his neglect, the young lady reviving from a fit of the sullens at the prospect of a beau, received Mr. Webster with gratifying complacence, and the lucky adventurer soon found himself enacting Le Cavalier seul vis a vis to Lord Munsterhaven and conducting the honourable Miss Trevyllian in the avant. Fortunately also there was always a demand for partners in the family and when he had danced with five of the Misses Ormby his earliest acquaintance was quite ready to dance with him again-nor did his good fortune end here-a lucky incident occurred at supper. The crowding and jostling for place so disgraceful to any refined society, was carried on at the borough in so outrageous a manner, that it became necessary in large parties to take proper measures to secure for the persons entitled to precedence the full enjoyment of their rights. Mr. Grayson Blondeville invariably carried the key of the supper room door in his pocket, and admitted the lady he conducted with his own hand. Upon this important occasion however it was deemed expedient to make a more efficient arrangement. Two apartments on the ground floor opening into each other, were appropriated to the supper tables, one of these leading to a conservatory which communicated with the garden was intended for the reception of the superior order of guests and a covered passage had been constructed across a part of the garden for their accommodation by a series of manœuvres which would have done credit to a military commander, Mrs. Blondeville contrived to assemble the favoured number in a small boudoir furnished with a door close to the back stair whence the company could descend to the scene of action, and happily achieving her object, she managed to have the party comfortably seated before the rush in the ball room commenced. It happened that Mr. Webster and his partner were in the house keeper's room at the time, the young lady had torn a part of her dress and was obliged to seek the aid of the female domestics, the gallant banker of course attending. The dress being put in order and the flounces sewn up, the smiling pair encountered the last couple of exclusives defiling from the back stairs, and not aware of the scheme which had been laid to prevent the intrusion of less dignified personages joined the train, obtained admittance to the sacred precincts, and snugly ensconced themselves in chairs at the bottom of the table. In another moment a servant threw open a pair of folding doors, exhibiting the glorious bustle din and confusion which reigned within the adjoining apartment. My Lady Digges had been either purposely or inadvertently left out of the select party, and being ignorant of the precautions which had been taken to prevent the usurpation of the upper seats by unprivileged visitors, as usual attempted to take the lead; not perceiving that

she was left to jostle with folks of little note. While pressing forward to secure a chair as near as possible to Lady Alvendown, a contest ensued in which she sustained a signal defeat. There unfortunately was present a Lady Hodges, who according to the laws of the red book was entitled to precedence, inasmuch as her husband had been knighted several years before Sir Simon Digges had attained that honour-hers was therefore the most ancient title of the two; but Sir John Hodges had obtained the fortune on which he had retired from business in a low vulgar way; originally as the proprietor of a retail shop, and Lady Hodges in her younger days had been seen to stand behind a counter, she was moreover coarse and masculine in her appearance, totally uneducated and excessively ill bred. Now Sir Simon Digges had entered into life in a less exceptionable capacity, having held a small post under government, and was at this period the proprietor of large estates in the West Indies bequeathed by a distant relation, consequently he considered himself to be very highly exalted above his brother knight, and took infinite pains to assert his claims to superiority, a point which Sir John, good easy man, would not perhaps have disputed, but Lady Hodges, his more than better half, possessed a loftier spirit; she assured all her friends that she was determined" to stick up for her just rights and had no idear of submitting to the airs of them Digges." In pursuing this doughty resolution, she seized every opportunity of entering the lists with her haughty antagonist, and upon this memorable evening came off with flying colours. She had kept a watchful eye the whole night upon Lady Digges, and the instant that there was a movement towards the supper room, she strode forward, bearing down by sheer weight of metal all who attempted to oppose her progress, thus diligent she soon arrived at the spot where Lady Digges was pushing her way to the door, thrusting her aside with a sharp movement of the elbow, she prevented her from making any farther exertion by treading not altogether accidentally upon her foot, and having most effectually gained her object, swept on in triumph-Lady Digges in pausing to replace her slipper and to recover from the pain inflicted by a personage who carried fourteen stone and a half, completely lost ground, she was the last to enter the supper room, and her mortification was completed by the discovery that she had engaged in a scuffle with an insolent vulgar woman in striving to gain the wrong door. In high indignation she stalked round the lower table, and scarcely could refrain from expressing her displeasure upon finding that no seat had been reserved for her at the upper board. Fanning herself in restless vexation she took up a position immediately behind Mr. Webster's chair. It was the bank.

