day when she had been haughty, penniless
Sarah Jennings, and the man who seemed to her almost godlike in his
youth and beauty had knelt at her feet.

'Twas most natural that at this time there should be much speculation
as to the beauty who might be chosen as his partner in life by a young
nobleman of such fortune, a young hero held in such esteem by his
country as well as by the world of fashion. Conversation was all the
more rife upon the subject because his Lordship paid no special court
to any and seemed a heart-free man.

Many suitable young ladies were indeed picked out for him, some by
their own friends and families, some--who had not convenient relatives
to act for them--by themselves, and each was delicately or with
matter-of-fact openness presented to his notice. There were brilliant
Court beauties--lovely country virgins of rank and fortune--charming
female wits, and fair and bold marauders who would carry on a siege
with skill and daring; but the party attacked seemed not so much
obdurate as unconscious, and neither succumbed nor ran away. When the
lovely Lady Helen Loftus fell into a decline and perished a victim to
it at the very opening of her eighteenth year, there was a whisper
among certain gossiping elderly matrons, which hinted that only after
her acquaintance with the splendid young Marquess had she begun to look
frail and large-eyed, and gradually fallen into decay.

"Never shall I forget," said old Lady Storms, "seeing the pretty thing
look after him when he bowed and left her after they had danced a
minuet together. Her look set me to watching her, and she gazed on him
through every dance with her large heaven-blue eyes, and when at last
she saw him turn and come towards her again her breast went up and down
and her breath fluttered, and she turned from white to red and from red
to white with joy. 'Tis not his fault, poor young man, that women will
set their hearts on him; 'tis but nature. I should do it myself if I
were not seventy-five and a hooked-nosed pock-marked creature. Upon my
life, it is not quite a fair thing that a man with all things which all
women must want, should be sent forth among us. Usually when a man hath
good looks he hath bad manners or poor wit or mean birth, or a black
soul like the new man beauty, Sir John Oxon, whom a woman must hate
before she hath loved him three months. But this one--good Lord! And
with the best will in life, he cannot take all of us."

The new