Liquorish had fallen upon Capstick explosively. He had, in truth, been much startled, agitated by the tidings; but, the muffinmaker was a philosopher, and after a brief hour or two, he had subdued the flesh-quakes of the merely modest man, trembling at his own under-valuation, and sat re-assured and calm, contemplating his possible appearance amidst the sages of the land, himself a sage, with the quiet resignation of a patriot. Capstick industriously essayed a look, a manner of monumental tranquillity. He smoked apparently, for all the world, like a common man; and yet-it did not escape the affectionate glance of Jem-yet did Capstick's eye now and then burn and glow with a new light, even as the tobacco at the breath of the smoker, glowed through the embers. Rapidly was his heart enlarging with the good of the nation. Orations, to be uttered to the world at the proper season, were conceived in the muffin-maker's brain; and as he sat, like a pagan god, in a cloud of his own making, they already grew and grew, and he already felt for them the mysterious love of the parent towards the unborn. Already his ears rang with the shoutings of an instructed, a delighted senate. His heart beat -thick with the thought of Magna Charta, and the tremendous uses he would yet make of that sublime text. With no hope, no thought of parliament, it had been the pride of the muffin-maker to despise the world and its doings; a hopeless world, overstocked with fools and knaves, altogether unworthy of the consideration of a philosophic mind. And now with the chance of becoming a senator, Capstick felt a sudden charity for the universe. After all, it was a universe not to be neglected. And for the men and women inhabiting it-poor two-legged emmets!-they must not be suffered to go to ruin their own perverse way. He would, therefore, go to parliament, and save them. Now, when a man has once for all determined upon a magnanimous line of conduct, he cannot but for the time look the better, the bigger, for the resolution. It is thus in all cases. For instance, when a virgin, with lowered lids and lips trembling at their own courage, drops the "yes" that is to make a man beatific for the term of his natural existence-a "yes" at which all the wedding-rings in all the goldsmiths' shops sympathetically vibrate, she, the virgin, looks as she never before looked in her life; sublimated, glorified, with a halo of beauty about her; a halo catching light from her liquid eyes and rosy, burning face. And when, too, the widow with a sweet audacity, facing the mischief, man, as an old soldier faces a

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cannon, says "yes," tolling the monosyllable shortly, boldly as a bell tolls one-she, too, expands a little-just a little, with the thought, the good determined upon,--she, too, has her halo, though certainly of a dimmer kind; just a little dulled, like a second-hand ring. So true it is, that magnanimity has an expansive, a decorative quality. And so when Capstick, for a moment, felt himself a member of Parliament, he felt for the time his waistcoat much too small for him. In the like way that when, stirred by great emotions, the female heart takes a sudden shoot, it is sometimes necessary to cut the stay-lace to allow for the growth.

And Capstick sat enlarged by his own thoughts; with the ears of his soul up-pricked-for souls have ears, and at times pretty long ones as though listening for the trumpets that should sound a blast for his triumph. But Bright Jem had a heavy, a dolorous expression of the divine countenance of man. His master was in danger of being made a Member of Parliament. He was, at that moment, in the imminent peril of being taken from rustic delights, from the sweet, the flowery leisure of the country, to be turned into a maker of laws. His condition weighed heavily upon the sense of his faithful, his affectionate servant; who gazed upon him as Pylades would have regarded Orestes, had dear Orestes been sentenced to the pillory. Capstick already felt himself in the House of Commons, and smiled through his own smoke, as he thought of one of the hundred speeches he would make, and the cheers that would celebrate its delivery; and Bright Jem only thought of the unsavoury missiles to be hurled at his friend in the hour of his trial.

"A man is wedded to his country, Jem," repeated Capstick, with a growing love for the assertion.

"His country! Why, you don't call Liquorish your country, do you? Besides, what does the country know about you 'xcept your muffins if the country hasn't quite forgot them by this time? If you are made a member of Parliament-heaven preserve you, says I-you 'll only be made out of spite and malice," cried James.

Mr. Capstick took his pipe wide away from his mouth, and began what would doubtless have been a very eloquent speech. Bright Jem, however, suffered him to get no further than—" The choice of the people, Jem."

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The people! The choice of the guineas, that 's it, Mr. Capstick. A member for Liquorish! Well, they might as well make

a little image of the golden calf over agin, and send that to parliament: for that's the people's choice hereabouts. Why, you must know, that it's for no love of you that Snipeton-as they call him-put you up. To carry his pint agin his young lordship-for there's some sore atween 'em-he'd send a chimbley-sweeper to parliament without washing."

"Impossible!" cried Capstick, with very considerable dignity. "Certain of it," insisted Jem, "else why, may I be so bold to ask, should he pitch upon you?

"I am not exactly a chimney-sweeper, Mr. James; not exactly," observed Capstick, majestically.

"A course not a good way from it: but you know what I mean, don't you ?" said Jem.

"It is no matter. Mr. Snipeton has very briefly satisfied me of the purity, the patriotism of his intentions, and-good night, Mr. James," and Capstick rose. "I must rise early to-morrow." 'Don't say, Mr. James, then it's a putting a stone in my pillow that I couldn't sleep on, seeing I'm not used to it. God bless you, sir-good night," and Jem held forth his hand.

