; generals who have served in the army; elder brothers who
succeed to something besides a mortgage; and younger brothers who do
not mistake their capital for their income. To this set you may add the
whole of the baronetage--for I have remarked that baronets hang together
like bees or Scotchmen; and if I go to a baronet's house, and speak
to some one whom I have not the happiness to know, I always say "Sir
John--."

It was no wonder, then, that to this set belonged Sir Lionel Garrett--no
more the youth in a green coat and lank hair, but pinched in, and curled
out--abounding in horses and whiskers--dancing all night--lounging all
day--the favourite of the old ladies, the Philander of the young.

One unfortunate evening Sir Lionel Garrett was introduced to the
celebrated Duchess of D. From that moment his head was turned. Before
then, he had always imagined that he was somebody--that he was Sir
Lionel Garrett, with a good-looking person and eight thousand a-year;
he now knew that he was nobody unless he went to Lady G.'s and unless
he bowed to Lady S. Disdaining all importance derived from himself, it
became absolutely necessary to his happiness, that all his importance
should be derived solely from his acquaintance with others. He cared not
a straw that he was a man of fortune, of family, of consequence; he must
be a man of ton; or he was an atom, a nonentity, a very worm, and no
man. No lawyer at Gray's Inn, no galley slave at the oar, ever worked so
hard at his task as Sir Lionel Garrett at his. Ton, to a single man,
is a thing attainable enough. Sir Lionel was just gaining the envied
distinction, when he saw, courted, and married Lady Harriett Woodstock.

His new wife was of a modern and not very rich family, and striving like
Sir Lionel for the notoriety of fashion; but of this struggle he
was ignorant. He saw her admitted into good society--he imagined she
commanded it; she was a hanger on--he believed she was a leader. Lady
Harriett was crafty and twenty-four--had no objection to be married, nor
to change the name of Woodstock for Garrett. She kept up the baronet's
mistake till it was too late to repair it.

Marriage did not bring Sir Lionel wisdom. His wife was of the same
turn of mind as himself: they might have been great people in the
country--they preferred being little people in town. They might have
chosen friends among persons of respectability and rank--they preferred
being chosen as acquaintance by per