"Not disappoint me as he did Judy Millet?" "You may depend upon him this time." "Good boy, good boy. Now, look here, Arthur: you are behaving very well over this, and if the affair comes off as I wish, and you behave very nicely, I'll see next what I can do by way of finding you a wife with a snug fortune; only you must not be too particular about her looks." "I leave myself in your ladyship's hands." "There, now you may get down. I'm going to make two or three calls in the Palace." "One moment, Lady Littletown," said Litton eagerly; "I'm just starting a society for the preservation of ancient trees and old--" "Now, _mon cher_, that will do," said the old lady decidedly. "You know I never give money or--" "I only ask for your name as a patroness or supporter." "And you will not have it; so now be a good boy, and go. I've got your name down upon my tablets, Arthur, so wait your time. Stop!" The horses were checked; the footman descended and opened the door, rattling the steps loudly; Arthur Litton leaped out, raised his hat; Lady Littletown kissed the tips of her gloved fingers to him, and the carriage passed on. "I wonder whether she will," said the young man, as he walked towards the station. "However, we shall see." Volume 1, Chapter X. A DINNER FOR AN END. "My income, my dears, just suffices for my wants," said Lady Littletown; "and I have never anything to spare for charities and that sort of thing." So said her ladyship to her aristocratic friends living in pinched circumstances in the private apartments; and it may or may not have been intended for a hint not to try and borrow money. "One would like to be charitable and to give largely, but what with one's household expenses and the horses and carriages, and my month in town in the height of the season, I really sometimes find myself obliged to ask his late lordship's agent for a few hundreds in advance of the time when the rents are due. But then, you see, one owes so much to one's position." The Honourable Misses Dymcox said one certainly did; Lady Anna Maria Morton, who had been longing for a new silk evening dress for three years, said the same; and, thoroughly feeling it to be a fact, Lady Littletown tried to pay honourably what she owed to society by rigidly living up to the last penny of her fairly handsome income in the pleasant mansion near Hampton Court. She gave about four dinner-parties in the course of the year, and afterwards received. This was one of her special parties for a special purpose, and when the last of her fifteen guests had arrived and been looked at through her great gold eyeglass held with the left hand, while the tips of the fingers of the right were given in assurance of her being "so delighted," her ladyship proceeded to marshal her forces for the procession to the dining-room. "Here's what it is to be a lone widow!" she exclaimed playfully. "Moorpark, might I ask you to take the foot of the table?--Miss Marie Riversley."