It must altogether have been an awkward rencontre, and, indeed, for my father, a remarkably unfortunate occurrence; for Seymour Conway was immensely rich, and the damages would, no doubt, have been proportionably high.

Had they met each other alone, the affair might easily have been settled, and Lady Frances gone off in tranquillity;--those d--d servants are always in the way! I have, however, often thought that it was better for me that the affair ended thus,--as I know, from many instances, that it is frequently exceedingly inconvenient to have one's mother divorced.
I have observed that the distinguishing trait of people accustomed to good society, is a calm, imperturbable quiet, which pervades all their actions and habits, from the greatest to the least: they eat in quiet, move in quiet, live in quiet, and lose their wife, or even their money, in quiet; while low persons cannot take up either a spoon or an affront without making such an amazing noise about it.

To render this observation good, and to return to the intended elopement, nothing farther was said upon that event.

My father introduced Conway to Brookes's, and invited him to dinner twice a week for a whole twelvemonth.
Not long after this occurrence, by the death of my grandfather, my uncle succeeded to the title and estates of the family.

He was, as people justly observed, rather an odd man: built schools for peasants, forgave poachers, and diminished his farmers' rents; indeed, on account of these and similar eccentricities, he was thought a fool by some, and a madman by others.