All the
little sisters were charmed, no doubt, that the beautiful Ethel was to
become a beautiful Marchioness, who, as they came up to womanhood one
after another, would introduce them severally to amiable young earls,
dukes, and marquises, when they would be married off and wear coronets
and diamonds of their own right. At Lady Anne's ball I saw my
acquaintance, young Mumford, who was going to Oxford next October, and
about to leave Rugby, where he was at the head of the school, looking
very dismal as Miss Alice whirled round the room dancing in Viscount
Bustington's arms;--Miss Alice, with whose mamma he used to take tea at
Rugby, and for whose pretty sake Mumford did Alfred Newcome's verses for
him and let him off his thrashings. Poor Mumford! he dismally went about
under the protection of young Alfred, a fourth-form boy--not one soul did
he know in that rattling London ballroom; his young face--as white as the
large white tie, donned two hours since at the Tavistock with such
nervousness and beating of heart!
With these lads, and decorated with a tie equally splendid, moved about
young Sam Newcome, who was shirking from his sister and his mamma.
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