d been brought
to London by her aunt. Mrs. Carbuncle always spoke of Lucinda's
education as having been thoroughly Parisian. Of her own education
and antecedents, Lucinda never spoke at all. "I'll tell you what
it is," said a young scamp from Eton to his elder sister, when her
character and position were once being discussed. "She's a heroine,
and would shoot a fellow as soon as look at him." In that scamp's
family, Lucinda was ever afterwards called the heroine.

The manner in which Lord George de Bruce Carruthers had attached
himself to these ladies was a mystery;--but then Lord George was
always mysterious. He was a young man,--so considered,--about
forty-five years of age, who had never done anything in the manner of
other people. He hunted a great deal, but he did not fraternise with
hunting men, and would appear now in this county and now in that,
with an utter disregard of grass, fences, friendships, or foxes.
Leicester, Essex, Ayrshire, or the Baron had equal delights for
him; and in all counties he was quite at home. He had never owned a
fortune, and had never been known to earn a shilling. It was said
that early in life he had been apprenticed to an attorney at Aberdeen
as George Carruthers. His third cousin, the Marquis of Killiecrankie,
had been killed out hunting; the second scion of the noble family had
fallen at Balaclava; a third had perished in the Indian Mutiny; and
a fourth, who did reign for a few months, died suddenly, leaving
a large family of daughters. Within three years the four brothers
vanished, leaving among them no male heir, and George's elder
brother, who was then in a West India Regiment, was called home from
Demerara to be Marquis of Killiecrankie. By a usual exercise of the
courtesy of the Crown, all the brothers were made lords, and some
twelve years before the date of our story George Carruthers, who had
long since left the attorney's office at Aberdeen, became Lord George
de Bruce Carruthers. How he lived no one knew. That his brother did
much for him was presumed to be impossible, as the property entailed
on the Killiecrankie title certainly was not large. He sometimes
went into the City, and was supposed to know something about shares.
Perhaps he played a little, and made a few bets. He generally lived
with men of means;--or perhaps with one man of means at a time; but
they who knew him well declared that he never borrowed a shilling
from a friend, and never owed a guinea to a tra