CHAPTER II.

THE COMFORTS OF A HOME, WITH MUSICAL SOCIETY.

MRS. LACKINGHAM and her daughter migrated to London, and having hired a fairly-sized house in one of the squares in the north-west part, which make pretensions to gentility, if not fashion (this was easily obtained by means of negotiating from the Rectory of Basset-cum-Wintleton), mother and daughter settled down, with some furniture taken on credit, four letters of introduction, and a few dozen of very fine old wine, which had in some mysterious manner escaped the grasp of the creditors; and in due time an advertisement appeared in the papers, setting forth that “the widow of a clergyman offered to any lady or gentleman the comforts of a home," &c.

In our crowded land, with its struggling

myriads, the means of subsistence are daily growing more difficult to procure, and when the masses are concentrated the strife begins in earnest. The fear of poverty and the lust of wealth engender a fierce, desperate pitilessness, so that no individual voice is heard: the single cry is drowned in the surging roar of the million; the wheel grinds on, careless of what may be crushed; the strong brave it, the weak go to the wall, and if they fall, their life is soon trampled out of them. Carlyle has well expressed it. Man says to his fellow: "See, thou art taking more than thy share of happiness in the world-something from my sharewhich, by the Heavens, thou shalt not! Nay, I will fight thee rather!"

It must be conceded that for two reduced gentlewomen delicately reared, the business of earning their daily bread honestly in our vast city is a hard one. A want of methodical system, of any sound and accurate knowledge in any special art or vocation; a habit of feebly regretting the days that are gone by; a sensitive,

tetchy spirit, or a peevish melancholy;—all these things are likely to exist, and to prove serious hindrances. If they commence a school or endeavour to conduct a boarding-house, too often the pupils are sent thither from motives of compassion to the teacher, without the smallest reference to the welfare of the child; or the lodgers stay long after they have ceased to find comfort or expect management, because they shrink from giving pain or showing apparent discourtesy to a lady who has seen better days. So do some years roll on in unfruitful, dreary toil and unthriftiness, and then the insolvency that has long been inevitable closes the scene.

On the other hand, I have also seen that the kindness which the humbler classes are so ready to show to each other they still more often extend to reduced gentility; and this not from the pride which delights to pity, but from, it may be a rough, but certainly a courteous and genuine compassion. The man who supplies their daily necessities will not press for payment; the small tradesman will exhibit unwonted

leniency. But beyond and apart from all this, there is a wonderfully large portion of gullibility among the trading classes, which is every day exposed in our police courts; it exists, and it increases, and roguery consequently thrives apace. Of course fresh schemes are required in succession, and old expedients have to make way to new; but the feeling is always there— always ready and willing to be imposed upon.

Of the existence of all these peculiarities Mrs. Lackingham was perfectly aware, and she traded systematically upon them. I learned afterwards that there was hardly a town of importance on the Continent where she was not well known; that she had more than once charmed her importunate creditors on the threshold, while her valuables were at that very moment being secretly conveyed away by the back entrance. Belgians, French, Germans, and the inhabitants of the Channel Islands, had all in turn experienced her fascinations to their cost; and for a time, at least, Mrs. Lackingham succeeded in Square.

She presented her letters of introduction, and her address, her speech, her becoming attire, and other characteristics, were so admirably effective that when she challenged pity and entreated sympathy and support, as one whose widowed and forlorn position fairly entitled her to it, her claim was very generally admitted. She did not advance her special qualities, so as to deter the refined and fastidious. Her sorrow was not obtrusive nor loud, but toned down to a becoming hue. Her poverty was at least clothed with attention to fashion and elegance. If the locality of her residence was not such as to excite envy, it was not such as to call forth derision; and lastly, the presence of Miss St. Maur-of whom I shall have more to say hereafter—was not without good effect in certain cases: and it was only on judicious occasions that the young lady did appear.

or two

So Mrs. Lackingham obtained one or inmates, who paid handsomely, and had in return very agreeable society, in a household which, if it were not regulated with system or punctuality,