120 'OLD q' 



peers for Scotland, on a Bill to lay an embargo on the 

 export of wheat and flour. It is possible that he was 

 asked to attend by Selwyn, who, as M.P. for Gloucester, 

 desired March to acquaint him of the result, which 

 he certainly did, as little if anything but legislation 

 is mentioned. 



Selwyn appreciated his friend's services by send- 

 ing a muff, which his lordship, in acknowledg- 

 ing, ^ likes prodigiously, better than tigre or any 

 glaring colour. Then follows a reference to certain 

 commissions, and an expression of despair at visiting 

 Paris. This, March believes he would have done, 

 but for a violent fancy he had taken for one of the 

 'opera- girls,' ^ which he hopes will abate before the 

 advent of George and the Rena, to whom his lordship 

 is prepared to show ' every mark of regard and con- 

 sideration, and be vastly happy to see her ' ; but his 

 other remarks concerning her had better be taken 

 from the Appendix, as also the topical chatter of that 

 day mentioned in the subsequent letters.^ 



Lord March's study of opera -girls was not con- 

 fined to dalliance at the coulisses or lounging in 

 the green-room or box-lobbies. Strange as it may 

 seem, this Maicenas of the gambling world had an 

 ear for music ; indeed, for a member of the haut ton 



1 Appendix X. ^ The Zamparini. ^ Appendix Z and A 1. 



