48 TEA EQUIPAGE. 



the table, and then the Proserpine, as if the heat had melted 

 and softened her down into an attendant Hebe, proceeded to a 

 corner cupboard, drew forth the tray and tea-things, placed and 

 replaced them, as if by dint of clatter to reconcile the discord- 

 ant hues of basin, cup, and saucer, and in process of time and 

 torment set them on the table. Still she lingered, perhaps 

 awaiting recompense of some sort, for such surprising works 

 of supererogation. At all events the poet seemed to think so, 

 for he drew from his pocket a shilling (we believe it was his last), 

 and put it into the Hebe's swarthy hand. A curtsey lower than 

 the back garret had ever witnessed, and the recipient's speedy 

 exit were the donor's reward. Mechanically he proceeded to 

 make his tea, in other words to set afloat a tiny raft in a tepid 

 ocean, then resumed his position and tried also to unravel his 

 gilded thread of thought ; but alas ! it had been snapped 

 asunder by the lumbering slip-shod tread of the workaday 

 witch, his bright visions had all faded before her evil eye, and 

 the silence which her confounded clatter had put to flight was 

 not to return again ; for scarcely were his fretted nerves com- 

 posed, and the creaking stair relieved from her heavy'tread, 

 when from some point unseen arose the voice of an abominable 

 Fly. Buz buz buz louder than buz was ever heard before. 

 The poet looked towards the small window of his sky-parlour 

 which, libelling the term, admitted, from where he sat, only a 

 view of sun-baked roofs, surmounted by the, broad side of a 

 lofty stack of chimneys, and though wide open, scarcely a mouth- 