ers interest to make friends, to conciliate the great people of the town, and though he felt deeply aggrieved by the indirect cut he had received from Lady Digges, a glorious opportunity now offered to establish himself in her favour, and stifling the revengeful feelings which prompted a retort, he arose and offered the lady a seat. The courtesy was most gratefully most thankfully accepted-Lady Digges possessed an unhappy propensity to blunder, and was in continual dread of lectures from her husband, who attributed every discomfiture she sustained to her inability to support her dignity-overlooking the danger of receiving a reproof by making herself too amiable to the despised banker, she gave way to the overflowings of her joy at being so unexpectedly relieved from her difficulties-permitted Mr. Webster to perform the part of cavalier serventi behind her chair, drank champaigne with him, divided a bunch of grapes with him, allowed him to take charge of her shawl, and in short treated him as an equal. Henceforward all was sunshine, the Misses Ormsby having a little journey before them were obliged to depart immediately after supper, but with Lady Digges on his arm the banker returned triumphantly into the ball room. There was no want of partners now, Lady Digges introduced her conductor to a friend, that friend to another, he solicited a third and was not refused, so that when the lamps began to twinkle and the musicians' weary arms waxed faint, Mrs. Grayson Blondeville fatigued with all her exertions, the last compliment paid and the last great person departed, still saw the haunting demon of the night, the indefatigable Mr. Webster dancing with undiminished vigour, encouraged to make himself agreeable, enjoying and entering into the spirit of the evening, calling out to the nodding fiddlers "faster faster" twirling his partner with an extra round in the moulinet, and beating up for recruits for a new quadrille. At last, and with the last he made his bow, the exuberance of his gaiety a little damped by the chilling aspect and haughty brow of the hostess who looked daggers at him as he approached to take leave. These frowns however came too late to destroy the happiness he had enjoyed, and he walked off much delighted with his evening's entertainment.

SOMETHING FROM WAMBA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CALCUTTA MAGAZINE.

SIR,-I have perused your number eight, and, after I have expended upon it a few morsels of rational criticism, I shall rejoice you with a morceau for number ten (as for me to give a monthly feed to that over-grown, peevish, and epicene enfant gatè, the public, would be a mere wasting of my intellectual pearls, wherefore I shall throw them before it only six or seven times in the course of this earth's revolution about the sun) in order to glad the eyes, and perhaps titivate the midriff of each recreant Subscriber. By the bye (now that you have existed long enough to enable you to form so delicate an estimate) do the mere "half batta" people pay as punctually and as much as we do; or do you resolve the difficulty, begotten by defalcation, by giving them copies containing but half the quantity with which their betters are furnished? I have, at this distant day, a minutely distinct (not to say a microscopical) remembrance of having, myself, made a practical application of some such excellent theory as that, towards an old woman who was wont to supply the microcosm of Addiscombe with six-penny tartlets, in the time of my Cadethood. That blissful time of life, when I had to polish my own shoes in the coldest of mornings and the dampest of rooms, I rejoice to think is over; for I would rather have it to cast a lingering look behind toto peep at Mistress-Lot-wise-as the green spot on memory's waste (not that I waste much memory upon it, however!) than to be starting from it, in times like these, with a vista of five and twenty years to travel through to a Captaincy, -supernumerary often, super-numerary never! But revenous a nos moutons-let us return to our old woman, a tough enough piece of mutton, no doubt. It would appear, all things duly considered, that I had been somewhat behind my time-not in taking the tarts off her hands for legitimate ventral purposes, but-in liquidating the amount of the fore-gone (and indeed sometimes the six gone!) purchases; so that when the withered creature, with that extreme garrulousness which, since the time of Nestor, hath been the handmaid of senility, observed me approach her basket, with a sort of crow's eye bent on the blue and white saucers which contained the salutary manufacture, she thought I had better be clear of the old love, before I came wooing the new, and she accordingly emitted a vox (brought with more meaning than the " præterea nihil" of end-commenc