Such was the bright vision of half an hour, when, on the _per contra_ side of the question a grisly band rose upon my disordered imagination, and I terrified myself with the bare idea, that _vielle-cour_ is becoming religious, to such a degree that I had hardly spirits left for Lady Anne Legrave's "At Home," to which I was obliged to go in the evening. I told my fears to mamma and Adelaide. The former said that she would hope the best; but, if the worst comes to the worst, we must, she says, of course indulge the whim as long as it lasts. _Ingot_ does not expect him for several months, so that we may take time by the forelock. Then it may be only a rumour, and he may be snug at Calcutta; but to make _sure_, we shall take a few _good books_ down to Selby, and, _per_ favour of the Morleys and Arundels, and a few more of the "Praise God Barebones" community, we shall get up a nice vocabulary, and with the help of a fawn-coloured bonnet, which I shall certainly borrow from Deborah Prim the grocer, that "demurest of the tabby kind," who is of the society called _Friends_, I do not despair of acting my part _à merveille_. Mamma is rather _cross_ upon the matter, I think, and _foresees_ trouble; but she is always a bit of a Cassandra; and besides, she lost horribly the other night at _ecarté_; but for heavens sake don't say that I told you so. Adelaide, some how or other too, does not enter into the thing _con amore_, and is not as much alive as one might expect upon a point of such magnitude, for though we have at present nothing to go upon but Ingot's testimony, and our own surmises, the return of the old lad is a serious sort of concern. If he is in good humour, and neither sick, nor pious, we are _Nabobs_ and _Nabobesses_ at once. _C'est tout dit._ If, on the other hand, he has _got the liver_ (as the Indians say so vulgarly), or has any crotchet in his head, connected with new-light fantasies, I do assure you that we may have much vexation in prospect; and unless you just put yourself in training, and help me out, I do not promise myself any effective assistance. Our poor mother is, as I said before, in an acid vein, and will require Cheltenham certainly, when we leave town; and as to Adelaide, she has other fish to fry, and till the cookery is performed or the finny race, sent swimming _again from the net_ (_vous comprenez_); I shall not be able to enlist her in my pantomime. _Apropos_, Lord George was with us last night, and protests that his mother shall give a masquerade at which he will perform the part of our old Rajah, and I shall _rehearse_ my new character, dressed as a quaker, carrying a basket of _tracts_ on my arm, and, followed by half a dozen of his sister, Lady Somerville's children, who are perfect cherubs, and are to enact _my school_. You can't fancy any thing more _spirituel_. It was quite a _scene_, and we were decidedly the attraction of the evening. I was evidently _prima donna_, and felt so _couleur de rose_ with