I am as true as Truth's simplicity, And simpler than the infancy of Truth. SHAKESPEARE. [Footnote 3: What should I do at Rome, unknowing how to feign?] Selina's impatience to reach the end of her journey made her consider it tedious in its progress, notwithstanding the velocity with which Lady Eltondale always travelled; who was too much a woman of fashion not to increase as much as possible her own consequence along the king's highway, by the trifling exertion of keeping the poor goaded animals which had the honor of drawing her vehicle at their utmost speed, thereby endangering the lives of such of his majesty's peaceful subjects as happened to approach them. As to Lord Eltondale, he seldom found leisure to reflect on the consequence attending any direction her Ladyship pleased to give; and even had he reflected, he would scarcely have ventured to dissent, so confirmed was his habit of passive acquiescence. Indeed, poor man, he was in a situation something similar to the coronet on his own equipage,--an external appendage to Lady Eltondale, which, while hurried along under the direction of her caprice, gave her a dignity in the eyes of the many, who merely look on the outside of every thing, but, in reality, totally disregarded by all those who were admitted into the interior. At last, from a little eminence on the road, the first view of London broke on Selina's delighted eye. And yet such had been the exaggerated picture of this queen of cities, which her vivid imagination had drawn, that the _coup d'oeil_ almost disappointed her. It is true, a long line of smoke darkened the whole horizon, yet she could scarcely believe, the towers she saw so pre-eminent in the distance were really the St. Paul's, and Westminster Abbey, she had so long wished to see. Judgment must be corrected by experience, before it can form a true scale for grandeur either moral or physical. However, as by degrees Selina discovered the immensity of the parts, she formed some idea of the comparative magnitude of the whole; and as she approached the metropolis, the throng of passengers of every rank, the crowd of carriages of all descriptions, the protracted suburbs, and the bustling scene altogether, nearly overcame her agitated spirits; and, at last, when the carriage was suddenly stopped, and for some minutes detained in Bond Street by the concourse of people, her heart became oppressed with contending feelings. She experienced that worst pang of solitude--a consciousness of being alone in a crowd; and, leaning back in the carriage, she burst into tears. This was, however, but a momentary depression; her elastic spirits soon recovered their spring; and when the barouche stopped in Portman Square, she bounded out of it, and gaily followed Lady Eltondale into her new abode.