Chapter I: Preface

Where the rose blushes in the garden, there will the bee and the butterfly be found, humming and fluttering around. So is it in the world; the fair girl, whose sweetness is enhanced by the fictitious advantages of wealth and position, will ever have lovers and admirers enough and to spare.

Burns was no bad judge of human nature; and he has a stanza on this subject, combining the reflection of the philosopher with the _canny_ discrimination of the Scot.

“Away with your follies of beauty’s alarms,
The _slender_ bit beauty you clasp in your arms;
But gi’e me the lass that has acres of charms,
Oh, gi’e me the lass with the _weel-plenished_ farms.”

Should the following pages afford such attractive young ladies matter for a few moments’ reflection, the author will not have written in vain.

May he hope they will choose well and wisely; and that the withered rose, when she has lost her fragrance, may be fondly prized and gently tended by the hand that plucked her in her dewy morning prime.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. My Cousin 9

II. The Abigail 26

III. The Handsome Governess 41

IV. “Libitina” 58

V. Uncle Baldwin 72

VI. The Blind Boy 85

VII. Boot and Saddle 101

VIII. The Ball 116

IX. Want 130

X. Superfluity 146

XI. Campaigning Abroad 161

XII. Campaigning at Home 177

XIII. The World 194

XIV. To Persons about to Marry 204

XV. Penelope and her Suitors 212

XVI. Forgery 225

XVII. Club Law 236

XVIII. The Strictest Confidence 247

XIX. Dispatches 259

XX. Dawn in the East 276

XXI. Hospital 292

XXII. The Widow 303

XXIII. “Stop her” 309

XXIV. King Crack 323

XXV. “Dulce Domum” 333

XXVI. “Eudæmon” 347

XXVII. Flood and Field 360

XXVIII. “The Sad Sea Wave” 374

GENERAL BOUNCE

_OR, THE LADY AND THE LOCUSTS_