would think of that; but it would look so well to have the
dear duke's name on something." Lizzie declared that the duke was
unapproachable on such subjects. "There you're wrong," said Mrs.
Carbuncle. "I happen to know there is nothing his grace likes so much
as giving wedding presents." This was the harder upon Lizzie as she
actually did succeed in saying such kind things about Lucinda, that
Lady Glencora sent Miss Roanoke the prettiest smelling-bottle in the
world. "You don't mean to say you've given a present to the future
Lady Tewett?" said Madame Max Goesler to her friend. "Why not? Sir
Griffin can't hurt me. When one begins to be good-natured, why
shouldn't one be good-natured all round?" Madame Max remarked that
it might, perhaps, be preferable to put an end to good-nature
altogether. "There I daresay you're right, my dear," said Lady
Glencora. "I've long felt that making presents means nothing. Only if
one has a lot of money and people like it, why shouldn't one? I've
made so many to people I hardly ever saw that one more to Lady Tewett
can't hurt."

Perhaps the most wonderful affair in that campaign was the spirited
attack which Mrs. Carbuncle made on a certain Mrs. Hanbury Smith, who
for the last six or seven years had not been among Mrs. Carbuncle's
more intimate friends. Mrs. Hanbury Smith lived with her husband in
Paris, but before her marriage had known Mrs. Carbuncle in London.
Her father, Mr. Bunbury Jones, had, from certain causes, chosen to
show certain civilities to Mrs. Carbuncle just at the period of his
daughter's marriage, and Mrs. Carbuncle being perhaps at that moment
well supplied with ready money, had presented a marriage present.
From that to this present day Mrs. Carbuncle had seen nothing of Mrs.
Hanbury Smith, nor of Mr. Bunbury Jones, but she was not the woman to
waste the return-value of such a transaction. A present so given was
seed sown in the earth,--seed, indeed, that could not be expected to
give back twenty-fold, or even ten-fold, but still seed from which
a crop should be expected. So she wrote to Mrs. Hanbury Smith,
explaining that her darling niece Lucinda was about to be married to
Sir Griffin Tewett, and that, as she had no child of her own, Lucinda
was the same to her as a daughter. And then, lest there might be any
want of comprehension, she expressed her own assurance that her
friend would be glad to have an opportunity of reciprocating the
feelings which had been evince