man just coming of age, and two very sweet amiable daughters.  I liked this place much better than my first, there was so much more pleasant noise and bustle—­so much more grand company, and so many more opportunities of improving myself.  Oh, how I liked to see the grand coaches drive up to the door, with the grand company; and though, amidst that company, there were some who did not look very grand, there were others, and not a few, who did.  Some of the ladies quite captivated me; there was the Marchioness of—­in particular.  This young lady puts me much in mind of her; it is true, the Marchioness, as I saw her then, was about fifteen years older than this young gentlewoman is now, and not so tall by some inches, but she had the very same hair, and much the same neck and shoulders—­no offence, I hope?  And then some of the young gentlemen, with their cool, haughty, care-for-nothing looks, struck me as being very fine fellows.  There was one in particular, whom I frequently used to stare at, not altogether unlike some one I have seen hereabouts—­he had a slight cast in his eye, and . . . but I won’t enter into every particular.  And then the footmen!  Oh, how those footmen helped to improve me with their conversation.  Many of them could converse much more glibly than their masters, and appeared to have much better taste.  At any rate, they seldom approved of what their masters did.  I remember being once with one in the gallery of the play-house, when something of Shakspeare’s was being performed:  some one in the first tier of boxes was applauding very loudly.  “That’s my fool of a governor,” said he; “he is weak enough to like Shakspeare—­I don’t;—­he’s so confoundedly low, but he won’t last long—­going down.  Shakspeare culminated”—­I think that was the word—­“culminated some time ago.”

’And then the professor of elocution, of whom my governors used to take lessons, and of which lessons I had my share, by listening behind the door; but for that professor of elocution I should not be able to round my periods—­an expression of his—­in the manner I do.

’After I had been three years at this place my mistress died.  Her death, however, made no great alteration in my way of living, the family spending their winters in London, and their summers at their old seat in S—–­ as before.  At last, the young ladies, who had not yet got husbands, which was strange enough, seeing, as I told you before, they were very amiable, proposed to our governor a travelling expedition abroad.  The old baronet consented, though young master was much against it, saying they would all be much better at home.  As the girls persisted, however, he at last withdrew his opposition, and even promised to follow them as soon as his parliamentary duties would permit; for he was just got into Parliament, and, like most other young members, thought that nothing could be done in the House without him.  So the old gentleman and the two young ladies set off, taking me with them,