LOTHAW;

OR,

THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION.

BY MR. BENJAMINS.


CHAPTER I.


"I remember him a little boy," said the Duchess. "His mother was a
dear friend of mine; you know she was one of my bridesmaids."

"And you have never seen him since, mamma?" asked the oldest
married daughter, who did not look a day older than her mother.

"Never; he was an orphan shortly after. I have often reproached
myself, but it is so difficult to see boys."

This simple yet first-class conversation existed in the morning-
room of Plusham, where the mistress of the palatial mansion sat
involved in the sacred privacy of a circle of her married
daughters. One dexterously applied golden knitting-needles to the
fabrication of a purse of floss silk of the rarest texture, which
none who knew the almost fabulous wealth of the Duke would believe
was ever destined to hold in its silken meshes a less sum than
L1,000,000; another adorned a slipper exclusively with seed pearls;