520 AN EPOCH IN THE LIFE OF 



consequence ! The party consisted neither of Mr. T. or Mr. F., or 

 any one member of their several households ; but of Mulciber's own pet 

 crony, Fred. Hetherton, and a little bevy of pleasure-hunters. It was 

 some seconds before Mulciber could extricate with sufficient secrecy the 

 sigh which inflated his pulmonary apparatus, or regain sufficient com- 

 posure of mind to apprehend with clearness the recognition and the 

 introduction which followed. As the vapours of his brain became dis- 

 pelled, however, he collected that Mr. Hetherton and his companions, 

 taking advantage of the fineness of the day, were proceeding on an excur- 

 sion to Isleworth. They intended to " spend one of the pleasantest after- 

 noons in the world;" and, as nothing could afford them greater delight than 

 the presence of Mr. Mulciber Smith, on such an occasion (Hetherton, with 

 a nod and a knowing look, had assured them of his companionable qualifi- 

 cations), he was warmly solicited to join them. Mr. Smith, to this hour,has 

 no distinct recollection of the natureof his preliminary objections to intrude 

 himself upon their pleasures ; but, as such objections are commonly con- 

 sidered to be invalid, and untenable, so in this instance, his modest 

 reluctance was only the more vehemently deprecated; and Mulciber, 

 delighted in being able to drown his troubles in the obliviousness of a 

 frolic, at length salaamed and entered. The ladies were in buoyant 

 spirits, the gentlemen hilarious and witty ; but a sudden transition from 

 the solitude of careworn, harassed, and unhappy self, into a joyous 

 laughter-loving circle of friends, does not instantaneously eradicate the 

 entirety of our sadness, even when most willingly we would fling it from 

 us ; we compare our own sorrows with the gaiety of other hearts, un- 

 wearied and uncrushed, and the contrast leaves a melancholy which we 

 cannot instantly subdue. Mulciber was, for the first ten minutes, little 

 better than a silent ruminant ; but unrestrained mirth, especially when 

 beaming from the eyes of woman, is an epidemic which persons of a 

 certain temperament cannot long resist, and Mulciber soon became as 

 loquacious as the rest. The ladies were pretty, affable, and young 

 three excellent qualifications at all times in the fair sex and gave point 

 and sparkle to the remarks that fell from the gentlemen ; the usual 

 complement of water-jokes, and wherry-wit, was of course displayed, as 

 occasion served ; and each individual, contributing as he or she could, 

 and as circumstances suggested, the fairest selectable share of good- 

 humoured nonsense-talk, which their several abilities could originate, 

 the time past agreeably enough. 



At length, after a safe and delightful trip, they approached the point 

 of their destination ; a pretty sylvan retreat was selected, and the com- 

 pany debarked. A provident supply of "refreshments" sandwiches, 

 stout (cyder being considered unsafe), a currant and raspberry pie, cigars 

 for the gentlemen, bergerac for the special* behoof of the ladies (a wine, 

 by the way, which has not yet acquired half its deserved celebrity), and 

 sundries had been prepared, and were safely landed. The " painter" 

 \vas firmly and prudently attached to the stump of a tree hard by, and 

 the party proceeded to arrange themselves beneath an elm was it an 

 elm ? no matter, no body cared whose spreading branches and luxu- 

 rious foliage protected them from the garish beams of a July sun. This 

 duty accomplished, they all, with vigorous appetite, addressed themselves 

 to the discussion of the substantial*. 



