[20] “Her Majesty’s Government are prepared to expect that all the arts at which the Chinese are such adepts will be put in practice to dissuade you from repairing to the capital, even for the purpose of exchanging the ratifications of the treaty, but it will be your duty firmly, but temperately, to resist any propositions to that effect, and _to admit of no excuses_. “The Admiral in command of H.M.’s naval forces in China, has been directed to send up with you to the mouth of the Peiho a sufficient naval force. “_You will insist_ on your being received at Peking, and will refuse to exchange ratifications at any other place.”--_Despatch of Lord Malmesbury, 1st March, 1859._ Lovel the Widower. CHAPTER I. THE BACHELOR OF BEAK STREET. [Illustration] Who shall be the hero of this tale? Not I who write it. I am but the Chorus of the Play. I make remarks on the conduct of the characters: I narrate their simple story. There is love and marriage in it: there is grief and disappointment: the scene is in the parlour, and the region beneath the parlour. No: it may be the parlour and kitchen, in this instance, are on the same level. There is no high life, unless, to be sure, you call a baronet’s widow a lady in high life; and some ladies may be, while some certainly are not. I don’t think there’s a villain in the whole performance. There is an abominable selfish old woman, certainly: an old highway robber; an old sponger on other people’s kindness; an old haunter of Bath and Cheltenham boarding-houses (about which how can I know anything, never having been in a boarding-house at Bath or Cheltenham in my life?); an old swindler of tradesmen, tyrant of servants, bully of the poor--who, to be sure, might do duty for a villain, but she considers herself as virtuous a woman as ever was born. The heroine is not faultless (ah! that will be a great relief to some folks, for many writers’ good women are, you know, so _very_ insipid). The principal personage you may very likely think to be no better than a muff. But is many a respectable man of our acquaintance much better? and do muffs know that they are what they are, or, knowing it, are they unhappy? Do girls decline to marry one if he is rich? Do we refuse to dine with one? I listened to one at Church last Sunday, with all the women crying and sobbing; and, oh, dear me! how finely he preached! Don’t we give him great credit for wisdom and eloquence in the House of Commons? Don’t we give him important commands in the army? Can you, or can you not, point out one who has been made a peer? Doesn’t your wife call one in the moment any of the children are ill? Don’t we read his dear poems, or even novels? Yes; perhaps even this one is read and written by--Well? _Quid rides?_ Do you mean that I am painting a portrait which hangs before me every morning in the looking-glass when I am shaving? _Après?_ Do you suppose that I