THE MARKED WINE. My acquaintance with the world of rank and fashion was never very extensive, but some years ago, I did happen to know a lady in Belgravia who wanted a maid, as also a young woman in Paddington whom I could recommend, with a safe conscience, as qualified to fill the vacancy. The lady was matron and mistress of a coroneted house, which I will designate by their initial, and call them the L-family. The young woman was the daughter of an honest, industrious man, who in his day had served as butler in more than one titled family, but had given up the pantry and sideboard, and betaken himself to a small confectioner's shop. The goods in it were mostly of home manufacture, and of a better quality than is usually found in such establishments. I believe it was through them that myself and Johnson, as I will call the ex-butler, for my story does not admit of giving real names, first became acquainted; at any rate, acquainted we were sufficiently for me to recommend his daughter, the eldest of six children, who had been out at service, and lost her situation only through the death of her mistress, to Lady L- as a proper and reliable maid. The girl had been wanting a situation for some time; fortune, and not character, had gone against her. With himself, his wife, and five juniors depending on the small confectioner's shop, it was important to Johnson that a place should be found for his eldest daughter, and I thought myself the bearer of glad tidings when I stepped into his shop with the intelligence that Lady L would take her for a month on trial.

It was a November evening, heavy and dull, with not exactly a fog, but a gray leaden sky, from which daylight was sliding away into a still heavier night: the gas was glimmering along the little street where Johnson lived, in the oldest part of Paddington; but everybody kept within doors. I found his shop utterly deserted, and the old man sitting behind his counter in a desponding attitude, with his gray head leaning on his hand. There is very little friendly inquiries regarding the state of trade, made by buying; very little indeed,' he said in answer to my way of prologue to the good news. 'You see people are saving themselves now for Christmas, and the children have all gone back to school; it's the dullest time in the whole year, and like to last for some weeks.' I cut short the sigh with which Johnson

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closed his account of business by saying: 'Well, I have got a place for Lizzie. Lady L -in Belgrave Square wants a maid, and will take her for a month on trial.' I had expected to see Johnson in a flush of delight, if not of gratitude, but the old man looked as blank as if I had announced Lizzie's immediate transportation to Botany Bay, and he said in a low, terrified tone: "Thank you, ma'am, thank you: it's too good you are to take such trouble for us; but not that house-I could not let Lizzie go there.'

'Why, Johnson,' said I, laying down the bun with which I had been refreshing myself, in perfect amazement, it is one of the first houses in the West End. Besides being titled themselves, the L-- family are connected with half the court: they are known to be liberal and kind to their servants; and if I am not mistaken, you once served in that house yourself.'

'I did, ma'am,' said Johnson: I was butler there thirty years ago, in the old family's time-the elder branch, I think, they ought to be called. They died quite out with the last heir, my master's only son. That was how the estate and title came to the present family.'

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And why do you not wish Lizzie to go into their service?'

'Well, ma'am'-and Johnson stepped round, and shut his own shop-door-'it's a story I wouldn't tell to everybody: it don't do for people in our station to make such things public; and I don't care for telling it at all; only the like lies heavy on one's mind, and you have taken so much trouble about Lizzie, I'll just tell you my reason for not liking to see her in that house; and you'll be kind enough, ma'am, I am sure you will, to put Lady L-off quietly with any discreet excuse you think best, about the girl falling sick, or the like. Her ladyship will get another maid soon enough, and maybe Providence will send my girl another situation. I know you'll never repeat what passes here between you and me, to the injury of a poor family, and the annoyance of a great one; that is all that talking about it could serve for; but I know you won't, ma'am, and I'll tell you the story. I always think of it when I happen to be alone here, and no customers coming, as there are this evening.'

I made the requisite protestations of silence and secrecy, for my woman's curiosity was roused, and however extraordinary it may seem, I have kept the said promises till now, when Johnson's family are gone

to Australia, and himself to the other world. At the time, he was satisfied that I would keep them there was a mutual alliance between the honest man and me; and after another look round the shop, and a declaration that they were all at tea inside, he spread his hands on the counter-which was Johnson's notion of solemnity-and proceeded with his tale, which I believe to be substantially true.

