“Now, if you please, I’ll trouble you for my umbrella; I did not like to interrupt your story by asking for it sooner, but now, if you have no objection, I shall be glad of it.” “Certainly,” replied De Grandeville, only too glad (his attention being once more attracted to it) to get rid of his incubus. As Frere turned aside to hide a laugh, Bracy inquired, “By the way, De Grandeville, do you dine at Lady Lombard’s next Tuesday?” “_I_ do,” replied Frere; “and I suppose it’s to be one of her Lord Mayor’s feasts, as I hear she’s beating up recruits in all quarters.” “Ar--really--I’ve received an invitation--but I--ar-- ’pon my word, I don’t know whether one’s justified in going to such places; one must draw the line--ar--somewhere.” “It will be a first-rate feed,” resumed Bracy. “Lady Lombard’s _chef_ is a capital hand, and her wine is by no means to be despised.” “Yes, but the woman herself,” rejoined De Grandeville in a tone of the deepest disgust, “just retrace her degrading career--ar--not an ancestor to begin the world with.” “Well, I should have supposed she possessed her fair share in Adam and Noah, too,” remarked Frere drily. “Plebeian in origin,” continued De Grandeville, not heeding the interruption, “she sinks herself still lower by espousing first a pickle-merchant, secondly a pawnbroker; the first--ar--repulsive, the second sordid.” “She did not play her cards altogether badly, though,” observed Bracy. “Old Girkin died worth a plum, and Sir Pinchbeck Lombard was a millionaire, or thereabouts.” “Money, sir,” returned De Grandeville sententiously, “is by no means to be despised, and those who affect indifference on the subject usually do so to screen a grasping and avaricious temperament. But money becomes really respectable only when it enables those who are connected with the old historical families of England, those in whose veins runs the ‘blue’ blood of aristocracy, to assert their rightful position as lords of the soil. Among the landed gentry of England are to be found------” “Some thoroughly jolly fellows,” interposed Bracy, “especially to show you the way across country, or help to kick up a shindy at the Coal Hole. But we must part company here; Frere’s booked for the Palaeontological, and I am going to attend a Committee at the House You’ll be at Lady Lombard’s?” “I shall give the matter full consideration,” returned De Grande-ville. “It is--ar--by no means a step to decide on hastily. In these levelling days men of--ar--position are forced to be particular as to the places to which they afford the--ar--sanction of their presence. I wish you a very good morning;” so saying, he raised his hat slightly to Frere, drew himself up with his broad chest well thrown forward, and marched off majestically like a concentrated squadron of heavy dragoons.