efore felt (as young unmarried ladies feel at the
commencement of the season) that there was every chance of my finding a
lord and master, and becoming a prominent ornament of his establishment.

"After standing for a month at Houlditch's, (who, by the by, was not
over-civil to his own child, but made a great favour of giving me
house-room), I one day found myself scrutinized by a gentleman of very
fashionable appearance. He was in immediate want of a carriage; I was,
fortunately, exactly the sort of carriage he required, and in a quarter
of an hour the transfer was arranged.

"The gentleman was on the point of running away with a young lady;
_he_ was attached to _her_, four horses were attached to
_me_, and I was in waiting at the corner of Grosvenor Street at
midnight. I thought myself a fortunate vehicle; I anticipated another
marriage, another matrimonial trip, another honeymoon. Alas! my present
trip was not calculated to add to my respectability. My owner, who was a
military man, was at his post at the appointed time: he seemed hurried
and agitated; frequently looked at his watch; paced rapidly before one
of the houses, and continually looked towards the drawing-room windows.
At length a light appeared, the window was opened, and a female, muffled
in a cloak and veil, stood on the balcony; she leaned anxiously forward;
he spoke, and without replying she re-entered the room. The street-door
opened, and a brisk little waiting-maid came out with some bundles,
which she deposited in the carriage: the captain (for such was his rank)
had entered the hall, and he now returned, bearing in his arms a
fainting, weeping woman; he placed her by his side in the carriage: my
rumble was instantly occupied by the waiting-maid and my master's man,
and we drove off rapidly towards Brighton.

"The captain was a man of fashion; handsome, insinuating, profligate,
and unfeeling. The lady--it is painful to speak of her: what she
_had_ been, she could never more be; and what she then was, she
herself had yet to learn. She had been the darling pet daughter of a
rich old man; and a dissipated nobleman had married her for her money
when she was only sixteen. She had been accustomed to have every wish
gratified by her doting parent; she now found herself neglected and
insulted by her husband. Her father could not bear to see his darling's
once-smiling face grow pale and sad, and he died two years after her
marriage. She plunged into the wh