386 BATHOS. 



"/ have my miseries, heaven knows. I who was born with a 

 daring ambition to be numbered with that congiary of female 

 master-spirits that constellation of concentrated essences that 

 congregation of congiary geniuses : The Cornwell Baron Wil- 

 sons, the Lady Blessingtons, and Honourable Mrs. Nortons ' am 

 doomed/ as Mary-Anne Browne says, ' to blush unseen' and wilher 

 neglected like yonder flower!" 



A flood of tears came to the afflicted fair-one's relief. 



" Pardon me," she resumed, applying the corner of a cambric 

 handkerchief to the corners of her eyes, " pardon me, gentle 

 stranger, for intruding upon you the sorrows of my afflicted bosom, 

 and pity me. We shall possibly never meet again. Take this," 

 she continued, placing something in my hand (which, in the ecstacy 

 of the moment, I thrust into the waistcoat-pocket nearest my heart). 

 " It might serve hereafter to draw a tear of sympathy for the sorrows 

 of Morgiana Marianna Madeline de Montmorency. Adieu ! Adieu 

 Adieu ! " 



Like a swan on the waters, my divinity rose to depart. As she 

 threaded the flowery mazes of Kensington, 



" Her step seem'd to pity the grass it press'd." 



On arriving at my friend's to dinner, he failed not to remark the 

 unusual depression of my spirits. 



" Dick," said he, while decapitating the sixth bottle^of Champagne, 

 " You are disgracefully solid to-day. You arn't in love, are you ? " 



The question came upon me like a thunderclap. I was confused 

 overwhelmed, and gulped down three consecutive tumblers of Gui- 



ness's " bang-up," to conceal my agitation. 



how it is," said Joe in his own peculiarly 

 manner. " What a thundering fool you must be. Come, lad, here's 



"Ah! I see how it is," said Joe in his own peculiarly soothing 

 anner. " What 

 the punch drink. 



" 'Tis not so sweet as woman's lip, 

 But, ah ! 'tis more sincere ! " 



I obeyed, and after finishing that and another bowl, we topped 

 off with brandy-and-water, and I departed. 



While*jpacing* Oxford-street I became conscious that the whirl- 

 wind of "passion which lately agitated my breast had made me 

 extremely exhausted. As the hurricane, in its ruthless course, forces 

 from their basins streams and rivers; so had the tempest of my 

 feelings left me inconveniently dry. An anti-hydrophobiac desire for 

 fluid tormented my glottis ; and, provided it were diluted with a 

 q. s. of brandy, I could have drunk even water ! 



With the fidgetty restlessness of a thirsty person, I thrust rny hand 

 into [my "waistcoat-pocket, and, curiously enough, tore my glove 

 against the corner of a card. I found it to be a tavern-card a sort 

 of general invitation to dinner and wine : " Clarence Hotel." 



Nothing could have been more d-propos, and it was not long ere 

 I found myself in a neat private-house-looking tavern. " Here," 

 thought I, "can I indulge my sorrows in solitude;" for except a 



