Jack Hinton: The Guardsman

CHAPTER I. A FAMILY PARTY

It was on a dark and starless night in February, 181--, as the last carriage of a dinner-party had driven from the door of a large house in St. James's-square, when a party drew closer around the drawing-room fire, apparently bent upon that easy and familiar chit-chat the presence of company interdicts.

One of these was a large and fine-looking m...