crater- 
 like mouth, like one of Giroux's balloons, " the 
 learned professions form a distinct class of the 
 community, commanding the respect of en- 
 lightened persons of — all — of — of — of — all — 
 classes of the community." 
 
 " Class is a word obliterated from all vo-; 
 cabularies but those of school-ushers, — ' 
 Scotch gardeners, — and political economists.
 
 PIN MONEY.. 303. 
 
 One hears of ' the labouring classes/ in an 
 emigration pamphlet at Edinburgh, and of 
 ' la classe industrielle,' in the oration of a 
 liberal in Paris ; — but in London, the only dis- 
 tinction / ever perceive in its rabble-rout is 
 that which exists between those who buy and 
 those who sell. — Such are the ^ classes of the 
 community,' in la nation boutiquiere ! '' 
 
 " There ought to be a Pict's-wall built up to 
 defend us against the incursions of such hordes 
 of barbarians," said the duchess, with a dry, 
 short, hectic-cough, indicating that the ar- 
 morial honours of the escutcheon on which she 
 prided herself would very shortly adorn a 
 hatchment over the lofty portals of Trimbles- 
 town House, and that her bony and unhumanized 
 frame was destined without delay to ' darkness 
 and the worm ! ' — " I would sooner see every 
 descendant of my house stretched in their 
 grave, than disgraced by a commercial al- 
 liance. It is the pride of my life that not one 
 of my four daughters was allowed to marry 
 lower than an earldom." 
 
 Poor Lady Lavinia uttered a soft sentimental
 
 304 PIN MONEY. 
 
 sigh (as bitter as a gust of the east wind) in 
 honour of four contemporary martyrs, whom 
 she had seen dragooned to the altar by her 
 grace's maternal severity. But all four were 
 now released from their connubial thraldrom ; — 
 two by death, — and two by Doctors* Com- 
 mons ! 
 
 " One can scarcely wonder that young men 
 of susceptible temperament, let their rank in 
 life be what it mav," said Lord Twadell ele- 
 giacally, " should forget the claims of 
 ancestry in favour of a creature so divine as 
 yonder young lady in the white robe ; yet I am 
 credibly informed that her father is — pardon 
 me, ladies, so nauseous an allusion — a soap^ 
 
 boiler!'' 
 
 " A soapboiler?** cried the duchess, feeling 
 for her salts. 
 
 << Of the celebrated firm of Waddlestone and 
 Co.," said Lord Twadell, closing his snuff-box 
 with a jerk of disdain. 
 
 << Waddlestone ! " faintly ejaculated her 
 grace. 
 
 " Waddlestone ! '* cried Countess Ronthorst.
 
 PIN MONEY. 305 
 
 " Waddlestone ! " exclaimed Lady Derenzy, 
 as if the word blistered her lips. 
 
 " Waddlestone ! " said Lord Twadell af- 
 firmatively. 
 
 " Wad-dle-stone ! " minced Lady Lavinia. 
 
 " Waddlestone ' " cried Lady Hunting-field, 
 puffing up to the scene. 
 
 " Waddlestone ! " uttered a chorus of ab- 
 horrent voices. 
 
 And not even the magic surname of " Ta- 
 rare" echoed from prince to peer, from peer 
 to chamberlain in Count Hamilton's charm- 
 ing tale of " Fleur d'epine," was graced with 
 more extensive reiteration than that which 
 sounded a knell of consternation in the ears of 
 poor Lady Rawleigh, — a breathless auditor of 
 this edifying colloquy. 
 
 DiSGXJisE thyself as thou wilt, still Irony ! 
 still thou art a bitter draught ! — and though 
 thousands in all ages — patricians and plebeians, 
 —rhetoricians and politicians, — of the beau 
 tnonde and the low monde, — ^have been made 
 to drink of thee, thou art no less nauseous on 
 that account. It is thou. Toadyism ! — thrice
 
 306 PIN MONEY. 
 
 sweet and gracious goddess ! whose taste is 
 grateful and ever will be so, till nature herself 
 shall change ; — ^no vegetable dye can ebonize 
 thy silver effulgence, — no chymic power 
 transmute thy mosaic gold to brass. With 
 thee to smile upon him as he eats his venison, 
 the gouty peer is happier than the robust pea- 
 sant whose brown bread repugnates thy ap- 
 proach. — But again I say, disguise thyself as 
 thou wilt, still Irony, — whether in Blackwood's 
 Magazine, or the Court of St. James's, — still 
 thou art a bitter draught ! 
 
