426 Nules of the Month 071 [Oct. 



clerk of sixty pounds might contrive to live in tolerable style for at least 

 a year, on the application of these assets of Messrs Curtis. The truth is, 

 that buggies and bungalows, and even blood-horses, cannot be had for 

 nothing ; that a villa at Clapham, vulgar as the thing is, is not to be had 

 for a song, and that a fortnight at Brighton itself is not to be managed, 

 even at the York, without putting the hand rather frequently in the 

 pocket. In this way the £4,000 is easily, naturally, and faithfully 

 accounted for. Clerks vivst be men of fashion, as who is not, on sixty 

 pounds a-year ? ]\Ien of fashion must have their little conveniences ; 

 or be cut, an indignity to which no gentleman could or would submit. 

 They must have their club, if newspapers are to be read, coffee drunk, 

 or a rubber played with any human comfort. For exercise, they must 

 have something of figure, one of ]\Iilton's hundred-and-fifty-guinea gal- 

 loppers for Hyde Park, half-an-hour before their lounge to dinner, at 

 their deservedly favourite Clarendon. The hunting season requires an 

 addition to their stud, and for five hundred pounds, if they are lucky in 

 their dealer, they may be respectably mounted for three days in th( 

 week, with the Surrey fox-hounds. All the world must be aware thai 

 no gentleman can do this out of moonshine : and if Sir W. Curtis i 

 angry at the disappearance of his £4,000, he has only to ask himself 

 could he do it for less. The thing is incontrovertible, and the pedes 

 trian has only to envy on. A flight to America, to his brother men c 

 fashion, who have already run the same brilliant career, saves all trouble 

 The man of fashion, like the patriot, finds every land a home. " Omii 

 forti solum est patria." Glorious America opens her free arms to th 

 flyers from jails and ropes, those cruel and fiend-like accompaniments < 

 the demon legitimacy, all over the ancient world ; and the man ( 

 fashion sports bis virgin swindling in the virgin world of swindlei 

 " Five le Tilbury J " 



At the announcement of every drawing-room, there is a formidab' 

 postscript commanding that no one shall be presented, without a previoi 

 sending in of names to the Lord Chamberlain. How then can w 

 account for the p; ragraph which has been running the round of th 

 papers .'' — " At the drawing-room an occurrence took place with reft 

 rence to the reception of a lady of title, which has given rise to muc 

 conversation in the higher circles. A peeress (not recently marrie( 

 whose conduct in private life has not always been of the stricte 

 moral character, despite of the remonstrances of her friends, would I 

 presented on this occasion. Her Majesty, we understand, treate<l ht 

 in such a manner as to evince in the circle of the court that determinatio 

 to discountenance doubtful characters, even in the highest ranic, whic 

 was so deservedly laudt d in the demeanour of Queen Charlotte." 



The worst part of the whole affair is, that, no journalist having though 

 proper to give the name of the " fair unpresentable," imagination get 

 an unlucky liberty to rove ; and goes doing mischief among a full thir 

 of the " fashionable world." Far be it from us to lift the veil of th 

 delicate obscurity, but we must join in the common acknowledgme 

 that the sooner the court sets a good example to the people, the soon 

 we shall see " matters as they ought to be." We say no more. 



How rapidly all the fair and the famous pass away ! So have said e 

 the moralists from the beginning of the world, and we do not dispui 



