This post, and several others to appear in due course, are generously sponsored by a gentleman-scholar from County San Francisco, supportive of the production and assessment of nasty novels, dealing familiarly with gamblers, misandrists and flashy reprobates.  Ruth Scobie last wrote for The Toast about the birth of a previous Prince George.

“And pray, Sir, what are four hundred pounds a year to maintain a woman of rank like me? Do

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