 Upon the original mention of a name so dis- 
 agreeably associated as that of Waddlestone, 
 Lady Rawleigh had involuntarily retreated be- 
 hind the skirts of the most expansive dowager 
 of the group ; while Lord Launceston, who was 
 engaged in conversation with the young Duke 
 of Draxfield, implied by a glance towards the 
 green and gold rotundity of Mrs. Waddlestone's 
 person (who was struggling towards the great 
 staircase, looking like the animated image of a 
 colossal Cantelupe melon), and by a significant 
 smile at the retreating movements of his sister,
 
 PIN MONEY. 307 
 
 that he was aware of the vicinity of his future 
 kindred without being much more sohcitous 
 than herself to attract their notice. They were 
 soon, however, put out of their pain, — Mrs. W., 
 dazzled by the splendid spectacle which pre- 
 sented itself for the first time to her eyes, was 
 too much occupied with the management of her 
 own train, and the maintenance of her daughter's 
 courage, to recognize her passive cavalier ; — she 
 passed and made no sign ! 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! " secretly exclaimed Fre- 
 derica, covering the confusion of her terror by 
 kissing her hand to Lady Barbara Dynley, who 
 was already struggling with the brilliant crowd 
 on the staircase, — occasionally turning round 
 to remonstrate with a young officer of the 
 guards, whose bullion tassels had no mercy 
 upon her blonde flounce, — ^while the dress-sword 
 of a venerable general of brigade, two steps, 
 above, ever and anon poked the point of its: 
 scabbard menacingly into her eye, — "Thank 
 Heaven, I have escaped that dreadful woman ! 
 I am persuaded Lady Derenzy would have 
 undergone a fit of apoplexy on the spot, on
 
 308 PIN MONEY. 
 
 detecting my brother's intimacy with the family 
 of a soapboiler. I have at least the consola- 
 tion of knowing that she will never again pass 
 the lodges at Rawleighford after the solemni- 
 zation of Launceston's marriage ! " 
 
 After a tedious ascent of the crowded stairs, 
 and a lingering progress through the ante- 
 chambers, in the course of which Lady De- 
 renzy's chin grew more and more elevated, till 
 it appeared a copy of Malvolio's supercilious 
 and self-conceited countenance, they reached 
 the threshold of the royal presence ; when her 
 ladyship, turning to Frederica with a " Now my 
 dear, your train," in anticipation of the inter- 
 ference of the page in waiting, started with a 
 glare of almost delirious horror on perceiving 
 that Mrs. Waddlestone of Waddlestone House, 
 was addressing herself familiarly to the brother 
 of the lady whose presentation she had rashly 
 undertaken. She had some difficulty in be- 
 lieving the evidence of her own eyes, which 
 were seldom so inconveniently emancipated 
 from their almost co-existent spectacles ; but a 
 slight delay at the door of the presence cham-
 
 PIN MONEY. 309 
 
 ber served to convey the following afflicting 
 sentencestoher paralyzed ears ! And lo ! the dia- 
 mond pendulums thereunto appended trembled 
 while she listened ! — 
 
 " La ! my dear Launceston ! — Was ever any 
 thing so lucky as this rencontre! Such disas- 
 ters ! — I have been in a peck of troubles; — but 
 thank goodness, all's right again. You know 
 we ivas to have been presented by the Lady 
 Mayoress; but somehow or other we have 
 missed her in this tremendous crowd, and I 
 was afraid we should have to put up with a 
 lady in waiting, which never looks well in the 
 papers. ' Mrs. Waddlestone and daughter, by 
 the lady in waiting,' would have been all no 
 how, as one may say for people of our fortune; 
 and even the king would have thought it odd." 
 
