ther Wood, the Lady of the Priory, or Lisle-street Convent." "If
such is the case, 'how are the mighty fallen!'" said I.------But let us
return to the ball-room. As the night advanced, a few more stars made
their appearance in the firmament of beauty; among these, Crony pointed
out some of the demirespectables, attracted thither either by curiosity
or the force of old habit: among these was Charles Wy--h--m's bit of
rue, that herb of grace, the once beautiful Mrs. Ho--g--s, since
closely connected with the whiskered Lord P-----, to whose brother, the
Honourable F------g, her daughter, the elegant Miss W--------n, had the
good fortune to be early married. In the same group appeared another
star of no mean attraction, the Honourable Mrs. L-----g, whose present
husband underwent the ordeal of a crim. con. trial to obtain her person.
'Par nobile fratum,' the world may well say of the brothers, P------ and
L-----g; while F--------y, with all his eccentricities, has the credit
of being a very good husband. Three little affected mortals, the Misses
St--ts, Crony introduced by the name of the pretenders, from the assumed
modesty and great secrecy with which they carry on their amours. '_Pas
a pas on va bien loin_,' says the old French proverb, and rightly too,"
remarked our ancient; "for if you boys had not brought me here, I should
never have known the extent of my experience, or have attempted to
calculate the number of my female acquaintances." In the supper-room,
which opened at four o'clock in the morning, Waud had spread forth a
banquet every way worthy the occasion: a profuse display of the choicest
viands of the season and delicacies of the most costly character graced
the splendid board, where the rich juice of the grape, and the inviting
ripeness of the dessert, were only equalled by the voluptuous votaries
who ~54~~surrounded the repast. It was now that ceremony and the
cold restraint of well regulated society were banished, by the free
circulation of the glass. The eye of love shot forth the electric flash
which animates the heart of young desire, lip met lip, and the soft
cheek of violet beauty pressed the stubble down of manliness. Then,
while the snowy orbs of nature undisguised heaved like old ocean with a
circling swell, the amorous lover palmed the melting fair, and led her
forth to where shame-faced Aurora, with her virgin gray, the blue-eyed
herald of the golden morn, might hope in vain to draw aside the curtai