By Miss Bellamy's account, my advent that day was looked upon by Mrs. Mimpson as an enraging calamity. Mrs. Mimpson was, herself, fourth cousin to a Scotch lord, and the plague of her life was the drawback to the gentility of her parties in Mimpson's mercantile acquaintance. She had married the little man for his money, and had thought, by living out of town, to choose her own society, with her husband for her only encumbrance; but Mimpson vowed that he should be ruined in Mark Lane, if he did not house and dine his mercantile fraternity and their envoys at Rose Lodge, and they had at last compromised the matter. No Yankee clerk, or German agent, or person of any description, defiled by trade, was to be invited to the Lodge without a three day's premonition to Mrs. Mimpson, and no additions were to be made, whatever, by Mr. M., to Mrs. M.'s dinners, soirées, matinées, archery parties, suppers, déjeûners, tableaux, or private theatricals. This holy treaty, Mrs. Mimpson presumed, was written „with a gad of steel on a leaf of brass" inviolable as her cousin's coat-of-arms.

But there was still,, Ossa on Pelion." The dinner of that day had a diplomatic aim. Miss Mimpson (whom I had not yet seen) was ready to come out", and her mother had embarked her whole soul in the enterprise of bringing about that débût at Almack's. Her best card was a certain Lady S-, who chanced to be passing a few days in the neighbourhood, and this dinner was in her honour the company chosen to impress her with the exclusiveness of the Mimpsons, and the prayer for her ladyship's influence (to procure vouchers from one of the patronesses) was to be made, when she was,,dieted to their request." And all had hitherto worked to a charm. Lady S-- had accepted Ude had sent his best cook from Crockford's the Belgian chargé and a Swedish attaché were coming the day was beautiful, and the Lodge was sitting for its picture; and on the very morning, when every chair at the table was ticketed and devoted, what should Mr. Mimpson do, but send back a special messenger from the City, to say that he had forgotten to mention to Mrs. M. at breakfast, that he had invited Mr. Brown! Of course he had forgotten it, though it would have been as much as his

To this information, which I give you in a lump, but which came to light in the course of rather a desultory conversation, Miss Bellamy thought I had some title, from the rudeness of my reception. It was given in the shape of a very clever banter, it is true, but she was evidently interested to set me right with regard to Mr. Mimpson's good intentions in my behalf, and, as far as that and her own civilities would do it, to apologise for the inhospitality of Rose Lodge. Very kind of the girl - for I was passing, recollect at a most ha'penny valuation.

I had made some casual remark touching the absurdity of Almack's aspirations in general, and Mrs. Mimpson's in particular, and my fair friend, who of course fancied an Almack's ticket as much out of Mr. Brown's reach as the horn of the new moon, took up the defence of Mrs. Mimpson on that point, and undertook to dazzle my untutored imagination by a picture of this seventh heaven as she had heard it described for herself, she freely confessed, it was not even within the limits of dream-land. I knew this was true of herself, and thousands of highly-educated and charming girls in England; but still, looking at her while she spoke, and seeing what an ornament she would be to any ball-room in the world, I realised, with more repugnance than I had ever felt before, the arbitrary barriers of fashion and aristocracy. As accident had placed me in a position to,,look on the reverse of the shield", I determined, if possible, to let Miss Bellamy judge of its colour with the same advantage. It is not often that a plebeian like myself has the authority to

,,Bid the pebbles on the hungry beach
Fillip the stars."

We were near the open window of the library, and I stepped in and wrote a note to Lady -, (one of the lady patronesses, and the kindest friend I have in England,) asking for three vouchers for the next ball. I had had occasion once or twice before to apply for similar favours, for the countrywomen of my own, passing through London on their travels, and I knew that her ladyship thought no more of granting them than of returning bows in Hyde Park. I did not name the ladies for whom the three tickets were intended, wishing to reserve the pri

The bell rang, and Miss Bellamy took herself off to dress. I went to my carpetbag in the bachelor quarters of the house, and, through a discreet entretien with the maid who brought me hot water, became somewhat informed as to my fair friend's position in the family. She was the daughter of a gentleman who had seen better days. They lived in a retired cottage in the neighbourhood; and, as Miss Bellamy and a younger sister were both very highly accomplished, they were usually asked to the Lodge, whenever there was company to be entertained with their music.

I was early in the drawing-room, and found there Mrs. Mimpson and a tall dragoon of a young lady I presumed to be her daughter. She did not introduce me. I had hardly achieved my salutatory salaam when Miss Bellamy came in opportunely, and took me off their hands; and as they addressed no conversation to us, we turned over music, and chatted in the corner while the people came in. It was twilight in the receptionroom, and I hoped, by getting on the same side of the table with Lady S- (whom I had the honour of knowing), to escape recognisance till we joined the ladies in the drawing-room after dinner. As the guests arrived, they were formally introduced to Miss Mimpson by the mother, and everybody but myself was formally presented to Lady S-, the exception not noticeable, of course, among thirty people. Mr. Mimpson came late from the City, possibly anxious to avoid a skirmish on the subject of his friend Brown, and he entered the room barely in time to hand Lady S- in to dinner.

