Dilemmas of Pride, (Vol 1 of 3)

w wig, the latter in two new dresses, expressly for the occas

ng over the shoulder of the double bass, appeared a particularly smart bonnet, decorated wi

ent for them all. And pray," he added, looking at his daughters' dresses, "what are these gig-meries to cost?" At this crisis resounded the welcome sounds, "Sir Matthias and Lady

and half blind Sir Francis Brierton, poking his little sharp nose into everybody's face, and smirking his recognition, when by so doing he had discovered who they were; and though last not least, Sir James Lindsey; least in consequence we mean, for he was a very little, very ugly man, the express image of the knave of spades. He was, however, a vastly important personage, a bachelor baronet, wi

Sir James the unprofitable ridicule of the hour, would have had no objection to share with hi

rt at which a glowing imagination takes fire; the very material for a frantic lover, yet condemned by his circumstances, either to lead a single life, or possibly at least contract a marriage with the purse of some

on other subjects, gravely assert, in reply to every argument whi

r annum, therefore, must be melted down, to make a golden image of poor little silly Sir James, while Henry, with the pittance which as a younger child was his portion, was oblig

nvented for the express purpose of hunting down and c

on one brother! And for what purpose? That he may keep alive, by being its living representative, that

, without revolution or confiscation, extravagant disparity of station would gradually disappear, and with it pride,

and yet who virtually turn themselves out of the same; and, at the mere mandate of some prejudice of society-some by-law of pride, b

though the remains of a fine woman may sometimes be viewed with a blending of admiration with our veneration, mere prettiness seldom grows old gracefully. In Lady Flamborough's case it certainly did not. Her once nicely rounded little figure had now outgrown all bounds, not excepting those of the drapery which ought to have concealed its exuberance. Her once infantine features were no

the senseless bloated countenance on which she was thus casting away those int

tellectual faculties, being so confined, that it nearly came to a point, while the descent widened as it approached the organs of gustati

r, on the present occasion, to give them a languishing roll, that should correspond with that of her ladyship's, was truly ludicrous. As to his mouth, i

eeks that yielded in carnation hue to nought save the nose; while this rallying point of the v

precisely the appearance of a Brobdingnag melon on castors, the legs themselves, when you were distant enough to have a view of them beneath the inflated bal

ate effort more strenuous than the rest, he lost his balance; out flew his feet, and down he came on his back, so much to the amusement of the whole room that no one for a time had the presence of mind to pick him up: while there he lay, sprawling and puffing, his own endeavours to rise being quite as fruitless as those of a beetle usually are, when placed in the same reversed position by a mischievous school-boy. Neither was the evening by any means one of unmixed delight to the Misses Salte

each sister, did not do so till he had been sha

s, "It's a lucky lass

h an expression of countenance as if she had just swallowed something unseasonably bitter, and was making a face at its disagreeable flavour. The set with Sir James could not much sooth the vanity of either sister, for no sooner did he commence operations, t

rry, and cut them out of a small sum, which not having been swallowed up in the purchase of the estate for John, he had promised to divide between them unless indeed he married again. His doing so seem

ndressing, "if after all, this ball that we have been so long teazing at my father to give, an

s he won't leave us the money, or else it would be a grand connec

of that, we shouldn't have a shilling in the world, comp

hilling if we were starv

er had a cub of a son, on whom he meant, in imitation of his betters, to heap the earnings and savings of his life, for the purpose, as he himself expressed it, of making a family: and, for that matter he didn't s

at neither: he had often heard talk of a Lord Salter or Salisbury, or something beginning wi

fetime scraping together, squandered by idle fellows that were nothing at all ak

ouldn't get married at all

nly as plain a girl as I'd desire to see any day. And I don't know how

body knew anything about people, but what they choose to say of themselves. Accordingly, they made family their constant theme; and inquired with the most consequential airs about the connections of every one they heard named; always winding up their harangue

cular, it makes people of consequence; at the same time I'd have us get acquainted with ev

e other day, that 'luck knocks once at every one's door;' I wish it wo

ent of us, on your plan, to cut Mr

dn't cut her till Lady Whaleworthy, and Lady Flamborough, and Lady Shawbridge, and all

ard her speak of a brother or a nephew; and as to her expecting this Lady

my father would have taken a fancy to her at last, for h

ful however at fi

replied Miss Salter, "but now