deserted town of
Baden. Nor can we omit another who, although not tied to the rest by
kindred, had been long a member of the circle. This was Dr. Grounsell,
an old college friend of Sir Stafford's, and who, having lost every
shilling of his fortune by a speculation, had taken up his home at
the banker's many years previous to his second marriage. Lady Hester's
dislike to him amounted to actual hatred. She detested him for the
influence he possessed over her husband, for the sturdiness of a
character that resisted every blandishment, for a quaintness that
certainly verged upon vulgarity, and, most of all, for the open and
undisguised manner he always declared against every scheme for the
attainment of a title.

As Sir Stafford's physician, the only one in whom he had confidence, the
doctor was enabled to stand his ground against attacks which must have
conquered him; and by dint of long resistance and a certain obstinacy
of character, he had grown to take pleasure in an opposition which, to
a man of more refinement and feeling, must have proved intolerable;
and although decidedly attached to Sir Stafford and his children, it is
probable that he was still more bound to them by hate to "my Lady," than
by all his affection for themselves.

Grounsell detested the Continent, yet he followed them abroad, resolved
never to give up an inch of ground uncontested; and although assailed by
a thousand slights and petty insults, he stood stoutly up against them
all, defying every effort of fine-ladyism, French cookery, homoeopathy,
puppyism, and the water-cure, to dislodge him from his position. There
was very possibly more of dogged malice in all this than amiability or
attachment to his friends; but it is due to the doctor to say that he
was no hypocrite, and would never have blinked the acknowledgment if
fairly confronted with the charge.

Although, if it had not been for my Lady's resentful notice of
the ministerial neglect, the whole family would have been snugly
domesticated in their beautiful villa beside the Thames at Richmond,
she artfully contrived to throw the whole weight of every annoyance they
experienced upon every one's shoulders rather than her own; and as
she certainly called to her aid no remarkable philosophy against the
inconveniences of travel, the budget of her grievances assumed a most
imposing bulk.

Dressed in the very perfection of a morning costume, her cap, her
gloves, her embroidered slippers, all