Tracks of a Rolling Stone

nture which is amusing as an illustration of myreverend friend Napier's e

s party at Holkham I

he invited me toshoot there the following week. For what else had I paid himassiduous attention, and listened like an angel to theinterminable history

ole affair, and declined to entertain the possibility of anengagement; the elderly gentleman got a bad attack of gout

e fit of laughter on both sides. At lengthit came to this (the proposition was not mine): we were tohire a post chaise and drive to the inn at G-. I was towrite a note to the young lady requesting her to meet me atsome trysting place. The note was to sta

e to remember that my friend wasnot so very much older than I; and, in other respect

ncheon basket, we regaled ourselves and fortifiedour courage; while our hilarity increased as we neared, orimagined that we nea

old us that we had been twohours c

not driven; and about all we could see ofthe post boy was what Mistress Tab

r,' says the boy; 'never wa

pe, 'ifI can see a church by daylight, that's Blakeney s

pat the nearest house, give the horses a rest and a feed, an

urdestination. The plan of campaign was cut and dried. Icalle

answer?' asked myaccomplice. 'We're INCOG. you

said I. 'What shall

n? or

e E gives anaristocratic flavour. We c

andlord, desiredhim to send it up to the hal

room he turned round, with h

ve soom beatiful lamb chops,and you could have a ducklin' and some nice young peas toyou

ow our names?' as

yourpardon, Mr. Napeer, my daughter, she lives in H

he dinner by al

e landlord for defamation ofcharacter. But time's up. You must make for the boat-hou

proaching vehicle. What did we see but an open carriag

t! by all

the speaker's long legs were scampering out ofsight in the di

quently we feared to berecognised. The situation was neither dignified norromantic. My friend was sanguine, though big ardour wasslightly damped b

ed him. He met me with the answer to mynote. 'The boat-house,' it declared,

Time could make NOdifference in OUR c

nsedwith the necessity of any immediate step more desperate thandinner. This we enjoyed like men who had earned it;

engagement. How simple, in the retrospect,is the frustration of our hopes! I had not been a week intown, had only danced once with my FIANC

that their wedding day was fixed for the 10th of thefollowing month; and he 'hoped they would have the pleasureof seeing me at t

eat things as a 'man,' asshe afterwards discovered, he was the heir to a peerage andgreat wealth.

oons andhigh-waisted, short-skirted frocks, their pigtails andpowdered hair, their sandalled shoes, and Hessian boots. Ournear connection with them entrances our self-esteem. Theirprim manners, their affected bows and courtesie

ans with birds-of-paradise in them. My mother woregigot sleeves; but objected to my father's pigtail, so cut itoff. But my father powdered his head, and kept to his knee-breeches to the

thehistorian to assign their initiatory date. Does the young

in satin scarfs, with ajewelled pin or chained pair of pins stuck in them. I wellremember the rebellion - the protest against effeminacy -which the white tie called forth amongst some of us upon itsfirst invasion on evening dress. The women were in favour ofit, and, of course, carried the day; but not without astruggle. One night at

ofgood nature on the part of a great man, which I hardly knowhow to speak of without writing me down an ass. It was at acrowded party at Cambridge House. (Let me plead my youth; Iwas but two-and-twenty.) Stars and garters were scarcely adistinction. White ties were then as imperative as shoes andstockings; I was there in a black one. My candid friendssuggested withdrawal, my relations cut me assiduously,strangers by my side whispered at me aloud, women

party leader. I went to bed a proud,instead of a humiliated, man; ready, if e

e came into fashion a

an outrage to wear

en. Meeting my younger brother -a fashionable guardsman - in St. James's Street, heexcla

his dressing-gown as of strolling about theWest End with a cigar in his mouth. The first whom I eversaw smoke a cigarette at a dinin