MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 



Hard was the struggle to hold back my impatience till the next Opera 

 night. Then, then was I at the portentous portal,, with eye of hawk, 

 and heart of dove. I had dressed myself (though / say it) unexcep- 

 tionably, and was at the door almost as early as the self-important sen- 

 tinels, and the semi-official, nondescript, ragamuffin hangers-on, who 

 are wont to plant themselves at the spot. Every successive hackney- 

 coach that drew up caused me a fresh palpitation of the heart, and a 

 new dizziness of the head; till I was sick with expectation. 



te Stand back, sir, and be d d to ye. How can I open the coach- 

 doors when you're a-shoving for'ard in this here sort o' manner ?" 



" There, there, never mind, my good man ; there's a trifle for 

 yourself." 



" Thankee, sir ; you're a gentleman. I say, Jack, twig his tights, 

 and his swell squeeze!' 



" Ah ! there, there, there she is ! Those auburn tresses, lovelier 

 than the morn .'those shoulders, fashioned like the - - ! Miss ! 

 madam ! I beseech you one moment nay I implore - " 



ff Sir-r-r-r-r ! If you are a gentleman, behave yourself as such !" 



" Dear me, I really now that you turn round I beg pardon, 

 madam a thousand pardons I took you for somebody else." 



"If you don't take yourself off, I shall take you for an impertinent 

 fellow, and treat you accordingly," was the reply of the male com- 

 panion of the lady whom I had, on a first back- view, mistaken for the 

 adorable object of my anxiety. The impetuosity of my feelings 

 the sudden rush of emotion, had certainly caused me to lay the hand 

 of detention upon her somewhat more positively and abruptly than 

 was altogether courteous, and I should probably have involved my- 

 self in a quarrel but for the confusion of the intervening throng, and 

 the peremptory " move on there !" of the janitorial authorities. 



When I had hovered about the spot till the racketty process of setting 

 down the company seemed nearly at an end, I entered within the 

 precincts, where I yet lingerly hoped to find my restorative in the 

 discovery of la belle inconnue. Oh, how I longed, while I made 

 the circuit of the pit, for the multiplied optics of Argus, aided by all 

 the opera-glasses of all the company present ! As it was, I strained 

 my own poor pair of peepers, till theVy reproached me, by their ach- 

 ing, for the unwonted labour of the search-warrant, with which they 

 were commissioned ; but it was all in vain. Among fifty thousand 

 heads I should have recognized, as I thought, those auburn tresses, 

 the rich denotements of my bosom's empress, the fairest and surest 

 index of her radiant presence ; but, alas ! they gleamed not on my 

 yearning sense, they waved not to the summons of my earnest hope. 

 In the anxious prosecution of my purpose, I believed I must at length 

 have stared about me with an intensity provocative of strange con- 

 jectures ; for I recollect an observation audibly whispered by an 

 old lady with a Roman nose and green spectacles, to a younger lady 

 sitting next to her. The words were fc That poor man ought not to 

 be here." Averted eyes on the part of those ladies whom I was led 

 particularly to scrutinize, might also have told me that I was engaged 

 in the awkward office of committing myself; but I took no note of 

 any corrective indications. Strange to say, in the whole feminine 



