STANDARD NOVELS. N^o CXIV. “No kind of literature is so generally attractive as Fiction. Pictures of life and manners, and Stories of adventure, are more eagerly received by the many than graver productions, however important these latter may be. APULEIUS is better remembered by his fable of Cupid and Psyche than by his abstruser Platonic writings; and the Decameron of BOCCACCIO has outlived the Latin Treatises, and other learned works of that author.” RECOLLECTIONS OF A CHAPERON. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH. 1849. NOTICE. The Proprietors of CIRCULATING LIBRARIES in all parts of the country are compelled by the new Copyright Act to discontinue purchasing and lending out a single copy of a foreign edition of an English work. _The mere having it in their possession ticketed and marked as a library book_ exposes them to A PENALTY OF TEN POUNDS. By the new Copyright Act and the new Customs Act, even single copies of pirated editions of English Works are prohibited both in Great Britain and the Colonies. Copies so attempted to be passed are seized. ☞ These measures will be rigidly enforced. [Illustration: _Clara Cawse, pinx._ _G. Cook sc._ RECOLLECTIONS OF A CHAPERON. _Isabella looked surpassingly beautiful when bending over the marble basin, while she laughingly twisted dahlias into her hair._ _London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1848_] RECOLLECTIONS OF A CHAPERON. EDITED BY LADY DACRE. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH. 1849. LONDON: SPOTTISWOODE and SHAW, New-street-Square. RECOLLECTIONS OF A CHAPERON. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. I was left a widow with seven daughters. I have married them all, or rather, I have let them marry themselves; for I never took any active measures towards bringing about a result which I own to be a desirable one in a family consisting of seven daughters and one son. I have seen manœuvring mothers succeed; but I have as often seen them fail in their matrimonial speculations. I have seen dignified mothers with modest daughters, pass year after year, unnoticed and unsought; but I have also seen the unobtrusive daughters of retiring mothers form splendid alliances; and at the very beginning of my career as a Chaperon, I came to the conclusion that, as there was no rule which could ensure success, it was safer and more respectable to do too little than to do too much; better simply to fail, than to fail and to be ridiculous at the same time.