"There is Frederick!" she said.



CHAPTER II. LONDON'S YOUNG CITIZENS.


The door of the room where mother and daughter sat was flung wide
open with scant ceremony, and to the accompaniment of a boisterous
laugh. Into the room swaggered a tall, fine-looking young man of
some three-and-twenty summers, dressed in all the extravagance of a
lavish and extravagant age. Upon his head he wore an immense peruke
of ringlets, such as had been introduced at Court the previous
year, and which was almost universal now with the nobles and
gentry, but by no means so amongst the citizens. The periwig was
surmounted by a high-crowned hat adorned with feathers and ribbons,
and ribbons floated from his person in such abundance that to
unaccustomed eyes the effect was little short of grotesque. Even
the absurd high-heeled shoes were tied with immense bows of ribbon,
whilst knees, wrists, throat, and even elbows displayed their bows
and streamers. The young dandy wore the full "petticoat breeches"
of the period, with a short doublet, a jaunty cloak hung from the
shoulders, and an abundance of costly lace ruffles adorned the neck
and wrists of the doublet, he wore at his side a short rapier, and
had a trick of laying his hand upon the hilt, as though it would
take very little provocation to make him draw it forth upon an
adversary.

His step was not altogether so steady as it might have been, as he