t in your pocket,... and if you can shun
it, read it not;... consider well what you do, and look
to yourself,... for there is danger and jeopardy in it."--
--Dr. Eachard.

IN the course of my walk that afternoon I called at the billiard-rooms
in F---- Street, in order to pay Oaklands' subscription. On inquiring
for Mr. Johnson, the proprietor, I was told that he was engaged at
present, but that if I did not mind waiting for a few minutes, he would
be able to attend to me. To this I agreed, and was shown into a small
room downstairs, which, from its sanded floor, and a strong odour of
stale tobacco which pervaded it, was apparently used as a smoking-room.
It opened into what seemed to be a rather spacious apartment from which
it was divided by a glass half-door, across the lower panes of which
hung a green blind: this door, on my entrance, was standing slightly
ajar. The day being cold, there was a bright fire burning on the hearth;
near this I seated myself, and, seduced by its drowsy influence, fell
into a kind of trance, in which, between sleeping and waking, my mind
wandered away to a far different scene, among well-known forms and
familiar faces that had been strangers to me now for many a long day.
From this day-dream I was aroused by sounds, which, proceeding from the
adjoining apartment, resolved themselves, as I became more thoroughly
awake, into the voices of two persons apparently engaged in angry
colloquy.

"I tell you," said a gruff voice, which somehow seemed familiar to
me--"I tell you it is the only chance for you; you must contrive to
bring him here again, and that without loss of time."

"Must I again repeat that the thing is impossible?" was the reply, in
tones I knew but too well; "utterly impossible; when once his mind is
made up, and he takes the trouble to exert himself, he is immovable;
nothing can shake his determination."

"And is this your boasted skill and management?" ~82~~rejoined the first
speaker; "how comes it, pray, that this overgrown child, who seemed the
other day to be held as nicely in leading-strings as need be--this raw
boy, whose hot-headedness, simplicity, and indolence rendered him as
easy a pigeon to pluck as one could desire; how comes it, I say, that he
has taken alarm in this sudden manner, so as to refuse to come here any
more? you've bungled this matter most shamefully, sir, and must take the
consequences."

"That's just the point I can