THE SIX OF SPADES. 95 



to us ; again those hearts rise, light and bright as a 

 soap-bubble in the sunshine, as we read the welcome 

 words " first prize," or sink, heavy as an under-boiled 

 barm-dumpling, to find that we are not placed ; again 

 we hear, victorious, that happy " All right, sir," from 

 our gardener, and, like a schoolboy just informed of a 

 hamper, can scarce forbear to cheer ; again, defeated, 

 we entertain for a moment an absurd conviction that 

 the judges are either in league against us or in a state 

 of hopeless intoxication, soon recovering our better 

 mind, and finally feeling all the more likely to bear 

 fruit hereafter, like beaten walnut-trees, or any other 

 tree, in fact, since each 



" Sucks kindlier nature from a soil enriched 

 By its own fallen leaves ; and man is made 

 In heart and spirit from deciduous hopes, 

 And things that seem to perish." 



Such are our reflections and remembrances, and 

 very soon after a few preliminary remarks upon the 

 weather, the news of the great world in general and 

 our little world in particular, we come 



" Like doves about a dovecot, wheeling round 

 Our central wish, until we settle there," 



to open our hearts concerning them. And it is 

 amusing to note the change that has come over us, 

 now that our tourney is over, and the heavy harness 

 of warfare doffed for the trunk-hose of peace. Can we 

 be the same knights who, whilom reserved and cold 

 and dignified, moved through the serried lists ? Can 

 I be that captious florist, who, when dear Mr. Oldacre 



