JILTED! OR, MY UNCLE’S SCHEME. JILTED! OR, MY UNCLE’S SCHEME. A Novel, in Three Vols. VOL. I. London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, & SEARLE, CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET. 1875. [_All Rights Reserved._] CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. 1 CHAPTER II. 31 CHAPTER III. 54 CHAPTER IV. 90 CHAPTER V. 121 CHAPTER VI. 140 CHAPTER VII. 160 CHAPTER VIII. 199 JILTED! OR, MY UNCLE’S SCHEME. MY UNCLE’S SCHEME. CHAPTER I. “It has been found hard to describe man by an adequate definition. Some philosophers have called him a reasonable animal; but others have considered reason as a quality of which many creatures partake. He has been termed likewise a laughing animal; but it is said that some men have never laughed. Perhaps man may be more properly distinguished as an idle animal.”--_Dr. Johnson._ My father was a major in the army who, at the time this story begins, had lived in Longueville-sur-mer for fifteen years, to which place he had come, after my mother’s death, bringing me with him. I was then seven years old. He put me to a good school in the neighbourhood, at which I remained until I was sixteen; and was then let free. Considering myself a man, I worked hard to grow a mustache, in which I very ignominiously failed; for it was not until I was one-and-twenty that nature condescended to favour me with that very elegant and martial decoration. I also took to colouring meerschaum pipes, in which art, before I was nineteen, I was considered by my companions to excel, though I did not succeed in establishing my reputation in that line until I had dealt such an injury to my nervous system as I fear I shall never recover. I also became, before long, an expert hand at billiards, though up to the last Bob Le Marchmont could always give me twenty points and beat me comfortably. But I was his better at whist, and was indeed a match for several grave old gentlemen who were members of our English Club in the Rue des Chiens.