Caustic." He has been very imprudent," said young Candour.

"He

I inquired of whom they were speaking. "Don't you know Charles Gally?" said the Exquisite, endea vouring to turn in his collar; "Not know Charles Gally?" he repeated, with an expression of pity. is the best fellow breathing; only lives to laugh and make others laugh; drinks his two bottles with any man, and rides the finest mare I ever saw-next to my Angelica. Not know Charles Gally? why every body knows him! he is so amusing! ha! ha!-and tells such admirable stories! ha! ha often have they kept me awake (a yawn) when nothing else could." "Poor fellow!" said his Lordship, " I understand he's done for ten thousand!" "I never believe more than half what the world says," observed Candour." He that has not a farthing," said Caustic, cares little whether he owes ten thousand or five." "Thank Heaven!" said Candour, "that will never be the case with Charles: he has a fine estate in Leicestershire." "Mortgaged for half its value," said his Lordship. "A large personal property !" "All gone in annuity bills," said the Exquisite. "A rich uncle upwards of fourscore!" "He'll cut him off with a shilling," said Caustic.

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"Let us hope he may reform," sighed the Hypocrite; "and sell the pack," added the Nobleman;-"and marry," continued the Dandy. "Pshaw !" cried the Satirist, "he will never get rid of his habits, his hounds, or his horns.” "But he has an excellent heart," said Candour. "Excellent," repeated his Lordship, unthinkingly. "Excellent," lisped the Fop, effeminately. "Excellent," exclaimed the Wit, ironically. We took this opportunity to ask by what means so excellent a heart and so bright a genius had contrived to plunge him into these disasters. "He was my friend,” replied his Lordship, “and a man of large property; but he was mad-quite mad. I remember his leaping a lame pony over a stone wall, simply because Sir Marmaduke bet him a dozen that he

-broke his neck in the attempt; and sending a bullet through a poor pedlar's pack because Bob Darrell said the piece wouldn't carry so far." carry so far." "Upon another occasion," began the Exquisite in his turn," he jumped into a horse-pond after dinner in order to prove it was not six feet deep; and overturned a bottle of Eau de Cologne in Lady Emilia's face, to convince me that she was not painted. Poor fellow! the first experiment cost him a dress, and the second an heiress." "I have heard," resumed the Nobleman, " that he lost his election for by lampooning the Mayor; and was dismissed from his place in the Treasury for challenging “The last accounts I heard of him," said Caustic, "told me, that Lady Tarrel had forbid him her house for driving a sucking-pig into her drawing-room; and that young Hawthorn had run him through for boasting of favours from his sister!" "These gentlemen are really too severe," remarked young Candour to us: "Not a jot;” we said to ourselves.

Lord C

"This will be a terrible blow for his sister," said a young man who had been listening in silence. "A fine girl; -a very fine girl," said the Exquisite: " and a fine fortune," said the Nobleman. "The mines of Peru are nothing to her;" "Nothing at all," observed the sneerer: "she has no property there. But I would not have you caught, Harry; her income was good, but is dipped, horribly dipped. Guineas melt very fast when the cards are put by them." "I was not aware Maria was a gambler," said the young man, much alarmed; "Her brother is, Sir," replied his informant. The querist looked sorry, but yet relieved. We could see that he was not quite disinterested in his inquiries. "However," resumed the young Cynic, "his profusion has at least obtained him many noble and wealthy friends." He glanced at his hearers, and went on, no one that knew him will hear of his distresses without being forward to relieve them. He will find interest for his money in the

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hearts of his friends." Nobility took snuff; Foppery played with his watch-chain; Hypocrisy looked grave. There was long silence. We ventured to regret the misuse of natural talents, which, if properly directed, might have rendered their possessor useful to the interests of society, and celebrated in the records of his country. Every one stared, as if we were talking Hebrew. 66 Very true," said his Lordship, "he enjoys great talents. No man is a nicer judge of horseflesh. He beats me at billiards, and Harry at picquet; he's a dead shot at a button, and can drive his curricle-wheels over a brace of sovereigns." "Radicalism," says Caustic, looking round for a laugh. "He is a great amateur of pictures," observed the Exquisite, " and is allowed to be quite a connoisseur in beauty; but there (simpering) every one must claim the privilege of judging for themselves." "Upon my word," said Candour, you allow poor Charles too little. I have no doubt he has great courage, though to be sure, there was a whisper that young Hawthorn found him rather shy, and I am convinced he is very generous, though I must confess that I have it from good authority, that his younger brother was refused the loan of a hundred, when Charles had pigeoned that fool of a nabob but the evening before. I would stake my existence that he is a man of unshaken honour, though, when he eased Lieutenant Hardy of his pay, there certainly was an awkward story about the transaction, which was never properly cleared up; I hope that when matters are properly investigated he will be liberated from all his embarrassments; though I am sorry to be compelled to believe that he has been spending double the amount of his income annually. But I trust that all will be adjusted. I have no doubt upon the subject." "Nor I," said Caustic. "We shall miss him prodigiously at the Club," said the Dandy with a slight shake of the head. "What a bore!" replied the Nobleman with a long yawn. We could hardly ven

ture to express compassion for a character so despicable. Our auditors, however, entertained very different opinions of right and wrong! "Poor fellow! he was much to be pitied: had done some very foolish things; -to say the truth was a sad scoundrel-but then he was always so mad." And having come unanimously to this decision, the conclave dispersed.

Charles gave an additional proof of his madness within a week after this discussion by swallowing laudanum. The verdict of the Coroner's Inquest confirmed the judgment of his four friends. For our own parts we must pause before we give in to so dangerous a doctrine. Here is a man who has outraged the laws of honour, the ties of relationship, and the duties of religion; he appears before us in the triple character of a libertine, a swindler, and a suicide. Yet his follies, his vices, his crimes, are all palliated or even applauded by this specious façon de parler" He was mad---quite mad!"

F. G.

TO ELLEN,

ON HER DEPARTURE.

O! ASK me not, Ellen, why quickly starts
The tear to my eye, when thine image is gone,
You know when the light of the Sun departs,
The dew-drop of Even comes swiftly on.

The Willow delights o'er the ruffled lake
To grieve for the wave as it wanders by;
Then bid me not cease, if thy smiles forsake,
From the bosom of Sorrow to heave the sigh.

O! bid me not cease, for the dear delight

That enraptured each chord of the heart, is dead:
For my soul is entranced in a dreary night,
And the lovely delusion with Ellen is fled.

But the heart that adored, that each pulse attuned
To the frolicking smile, to the radiant glow
That thine eye shot around;-O! it feels a wound,
On which Ellen alone can a balm bestow.

The worm that delights to illume the dark,
When the mantle of Even descends in state,
But lights up the ray of her lonely spark,

To allure, by the splendor, her roving mate:*

Thus the spark of affection, all pure, all bright,
Though cruel afar from these arms you roam,
In this bosom shall burn with unfading light,

And O! may it lure thee, dear Wanderer, home.

X. C.

A SATURDAY EVENING IN THE COUNTRY.

"The toil-worn cotter frae his labour goes,

This night his weekly moil is at an end,

Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes:

Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend,

And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend."

BURNS.

THERE are, perhaps, some among my readers who are accustomed to laugh at the idea of a country life, and treat it with ridicule; but I confess I am one of its most

* The male glow-worm is a small fly, furnished with wings, without any of that luminous appearance, the property of the female.—Dictionary of Natural History.