I was butler in the L family for nearly three years; I served them in town and country, and was more than once left in charge of the house. I had come with good recommendations from my last service in Lord Bristol's. I left them with the best of characters; but that was the last situation I ever had, or wanted. As you say of the present family, the L- -s were liberal and considerate to their servants. They kept a large establishment, and everything on a grand, handsome scale, befitting a nobleman's house; but we down-stairs people made it out, it would be long business to tell you how, that Lord Lhad as little to spare as any man in Belgravia. His father had raced and gamed with the wicked Lord Lyttelton; he had done likewise with Charles James Fox, and the rest of that set, in his youth, before he turned Tory: so there were mortgages on the estate; heavily encumbered they said it was, but would get clear perhaps in Master Vincent's time. He was the only son or child Lord and Lady Lever had; the Honourable Mr Lwas his proper title now, for he was turned twenty-two, and going on his father's early courses, which, however, had been all over before he was born. At Newmarket, Epsom, and Ascot, he was the man for betting on horses and getting fleeced by blacklegs and jockeys. In gaming-houses and worse places, he was the boy for not going home till the morning; yet everybody liked Mr Vincent, and wished him well. He was handsome, gay, and good-natured, as civil to the dustman as to my lord, ready to help every man, woman, or child who had got into trouble or distress, and never willing to let a servant sit up for him without paying him well. His father and mother saw no faults in him; he was their only son and heir, and they were too much occupied with business of their own to take notice of his ongoings. Lord L was entirely given up to politics of the Tory kind. I am not sure whether he thought he was saving the country, or that the ministry could not do without him, but morning, noon, and night, he was buzzing about the Conservative Club, getting letters and answering them, going to dinners and making speeches, receiving deputations in the library, talking with whippers-in, getting petitions signed, and when parliament was sitting, very nearly living in the House of Lords. Of course, his lady went on a different tack. She was what they call a leader of fashion, having no daughters to bring out and get married. Lady Lbrought out herself; and whether it was admirers she wanted, or a richer husband, after his lordship's death, none of her maids could be certain, but the Westend milliners, jewellers, and hairdressers were for ever sending in parcels and bills, and nobody saw her ladyship in the same dress for two evenings together. She minded nothing else, to my knowledge, and the butler gets a pretty good understanding of all that goes on in the four corners of a house. The morning was spent in trying on, the afternoon in getting dressed, and in the evening Lady L received or went out to company. She was twenty years younger than her husband; but he was some way above sixty; and leading fashion must be hard work, for there wasn't a bit on her ladyship's bones, nor a dark hair in her head, if she had not shaved it all off, and worn a wig. But for constant enamelling, rouge, and pearl-powder, she would have been no beauty. In spite of the paint, the padding, and the everlasting parcels, she was not much of one; but

these gentry never get things cleared up to them like common folks. Lord L went on from one year to another far busier than a bee with what he called his public life, and the wits at the club called him Lord Preamble and Old Red Tip. Lady Lkept the milliners and herself up to it night and day; she said the world expected everything from a reigning belle; and her fashionable friends used to remark what efforts she made to forget her age and keep up her appearance.

They were both, as I have said, too much occupied with their own affairs to take notice of the rigs Mr Vincent was running; but at last we all thought his mother had got a notion of them. Of the two, she was the fonder of her son. Whatever Lord L- might have been in his youth, when they said he was so wild and gay, I suppose living in the House of Lords, and receiving deputations, had in a manner stupified him; for one might have carried off the dining-room and his lordship in it, if that had been possible, without his knowing anything about it, while he sat with his eyes half closed, droning away concerning the difficulties of the cabinet, and the coalitions that ought to be formed. I have learned those grand words with hearing them so often at the sideboard. But Lady L was of a quicker turn, and besides her business was a far more expensive one than his lordship's. In saving the country and keeping in the ministry, he spent nothing but his time, for which he had no other use, but her eternal parcels brought bills after them. The family had just enough to do in keeping up their style; the bills had not been paid for years, dunning-letters and messages were coming every day, and her ladyship generally went into hysterics once a quarter when they were particularly pressing. In short, Lady L's debts were something past the common, and so were her son's. There was no use in letting his lordship know; beside his mortgaged estate and his great occupation, he had an uncommonly stiff temper of the cold hard kind, and humdrum as he was, his livelier lady and son both stood in dread of him.

Such was the state of things when I came into their service. The valets and the lady's-maid lived in the daily expectation of setting out with them to the continent, seeing the town-house closed, and the estab lishment broken up; but Lady L- was a woman of wonderful management. There was at that timeyou see it is thirty years ago—a man-I ought to say a gentleman, perhaps-living in C Square, whom they called Mr Vanderholt. Some said he was a Jew, some said he was a Dutchman, but everybody agreed that there was not a richer man in the West End.

