Mr. Blandy, business-like in all things, wanted full value for his money; as none of Mary’s local conquests appeared to promise him an adequate return, he reluctantly quitted the pen and, with his wife and daughter, spent a season at Bath, then the great market-place of matrimonial bargains.  “As for Bath,” Thackeray writes of this period, “all history went and bathed and drank there.  George II. and his Queen, Prince Frederick and his Court, scarce a character one can mention of the early last century but was seen in that famous Pump Room, where Beau Nash presided, and his picture hung between the busts of Newton and Pope.”  Here was famous company indeed for an ambitious little country attorney to rub shoulders with in his hunt for a son-in-law.  It is claimed for Miss Blandy by one of her biographers that her vivacity, wit, and good nature were such as to win for her an immediate social success; and she entered into all the gaieties of the season with a heart unburdened by the “business” which her father sought to combine with pleasures so expensive.  She is even said to have had the honour of dancing with the Prince of Wales.  Meanwhile, the old gentleman, appearing “genteel in dress” and keeping a plentiful table, lay in wait for such eligible visitors as should enter his parlour.

The first to do so with matrimonial intent was a thriving young apothecary, but Mr. Blandy quickly made it plain that Mary and her L10,000 were not to be had by any drug-compounding knave who might make sheep’s eyes at her, and the apothecary returned to his gallipots for healing of his bruised affections.  His place was taken by Mr. H——­, a gentleman grateful to the young lady and personally desirable, but of means too limited to satisfy her parents’ views, a fact conveyed by them to the wooer “in a friendly and elegant manner,” which must have gone far to assuage his disappointment.  The next suitor for “this blooming virgin,” as her biographer names her, had the recommendation of being a soldier.  Mr. T——­, too, found favour with the damsel.  His fine address was much appreciated by her mamma, who, being a devotee of fashion, heartily espoused his cause; but again the course of true love was barred by the question of settlements as broached by the old lawyer, and the man of war “retired with some resentment.”  There was, however, no lack of candidates for Mary’s hand and dower.  Captain D——­ at once stepped into the breach and gallantly laid siege to the fair fortress.  At last, it seemed Cupid’s troublesome business was done; the captain’s suit was agreeable to all parties, and the couple became engaged.  Mary’s walks with her lover in the fields of Henley gave her, we read, such exquisite delight that she frequently thought herself in heaven.  But, alas, the stern summons of duty broke in upon her temporary Eden:  the captain was ordered abroad with his regiment on active service, and the unlucky girl could but sit at home with her parents and patiently abide the issue.