spent many a long night in the inn-yard, while my lord and lady were
presiding at county assemblies.

"Mine was a life of sunshine and smiles. But ladies are capricious: the
countess suddenly discovered that I was heavy. Now, if she wished me to
be light-headed, why did she order a landaulet? She declared, too, that
I was unfit for town service; gave new orders to Houlditch; took
possession of a chariot fashioned eight months later than myself; sent
me to Long Acre to be disposed of, and I became a secondhand article!

"My humiliation happened at an unlucky moment, for continual racketing
in the country had quite unhinged me; I required bracing, and had quite
lost my colour. My paternal relation, however, (Houlditch), undertook my
repair, and I was very soon exhibited painted green, and ticketed, 'For
sale secondhand.'

"It was now the month of May, when all persons of the smallest
fashionable pretensions shun their country abodes and come to London,
that they may escape the first fragrance of the flowers, the first song
of the birds, the budding beauty of the forests and the fresh verdure of
the fields. I therefore felt (as young unmarried ladies feel at the
commencement of the season) that there was every chance of my finding a
lord and master, and becoming a prominent ornament of his establishment.

"After standing for a month at Houlditch's, (who, by the by, was not
over-civil to his own child, but made a great favour of giving me
house-room), I one day found myself scrutinized by a gentleman of very
fashionable appearance. He was in immediate want of a carriage; I was,
fortunately, exactly the sort of carriage he required, and in a quarter
of an hour the transfer was arranged.