 An irrepressible titter which burst from the 
 accidental auditors of this illtimed and illplaced 
 explanation, sounded in the ears of Lady De- 
 renzy like the hissing of all the serpents of all 
 the furies ! 
 
 " When Lord Launceston has terminated his 
 conversation with — that person," — she began,
 
 310 PIN MONEY. 
 
 haughtily addressmg herself to Fred erica, who 
 -with cheeks crimsoned by vexation had gladly 
 taken refus^e from her shame in a hurried dia- 
 loQ-ue with Lord C alder, and would neither 
 hear Mrs. Waddlestone's recapitulation of her 
 miseries, nor notice Lady Derenzy*s indigna- 
 tion; while her associate preserved a most ju- 
 dicial and judicious gravity of aspect, in spite 
 of the sarcastic mirth which twinkled in the 
 depths of his large grey eyes. 
 
 " When I spied you out, my dear Launces- 
 ton," continued Mrs. Waddlestone, wholly un- 
 conscious of the consternation she was exciting 
 in the few and the risibility in the many, "says 
 I to Leo., ' Well, my love, after all, things will 
 turn out for the best, — apres la pluie, le beau 
 temps. Here is our friend Launceston, who 
 will easily find us out some one to present us 
 among all his fine friends, or fine friends are 
 not good for much ; ' and says she '* — 
 
 " Will your ladyship proceed ? *' inquired 
 Lady Derenzy of Frederica, in an attitude of 
 refrigeration such as might have been borrowed 
 from Michael Angelo's statue of snow. But,
 
 PIN MONEY. 311 
 
 alas ! even had Lady Rawleigh's attention been 
 alienable from the discourse of Lord Calder, on 
 which she affected to fix her eager interest, the 
 appeal must have proved unavailing ; — the fatal 
 door was still guarded by the flaming sword of 
 regal inaccessibility; — the presence chamber 
 was not yet attainable by a new supply of as- 
 pirants. — The whole group remained as inca- 
 pable of locomotion as if it had been enclosed 
 in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 
 
 But although Frederica turned a deter- 
 minately deaf ear to the atrocities of Mrs. Wad- 
 dlestone, and the imperial indignation of Lady 
 Derenzy, she could not affect an act of ungra- 
 ciousness towards her brother ; — notwithstand- 
 ing his condemnable predilection for Miss El- 
 bany, and his injurious animosity towards her 
 friend Lord Calder, her gentle heart could not 
 cherish an unkind feeling towards hhn. No 
 sooner did she hear the words " My dear 
 Frederica ! " whispered behind her, than she in- 
 terrupted her conversation with her aristocratic 
 admirer by a bow of apology, in order to listen 
 to a request framed by Lord Launceston in the
 
 312 PIN MONEY. 
 
 most pathetic terms which had ever yet been 
 heard to grace his famiUar oratory. 
 
 " My dear Fred. ! — I am persuaded you are 
 too good-natured to refuse an entreaty of mine, 
 or to decHne an act of kindness in favour of any 
 of my friends. Mrs. Waddlestone has been so 
 mifortunate as to be separated from her friend, 
 the Lady Mayoress j— will you oblige me by 
 undertaking to present her and Leonora ? — Do, 
 my dear sister/' he added in a lower voice, " it 
 is highly important to me to keep on a good 
 footing with this woman." 
 
 " Lady Rawleigh!" again ejaculated Lady 
 Derenzy, with a hollow voice which sounded 
 almost like the " Swear ! '' of the Danish king 
 with whom she has been already compared. 
 
 '^ I rather think your ladyship's turn is come," 
 interrupted Lord Calder urging her towards the 
 door, with a gesture expressive of his anxiety to 
 spare her the humiliating contact with which 
 she was menaced. 
 