Mr Vanderholt was publicly a banker and a member of parliament; privately known to be the head of a solicitoring firm, who carried on business and sharp practice, it was said, in Craven Street, Strand; believed to be the moneyed and money-making man of several speculating companies; and supposed to be a money-lender in the quietest way, with exorbitant interest and sound security. On which of these accounts, or if it were for them all together, I cannot tell, but from fellow-butlers and footmen in the best houses, I learned that Mr Vanderholt was to be seen at their finest balls and tip-top dinners. He was a stout baldheaded man, somewhere about fifty-five, with a dark complexion, a hard steady face, and a harder manner of speaking. At the best table and among the finest company, he would have said anything in the way of taking people down, or telling his mind with a kind of a dry sneer. He wore no fashionable things, scarcely dressed well, was not particular in the use of soap and water; but a greater judge of good dinners and good wine there was not in all London. The most confident cooks stood in mortal fear of him; and ladies who at all affected housekeeping had no rest in their minds for a week before he came to dinner. It was my

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belief, the gentry, every one, hated him, yet he dined and drank wine, and made his dry remarks among them. The ladies disliked him particularly. He had never married, and never would, it was thought. His house in C- Square was kept by a foreign housekeeper with a few servants, for he saw a little company at home. Lady L- disliked him most of all: they said it was for some observations about paint and finery never concealing age; but I know that her ladyship never called Mr Vanderholt anything in my first season of service but that shocking old bore.' You may judge, then, that there was a good deal of talk and speculation among us downstairs the week before the Derby-day, when a select dinner party was given at L- House, and Mr Vanderholt was one of the company. I had the honour of hearing him making his remarks on the dinner, the wine, and the ladies; in fact, on everything that came under his eye or taste, just as my acquaintances of other pantries and sideboards had told me. It is in my recollection how he informed Lord Lthat a thousand like him could not keep the ministry in their places, if there were any chance of them going out; and warned her ladyship that French white satin did not suit people getting into years. I saw her eyes flash fire. Lady L- had a considerable temper and pride enough for Lucifer's eldest daughter, but she made-believe to smile the next minute, though it was only a grin, and paid the stout, bald-headed, disagreeable man as much attention as if he had been the Duke of Wellington.

After that, they never had déjeuner, dinner, or ball that Mr Vanderholt was not invited. He never made himself a whit more agreeable; yet her ladyship continued to shew him uncommon civility, and always looked disappointed and out of sorts when he did not happen to come. It was the wonder among us servants what she could see in him; and Mr Vincent appeared to be taken with the Jew or Dutchman quite as much as was his mother. We noticed that they drew together more since the duns began to come about them; but Lord I did not share in their fancy for Mr Vanderholt. I heard him once say to her ladyship when she was issuing cards of invitation out of the back drawing-room: Why on earth do you invite that vulgar creature?' and she gave him a long lecture about doing as the world did, and paying proper attention to people who had become fashionable, and were seen in the first society. I know they had other arguments on the subject, for Robinson the footman heard them. Mr Vincent would not dispute with his father, but he helped Lady L in the entertaining of her favourite, and agreed with his lordship that the old man was a terrible bore. We couldn't make it out; but at last Lady L's maid-she was a Frenchwoman, keen and clever as they generally are, but a very respectable young person; you see I have no prejudices, ma'am, though they did say mademoiselle refused me, which wasn't true, for I never popped the question; my own Martha, that's now Mrs Johnson, and I were keeping company; indeed, at the time, the French maid and I were good friends, and she told me one day that Mr Vincent's debts, and her ladyship's too, were all paid, but she couldn't tell what had become of the family diamonds which Lady L used to wear so constantly, and keep with such care. Her story proved to be true. The parcels began to come without bills or messages, the ill-looking men who came inquiring for Mr Vincent were seen no more; neither were Lady L- 's diamonds; they were nearly all the jewels she had, and very valuable ones. I remember hearing Lord Lask her at breakfast one morning why she hadn't worn them at the Duchess of Manchester's ball the evening before. Her ladyship's colour could not change, thanks to the enamelling; but there was a quivering of great fear about her face, and she mut

tered something about diamonds not suiting her pink orafiane; and Mr Vincent took his father off the subject by telling him about somebody in parliament who was believed to be ratting.

Every one of the L- family went on his own way, as folks do in those great houses where there is room for the like. The seasons went on, too, with the goings out of town and the comings back, his lordship's politics, her ladyship's parcels, Mr Vincent's bets, and other doings known to nobody but himself and his valet. But as the seasons went and came, Mr Vanderholt went and came with them. They had him out at their seat in Devonshire for shooting; they had him back with a select company for private theatricals at Christmas; they had him at every party they gave in Belgrave Square; and we did not wonder, for it was plain how the debts had been paid, and where the money had been borrowed. One thing rather puzzled me and Robinson the footman, who, I must say, was clever at making matters out, and that was how Lady L- - happened to get her diamonds to wear once a month or so, till the French maid made me clear on it, for, said she, with a knowing look: 'It's only vat you English call a loan.'

