Great kingdoms grew out of small beginnings. Mrs. Haughton’s social circle was described from a humble centre. On coming into possession of her easy income and her house in Gloucester Place, she was naturally seized with the desire of an appropriate “visiting acquaintance.” The accomplishment of that desire had been deferred awhile by the excitement of Lionel’s departure for Paris, and the IMMENSE TEMPTATION to which the attentions of the spurious Mr. Courtenay Smith had exposed her widowed solitude: but no sooner had she recovered from the shame and anger with which she had discarded that showy impostor, happily in time, than the desire became the more keen; because the good lady felt that with a mind so active and restless as hers, a visiting acquaintance might be her best preservative from that sense of loneliness which disposes widows to lend the incautious ear to adventurous wooers. After her experience of her own weakness in listening to a sharper, and with a shudder at her escape, Mrs. Haughton made a firm resolve never to give her beloved son a father-in-law. No, she would distract her thoughts—she would have a VISITING ACQUAINTANCE. She commenced by singling out such families as at various times had been her genteelest lodgers—now lodging elsewhere. She informed them by polite notes of her accession of consequence and fortune, which she was sure they would be happy to hear; and these notes, left with the card of “Mrs. Haughton, Gloucester Place,” necessarily produced respondent notes and correspondent cards. Gloucester Place then prepared itself for a party. The ci-devant lodgers urbanely attended the summons. In their turn they gave parties. Mrs. Haughton was invited. From each such party she bore back a new draught into her “social circle.” Thus, long before the end of five years, Mrs. Haughton had attained her object. She had a “VISITING ACQUAINTANCE!” It is true that she was not particular; so that there was a new somebody at whose house a card could be left, or a morning call achieved—who could help to fill her rooms, or whose rooms she could contribute to fill in turn. She was contented. She was no tuft-hunter. She did not care for titles. She had no visions of a column in the Morning Post. She wanted, kind lady, only a vent for the exuberance of her social instincts; and being proud, she rather liked acquaintances who looked up to, instead of looking down on her. Thus Gloucester Place was invaded by tribes not congenial to its natural civilised atmosphere. Hengists and Horsas, from remote Anglo-Saxon districts, crossed the intervening channel, and insulted the British nationality of that salubrious district. To most of such immigrators, Mrs. Haughton, of Gloucester Place, was a personage of the highest distinction. A few others of prouder status in the world, though they owned to themselves that there was a sad mixture at Mrs. Haughton’s house, still, once seduced there, came again—being persons who, however independent in fortune or gentle by blood, had but a small “visiting acquaintance” in town; fresh from economical colonisation on the Continent or from distant provinces in these three kingdoms. Mrs. Haughton’s rooms were well lighted. There was music for some, whist for others; tea, ices, cakes, and a crowd for all.

At ten o’clock-the rooms already nearly filled, and Mrs. Haughton, as she stood at the door, anticipating with joy that happy hour when the staircase would become inaccessible—the head attendant, sent with the ices from the neighbouring confectioner, announced in a loud voice: “Mr. Haughton—Mr. Darrell.”

At that latter name a sensation thrilled the assembly—the name so much in every one’s mouth at that period, nor least in the mouths of the great middle class, on whom—though the polite may call them “a sad mixture,” cabinets depend—could not fail to be familiar to the ears of Mrs. Haughton’s “visiting acquaintance.” The interval between his announcement and his ascent from the hall to the drawing-room was busily filled up by murmured questions to the smiling hostess: “Darrell! what! the Darrell! Guy Darrell! greatest man of the day! A connection of yours? Bless me, you don’t say so?” Mrs. Haughton began to feel nervous. Was Lionel right? Could the man who had only been a lawyer at the back of Holborn really be, now, such a very, very great man—greatest man of the day? Nonsense!

“Ma’am,” said one pale, puff-cheeked, flat-nosed gentleman, in a very large white waistcoat, who was waiting by her side till a vacancy in one of the two whist-tables should occur. “Ma’am, I’m an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Darrell. You say he is a connection of yours? Present me to him.”

Mrs. Haughton nodded flutteringly, for, as the gentleman closed his request, and tapped a large gold snuff-box, Darrell stood before her—Lionel close at his side, looking positively sheepish. The great man said a few civil words, and was gliding into the room to make way for the press behind him, when he of the white waistcoat, touching Mrs. Haughton’s arm, and staring Darrell full in the face, said, very loud: “In these anxious times, public men dispense with ceremony. I crave an introduction to Mr. Darrell.” Thus pressed, poor Mrs. Haughton, without looking up, muttered out: “Mr. Adolphus Poole—Mr. Darrell,” and turned to welcome fresh comers.