 Poor Frederica advancing a few steps, now 
 whispered a word or two in the ear of Sir 
 Brooke's dictatorial kinswoman, which appeared
 
 PIN ]<IONEY. 313 
 
 endowed with some rabid contagion. Her coun- 
 tenance became distorted by grimaces of sup- 
 pressed fury ; — and the words " insult, — degra- 
 dation, — horror, — and eternal resentment," rat- 
 tled like a volley of small shot from her quiver- 
 ing lips. But Lady Rawleigh, on turning a 
 second time towards her brother, caught a 
 glimpse in the rear of the Cantelupe of a pair 
 of lips quivering with very different emotions,' 
 and graced with the loveliest expression of dis- 
 tress she had ever beheld. The gentle, timid 
 Leonora, was in truth gifted with far too deli- 
 cate a sensibility not to perceive the exact state 
 of feeling excited around her by the vulgar 
 familiarity of her mother. Her refinement of 
 tact revealed to her that they were at once the 
 objects of contempt and avoidance; yet anxious 
 as she had been to suppress the ambition of her 
 injudicious parent for their appearance at the 
 drawino--room, she saw that retreat was now 
 impossible, — that they must pursue the unwel- 
 come ceremony to an end : and she could 
 scarcely restrain her tears on perceiving the 
 embarrassment of Lord Launceston, — the re- 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 314 ' PIN MONEY. 
 
 luctance of his sister, — the furious excitement 
 of Lady Derenzy, — the dignified disdain of Lord 
 Calder, — and the astonishment of every indivi- 
 dual within sight and hearing of the scene. It 
 may easily be imagined, however, that the 
 avoidance of her lover was of these united 
 trials far the most afflicting. 
 
 But no sooner did Lady Rawleigh detect the 
 expressive emotion of the graceful and interest- 
 ing Leonora, than her recollection glanced to 
 their interview in the ^'ardens of Waddlestone 
 House, when she had bestowed the encouraging 
 notice of its heiress on the supposed dependant 
 of poor Mrs. Martha Derenzy; and with- 
 out further hesitation,— defying at once the asto- 
 nishment of Lord Calder, and the insane horror 
 of Lady Derenzy, — she accepted her brother's 
 proposal of an introduction to the Waddle- 
 stones, and the introduction q/'the Waddlestones -, 
 and executing a profound curtsey to the globose 
 mass of green and gold tissue and a more 
 encouraging one to the trembling daughter, — 
 followed her shuddering aunt into the blue 
 chamber ! —
 
 PIN MONEY. 315 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The one coach was green, — the other was blue ; and not the 
 green and blue chariots in the Circus of Rome or Constanti- 
 nople excited more turmoil among the citizens, than the double 
 apparition occasioned in the mind of the Hbrrd Keeper. 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 It was not till Lady Rawleigh reached . 
 her own dressing-room, — resigned her tempo- 
 rary splendours to their bandboxes — and her 
 weary frame to the friendly arm-chair gifted 
 like that of St. S within with a thousand vision- 
 ary spells of agony, — that she could recall to 
 mind the thousand and one aggravations of the 
 disaster which had steeped her cheeks in blushes, 
 and her soul in bitterness. She was now be- 
 yond the reach of those cordial thanks with 
 which Lord Launceston had attempted to repay 
 
 P 2
 
 316 PIN MONEY. 
 
 the sacrifice exacted by his sordid speculations ; 
 beyond reach of the grateful gentle smile with 
 which Leonora had raised her soft eyes towards 
 her own. In her mental revision of the scene 
 she saw nothing but the wondering and affect- 
 edly candid air of Lady Lotus, and the sparkling 
 of Mrs.William Erskyne's venomous eyes, — both 
 of whom were assembled in the presence cham- 
 ber by the malice of her untoward destiny ! 
 Lord Calder's look of grave commiseration, 
 and Lord Putney's distant bow of contemptuous 
 disavowal, were^'-as nothing compared with the 
 insulting mirth of her own particular rival and 
 her own particular friend ! — How the lip of the 
 lord in waiting could have preserved its gravity 
 — how the countenance ofGeorgelV.its gracious 
 benignity — in listening to the name she had been 
 so reluctantly compelled to stammer forth for 
 their acceptance, w^as more than she could con- 
 jecture; and willingly would she have beheld 
 the Cantelupe melon — the subject of this horrible 
 dilemma — cut into as many quarterings as ever 
 graced the escutcheon of Countess Ronthorst. 
 And then the newspapers of the morrow !
 
 PIN MONEY. 317 
 
 How would Lady Rochester sneer, and the 
 Duchess of Trimblestown scoff, on beholding 
 among the presentations — 
 
 Lady RaTvleigh, on her marriage, by Lady Derenzy. 
 
