he same place."

"Law, my Lady!" says I, "you don't say so?"

"But indeed I do, my good sir," says she; "for between ourselves, my
head's as bare as a cannon-ball--ask Fanny if it isn't. Such a fright as
the poor thing got when she was a babby, and came upon me suddenly in my
dressing-room without my wig!"

"I hope Lady Fanny has recovered from the shock," said "Somebody,"
looking first at her, and then at me as if he had a mind to swallow me.
And would you believe it? all that Lady Fanny could say was, "Pretty
well, I thank you, my Lord;" and she said this with as much fluttering
and blushing as we used to say our Virgil at school--when we hadn't
learned it.

My Lord still kept on looking very fiercely at me, and muttered something
about having hoped to find a seat in Lady Drum's carriage, as he was
tired of riding; on which Lady Fanny muttered something, too, about "a
friend of Grandmamma's."

"You should say a friend of yours, Fanny," says Lady Jane: "I am sure we
should never have come to the Park if Fanny had not insisted upon
bringing Mr. Titmarsh hither. Let me introduce the Earl of Tiptoff to
Mr. Titmarsh." But, instead of taking off his hat, as I did mine, his
Lordship growled out that he hoped for another opportunity, and galloped
off again on his black horse. Why the deuce I should have offended him I
never could understand.

But it seemed as if I was destined to offend all the men that day; for
who should presently come up but the Right Honourable Edmund Preston, one
of His Majesty's Secretaries of State (as I know very well by the almanac
in our office) and the husband of Lady Jane.

The Right Honourable Edmund was riding a grey cob, and was a fat pale-
faced man, who looked as if he never went into the open air. "Who the
devil's that?" said he to his wife, looking surlily both at me and her.

"Oh, it's a friend of Grandmamma's and Jane's," said Lady Fanny at once,
looking, like a sly rogue as she was, quite archly at her sister--who in
her turn appeared quite frightened, and looked imploringly at her sister,
and never dared to breathe a syllable. "Yes, indeed," continued Lady
Fanny, "Mr. Titmarsh is a cousin of Grandmamma's by the mother's side: by
the Hoggarty side. Didn't you know the Hoggarties when you were in
Ireland, Edmund, with Lord Bagwig? Let me introduce you to Grandmamma's
cousin, Mr. Titmarsh: Mr. Titmarsh, my brother, Mr. Edmund Preston."

There was Lady Jane all the time tr