ellany; he is perfectly well acquainted, doubtless,
with those pages that treat of the fashions,--profoundly versed, I
warrant, in the 'Magasin des Modes' tacked to the end of the index. But
shall I, even with all the mastership which my mind must exercise
over his,--shall I be able utterly to free myself in this 'peer of the
world's' mind from a degrading remembrance? Cuckold! cuckold! 't is an
ugly word; a convenient, willing cuckold, humph!--there is no grandeur,
no philosophical varnish in the phrase. Let me see--yes! I have a
remedy for all that. I was married privately,--well! under disguised
names,--well! It was a stolen marriage, far from her town,--well!
witnesses unknown to her,--well! proofs easily secured to my
possession,--excellent! The fool shall believe it a forged marriage, an
ingenious gallantry of mine; I will wash out the stain cuckold with the
water of another word; I will make market of a mistress, not a wife. I
will warn him not to acquaint her with this secret; let me consider for
what reason,--oh! my son's legitimacy may be convenient to me hereafter.
He will understand that reason, and I will have his 'honour' thereon.
And by the way, I do care for that legitimacy, and will guard the
proofs. I love my child,--ambitious men do love their children. I may
become a lord myself, and may wish for a lord to succeed me; and that
son is mine, thank Heaven! I am sure on that point,--the only child,
too, that ever shall arise to me. Never, I swear, will I again put
myself beyond my own power! All my nature, save one passion, I have
hitherto mastered; that passion shall henceforth be my slave, my only
thought be ambition, my only mistress be the world!"

As thus terminated the revery of a man whom the social circumstances
of the world were calculated, as if by system, to render eminently and
basely wicked, Welford slowly ascended the stairs, and re-entered his
chamber. His wife was still sleeping. Her beauty was of the fair and
girlish and harmonized order, which lovers and poets would express by
the word "angelic;" and as Welford looked upon her face, hushed and
almost hallowed by slumber, a certain weakness and irresolution might
have been discernible in the strong lines of his haughty features. At
that moment, as if forever to destroy the return of hope or virtue
to either, her lips moved, they uttered one word,--it was the name of
Welford's courtly guest.

About three weeks from that evening Mrs. Welf