 Mrs. and Miss Waddlestone, on tlieir return from the con- 
 tinent, by — Lady Rawleigb ! 
 
 Or perhaps — for who could say to what ex- 
 tent of magniloquence the saponaceous gold 
 
 of Mrs. W e might prevail over the pen 
 
 of the editor, — some awful paragraph headed in 
 the Times by " Advertisement/' — ^in the Mor- 
 ning Herald by " From a Correspondent, '^ might 
 acquaint the sneerers of the metropolis not 
 only with every ell of tissue and every carat of 
 diamonds glittering on the person of the soap- 
 boiler's wife, but with the future alliance 
 about to tarnish the glories of the houses of 
 Rawdon, Wingfield, and Rawleigh of Rawleigh- 
 ford ! Frederica covered her face with her 
 cambric handkerchief, to conceal the tears 
 which fell with their falling dignity ! 
 
 " She had not wept long," as Billy Lackaday
 
 318 ;P1N MONEY. 
 
 or a Lane and Newmanist would say, when 
 Lady Olivia, who had been describing an orbit 
 in the parish of St. James's to catch a glimpse 
 of the tips of plumes and the state wigs on the 
 coachboxes of her friends, bustled in to learn 
 the news of the court. " Has it been a good 
 drawing-room ? — many of the royal family ? — 
 many diamonds ? — many foreign ambassadors ? 
 many domestic oddities ? — But you are in tears, 
 my dear love," said her ladyship, interrupting 
 herself, and drawing a chair towards that of her 
 niece. " What has happened ? — have you lost 
 any of your jewels in the crowd?" 
 
 Frederica briefly recapitulated her miseries ; 
 which to her infinite indignation were very 
 cavalierly treated by Lady Olivia. " You are 
 quite above the reach of such contamination, 
 my dear," said she in a pacifying tone. " Now 
 a person like my poor little Mrs. Woodington 
 would be crushed beneath the weight of such 
 an incident; — a parasite plant accustomed to 
 cling to elevated objects, perishes when com- 
 pelled to trail along the ground. But you, my 
 dear Frederica, are like the goodly cedar-tree."
 
 PIN MONEY. 319 
 
 "More like a weeping willow just now;" 
 said Lady Rawleigli drying her eyes, and at- 
 tempting to rally her spirits. "I trust Lady 
 Derenzy will bequeath me her forgiveness, for I 
 am convinced she will die of the shock.'^ 
 
 " Nonsense ! — She has been existins; all her 
 life in an atmosphere which magnifies the ob- 
 jects immediately surrounding her. Depend 
 on it she will live to suffer a still severer 
 martyrdom, on beholding the magnificence which 
 Lord Launceston's marriage will shortly shower 
 down on Marston Park. But tell me, my dear 
 child — for I have an ulterior object in this little 
 visit, — did you observe any one with the Au- 
 strian ambassadress this morning ? '' 
 
 " Her daughter, looking almost as distin- 
 guished as herself." 
 
 " No, no ! a stranger." 
 
 "The Princess of Anhalt-Haagenstein, and 
 Countess Rodenfels, whom she presented."- 
 
 " No ! — a stranger, — a person you never saw 
 before ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ! — I stood near them for some
 
 320 PIN MONEY. 
 
 time with Lady Barbara Dynley, their intimate 
 friend." 
 
 " I really cannot make it all out !" 
 
 " What all, my dear aunt ? You are grow- 
 ing as mysterious as an oracle, or as Miss 
 Elbany.'* 
 
 " Why you see, Fred., it is a very disagree- 
 able subject to talk about, only I know I can 
 rely on your discretion." 
 
 " You do not appear inclined to measure its 
 forcfe with any very weighty burden at present." 
 
 " The facts are simply these. You may re- 
 collect that I mentioned to you a charming 
 encounter I made in the steam-boat on the 
 Rhine, with a noble Bohemian family; — de- 
 lightful people ! — unable to speak a syllable 
 of either English or French. — As I had not 
 much difficulty in rubbing up my German, we 
 got on charmingly together; — they dined with 
 me at Bingen, and I supped with them at 
 Bonn; — after which, we lived incessantly to- 
 gether through Holland till my arrival at 
 Dovor."
 
