Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/122

Rh of a small hair-dresser, of the Palais Royal, who had no other claims to noble blood than the manners he had caught in his shop acquaintance," in clipping the mustaches of the royal customers of his father.

Josephine-the proud, uplifted Josephine, who had all her life repudiated the very name of a mechanic, and the odour of " the shop"--was horrified. " He no Duke, but the son of a hair-dresser ! Was ever woman so treated !" she feelingly exclaimed, with the scandalized Pauline. " How the world will talk ! The wife of a mechanic--a low-born, vulgar barber ! How it will ring at the great party of the Worthingtons: Josephine Boardman married to a hair-dresser ! I'm no Duchess' after all !" and she swooned in the arms of her mother, and refused to see " the Duke" ever after.

Well did she say, " The world will talk." The explosion, although the pride of the family sought its secrecy, went upon the wings of gossips. " The Duke and the Duchess were upon all tongues, and a theme of sarcastic merriment to all parties. The Duke was forbidden " Grove Hall," and warned to flee, as a vile impostor. It soon appeared, however, that he had made the most of his borrowed honours, having, like other great dignitaries, " lived like a gentleman while in." Now that he was only " a barber's son," a swarm of tradesmen, of almost every description, became clamorous for their dues ; and the splendid mansion, and the superb furniture, given Josephine as a bridal present, went under the hammer to satisfy the Duke's debts of honour, (gambling liabilities,) and small matters in proportion.

That man was a philosopher, who said, " Misfortunes never come singly." So happened it to the Boardmans.

The shock given to the established house of the elder Boardman, by the failures of Harry, began to be whispered on 'Change. It was known that the establishment was under heavy responsibilities, and that its " factory business" had brought losses upon the concern. The discount houses began to be wary. They finally refused his paper ; and for the first time during his mercantile career, the head of the firm was driven into the market to buy money at a premium. He passed restless nights and anxious days, determined as he was, at every hazard, to support the credit of his establishment, and maintain the position in which the labour of nearly half a century had placed him. And he would have done so, had not a new calamity burst like a thunder-bolt upon him. His son John, whom we have seen for several years pursuing the life of a gentleman at ease, had contracted habits of vice which