“Mr. Darrell,” said Mr. Poole, bowing to the ground, “this is an honour.”

Darrell gave the speaker one glance of his keen eye, and thought to himself: “If I were still at the bar I should be sorry to hold a brief for that fellow.” However, he returned the bow formally, and, bowing again at the close of a highly complimentary address with which Mr. Poole followed up his opening sentence, expressed himself “much flattered,” and thought he had escaped; but wherever he went through the crowd, Mr. Poole contrived to follow him, and claim his notice by remarks on the affairs of the day—the weather—the funds—the crops. At length Darrell perceived, sitting aloof in a corner, an excellent man whom indeed it surprised him to see in a London drawing-room, but who, many years ago, when Darrell was canvassing the enlightened constituency of Ouzelford, had been on a visit to the chairman of his committee—an influential trader—and having connections in the town—and, being a very high character, had done him good service in the canvass. Darrell rarely forgot a face, and never a service. At any time he would have been glad to see the worthy man once more, but at that time he was grateful indeed.

“Excuse me,” he said bluntly to Mr. Poole, “but I see an old friend.” He moved on, and thick as the crowd had become, it made way, with respect as to royalty for the distinguished orator. The buzz of admiration as he passed—louder than in drawing-rooms more refined—would have had sweeter music than Grisi’s most artful quaver to a vainer man—nay, once on a time to him. But—sugar plums come too late! He gained the corner, and roused the solitary sitter.

“My dear Mr. Hartopp, do you not remember me—Guy Darrell?”

“Mr. Darrell!” cried the ex-mayor of Gatesboro’, rising, “who could think that you would remember me?”

“What! not remember those ten stubborn voters, on whom, all and singly, I had lavished my powers of argument in vain? You came, and with the brief words, ‘John—Ned—Dick—oblige me—vote for Darrell!’ the men were convinced—the votes won. That’s what I call eloquence”—(sotto voce—“Confound that fellow! still after me!” Aside to Hartopp)—“Oh! may I ask who is that Mr. What’s-his-name—there—in the white waistcoat?”

“Poole,” answered Hartopp. “Who is he, sir? A speculative man. He is connected with a new Company—I am told it answers. Williams (that’s my foreman—a very long head he has too) has taken shares in the Company, and wanted me to do the same, but ‘tis not in my way. And Mr. Poole may be a very honest man, but he does not impress me with that idea. I have grown careless; I know I am liable to be taken in—I was so once—and therefore I avoid ‘Companies’ upon principle—especially when they promise thirty per cent., and work copper mines—Mr. Poole has a copper mine.”

“And deals in brass—you may see it in his face! But you are not in town for good, Mr. Hartopp? If I remember right, you were settled at Gatesboro’ when we last met.”

“And so I am still—or rather in the neighbourhood. I am gradually retiring from business, and grown more and more fond of farming. But I have a family, and we live in enlightened times, when children require a finer education than their parents had. Mrs. Hartopp thought my daughter Anna Maria was in need of some ‘finishing lessons’—very fond of the harp is Anna Maria—and so we have taken a house in London for six weeks. That’s Mrs. Hartopp yonder, with the bird on her head—bird of paradise, I believe; Williams says birds of that kind never rest. That bird is an exception—it has rested on Mrs. Hartopp’s head for hours together, every evening since we have been in town.”

“Significant of your connubial felicity, Mr. Hartopp.”

“May it be so of Anna Maria’ s. She is to be married when her education is finished—married, by the by, to a son of your old friend Jessop, of Ouzelford; and between you and me, Mr. Darrell, that is the reason why I consented to come to town. Do not suppose that I would have a daughter finished unless there was a husband at hand who undertook to be responsible for the results.”

“You retain your wisdom, Mr. Hartopp; and I feel sure that not even your fair partner could have brought you up to London unless you had decided on the expediency of coming. Do you remember that I told you the day you so admirably settled a dispute in our committee-room, ‘it was well you were not born a king, for you would have been an irresistible tyrant’?”

“Hush! hush!” whispered Hartopp, in great alarm, “if Mrs. H. should hear you! What an observer you are, sir. I thought I was a judge of character—but I was once deceived. I dare say you never were.”

“You mistake,” answered Darrell, wincing, “you deceived! How?”

