more faithful
friend, Lord Comyn. As soon as ever I had obtained from Captain Daniel
my mother's little inheritance, I sent off the debt I owed his Lordship.
'Twas a year before I got him to receive it; he despatched the money back
once, saying that I had more need of it than he. I smiled at this, for
my Lord was never within his income, and I made no doubt he had signed a
note to cover my indebtedness.

Every letter Comyn writ me was nine parts Dolly, and the rest of his
sheet usually taken up with Mr. Fox and his calamities: these had fallen
upon him very thick of late. Lord Holland had been forced to pay out a
hundred thousand pounds for Charles, and even this enormous sum did not
entirely free Mr. Fox from the discounters and the hounds. The reason
for this sudden onslaught was the birth of a boy to his brother Stephen,
who was heir to the title. "When they told Charles of it," Comyn wrote,
"said he, coolly: 'My brother Ste's son is a second Messiah, born for the
destruction of the Jews.'"

I saw no definite signs, as yet, of the conversion of this prodigy, which
I so earnestly hoped for. He had quarrelled with North, lost his place
on the Admiralty, and presently the King had made him a Lord of the
Treasury, tho' more out of fear than love. Once in a while, when he saw
Comyn at Almack's, he would desire to be remembered to me, and he always
spoke of me with affection. But he could be got to write to no one, said
my Lord, with kind exaggeration; nor will he receive letters, for fear he
may get a dun.

Alas, I got no message from Dorothy! Nor had she ever mentioned my name
to Comyn. He had not seen her for eight months after I left England, as
she had been taken to the Continent for her health. She came back to
London more ravishing than before, and (I use his Lordship's somewhat
extravagant language) her suffering had stamped upon her face even more
of character and power. She had lost much of her levity, likewise. In
short, my Lord declared, she was more of the queen than ever, and the
mystery which hung over the Vauxhall duel had served only to add to her
fame.

Dorothy having become cognizant of Mr. Marmaduke's trickery, Chartersea
seemed to have dropped out of the race. He now spent his time very
evenly between Spa and Derresley and Paris. Hence I had so much to be
thankful for,--that with all my blunders, I had saved her from his Grace.
My Lord the Marquis of Wells was now most conspicuous amongst her
suit