A SOCIAL DEBUT.
It is hoped that the following anecdote of the ways and customs of that
rare animal, the modest, diffident youth (soon, naturalists assure us,
to become as extinct in these islands as the Dodo), may afford a
moment's amusement to the superior young people who rule journalism,
politics, and life for us to-day.
Some ten years ago Mr. Edward Everett came up from the wilds of
Devonshire to study law with Braggart and Pushem, in Chancery Lane. He
was placed to board, by a prudent mother, with a quiet family in
Bayswater.
That even quiet Bayswater families are not without their dangers
Everett's subsequent career may be taken as proof, but with this, at
present, I have nothing to do. I merely intend to give the history of
his debut in society, although the title is one of which, after reading
the following pages, you may find reason to complain.
Everett had not been many weeks in London when he received, quite
unexpectedly, his first invitation to an evening party.
His mother's interest had procured it for him, and it came from Lady
Charlton, the wife of Sir Robert, the eminent Q.C. It was with no little
elation that he passed the card round the breakfast-table for the
benefit of Mrs.
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