ABSTRACT

I PASSED an hour in conversation with my new associate; and before we parted I was acquainted with all her right honourable private anecdotes, from the generous indiscretions of ‘the glass of fashion,’38 to the eccentric amours of him whose peccadillo follies are the subject of universal ridicule. She never condescended to mention an untitled acquaintance, and her voice seemed attuned by nature to ring the uninteresting changes of a court calendar.39 My thoughts nevertheless were incessantly wandering to distant objects; and the memory of happier moments embittered every hope of future consolation.