ow,--her son Sydney
Scraper--a Chancery barrister without any practice--the most placid,
polite, and genteel of Snobs, who never exceeded his allowance of two
hundred a year, and who may be seen any evening at the 'Oxford and
Cambridge Club,' simpering over the QUARTERLY REVIEW, in the blameless
enjoyment of his half-pint of port.

CHAPTER VII--ON SOME RESPECTABLE SNOBS

Look at the next house to Lady Susan Scraper's. The first mansion with
the awning over the door: that canopy will be let down this evening for
the comfort of the friends of Sir Alured and Lady S. de Mogyns, whose
parties are so much admired by the public, and the givers themselves.

Peach-coloured liveries laced with silver, and pea-green plush
inexpressibles, render the De Mogyns' flunkeys the pride of the ring
when they appear in Hyde Park where Lady de Mogyns, as she sits upon
her satin cushions, with her dwarf spaniel in her arms, bows to the very
selectest of the genteel. Times are altered now with Mary Anne, or, as
she calls herself, Marian de Mogyns.

She was the daughter of Captain Flack of the Rathdrum Fencibles, who
crossed with his regiment over from Ireland to Caermarthenshire ever
so many years ago, and defended Wales from the Corsican invader. The
Rathdrums were quartered at Pontydwdlm, where Marian wooed and won her
De Mogyns, a young banker in the place. His attentions to Miss Flack at
a race ball were such that her father said De Mogyns must either die on
the field of honour, or become his son-in-law. He preferred marriage.
His name was Muggins then, and his father--a flourishing banker,
army-contractor, smuggler, and general jobber--almost disinherited him
on account of this connection.

There is a story that Muggins the Elder was made a baronet for having
lent money to a R-y-l p-rs-n-ge. I do not believe it. The R-y-l Family
always paid their debts, from the Prince of Wales downwards.

Howbeit, to his life's end he remained simple Sir Thomas Muggins,
representing Pontydwdlm in Parliament for many years after the war. The
old banker died in course of time, and to use the affectionate phrase
common on such occasions, 'cut up' prodigiously well. His son, Alfred
Smith Mogyns, succeeded to the main portion of his wealth, and to his
titles and the bloody hand of his scutcheon. It was not for many years
after that he appeared as Sir Alured Mogyns Smyth de Mogyns, with a
genealogy found out for him by the Editor of 'Fluke's Peerage,