Great kingdoms grew out of small beginnings. Mrs. Haughton's social
circle was described from a humble centre. On coming into possession of
her easy income and her house in Gloucester Place, she was naturally
seized with the desire of an appropriate "visiting acquaintance." The
accomplishment of that desire had been deferred awhile by the excitement
of Lionel's departure for Paris, and the IMMENSE TEMPTATION to which the
attentions of the spurious Mr. Courtenay Smith had exposed her widowed
solitude: but no sooner had she recovered from the shame and anger with
which she had discarded that showy impostor, happily in time, than the
desire became the more keen; because the good lady felt that with a mind
so active and restless as hers, a visiting acquaintance might be her best
preservative from that sense of loneliness which disposes widows to lend
the incautious ear to adventurous wooers. After her experience of her
own weakness in listening to a sharper, and with a shudder at her escape,
Mrs. Haughton made a firm resolve never to give her beloved son a father-
in-law. No, she would distract her thoughts--she would have a VISITING
ACQUAINTANCE. She commenced by singling out such families as at various
times had been her genteelest lodgers--now lodging elsewhere. She
informed them by polite notes of her accession of consequence and
fortune, which she was sure they would be happy to hear; and these notes,
left with the card of "Mrs. Haughton, Gloucester Place," necessarily
produced respondent notes and correspondent cards. Gloucester Place then
prepared itself for a party. The ci-devant lodgers urbanely attended the
summons. In their turn they gave parties. Mrs. Haughton was invited.
From each such party she bore back a new draught into her "social
circle." Thus, long before the end of five years, Mrs. Haughton had
attained her object. She had a "VISITING ACQUAINTANCE!" It is true that
she was not particular; so that there was a new somebody at whose house a
card could be left, or a morning call achieved--who could help to fill
her rooms, or whose rooms she could contribute to fill in turn. She was