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"Good night, Jem," said Capstick, taking Jem's hand. “And mind, to-morrow, early Jem-very early, Jem.'

Almost at dawn Jem was in the garden, digging, digging as though he would get rid of thought. At times, very savagely would he plunge the spade into the earth, as though it relieved him. And then he groaned-hummed-and sighed. And the morning broke gloriously; and the birds sang and whistled; and the flowers came laughing out in the sunshine. The summer earth, one wide altar, steamed with sweetest incense to heaven. Jem had laboured for a couple of hours before Capstick joined him in the garden. Why, Jem, you've done a full half-day's work already," said the candidate for Liquorish.

"Somehow I couldn't rest; and when I did sleep, I had nothing but nasty dreams. If I didn't dream you was taken to the Tower for pulling the speaker's nose-and I know your temper, sir-nothing more likely-I wish I may die. Never had such a clear, clean dream in all my life. It was all made out so."

"And what did they do with me at the Tower?" asked Capstick, a little tickled by the importance of the imprisonment.

Why they chopped your head off as clean as a sheep's," said Jem earnestly. "I saw 'em do it; heard the chopper go right through bone, gristle, and all." Capstick clapt his hand to his

neck, then suddenly took it away again, and shook his head and smiled. Jem continued. "They chopped it off, and I heard it fall from the block with a bump. And after that they cut you into four quarters to be hung up for an example."

"Ha ha! and that's the worst they did," cried Capstick ; "there was an end, then?"

"No there wasn't," said Jem; "for I dreamt that they made me pack up one of the quarters, like spring-lamb, and carry it to your old muffin shop, and hang it jest over the door atween the two windows, as a warning to all traitors. And I hung it up. And then I dreamt I sat down on the door-step, and it was as much as ever I could do to keep the birds from pecking at you, for all I did nothing but pelt 'em with dollars."

"Very extravagant," said Capstick, who added gravely, laying his hand very tenderly upon Jem's shoulder, "when the time really comes, don't throw away silver; first try penny pieces." Jem shook his head: he could not relish the humour of the economy.

"If, now, they really should make a member of parliament of you"-Jem shuddered at the notion as at the thought of some nauseous drug" you don't mean to say you'll leave the Tub, the garden and all?"

"The voice of the country, Jem, must be obeyed. We'll come down here, and recruit ourselves when the House is prorogued. We shall enjoy it all the more for the work of the session." Capstick already spoke like a member.

"Well, I know somethin' of parliament, for I knew poor Sam Chilterns, the linkman, as was killed by the late hours. He used to tell me a good deal about it; whatever pleasure you can have, to go and sit steaming among a mob of folks--and hearing speeches and sums of figures that you don't know nothing about-and never opening your own mouth "—

"Never think it, Jem," cried Capstick, "I shall speak and very often-very often."

"The Lord help you!" exclaimed Jem, amazed at such determination. "At your time of life, too!"

"That's it, Jem. Twenty, ten, years ago, I shouldn't have been ripe for it. Really great men are of slow growth; I feel that I have just now reached my prime, and my country shall have it. You don't know-how should you ?—what I may meet with in parliament."

"A little on it," and noisy company; night, and so do no

said Jem. "You'll meet with bad hours and you'll turn night into day and day into good with neither one nor the other. Meet ! Will you meet with any such company as you leave? I should like

to know that?"

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Why, what company do I leave?" asked Capstick coldly, and with dignity.

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Why, the company about you," cried Jem, and Capstick shortly coughed. "Look at 'em will you meet with anything like them roses, jest opening their precious mouths, and talking to you in their own way-for how often you've said they do talk, if people will only have the sense to understand 'em! You'll go to court, perhaps; and if you do, will you meet with finer velvet than's in them heartsease? will you see any diamonds"-and here Jem struck a bush with his spade, and the dew-drops in a silver shower trembled and fell from it"any diamonds brighter and wholesomer than them? Will you hear anything like that in parliament ?"-cried Jem emphatically, and he pointed upwards to a fluttering speck, a lark in the high heavens, gushing with song.

"These things are to be enjoyed in their due season; when, as I say, the House is prorogued," said Capstick.

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And what's to become of all the animals that I thought you so fond on? They 'll none on 'em come to good when you're away. There's them beautiful bees-sensible things!-you don't think they'll have the heart to go on working, working, when you're wasting your time in the House of Commons? And you '11 go and make laws! Ha! We shan't have no luck after that. If the bantam hen that's sitting doesn't addle all her eggs, I know nothing of bantams. Why, how," and Jem spoke in a saddened tone-"how in six weeks do you think you'll look ?"

Look! how should I look?" cried Capstick, bending his

brows.

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'Why, you'll look like a act of parliament; and a precious old act, too; all parchment like, with black marks. And you 'll go to bed when the sun gets up; and instead of meeting him as you do now with a head as clear as spring water-and looking at him, all health and comfort—and walking about hearing the birds and smelling the cows, the flowers, and the fresh earth-why, you'll be slinking home to your bed with no heart to stare in the sun's face and your precious head will seem biling with a lot of