( 297 ) 

 MATRIMONY AND MOONSHINE*. SECOND SERIES. 



MATTHEW AND JEMIMA : A TALE OF PORTMAN SQUARE. 

 VOL. I. CHAP. I. CHARACTER. 



If I were writing only for the benefit of the denizens of the 

 western parts of our gigantic metropolis, instead of the world at 

 large, it would be unnecessary to state that the centre of Portman 

 Square is laid out in a style agreeable and picturesque, * unlike 

 Les Places on the Continent, which are as difficult to be crossed 

 under a meridian sun as one of the African deserts, but in shady 

 and retired walks, in the exclusive sinuosities of which the dainty 

 inhabitants of that fashionable quarter are wont of a summer's eve to 

 disport themselves, and inhale the impalpable dust wafted towards 

 them from " the sweet south." 



It was in this favoured spot, on a certain day in June, and just at 

 that equivocal hour when day and night f( are at odds with each 

 other which is which," that the youthful and elegant Matthew Ever- 

 green first cast his eyes on the refulgent beauties of Miss Jemima 

 Golightly, which, profiting no doubt by the uncertain medium 

 through which they were transmitted, told with double effect. The 

 effect, indeed, as Matthew used afterwards to assure his friends, was 

 " indescribable. 1 ' Be this as it may, he was so thoroughly enamoured 

 that he scarcely closed his eyes during the livelong night, but, as 

 Lord Byron has it, 



" In vain from side to side he throws 

 His form in courtship of repose j 

 Or if he dozed, a sound, a start 

 Awoke him." 



No wonder, then, that he rose early ; but, if in quest of peace, he 

 rose in vain, for the fair form of Jemima pursued him wherever he 

 went. The youth was sad and pensive ; he ate little, and, to the great 

 relief of his friends, talked less. But before we proceed further 1 , a 

 word or two on our young friend. Matthew was a youth on the point 

 of attaining his twenty- first year ; the son of Mrs. Evergreen, whose 

 husband had been some years deceased, leaving behind him what is 

 usually termed " a very pretty fortune," amassed, during a long 

 course of industry, in the " grocery line ;" a fit business, as the City 

 wits were wont to remark, in which to pick up a plum. Young 

 Matthew had received that sort of education which is usually be- 

 stowed on those who are not destined to " work their own way in 



* This tale, which forms our second under the head of " Matrimony and 

 Moonshine," was originally written in three volumes. It was offered to a 

 fashionable publisher, but a trifling difference arising of some paltry 300 or 

 400, the author, justly disgusted, contrived to reduce his work within the com- 

 pass of a magazine article without taking away a single point of interest. He 

 appears to have executed his task without difficulty ; and we hope his example 

 will be followed. The division of volumes has been retained that the curious 

 reader may be able duly to appreciate the talent and ingenuity necessary to 

 form three interesting volumes from such apparently scanty materials. [ED. 



M. M. No. 99. 2 Q. 



