In Three Volumes

VOL. II.

Second Editon

London:
Chapman & Hall, 193 Piccadilly.
1859.

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

London: Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

I. THE NEW MEMBER FOR THE BATTERSEA HAMLETS.
II. RETROSPECTIVE.--FIRST YEAR.
III. RETROSPECTIVE.--SECOND YEAR.
IV. RICHMOND.
V. JUNO.
VI. SIR LIONEL IN TROUBLE.
VII. MISS TODD'S CARD-PARTY.
VIII. THREE LETTERS.
IX. BIDDING HIGH.
X. DOES HE KNOW IT YET?
XI. HURST STAPLE.
XII. THE WOUNDED DOE.
XIII. THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL IN LOVE.
XIV. MRS. LEAKE OF RISSBURY.
XV. MARRIAGE-BELLS.

THE BERTRAMS.

CHAPTER I.

THE NEW MEMBER FOR THE BATTERSEA HAMLETS.

I must now ask my readers to pass over two years with me. It is a
terrible gap in a story; but in these days the unities are not much
considered, and a hiatus which would formerly have been regarded as a
fault utterly fatal is now no more than a slight impropriety.

But something must be told of the occurrences of these two years.
In the first place, no marriage had taken place--that is, among our
personages; nor had their ranks been thinned by any death. In our
retrospective view we will give the _pas_ to Mr. Harcourt, for he had
taken the greatest stride in winning that world's success, which is
the goal of all our ambition. He had gone on and prospered greatly;
and nowadays all men at the bar said all manner of good things of
him. He was already in Parliament as the honourable member for the
Battersea Hamlets, and was not only there, but listened to when
it suited him to speak. But when he did speak, he spoke only as a
lawyer. He never allowed himself to be enticed away from his own
profession by the meretricious allurements of general politics.
On points of law reform, he had an energetic opinion; on matters
connected with justice, he had ideas which were very much his own--or
which at least were stated in language which was so; being a denizen
of the common law, he was loud against the delays and cost of
Chancery, and was supposed to have supplied the legal details of a
very telling tale which was written about this time with the object
of upsetting the lord-chancellor as then constituted.

But though he worked as a member only in legal matters, of course he
was always ready to support his party with his vote in all matters.
His party! here