some of the impertinent necessities of fashionable life, would tread on my
heels. The order of the day or night was for ever pressed upon me--and the
order of the day was now to go to this new sentimental comedy--my mother's
favourite actor, the silver-toned Barry, was to play the lover of the
piece; so she was sure of as many fashionable young ladies as her box could
possibly hold. At this period, in England, every fashionable belle declared
herself the partisan of some actor or actress; and every fashionable beau
aspired to the character of a dramatic critic. Mowbray, of course, was
distinguished in that line, and his pretty little sister, Lady Anne, was,
at least in face, formed to grace the front box. The hours of the great
world were earlier then than they are now, and nothing interfered, indeed
nothing would have been suffered to interfere, with the hour for the play.
As a veteran wit described it, "There were at this time four estates in the
English Constitution, kings, lords, commons, and the theatre." Statesmen,
courtiers, poets, philosophers, crowded pell mell with the white-gloved
beaux to the stage box and the pit. It was thought well-bred, it was _the
thing_ to be in the boxes before the third act, even before the second,
nay, incredible as it may in these times appear, before the first act
began. Our fashionable party was seated some minutes before the curtain
drew up.



CHAPTER VII.

The beaux and belles in the boxes of the crowded theatre had bowed and
curtsied, for in those days beaux did bow and belles did curtsy; the
impatient sticks in the pit, and shrill catcalls in the gallery, had begun
to contend with the music in the orchestra; and thrice had we surveyed the
house to recognize every body whom any body knew, when the door of the box