ial opulence, resided in Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square.
She was a woman of "family," and by her marriage had greatly lowered
herself, in her relatives' opinion, by a union with a person who, however
wealthy and otherwise honorable, was so entirely the architect of his own
fortunes--owed all that he possessed so immediately to his own skill,
sagacity, and perseverance--that there was an unpleasant rumor abroad
about his widowed mother being indebted to her son's success in business
for having passed the last ten years of her life in ease and competence.
Mr. Rushton had left his widow a handsome annuity, and to his and her
only son a well-invested income of upwards of seven thousand a year.
Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Rushton, who inherited quite her
full share of family pride, if nothing else, had sought by every method
she could devise to re-enter the charmed circle from which her union with
a city merchant had excluded her. The most effectual mode of
accomplishing her purpose was, she knew, to bring about a marriage
between her son and a lady who would not be indisposed to accept of
wealth and a well-appointed establishment in Mayfair as a set-off against
birth and high connection.

Arthur Rushton, at this time between two and three-and-twenty years of
age, was a mild, retiring, rather shy person, and endowed with a
tenderness of disposition, of which the tranquil depths had not as yet
been ruffled by the faintest breath of passion. His mother possessed
almost unbounded influence over him; and he ever listened with a smile, a
languid, half-disdainful one, to her eager speculations upon the numerous
eligible matches that would present themselves the instant the "season"
and their new establishment in Mayfair--of which the decoration and
furnishing engaged all her available time and attention--enabled them to
open the campaign with effect. Arthur Rushton and myself had been college
companions, and our friendly intimacy continued for several years
afterwards. At this period especially we were very cordial and unreserved
in our intercourse with each other.

London at this time was crowded with French exiles, escaped from the
devouring sword of Robespierre and his helpers in the work of government
by the guillotine, almost all of whom claimed to be members of, or
closely connected with, the ancient nobility of France. Among these was
an elderly gentleman of the name of De Tourville, who, with his daughter