 PIN MONEY. 321 
 
 *' And what brought them to England ? " 
 " Ay ! there's the rub ! They told me they 
 were coming on a visit to Lord Vilz ; and al- 
 though I was persuaded that no such name was 
 to be found in the peerage, I made allowances 
 for defect of pronunciation. I am sure I had 
 difficulty enough in conquering their title of 
 Czartobarlozkna. Well, my dear, — I made no 
 scruple of recommending my friends to Fenton's 
 hotel, where I conveyed them in my own car- 
 riage, because having navigated their way by 
 the Danube and the Rhine to England they 
 brought of course no species of travelling equi, 
 page/' 
 
 " Very considerate of you, my dear aunt.'* 
 ^' The day after my arrival I took them to 
 the Austrian embassy ; where I did not get out, 
 because there at least they could explain them- 
 selves in their own language, and I happened 
 to have two or three cards to leave in Portland- 
 place. They told me on our return that the 
 princess had promised to give an assembly 
 expressly to introduce them to the London 
 world." 
 
 P 3
 
 322 PIN MONEY. 
 
 *' But you made a party for them to Rich- 
 mond, if I recollect ? " 
 
 "I did, indeed; and I fear rather prema- 
 turely ! For although I have been too much oc- 
 cupied since my arrival in tow^n with the ar- 
 rangement of my house, and the reorganization 
 of my visiting list, to pay all the attention and 
 make all the inquiries concerning my friends 
 and their friend Lord Vilz, which might have 
 been desirable, it certainly has struck me as 
 strange that one heard nothing of them in so- 
 ciety/' 
 
 " Very true j — foreigners of real distinction 
 are of such very rapid currency." 
 
 " Yesterday I wrote my friend Countess 
 Czartobarlozkna a little note, — for one cannot 
 so well make this sort of delicate inquiry ver- 
 bally, — asking her explicitly whether I should 
 meet her at the ambassador's next week ; to 
 which she replied — (and her German idiom so 
 involves the fact that I cannot exactly deter- 
 mine the meaning of her phrase) — that this 
 day was appointed for their first appearance in 
 public'
 
 PIN MONEY. 323 
 
 " At the drawing-room, of course ?'' 
 
 *' So I thought — so I hoped ! But as you 
 assure me that no stranger accompanied the 
 princess, my mind begins to misgive me; — 
 more especially — I hardly like to mention what 
 may be merely a conjectural coincidence, — more 
 especially as a set of Bohemian jugglers are 
 to exhibit their feats to-day at Willis's rooms." 
 
 " At Lord Vilz's hotel ! !— alas— alas !— This 
 is nearly as bad as the Waddlestone aftair ! *' 
 
 *' Now don't laugh, Frederica ! — there is 
 really nothing to make the subject of a jest in 
 a circumstance degrading to the whole family." 
 
 " But you know, my dear aunt, we are as 
 the goodly cedar-tree." 
 
 '* Nonsense ! — when people wish to invali- 
 date a fact, they always assume figurative lan- 
 guage to allow for greater latitude." 
 
 '* You will make quite a politician of me ; 
 what a pity that I cannot appropriate the va- 
 cant seat for Martwich ! " 
 
 '^ A note, my lady ! " said Mrs. Pasley, steal- 
 ing on tiptoe to Lady Rawleigh's side, with a 
 silver salver in her hand, and in her eyes the
 
 324 PIN MONEY. 
 
 ordinary restlessness of a lady's maid's curio- 
 sity. And while she retired with several petty 
 movements at return, like the ebbing of the 
 tide on a level shore, Fredenca with Lady 
 Olivia's permission read as follows : 
 
