week in the house.

The next month the newspapers contained a paragraph which may possibly
elucidate the above mystery, and to the following effect:--

"Singular Wager.--One night, at the end of last season, the young and
eccentric Earl of B-gn-gge laid a wager of twenty-five thousand pounds
with a broken sporting patrician, the dashing Marquis of M-rt-ng-le,
that he would pass a week under the roof of a celebrated and lovely
young heiress, who lives not a hundred miles from B-lgr-ve Squ-re. The
bet having been made, the earl pretended an illness, and having taken
lessons from one of his lordship's own footmen (Mr. James Plush, whose
name he also borrowed) in 'the MYSTERIES of the PROFESSION,' actually
succeeded in making an entry into Miss P-ml-co's mansion, where he
stopped one week exactly; having time to win his bet, and to save the
life of the lady, whom we hear he is about to lead to the altar. He
disarmed the Prince of Borodino in a duel fought on Calais sands--and,
it is said, appeared at the C---- club wearing his PLUSH COSTUME under a
cloak, and displaying it as a proof that he had won his wager."

Such, indeed, were the circumstances. The young couple have not more
than nine hundred thousand a year, but they live cheerfully, and manage
to do good; and Emily de Pentonville, who adores her daughter-in-law and
her little grandchildren, is blest in seeing her darling son enfin un
homme range.




CRINOLINE.