NOTE.
Misfortunes will happen in the best-regulated families; and, in despite of the world of pains bestowed on the correction of the following pages, one mistake occurs, and for which I cannot have the consolation of blaming any one but myself. It would be a great comfort if I could conscientiously put it as an erratum; but it is, as the young lady once thought her lover, "mine and mine only." Lord Etheringhame is called at first Reginald, and afterwards Algernon. The truth is, I could not decide what to call him, and altered his appellation some dozen times. This mistake, however, occurs no where but in the early scenes of the first volume, and will, I trust, be pardoned. Only a modern author can know the plague of names. I have read the Peerage through twice, and actually became interested in the divisions of the House, to see if there was "a pretty name" in either majority or minority. But for the great care of "the readers" connected with the press through which these pages have passed, both heroine and hero would have undergone that peculiarly English reproach of "being called out of their
