urban lanes that still proffer to the denizens of London glimpses of
rural fields, and shadows from quiet hedgerows. He wished to be
alone; the sight of Mrs. Haughton had revived recollections of bygone
days--memory linking memory in painful chain-gay talk with his younger
schoolfellow--that wild Charlie, now in his grave--his own laborious
youth, resolute aspirings, secret sorrows--and the strong man felt
the want of the solitary self-commune, without which self-conquest is
unattainable.

CHAPTER IV.

MRS. HAUGHTON AT HOME MISCELLANEOUSLY. LITTLE PARTIES ARE USEFUL IN
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER. ONE NEVER KNOWS WHOM ONE MAY MEET.

Great kingdoms grew out of small beginnings. Mrs. Haughton's social
circle was described from a humble centre. On coming into possession
of her easy income and her house in Gloucester Place, she was naturally
seized with the desire of an appropriate "visiting acquaintance." The
accomplishment of that desire had been deferred awhile by the excitement
of Lionel's departure for Paris, and the IMMENSE TEMPTATION to which the
attentions of the spurious Mr. Courtenay Smith had exposed her widowed
solitude: but no sooner had she recovered from the shame and anger with
which she had discarded that showy impostor, happily in time, than the
desire became the more keen; because the good lady felt that with a mind
so active and restless as hers, a visiting acquaintance might be her
best preservative from that sense of loneliness which disposes widows to
lend the incautious ear to adventurous wooers. After her experience of
her own weakness in listening to a sharper, and with a shudder at her
escape, Mrs. Haughton made a firm resolve never to give her beloved son
a father-in-law. No, she would distract her thoughts--she would have a
VISITING ACQUAINTANCE. She commenced by singling out such families as
at various times had been her genteelest lodgers--now lodging elsewhere.
She informed them by polite notes of her accession of consequence and
fortune, which she was sure they would be happy to hear; and these
notes, left with the card of "Mrs. Haughton, Gloucester Place,"
necessarily produced respondent notes and correspondent cards.
Gloucester Place then prepared itself for a party. The ci-devant lodgers
urbanely attended the summons. In their turn they gave parties. Mrs.
Haughton was invited. From each such party she bore back a new draught
into her "social circle." Thus, long before the end o