A TROT, AND A DINNER PARTY. 77 



bright, and with a brightness how wondrously dis- 

 similar. 



The evening passed like a dream, nor did the young 

 Virginian feel himself for a moment out of place, or a 

 stranger at that table, so distant far from his own 

 home, so different in all things from the wildest and 

 most romantic of his imaginings. It needs not to say 

 that the cuisine, the wines, the every thing was ex- 

 quisite, when Cheshire was the host, the guests Beau- 

 fort and Forrester, Anson, the two McDonalds, Jem 

 and Aleck, and with the world-famous Alvanley, be- 

 sides our hero, and those two radiant sisters. 



It was a late hour before they broke up, for the 

 gentlemen followed the ladies to the drawing-room 

 early, and music and singing were interchanged with 

 ecarte and chicken-hazard ; and it was not until he 

 awoke next morning from dreams of Cheshire's bright 

 eyes, and Isabella's glowing form, that Fairfax recol- 

 lected that during the whole evening in that the me- 

 tropolis of horsemanship and the chase, there had been 

 no fields fought over again, nor any mention of fox- 

 hunting or of hunters. 