It was about the beginning of my last season in the L- service, and while things were in the state I have been telling you, that we began to notice a queer, bad-looking woman, who came inquiring for Lady L- and was taken up the back-stairs by her maid. I knew mademoiselle did not like the look of her, and she couldn't-queer and bad is the nearest account of it I can give you, ma'am. The woman was old, and maybe she had been handsome in her young days, for it was a gipsy face, with very dark complexion, very black eyes, and very black hair, with a good deal of gray among it. She was tall and thin, had a hooked nose, a deep voice, and went mostly muffled up in a dark-red or rather ashcoloured cloak. Robinson told me he had first seen her speaking to Lady L- one day in Kensington Gardens, when she got out of the carriage, he believed in pure bad temper, because nobody in Rotten Row would pay proper attention to the new Indian shawl she had on. He said it was his belief the woman was a fortune-teller, and whatever she said to Lady Lit put her at once in good-humour. They talked for some time under the trees, and all the words he could catch were about getting out of trouble and being at the top of the tree. The queer woman had come five or six times, and had long talks with Lady L in her dressing-room. We thought her ladyship might have had something else to think of than getting her fortune told by an old gipsy, for Mr Vanderholt had come two or three times lately, as it seemed by appointment, when Lord L was known to be at the club, and had been closeted with her and Mr Vincent in the library. Robinson, too, going in on a quiet message one day after he was gone, heard the young man wish he had not taken those post-obits, for the old knave would let it out some day, and his mother answered: 'No, Vincent; I'll take care he shan't; it was for me you did it as well as for yourself: it would be worse if Lord Lknew about the diamonds, and he says this is the last loan of them I am to have.' Robinson said he heard her groan at the end of that speech like a troubled ghost, if ever there was one; and he was sent the same evening, just before she went to dinner at Apsley House, with a note addressed to Mrs Brewer, I forget where in the Seven Dials.

The day after, Lady L- had been invited to a quadrille-party; a lace-dress had been sent home for it, but she changed her mind, and would not go, lest her strength should be too far exhausted to entertain a company of select friends who were coming to dinner next day, and Mr Vanderholt among them. People were to understand she had gone, however; her

ladyship wished to spend that evening quietly in her own rooms. Lord Land Mr Vincent were both out at different dinners; the French maid got leave to go and see a friend she had in one of the houses in Eaton Square; the rest of us were all downstairs doing very little; the house was dark and quiet-her ladyship did not like noise-and as the London season was wearing to its end, the whole square was quiet too. I remember it was twilight. Lady L's dinner was to be served in her dressing-room, and I was taking it up, when I heard a knock at the back-door, and the voice of the old woman-I would have known it among a thousand-inquiring for her ladyship. She must have been on the watch, for downstairs she came like lightning, and stopped me with: 'Don't bring up the dinner just yet, Johnson; leave your tray aside, and bring that poor woman up to me in the dressing-room; she is an unfortunate creature, who comes to tell her family trials, and I have always an interest in the afflicted.' It was the first time that ever anybody learned that of Lady L- ; but I did as I was ordered-laid aside my tray, and shewed the old woman up to her dressing-room. I scarcely noticed it at the time, but it occurred to my mind afterwards, that she was carrying something very like a bottle carefully hidden under her cloak. If she were telling of family trials, they were soon disclosed, for we never knew the old woman to stay so short a time. Robinson heard her say: 'Good-night and good-fortune, your ladyship,' and she came down-stairs chinking money. Next day, the select party were expected: they were not a large company, and no young people among them, but every one great judges of cookery and wine; so there was extra work in the kitchen, and I had to be particular in my bringings-up from the cellar and pantry. Everything was nearly ready; the family had gone to dress for dinner; Robinson was at his post in the hall; I was in the dining-room settling the sideboard, and putting some choice wine Lord Lhad bought in the cooler. It was of a kind in high fashion then among Tory gentlemen, for Whigs and Tories were still going at the time. It came from Prince Metternich's vineyard; and they called it Johannisberg. Well, I was putting it in, when a foot came behind me; and to my astonishment, there was Lady L-, looking very flurried, and still in her morning-dress. Johnson,' said she, do you see among those bottles one with a mark on the cork?' Yes, my lady,' said I, after looking over them, and noticing one more than the number I had brought up, with a queer mark on the cork, which I could compare to nothing but the track of a sharp claw or nail dug into it.