 " As well as the pungent flavour of Barilla 
 with which you were infected when I last saw 
 you would permit me to understand your ex- 
 planations, my dear Frederica, you have re- 
 solved to disappoint me touching the races to- 
 morrow. But can you persist in such barbarity? 
 It is too late for me to secure another compa- 
 nion ; — and I cannot go alone with Sir Robert 
 Morse, Lord Calder, and Mr. Vaux, who form 
 the party. — The horses have long been ordered 
 and must be paid for, go or stay ; Gunter has 
 already iced our Champagne, and packed our 
 Perigords ; I have a penile cVItalie hanging be- 
 fore my eyes, which drives me to distraction ; and 
 per favour of this auspicious but perplexing union 
 of circumstances, I shall certainly never forgive 
 you if you persist in your unfriendly design. Mr. 
 Vaux will doubtless circulate in some witty 
 lampoon that you were afraid to trust yourself
 
 PIN MONEY. 325 
 
 with Calder; and the world will whisper in 
 humble prose that you were apprehensive of 
 showing yourself in public, with your reputa- 
 tion still mottled by contact with Mrs. Waddle- 
 stone of Waddlestone House; but rather chose 
 to stay at home in the suds. Ask Lady Olivia, 
 — ask any one you please, except your cross- 
 grained self, — whether it would not be far wiser 
 on your part to hrusqiter Vaffaire by appearing 
 wholly unconcerned, and surrounded by per- 
 sons more worthily qualified for your friendship 
 than Waddlestone and Co. ? 
 
 Yrs. (as you decide), 
 
 Louisa Erskyne." 
 
 * 
 
 Lady Rawleigh did not think it necessary to 
 consult her aunt on this occasion ; partly from a 
 fear of her inferences, and partly from an ap- 
 prehension that she might demand a sight of 
 Mrs. Erskyne's note, and in enlarging upon its 
 flippant allusion to Lord Calder prolong the 
 conference till midnight. She saw there was 
 no escape from so eager an appeal; that, 
 in case of a repetition of her apologies, Louisa 
 would certainly arrive in person to plead her
 
 326 PIN MONEY. 
 
 cause ; and poor Frederica was so little in the 
 habit of giving pain to any one, and so little 
 addicted to the salutary austerity of saying 
 " No ! " that she beheld herself already seated, 
 a repining victim, in the corner of Mrs. Er- 
 skyne's britschka. 
 
 She replied therefore to this taunting billet, 
 by a hasty consent to resume her engagement, 
 qualified by an earnest entreaty that her friend 
 would endeavour to procure in the interim 
 some less reluctant companion ; and despatch- 
 ed at the same time a note of excuse to 
 Lady Barbara Dynley, whose assembly — ex- 
 pressly devised to ensure a second exhibition of 
 the court-heads of the morning — she had long 
 promised to attend : — then, with considerable 
 vexation of spirit, proceeded with her aunt 
 to Charles-street, to dine en famille with her 
 mother. Even there she did not think it ne- 
 cessary to allude to her engagement for the 
 races, fearing that her brother's idle suspicions 
 might be renewed, on learning that Lord Calder 
 was to be of the party ; and that Launceston 
 might still further increase her catalogue of
 
 .PIN MONEY. 327 
 
 disasters for the day, by interfering between 
 them in some unpleasant and wholly super- 
 fluous remonstrance. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs. Erskyne had not the slight- 
 est intention of profiting by Frederica's hint 
 that she should seek out some less scrupulous 
 female companion. She was aware that no one 
 would suit her purpose half so well as Lady 
 Rawleigh ; — that no one was more capable of 
 throwing away a dozen guineas without calcu- 
 lation or regret ; — no one less likely to detect 
 the double flirtation she was carrying on by 
 way of pastime, with Mr. Vaux and Sir Ro- 
 bert Morse. But above all, the artful Louisa 
 was fully conscious that she was indebted for 
 the temptation held out of her friend's society, 
 for Lord Calder's gracious acceptance of her 
 invitation. 
 
