If he was surprised, therefore, that Oldfield could act the high-born woman of fashion, the “lady of condition,” who shall blame him?  A tavern does not seem the proper school for deportment, and, though one has the bluest blood in Christendom, humble surroundings may keep it from flowing very freely.  Still, Anne was naturally a thoroughbred; the girl had a personal distinction which was hers by right of inheritance, and what she lacked in elegance she was quick to acquire as she grew into womanhood.

It is a strange coincidence that the actress who in after years rejuvenated Lady Betty[A], and made her again a living, breathing creature, had at one period of her career been a tavern girl.  Abington it was who seemed the very incarnation of aristocracy, and made the audience forget that, high as she stood upon the stage, she had once been almost in the gutter.

[Footnote A:  Mrs. Abington, one of the most graceful and spirited actresses of the eighteenth century, was born in 1731, shortly after the death of Oldfield.  She had the honour of being the original Lady Teazle, a part which she rehearsed under the direction of Sheridan, and she enjoyed the further distinction of being detested by Garrick.  The latter said of her:  “She is below the thought of any honest man or woman.”]

The same welcome anomaly is noticed now, when the actresses who play the women of the “hupper circles” with the greatest delicacy and keenness of touch are frequently the products of the lower or middle class.  On the other hand, the dame de societe who trips lightly from the drawing-room to the stage, amid the blare of trumpets and the excitement of her friends, usually fails to make a mark.  To be sure, several of them have made marks—­very black ones.

Now let us turn the pages of the “Careless Husband,” as we scan them in Lowndes’s “British Theatre,” and see if we cannot extract some amusement therefrom.  The scene opens in the lodgings of Sir Charles Easy, who, like many other dramatic personages of the eighteenth century, has a name that signifies his character.  Easy, Sir Charles is in every sense of the word, particularly easy as to morals, for the possession of a lovely wife does not prevent him from prosecuting an amour with a woman of quality, Lady Graveairs, or having a vulgar intrigue with the maid of his own spouse.  In fine, he is a right amiable gentleman, according to the curious standards of long ago; a very prince of good fellows, who in these days would pass for a cad.

We are hardly begun with the comedy before we are introduced to this paragon, who enters just after Lady Easy and the maid, Edging, have discovered fresh proofs of his flirtation with Lady Graveairs.  Charles is inclined to be philosophical in a blase, tired way, and he says:  “How like children do we judge of happiness!  When I was stinted in my fortune almost everything was a pleasure to me, because most things then being out of my reach, I