being worth a
hundred, and not eighty-nine or ninety pounds as is now the case, which
makes a considerable difference in the melting. Now a real _bona fide_
100,000_l._ always counts as three in common parlance, which latter sum
would yield a larger income than gilds the horizon of the most mercenary
mother's mind, say ten thousand a-year, which we believe is generally
allowed to be 'v--a--a--ry handsome.'

No wonder, then, that Mr. Waffles was such a hero. Another great
recommendation about him was, that he had not had time to be much plucked.
Many of the young men of fortune that appear upon town have lost half their
feathers on the race-course or the gaming-table before the ladies get a
chance at them; but here was a nice, fresh-coloured youth, with all his
downy verdure full upon him. It takes a vast of clothes, even at Oxford
prices, to come to a thousand pounds, and if we allow four or five thousand
for his other extravagances, he could not have done much harm to a hundred
thousand.

Our friend, soon finding that he was 'cock of the walk,' had no notion of
exchanging his greatness for the nothingness of London, and, save going up
occasionally to see about opening the flood-gates of his fortune, he spent
nearly the whole summer at Laverick Wells. A fine season it was, too--the
finest season the Wells had ever known. When at length the long London
season closed, there was a rush of rank and fashion to the English
watering-places, quite unparalleled in the 'recollection of the oldest
inhabitants.' There were blooming widows in every stage of grief and woe,
from the becoming cap to the fashionable corset and ball flounce--widows
who would never forget the dear deceased, or think of any other
man--_unless he had at least five thousand a year_. Lovely girls, who
didn't care a farthing if the man was 'only handsome'; and smiling mammas
'egging them on,' who would look very different when they came to the
horrid L s. d. And this mercantile expression leads us to the observation
that we know nothing so dissimilar as a trading town and a watering-place.
In the one, all is bustle, hurry, and activity; in the other, people don't
seem to know what to do to get through the day. The city and west-end
present somewhat of the contrast, but not to the extent of manufacturing or
sea-port towns and watering-places. Bathing-places are a shade better than
watering-places in the way of occupation, for people can sit staring at the
sea,