 their husbands, and their husbands' families, and the world,
and what it would say, if to it the dreaded rumour should penetrate! Lymport
gossips, as numerous as in other parts, declared that the foreign nobleman would
rave in an extraordinary manner, and do things after the outlandish fashion of
his country: for from him, there was no doubt, the shop had been most
successfully veiled, and he knew not of Pluto's close relationship to his lovely
spouse.
    The marriages had happened in this way. Balls are given in country towns,
where the graces of tradesmen's daughters may be witnessed and admired at
leisure by other than tradesmen: by occasional country gentlemen of the
neighbourhood, with light minds: and also by small officers: subalterns wishing
to do tender execution upon man's fair enemy, and to find a distraction for
their legs. The classes of our social fabric have, here and there, slight
connecting links, and provincial public balls are one of these. They are
dangerous, for Cupid is no respecter of class-prejudice; and if you are the son
of a retired tea-merchant, or of a village doctor, or of a half-pay captain, or
of anything superior, and visit one of them, you are as likely to receive his
shot as any shopboy. Even masquerading lords at such places, have been known to
be slain outright; and although Society allows to its highest and dearest to
save the honour of their families, and heal their anguish, by indecorous
compromise, you, if you are a trifle below that mark, must not expect it. You
must absolutely give yourself for what you hope to get. Dreadful as it sounds to
philosophic ears, you must marry. This, having danced with Caroline Harrington,
the gallant Lieutenant Strike determined to do. Nor, when he became aware of her
father's occupation, did he shrink from his resolve. After a month's hard
courtship, he married her straight out of her father's house. That he may have
all the credit due to him, it must be admitted that he did not once compare, or
possibly permit himself to reflect on, the dissimilarity in their respective
ranks, and the step he had taken downward, till they were man and wife: and then
not in any great degree, before Fortune had given him his majority; an advance
the good soldier frankly told his wife he did not owe to her. If we may be
permitted to suppose the colonel of a regiment on friendly terms with one of his
corporals, we