 It was probably for the first time in his life 
 that his lordship had consented to appear in 
 public in any other than one of his own match 
 less equipages; and at any other moment, to 
 go toddling along the road with one of New-
 
 328 PIN MONEY. 
 
 man^s inferior, unmatched sets, in a carriage 
 leaden as the wings of despair with a woman 
 flighty as the plumage of folly, would have 
 very little suited his fastidious fancy. He 
 regarded Mrs. Erskyne as a pretty little 
 kitten who, under pretence of innocent playful- 
 ness, was in the habit of making a very indis- 
 criminate use of her claws ; — and detested 
 Sir Robert Morse as a vulgar fine gentleman, 
 — a third-rate man with first-rate pretensions. 
 — But Lady Ra\Vieigh, — the lovely, tranquil, 
 spotless, faultless Lady Rawleigh, — with her 
 unsuspecting heart and unpretending de- 
 meanour, — was an atonement for all these evils, 
 animate and inanimate; and for a thousand 
 more which he doubted not would assail him 
 in the course of the day. Sharing the taste of 
 Paulo of Rimini, for the spectacle of 
 
 A lovely woman in a rural spot, 
 
 he prepared himself for the promised drive with 
 an^anxiety as ardent as if his whole fortune had 
 been staked on the event of the Hampton 
 races.
 
 PIN MONEY. 329 
 
 In one respect his misgivings were prema- 
 ture. Mrs. Erskvne lived too much in male 
 society, and w^as habitually surrounded by too 
 many fashionable devotees, to be encumbered 
 with a heavy carriage in addition to a heavy 
 husband. Her horses, which had been care- 
 fully bespoken by Lord Putney, were as the 
 *^ couriers of the air" honourably commemo- 
 rated in Macbeth 's rhapsody; — and when, under 
 the cheering influence of the meridian sun, the 
 black and well-varnished britschka glided to 
 the door, with Vaux and Lord Putney (Sir Ro- 
 bert had turned sulky) in white hats in the 
 rumble. Lord Calder occupying the back seat,- 
 for the first time since his Etonian boyhood, and 
 a corner left for Lady Rawleigh beside Louisa in 
 her paille d^Italie and choicest smiles, — as- 
 suredly no fault could be detected in the ar- 
 rangements of the day. Even her ladyship, as 
 she tripped down the steps followed by Martin 
 and her mantle, experienced an involuntary im- 
 pulse of exhilaration which seemed to reflect 
 the sunshine of the skies on her own beaming 
 and ingenuous countenance. The door was
 
 330 PIN MONEY. 
 
 sharply closed as she took her seat among her 
 congratulating companions; — the postboys re- 
 ceived their signal from the outrider; — and 
 away they went — joyous with youth, and 
 health, and prosperity ! 
 
 Noisy and self-engrossed, neither the party 
 nor its menial administrants had been conscious 
 of a voice which, — like that of John Gilpin's 
 loving spouse, — reiterated '^ Stop — stop!" as 
 they rolled away from the door. Even the 
 jangle of the antiquated and un-Collingeized 
 vehicle which now rattled up at the rear of a 
 jaded pair of rats, — such as are kept half alive 
 till after the reign of Epsom and Ascot, in 
 order to act as substitutes for the post-horses 
 of travellers reachino; London at that in- 
 auspicious moment, — remained inaudible. A 
 head, which resembled that of a capuchin pigeon 
 poking out of a dove-cote to watch for rain, 
 protruded itself from the dexter window of Mr. 
 Lexley's travelling carriage ; while from the 
 sinister — and sinister indeed was the portent — 
 poor Sir Brooke was stretching his dolorous 
 but indignant visage, to behold the wilful, way-
 
 PIN MONEY. 331 
 
 ward, wanton, rebellious, and treacherous de- 
 parture of Frederica on an expedition of frivo- 
 lous amusement ; — in defiance of his vociferous 
 and reiterated mandate of recall; — in company 
 with a woman he despised and a man he 
 dreaded ; — and, in spite of his own absence, 
 smiling with more than her usual sportive 
 gaiety npon both ! — 
 
 It was lucky for the little lame old postboy, 
 who had been summoned from his superannuated 
 inactivity to officiate on this occasion, that the 
 measure of his guerdon rested with the punc- 
 tual and conscientious senator with whom he 
 now jogged onwards from Bruton-street to- 
 wards St. Margaret's, Westminster. 
 
 END OF VOL. 1. 
 
 C. WHITING, BBAUFORX HOUSE, STRANDi
 
 fS 
 
 ^
 
 ^^s^
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOI9-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 042086394 
 
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