THE IDLER REFORMED. CHAPTER I. And is that fame, for which our feelings pine From the gay mildness of a youthful morn? "I cannot bear to hear women talk politics," said a young man, half aloud, as he drew off his white kid gloves, and taking up a book threw himself languidly into a large arm-chair in a spacious bed-room; I cannot bear to hear women talk politics, mother is enough to drive me mad and my when she begins. I hate those conversazioni where women talk like members of parliament my mother ought, surely, to have a seat in the House; how emphatically she would strive to carry the day! all women would, I suppose." That sapient youth was wrong; many women care nothing at all for politics,-and some pretend they do, but hardly understand the meaning of the word; not so the mother of that youth. The Lady Cunnington had resided during her maiden days with a widowed father, whose morn, noon, and evening conversations were political: at his table members of both Houses dined; arm-in-arm conversing with a brother member he walked; surrounded by political papers, he had been wont to spend many hours; and loving her father with rare and sweet devotion, his motherless girl had learned to love his po litics. When she united her fate to Lord Cunnington's, the political heiress changed her name, but not her occupation, for she now became " a political wife." "A political wife!" why, methinks the sound of a manœuvring mother or a scandal-loving old maid, can hardly frighten ears polite with more astounding effect than the words "a political wife." But oh! if ever politics were united with sound judgment, with firm principles, with benevolent intentions, with religion, humanity, and rectitude, the very essence of principled politics centred in the heart of a politician-that politician a woman. In person, as in manners, Lady Cunnington was equally gentle and dignified; so melodious was her soft voice, so tranquil her clear white complexion, so truly feminine the expression of her dark eyes, that it was impossible to know at a casual glance that the calm, dignified female, could speak so justly, firmly, aye, and eloquently too, that though Lord Cunnington might not choose to own it, no, not even in a whisper, "the political wife was the noble husband's truest guide." Lady Cunnington had only one child, and as in childhood her boy was neither more engaging nor prettier than other children, (although he was an only son, an heir, and a nobleman's son,) little Augustus was allowed to remain in his nursery, and his childish prattle did not interrupt Lady Cunnington's studies: Augustus had no idea how deeply the mother's heart had been schooled not to spoil her only child; he knew not that it was from a fear of her own female weakness that he was kept in the nursery lest he should be spoilt; he knew not that his hair was cut closely to the wellturned head, that the floating ringlets might |