Mr. Lyell, of whom the young ladies spoke ao disparagingly, vai a decidedly unsatis factory representative of a class that may be thought to fill a slightly higher grade in the Bocial scale. The wealth his family enjoyed was not the immediate outcome of com mercial activity and enterprise. It was derived from property which had been in the possession of the -Lyell family since the days uf Queen Anue. The little estate of the gallant Lyell, who bad fought under Marl borough, was now almost entirely covered by London buildings. Every square foot of the original fields had become a little gold mine, increasing in value with age, and a souice of constantly increasing revenue to the Lyell who held the title-deed to the land for the time being. Therefore the elegant Nicholas LjelJ. toiled not, neither did he spin, yet was he arrayed as the most fashionable tailor could array him, and shallow and vain as an exceedmg'y slender stock of common-tense, and an excessive share of indulgence at home, could render bim.
