received no invitation from Lady A-----?'

"Not a word could I utter, Paul,--not a word. Had it been the highroad
instead of a ballroom, I could have talked loudly enough; but I was under
a spell. 'Ehem!' I faltered at last,--'e-h-e-m! Some mis-take, I--
I--' There I stopped.

"'Sir,' said the earl, regarding me with a grave sternness, 'you had
better withdraw.'

"'Bless me! what's all this?' cried Lady Margaret, dropping my palsied
arm, and gazing on me as if she expected me to talk like a hero.

"'Oh,' said I, 'eh-e-m, eh-e-m,--I will exp--lain to-morrow,--ehem,
e-h-e-m.' I made to the door; all the eyes in the room seemed turned
into burning-glasses, and blistered the very skin on my face. I heard a
gentle shriek, as I left the apartment,--Lady Margaret fainting, I
suppose! There ended my courtship and my adventures in 'the best
society.'

"I felt melancholy at the ill-success of my scheme. You must allow it was
a magnificent project. What moral courage! I admire myself when I think
of it. Without an introduction, without knowing a soul, to become, all
by my own resolution, free of the finest houses in London, dancing with
earls' daughters, and all but carrying off an earl's daughter myself as
my wife. If I had, the friends must have done something for me; and Lady
Margaret Tomlinson might perhaps have introduced the youthful genius of
her Augustus to parliament or the ministry. Oh, what a fall was there!
Yet, faith, ha, ha, ha! I could not help laughing, despite of my
chagrin, when I remembered that for three months I had imposed on these