sums in other ways, which it is not
necessary here to particularise—and what
could a man want more? He had no
ambition to become a general, or an
ambassador, or even a minister of state; what
was the use of tying a log to his feet, and
becoming any man's slave? He had few
convictions, and absolutely no veneration;
and was as aggravating a young man, with
his insolent scoffing manner of treating
other people's beliefs and prejudices, as it
was easy to find. No one had ever
obtained any abiding influence over him. He
was extremely fond of his mother—in his
own way; but, like the servants, he very
early learnt how to "manage" her, and
he did not scruple to laugh at her, to her
very face, having no more respect for her
opinions than he had for anybody else's.
She had vainly endeavoured to inflame his
young mind with a due ardour in the
cause of Legitimacy; she had laboured,
but without result, to inspire him with a
taste for Madame de Sévigné's courtly
graces of style, and Racine's polished
classicalities; but Lowndes yawned over
everything but Molière. The boy was
thoroughly English, and as the boy was so
the man became. He had been taken to
Frohsdorf; he had received a gold watch
from the hands of the gentleman who, his
mother tried to impress upon him, was the
real King of France; but he remained
perfectly indifferent as to who sat upon that
throne. He used to say, "If my mother
should go mad, she will fancy herself one
of Louis the Fourteenth's mistresses." The
good lady of whom this impudent speech
was made associated very little with the
county; their ways, and thoughts, and
interests were not hers; she was glad that
her son should go to all the great houses,
and she received with avidity any favourable
report of the impression he produced there;
but she herself kept aloof from such
society. She seldom went to London, unless
it was on her way to the Continent; and
now that Paris was in the hands of "that
upstart," she declared it made her sick to
go there, and see the beautiful old city
being converted into a bad edition of New
York. She had corresponded with the
Duchesse d'Angoulême as long as the royal
lady was alive, and still did so with certain
old Legitimists of "the Faubourg."
Occasionally a few withered men of
extraordinarily polished manners, and speaking
a purer and more measured language than
is ever heard in the France of to-day, came
over to pass a few weeks at Beckworth.
These, with the exception of Lowndes's
friends, who came for shooting or hunting,
at all sorts of unexpected times, were
the only guests they ever saw. The
descents he sometimes made with two or
three men—as at this moment—without
forewarning, were, indeed, strongly
objected to by Mrs.Rouse and Mr.Dapper;
but Mrs.Cartaret was never disturbed by
these sudden irruptions.

"There's no fish, nor no ice, nor
nothing!" said Mrs.Rouse, in a high
querulous key, the evening before our
introduction to the establishment—"and Mr.
Lowndes bin and brought two gentlemen
down from London!"

"Nor so much as a orange, by way of
fruit," said Mr. Dapper, plaintively.

"Never mind, Dapper, they must do
without," cried Mrs.Cartaret. "There's
enough for them to eat, isn't there? And
plenty of claret in the cellar? What would
the men have? They come à l'improviste.
They must take what they can
get, and if they don't like it, let them go
walk!"

It ended, however, as usual, in the two
ministers of state carrying the day, and in
that early visit of Mr.Dapper's to Salisbury
on the following morning, of which
record has been already made.

MR. DICKENS'S NEW WORK.

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