'Very well, Johnson'-and she spoke almost in my ear-when the cloth is removed, and the gentlemen are going to have their wine, you will draw that bottle, and set it by Mr Vanderholt. Remember, it is for him, and no one else. He pretends to be such a judge of wine; and I wish to try-in fact, I have a wager on the subject and you will take care that no one else gets that bottle. I will not forget it, if you help me to win my wager.'

'I'll see that no one else gets it, my lady,' said I, thinking it very natural that she should wish to take the old fellow down a trifle from his conceit about wine; and saying: 'I will depend on you, Johnson,' she ran upstairs to dress. I looked once more at the bottle, to make my eyes sure of it. The mark was a queer one; but there was nothing else, of either colour or appearance, to distinguish it from the rest of the wine; and somebody must have brought and placed it among the other bottles while I was out of the room. Her ladyship deserved credit for such a clever trick upon Vanderholt. Nobody but myself knew the secret; and I kept it, in hopes there would be a good laugh at him upstairs and down. The family got dressed; the company arrived; the cook and myself got creditably through the dinner;

there were a great many new dishes; and even Vanderholt found no fault. I never saw the banker better satisfied, nor heard him say less disagreeable things. Neither did I ever see Lady Lpay him more attention, or look in such high spirits herself. At last, the dinner was finished, the cloth was removed, and I set on the wine, taking special care to draw the marked bottle, and place it by Mr Vanderholt. Fashions change, ma'am; and gentlemen don't drink quite so much now as they did thirty years ago. Being so long out of high-life, I am not sure if every man's bottle is set by him as it was then st Lord L-'s. He said he was a Conservative, and liked to keep up old customs, and none of the company he had that evening appeared to dissent as concerned the Johannisberg. The ladies rose and retired to the drawing-room; the gentlemen tastel their wine, and pronounced it excellent, all but Mr Vanderholt, who was talking so deeply with Mr Vincent about a wonderful race-horse-the first time I ever heard him talk of the like-that he appeared to forget his bottle. Suddenly there was a noise in the square-a newsman proclaiming the state of the pl at Lancaster; it was election-time throughout the country-the parliament had been dissolved on account of the Reform Bill, I think. Lord L was up into the window in a great state of excitement; all the gentlemen, even Mr Vincent, followed his example, and I also took the liberty of looking out; but Mr Vanderholt sat still at the table, and as I turned in that direction, my eye caught the movement of his hands among the nearest bottles. I did not compre hend it till they were all sat down again, filling their glasses and talking over the Lancashire poll, which was not at all to their minds. Perhaps that made the wine go down quicker; and Mr Vincent was drinking as fast as any of them, but it was out of the bottle with the marked cork. The old fellow had exchanged it for his while the rest were looking out, though he never appeared to have noticed cork er bottle. I, of course, could not interfere, could find no excuse for telling my lady, and stood in great fear of being blamed for foiling her scheme. I had resolved on taking the first opportunity to let her know, when I saw Mr Vincent lay down his glass and rise from the table, with a hurried whisper to Vanderholt, who still sat next him. The look of his face struck me as that of a man quite intoxicated, but he said as he passed me: Johnson, go and find my valet, if you can; send him to me in my own room, for I am not well;' and walked steadily out.

I ran to find the valet, sent him upstairs, and came back to my post, still looking for an excuse, to the drawing-room; but while the company drank on, and I stood wondering what could be the matter with Mr Vincent, a cry from his valet startled the whole house. Robinson and I were the first to rush into our young master's room, and there we found him lying on the bed, in strong but very quiet convulsions. The family doctor was sent for in all haste; but before he came, the convulsions had ceased, the face had turned perfectly blue, and Mr Vincent had gone to his account.

I need not tell you of the horror and confusion in the house; everybody agreed that Lady L -shewed wonderful presence of mind, and made less noise than any of her guests, except Mr Vanderholt. He and they went home as quickly as they could. I understand that the fright turned some of them very pious, but I never heard that it had any effect upon him. The family doctor made a great fuss at first, wanted to keep every person in the house, and analyse the wine they had been drinking; but when Lady Lhad talked to him a few minutes in the library, he gave up both intentions, and told us that Mr Vincent's death had been caused by a sudden derangement of the vital functions. I never knew what that meant, till the newspapers, in their notice of his death, said that it was a spasm of the heart. But I knew too