HELENA EGERTON. CHAPTER I. THE family of the Wrongheads were an epitome of the world their vices were fewer than their frailties, and their frailties, more numerous than their virtues. Lady Wronghead, the head of this illustrious house, was a very clever woman in her own opinion at least-notable, shrewd, spirited. Sir Gabriel Wronghead was the manly representative of the noble family of Wrongheadsa family who, the learned believe, will never become extinct, and has existed from B 3 from the creation of the world. Sir Gabriel, indeed, dated the origin of his branch of it in a clear and unbroken line from one of the sons of Adam, and indeed would have been happy in fixing on a more ancient pedigree, could it have been conveniently done. To preserve a race of such high antiquity, he, early in life, married the daughter of a wealthy citizen, a man of yesterday, whose riches, in some degree, compensated for an ignoble* lineage— sir Gabriel wisely remembering, that let him marry whom he would, his children must all, bona fide, be Wrongheads. His prudential scheme was crowned with a numerous progeny encircled his board. His house was large, his appointments were liberal, and sorrow, or rather causes for sorrow, seldom invaded Random Hall. success From this remark, it should seem that the lady was not, like sir Gabriel, a direct or indirect descendant of Adam. Timotheus Adam Wronghead, esquire (probably taking his second name from his great progenitor), was the hopeful heir. He was or shall we say, he ought to have been, a most elegant young gentleman, for he had been to at least half-a-dozen of the most fashionable public and private seminaries-had spent a few months at Eton, and rather more at college-talked of Latin (the sign of the genitive case is not here obtruded by mistake), and thought himself at all points a finished beau. A tour on the Continent had benefited him in more ways than one; for besides causing him to speak a dialect, which his mother often exultingly remarked was made up of French, Italian, Spanish, and German, he was thereby entitled to the enviable privilege of enriching his conversation with the erudite remark, "when I was abroad," a delicious insignia of travelled knowledge, most especially for one who had no other. The paucity of his foreign acquirements might be owing to the rapidity of his movements, having completed the grand tour in an English phaton, with a pair of spanking greys, in something less than three months-or it might arise from his almost total ignorance of the language of the countries he visited, his pertinacious adherence to English as sociates and English habits during the whole journey, and his profound contempt for whoever and whatever was not English. A curious metamorphosis, however, took place on his return to his native land the countries, the climes, the people, the customs, he had despised when amidst them, he rapturously applauded when distant from them. However, he had been abroad," and that was enough for himself, for his lady mother in short, for all persons of taste and fashion. And here we cannot help applauding that that liberal spirit, which leads our countrymen generously to prefer an acquaintance with the soil, productions, government, and customs of foreign countries, rather than of their own. It is highly edifying to hear youths, who have not seen an acre of British ground beyond their father's park, and who would deem it vulgar to know any thing of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England, very proudly and learnedly descant on the ragouts of France, the olios of Spain, and the caviare of Italy. Jack, the second son, was a sad, goodfor-nothing fellow; he had been neither at Eton nor college, had visited neither Paris nor Rome, consequently could talk neither of Latin nor of Greek, neither of ragouts nor of olios, and was so often caught laughing at the erudition of his brother, and the accomplishments of his sister, that he was pronounced by both an illmannered boor. Jack had one good friend always on his side an uncle, Mr. Knowles B 5 |