My tactics were ably seconded by my unconscious ally. I placed myself in such a position at table, that, by a little management, I kept Miss Bellamy's head between me and Lady S- and my name was not

when called on to take wine with the peccant spouse of the Scotch lord's cousin. Meantime I was very charmingly entertained Miss Bellamy not having, at all, the fear of Mrs. Mimpson before her eyes, and apparently finding the Yankee supercargo, or cotton clerk, or whatever he might be, quite worth trying her hand upon. The provender was good, and the wine was enough to verify the apocrypha at least for the night ,,a man remembering neither sorrow nor debt" with such glorious claret.

As I was vis-à-vis to Miss Mimpson, and only two plates removed from her mother, I was within reach of some syllable or some civility, and one would have thought that good-breeding might exact some slight notice for the devil himself, under one's own roof by invitation; but the large eyes of Miss Aurelia and her mamma passed over me as if I had on the invisible ring of Gyges. I wonder, by-the-way, whether the ambitious youths who go to London and Paris with samples, and come back and sport the complete varnish of a man acquired in foreign society - I wonder whether they take these rubs to be part of their polishing!

66

The ladies rose and left us, and as I had no more occasion to dodge heads, or trouble myself with humility, I took Lady S-'s place at old Mimpson's right hand, and was immediately recognised with great empressement by the Belgian chargé, who had met me,,very often, in very agreeable society." Mimpson stared, and evidently took it for a bit of flummery or a mistake; but he presently stared again, for the butler came in with a coroneted note on his silver tray, and the seal side up, and presented it to me with a most deferential bend of his white coat. I felt the vouchers within, and pocketed it without opening, and we soon after rose and went to the drawingroom for our coffee.

Lady S sat with her back to the door, besieged by Mrs. Mimpson; and at the piano, beside Miss Bellamy, who was preparing to play, stood one of the loveliest young creatures possible to fancy. A pale and high-bredlooking lady in widow's weeds sat near them, and I had no difficulty in making out who were the after-dinner additions to the party. I joined them, and was immediately introduced by Miss Bellamy to her mother and sister, with whom

(after a brilliant duet by the sisters) I strolled out upon the lawn for an hour — for it was a clear night, and the moon and soft air almost took me back to Italy. And (perhaps by a hint from Miss Bellamy) I was allowed to get on very expeditiously in my acquaintance with her mother and sister.

My new friends returned to the drawingroom, and as the adjoining library was lighted, I went in and filled up the blank vouchers with the names of Mrs. Bellamy and her daughters. I listened a moment to the conversation in the next room. The subject was Almack's, and was discussed with great animation. Lady S, who seemed to me trying to escape the trap they had baited for her, was quietly setting forth the difficulties of procuring vouchers, and recommending to Mrs. Mimpson not to subject herself to the mortification of a refusal. Old Mimpson backed up this advice with a stout approval, and this brought Mrs. Mimpson out horse and foot", and she declared that she would submit to any thing, do any thing, give any thing, rather than fail in this darling object of her ambition. She would feel under eternal, inexpressible obligations to any friend who would procure, for herself and daughter, admission for but one night to Almack's.

And then came in the sweet voice of Miss Bellamy, who knew it was both wrong and silly, but she would give ten years of her life to go to one of Almack's balls, and in a long conversation she had had with Mr. Brown on the subject that morning "

,,Ah!" interrupted Lady S-, „if it had been the Mr. Brown, you would have had very little trouble about it."

A dead silence followed the question. Mrs. Mimpson sat with her eyes on the floor, the picture of dismay and mortification. Miss Mimpson blushed and twisted her handkerchief, and Miss Bellamy looked at her hostess, half amused and half distressed.

I handed the three vouchers to Miss Bellamy, and begged her acceptance of them, and then turning to Lady S-, without waiting for a reply, regretted that, not having had the pleasure of being presented to Mrs. Mimpson, I had not felt authorised to include her in my effort to oblige Miss Bellamy.

And what with old Mimpson's astonishment, and Lady S-'s immediate tact in covering, by the bustle of departure, what she did not quite understand, though she knew it was some awkward contre-temps or other, I found time to receive Miss Bellamy's thanks, and get permission from the mother to call and arrange this unexpected party; and in ten minutes I was on my way to London with Lady S-, amusing her almost into fits with my explanations of the

At that moment I entered the room. Good heavens!" screamed Lady S-, ,, is that his ghost? Why, Mr. Brown!" she gasped, giving me her hand very cautiously, do you appear when you are talked of like like like 11

Like the devil? No! But I am here in the body, and very much at your lady

Herrig, American. Literatur. II.

So you see, though I passed for a ha'penny with the Mimpsons, I turned out a sovereign to the Bellamys.

22

WE had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. For some minutes the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak. ,,Not long ago," said he at length,,,and I could have guided you on this route as well as the youngest of my sons; but, about three years past, there happened to me an event such as never happened before to mortal man or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of and the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and soul. You suppose me a very old man but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. Do you know. I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy."

-

The little cliff," upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to rest that the weightier portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge this little cliff" arose, a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us. Nothing would have tempted me to within half a dozen yards of its brink. In truth, so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not even glance upward at the sky while I struggled in vain to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance.

„You must get over these fancies," said the guide, for I have brought you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned

I looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of ocean, whose waters wore so inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the Nubian geographer's account of the Mare Tenebrarum. A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking for ever. Just opposite the promontory upon whose apex we were placed, and at a distance of some five or six miles out at sea, there was visible a small, bleak-looking island; or, more properly, its position was discernible through the wilderness of surge in which it was enveloped. two miles nearer the land, arose another of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed at various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks.

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