He often
kept her waiting five minutes for her ride, or twenty for dinner;
would stop and detain her, in their walks, while he corrected the
practical blunders of some superannuated hedger and ditcher; had a
trick of whipping off the thistle-tops while driving her in the garden
chair, to the imminent indignation of her ponies; was sometimes seen
to nod after dinner, when the morning's run had been a good one; and
had an opinion of his own in politics, which precisely reversed those
of Lady Mandeville and her coterie.--In a word, he was often very
'tiresome!' and whenever the fair Henrietta was excited into
pronouncing that sentence on his proceedings, it was a signal for
ill-humour for the remainder of the day; or rather till the spoiled
child would condescend to be coaxed into a more satisfactory mood of
mind."
But we are more struck with the appalling fidelity of the following
scene in a tale named _the Divorcee_. The heroine, Amelia, is married
in early life to a Mr. Allanby, "a man with 10,000l. per annum,
and a grey pigtail:" the match turns out a miserable one: Amelia's
dishonour by Vavasor Kendal, her divorce, and Mr.
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