“Oh, a long story, sir. It was an elderly man—the most agreeable, interesting companion—a vagabond nevertheless—and such a pretty bewitching little girl with him, his grandchild. I thought he might have been a wild harumscarum chap in his day, but that he had a true sense of honour”—(Darrell, wholly uninterested in this narrative, suppressed a yawn, and wondered when it would end).

“Only think, sir, just as I was saying to myself, ‘I know character—I never was taken in,’ down comes a smart fellow—the man’s own son—and tells me—or rather he suffers a lady who comes with him to tell me—that this charming old gentleman of high sense of honour was a returned convict—been transported for robbing his employer.”

Pale, breathless, Darrell listened, not unheeding now. “What was the name of—of—”

“The convict? He called himself Chapman, but the son’s name was Losely—Jasper.”

“Ah!” faltered Darrell, recoiling. “And you spoke of a little girl?”

“Jasper Losely’s daughter; he came after her with a magistrate’s warrant. The old miscreant had carried her off,—to teach her his own swindling ways, I suppose.”

“Luckily she was then in my charge. I gave her back to her father, and the very respectable-looking lady he brought with him. Some relation, I presume.”

“What was her name, do you remember?”

“Crane.”

“Crane!—Crane!” muttered Darrell, as if trying in vain to tax his memory with that name. “So he said the child was his daughter—are you sure?”

“Oh, of course he said so, and the lady too. But can you be acquainted with their, sir?”

“I?—no! Strangers to me, except by repute. Liars—infamous liars! But have the accomplices quarrelled—I mean the son and father—that the father should be exposed and denounced by the son?”

“I conclude so. I never saw them again. But you believe the father really was, then, a felon, a convict—no excuse for him—no extenuating circumstances? There was something in that man, Mr. Darrell, that made one love him—positively love him; and when I had to tell him that I had given up the child he trusted to my charge, and saw his grief, I felt a criminal myself.”

Darrell said nothing, but the character of his face was entirely altered—stern, hard, relentless—the face of an inexorable judge. Hartopp, lifting his eyes suddenly to that countenance, recoiled in awe.

“You think I was a criminal!” he said, piteously.

“I think we are both talking too much, Mr. Hartopp, of a gang of miserable swindlers, and I advise you to dismiss the whole remembrance of intercourse with any of them from your honest breast, and never to repeat to other ears the tale you have poured into mine. Men of honour should crush down the very thought that approaches them to knaves.”

Thus saying, Darrell moved off with abrupt rudeness, and passing quickly back through the crowd, scarcely noticed Mrs. Haughton by a retreating nod, nor heeded Lionel at all, but hurried down the stairs. He was impatiently searching for his cloak in the back parlour, when a voice behind said: “Let me assist you, sir—do:” and turning round with petulant quickness, he beheld again Mr. Adolphus Poole. It requires an habitual intercourse with equals to give perfect and invariable control of temper to a man of irritable nerves and frank character; and though, where Daxrell really liked, he had much sweet forbearance, and where he was indifferent much stately courtesy, yet, when he was offended, he could be extremely uncivil. “Sir,” he cried almost stamping his foot, “your importunities annoy me I request you to cease them.”

“Oh, I ask your pardon,” said Mr. Poole, with an angry growl. “I have no need to force myself on any man. But I beg you to believe that if I presumed to seek your acquaintance, it was to do you a service sir—yes, a private service, sir.” He lowered his voice into a whisper, and laid his finger on his nose: “There’s one Jasper Losely, sir—eh? Oh, sir, I’m no mischief-maker. I respect family secrets. Perhaps I might be of use, perhaps not.”

“Certainly not to me, sir,” said Darrell, flinging the cloak he had now found across his shoulders, and striding from the house. When he entered his carriage, the footman stood waiting for orders. Darrell was long in giving them. “Anywhere for half an hour—to St. Paul’s, then home.” But on returning from this objectless plunge into the City, Darrell pulled the check-string: “To Belgrave Square—Lady Dulcett’s.”

The concert was half over; but Flora Vyvyan had still guarded, as she had promised, a seat beside herself for Darrell, by lending it for the present to one of her obedient vassals. Her face brightened as she saw Darrell enter and approach. The vassal surrendered the chair. Darrell appeared to be in the highest spirits; and I firmly believe that he was striving to the utmost in his power—what? to make himself agreeable to Flora Vyvyan? No; to make Flora Vyvyan agreeable to himself. The man did not presume that a fair young lady could be in love with him; perhaps he believed that, at his years, to be impossible. But he asked what seemed much easier, and was much harder—he asked to be himself in love.