Again the astounded baronet pondered. "What a subject for Almack's!—the rosy (doubtless signifying red-faced), laughing (meaning romping) daughter of some city butterman, thrust into the peerage by the folly of a man who might have plucked the fairest, noblest flower in the land!"

"At all events," he said, when his powers of articulation returned, "your lady is endowed with both PRUDENCE and WIT, and nothing so likely to create a sensation in the beau monde as such a combination."

Oh, yes-prudence I dare say she will have; much cannot be expected from a girl of seventeen; and as to wit, between you and me, it is a deuced dangerous and troublesome weapon, when wielded by a woman."

A flirt and a fool, I suspect," again fancied Sir Harry, "in addition to her other qualifications."

"GENTLENESS and FIDELITY," he ejaculated, fixing his eyes on the unfortunate tablets, while Lord Charles, evidently determined no longer to endure the baronet's untimely reference to the detestable memorials, snatched them (it is perfectly astonishing what rude acts polite persons will sometimes perform) from the hand of his friend, and flung them into the fire.

"Heavens and earth, sir! what do you mean by such conduct?" said Sir Harry, at the same time snatching them from the flames.

"These

ivory slates are dear to me as existence. I must

say that I consider such conduct very ungenerous,

ungentlemanly," &c. &c.

duced another; and much

One angry

word pro

was said which it

would ill befit me to repeat. The next morning, even before the dawn of day, Lord Charles Villiers had quitted Beauclerc Hall, without bidding a single farewell either to its lady or its master.

*

"There!" exclaimed the baronet, placing the fashionable "Post" in Lady Frances's hand at the breakfast table one morning, about three months after the above scene had taken place; "I knew how it would be; a pretty fool that noble friend of mine, Lord Charles Villiers, has made of himself. I never knew one of these absurdly particular men who did not take the crooked stick at last. By Jove, sir," (to his son) "you shall marry before you are five-and-twenty, or you shall be disinherited! The youthful mind is ever pliable; and the early wed grow into each other's habits, feelings, and affections. An old bachelor is sure either to make a fool of himself, or be made a fool of. You see his lordship's wife has publicly shown that she certainly did not possess the last of his requisites-FIDELITY-by eloping with her footman. I will journey up to town on purpose to invite Lord Charles here, and make up matters; he will be glad to escape from

the desagrémens of exposure just now, as he is doubtless made a lion of, for the benefit-as Sir

Peter Teazle has it-of all old bachelors."

THE GERMAN GIBBET.

Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes.-RICHARD III.

It was evening, towards the latter end of autumn, when the warmth of the mid-day sun reminds us of the summer just gone, and the coolness of the evening plainly assures us that winter is fast approaching-that I was proceeding homewards on horseback, fortified by a strong great coat against the weather without, and refreshed with a glass of eau-de-vie, that I might feel equally secure within. My road lay for some time along an extensive plain, at the extremity of which there rose a small and