CAUSES OF SUCCESS. 1/ 



cooked meats and steaming tumblers, heavy with 

 the smoke and smell of tobacco, was cool and per- 

 fumed ; and the table — you could not see its 

 homely surface of plain deal, stained with spilt 

 drinks, scorched by the expiring cigar, dinted by 

 knife-handles and by nut-crackers, when oration 

 or ballad ceased ; for it was covered from end to 

 end with beautiful and fragrant Roses ! There 

 was nothing to remind of coarser pleasures or of 

 the tavern here, except, by the way, the bottles, 

 which, once filled with the creamy stout and with 

 the fizzing beer of ginger, now, like converted 

 drunkards, were teetotally devoted to pure water, 

 and in that water stood the Rose. 



A prettier sight, a more complete surprise of 

 beauty, could not have presented itself on that cold 

 and cloudy morning; and in no royal palace, no mu- 

 seum of rarities, no mart of gems, was there that day 

 in all the world a table so fairly dight As if to 

 heighten our enjoyment of the scene, and just as 

 we came upon it, the day darkened without, and 

 the sleet beat against the windows as though en- 

 raged by this sudden invasion of Flora, and de- 

 termined to fire a volley on her ranks ; but her 

 soldiers only smiled more brightly at the idle 

 harmless cannonade, just as the brave general on 

 his sign outside cared no more for the rattling 



