to say, there are some fine old trees, lilacs and laburnums in full blossom, sweeps of turf, like green carpet, and plenty of delicate roses, &c. A conservatory is the aristocracy of flowers.

Just where the road is the widest they met the mails, the gallant horses sweeping along

and

"As if the speed of thought were in their limbs,"

every step accompanied by a shower of fiery sparkles. The lamps that glance and are lostthe cheerful ringing of the horn-the thought that must rise, of how much of human joy and sorrow every one of those swift coaches is bearing on to its destination: - newspapers that detail and decide on all the affairs of Europe- letters in all their infinite variety, love, confidence, business-the demand of the dun, the excuse of the debtor-delicate bath and coarse foolscap the patrician coat-ofarms, and the particularly plebeian wafer—the sentimental motto and graceful symbol, side by side with the red patch stamped with a thimble : but any one of these thoughts will be more than enough to fill the brief moment which the all but animated machine takes in passing. How different from the days when "the coach," one, and one only, was eight days coming from

York, and its passengers laid in a store of provisions which, in our rapid days, would supply them half way to America!

"London, my country, city of the soul!" exclaimed Lady Mandeville, as she caught sight of the brilliantly lighted arches of Hyde. Park Corner, and the noble sweep of the illuminated Park in the distance, while Piccadilly spread before them in the darkness like an avenue of lamps. I have heard that a thorough-bred cockney is one of the most contented animals in the world: I, for one, to use a favourite modern expression, can quite enter into his feelings.'

66

"Do you remember," replied her husband, "Lorraine's quotation to St. James's Street?

For days, for months, devotedly

I've lingered by thy side,

The only place I coveted

In all the world so wide.'*

And though I like the country, as an Englishman and a patriot ought to do, I own I feel the fascination of the flagstones."

Emily, I accuse you of want of sympathy with your friends-I declare you are asleep:

• Kennedy.

you will make a bad traveller; however, I shall rely upon your amendment.”

Emily was not asleep, but she was oppressed by that sense of nothingness with which the native of a great town is too familiar to be able to judge of its effect on a stranger. She had been accustomed to live where every face was a familiar one-where every one's affairs had, at least, the interest of neighbourhoodand where a stranger had all the excitement of novelty. Here all was new and cold: the immensity was too great to fix on a place of rest-the hurry, the confusion of the streets bewildered her. She felt, not only that she was nobody, but that nobody cared for her a very disagreeable conviction at which to arrive, but one very natural in London.

That journey is dreary which does not end at home; and I do not know whether to despise for his selfishness, or to pity for his situation, the individual who said, that he had ever found

"Life's warmest welcome at an inn."

It was paying himself and his friends a compli

ment.

CHAPTER XV.

yes

A most delightful person? I said "
To such a question how could I say less ?
And yet I thought, half pedant and half fop,
If this you praise, where will eulogium stop?

THE day after their arrival, the Mandevilles being engaged to a family dinner, where they could not well take a stranger, Emily accepted the invitation of a Mrs. Trefusis, with whom, to use the lady's own expression, she was “a prodigious favourite.” And to Mrs. Trefusis' accordingly she went, and was received with that kind of manner which says, "You see I mean to make a great deal of you, so be very much obliged." At dinner Miss Arundel was placed next a gentleman; her hostess having previously whispered, "I think you will have a treat."

When a person says, "Were you not delighted with my friend Mr. A, B, C, or D?— I placed you next him at dinner, as I was sure

his wit would not be thrown away upon you" -the " you" dwelt on in the most complimentary tone-is it possible to answer in the negative? Not even in the palace of truth itself. You cannot be ungrateful-you will not be undeserving-and you reply, "M. — is a most delightful person." Your affirmative is received and registered, and you have the comfort, perhaps, of hearing your opinion quoted, as thinking him so superior-while you really consider the gentleman little better than a personified yawn.

Emily was not yet impertinent or independent enough to have opinions of her own, or she might have differed from her hostess's estimate of Mr. Macneil. Mrs. Trefusis valued conversation much as children do sweetmeats-not by the quality, but the quantity: a great talker was with her a good talker-silence and stupidity synonymous terms-and "I hate people who don't talk," the idéale and morale of her social creed. It was said she accepted her husband because he did not ever allow her to slip in an affirmative. An open carriage and a sudden shower drove her one day into desperation and Lady Alicia's; unexpected pleasures are always most prized; and half an hour's