Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Novels. 
he had the ‘whole of this topic to himself. 
The rest of the party were, in general, of 
quite a different calibre, and as little ac- 
guainted with his favourite author, as he pro- 
bably was with theirs. 
‘*' The lady of the house was perfectly 
amiable and well bred. Her dinner was ex- 
cellent; and every thing about her had an air 
of elegance and splendor: of course, she com- 
pletely escaped the disgrace of being a scholar, 
but not the suspicion of having a very good 
taste. I longed for the removal of the cloth, 
and was eagerly anticipating the pleasure and 
improvement which awaited me. 
<6 As soon as the servants were beginning to 
withdraw, we got into asort of attitude of 
conversation; all, except the eulogist of 
Almanac des Gourmands, who, wrapping 
himself up in the comfortable consciousness 
of his own supérior judgment, and a little 
piqued that he had found. neither support, 
nor opposition, (the next best thing toa pro- 
fessed talker,) he seemed to have a perfect 
indifference to all topics, except that on 
which he had shewn so much eloquence, 
with so little effect. 
«© The last tray was now carried out, and 
the last lingering servant had retired; when 
TJ was beginning to listen with all my powers 
of attention to an ingenious gentleman, who 
was about to give an interesting account of 
Egypt, where he had spent a year, and from 
whence he was lately returned. He was just 
got to the catacombs, 
When, ona sudden, open fly, 
With impetuous recoil, and jarring sound, 
the mahogany folding-doors, and in at once, 
struggling who should be first, rushed half a 
dozen children, lovely, fresh, gay, and noisy. 
This sudden and violent irruption of the 
pretty barbarians, necessarily caused a total 
interruption of conversation. The sprightly 
creatures ran round the table, to chuse where 
they would sit. At length, this great diffi- 
culty of courts and cabinets, the choice of 
places, was settled. The little thinzs were 
jostled in between the ladies, who all con- 
tended who should get possession of the /ittle 
beauties. One was in rapture at the rosy 
cheeks of a sweet girl, she heldin her lap; 
‘a second exclaimed aloud, at. the beautiful 
lace with which the frock of another was 
trimmed, and which she was sure mamma 
. had given her for being good. A profitable, 
and doubtless, a lasting and inseparable as- 
sociation was thus formed, in the child’s 
mind, between lace and goodness. A third 
cried out, ‘ Look at the little beauty, do but 
observe, her bracelets are as blue as her eyes. 
Did you ever seesucha match?’ ‘Surely, 
lady Belfield,’ cried a fourth, ¢ you carried 
_the eyes to the shop, or there must have been. 
ashade of difference.” I, myself, who am 
passionately fond of children, eyed the sweet 
- little rebels with complacency, notwith- 
standing the unreasonableness of their ia- 
terruption. 
Bs 
‘¢ At last, when they were all disposed of, 
T resumed my enquiries about the resting- 
place of the mummies. But the grand Jis- 
pute, who should have oranges, and who 
should have almonds and raisins, soon raised 
such a clamour, that it was impossible to hear 
my Egyptian friend. This great contest was, 
however, at length settled; and I was re- 
turned to the antiquities of Memphis, when 
the important point, who should have red 
wine, and who should have white, who should 
have half a glass, and who a whole glass, set 
usagain in an uproar. Sir John was visibly 
uneasy, and commanded silence. During 
this interval of peace, I gave up the cata- 
combs, and took refuge in the pyramids: I 
had no sooner proposed my question about 
the serpent, said to be found in one of them, 
than the son and heir, a fine little fellow, just 
six years old, reaching out his arm, to dart an 
apple across the table at his sister, roguishly 
intending to overset her glass, unluckily 
overthrew his own, brim-full of port wine. 
The-whole contents were discharged on the 
elegant drapery of a white-robed nymph. 
‘s All was now agitaticn and distress, and 
disturbance and confusion, the gentlemen 
ringing for napkins, and the ladies assisting 
the dripping fair one; each vying with the 
other who should recommend the most ap-~ 
proved specific for getting out tne stain of 
red wine, and comforting the sufferer by 
stories of similar misfortunes. The poor 
little culprit was dismissed, and all diticul- 
ties and disasters seemed at last surmounted. 
But you cannot heat up again an interest that 
has been so often cooled. The thread of con- 
versation had been so frequently broken, that 
I despaired of seeing it tied together again. 
I sorrowfully gave up catacombs, pyramids, 
and serpent, and was, obliged to content my- 
self with a little desultory chat with my next 
neighbour. Sorry and disappointed to glean 
only a few scattered ears, where I had ex- » 
pected so large a harvest 5 and the day from 
which I promised myseJf so much benefit 
and delight, passed away with a very slender 
, acquisition of either.” 
The following characterestic trait of Mrs. 
Ranby, one of those that ** thought hardly 
any body would be saved,”’ is excellent in its 
kind. 
‘¢ In the evening, Mrs. Ranby was lament-= 
ing in general, or rather customary terms, 
her own exceeding sinfulness. Mr. Randy 
said, § Youaccuse yourself rather too harshly, 
my.dear ; you have sins to be sure.” * And 
pray what sins have L, Mr. Ranby ?? said 
she, turning wpon him with so much quick- 
ness that the poor man started. ‘¢ Nay,’ 
said he meekly, § Idid not mean to offend 
you; so far from it, that hearing you con~ 
demn yourself so grievously, 1 intended to 
comfort you, and to say, that except a few 
faults—,? © And pray ‘what fauiis >? inter- 
rupted she, continuing to speak, however, 
lest he should catch an interval to tell ther. 
* Tudety 
-665_ 
