. Hinton, two edge-du-congs to his Grace the Lord Liftinint, wid
all the particulars, for one ha'penny.'

'Here's the whole correspondence between the Castle bucks,' shouted a
rival publisher--the Colburn to this Bentley--'wid a beautiful new song
to an old tune--

"Bang it up, bang it up, to the lady in the Green."'

'Give me one, if you please,' said a motherly-looking woman, in a grey
cloak.

'No, ma'am, a penny,' responded the vendor. 'The bloody fight for a
halfpenny! What!' said he; 'would you have an Irish melody and the
picture of an illigint female for a copper?'

'Sing us the song, Peter,' called out another.

'This is too bad!' said I passionately, as, driving the spurs into my
horse, I dashed through the ragged mob, upsetting and overturning all
before me. Not, however, before I was recognised; and, as I cantered
down the street, a shout of derision, and a hailstorm of offensive
epithets followed me.

It was, I confess, some time before I recovered my equanimity enough to
think of my visit. For myself, individually, I cared little or nothing;
but who could tell in what form these things might reach my friends in
England?--how garbled! how exaggerated! how totally perverted! And then,
too, Miss Bellew! It was evident that she was alluded to. I trembled
to think that her name, polluted by the lips of such wretches as these,
should be cried through the dark alleys and purlieus of the capital; a
scoff and a mockery among the very outcasts of vice.

As I turned the corner of Grafton Street a showy carriage with four grey
horses passed me by. I knew it was the Rooney equipage, and although for
a moment I was chagrined that the object of my visit was defeated, on
second thoughts I satisfied myself that, perhaps, it was quite as well;
so I rode on to leave my card. On reaching the door, from which already
some visitors were turning away, I discovered that I had forgotten my
ticket-case; so I dismounted to write my name in the visiting-book;
for this observance among great people Mrs. Rooney had borrowed, to the
manifest horror and dismay of many respectable citizens.

'A note for you, sir,' said the butler, in his most silvery accent, as
he placed a small sealed billet in my hand.

I opened it hastily. It contained but two lines:

'Miss Bellew requests Mr. Hinton will kindly favour her with a few
moments' conversation at an early opportunity.'

'Is Miss Bellew at home?'

'Yes, sir,' said the servant,