ny of these scenes of noisy pleasure for which for
many reasons I felt myself unfitted. He was so urgent and persevering,
however, that I could not refuse; and I found myself reluctantly
obliged to make up my mind to attend him upon the important night to the
spacious but ill-finished building, which the fashion and beauty of the
county were pleased to term an assembly-room.

When we entered the apartment, we found a select few, surrounded by a
crowd of spectators, busily performing a minuet, with all the congees
and flourishes which belonged to that courtly dance; and my companion,
infected by the contagion of example, was soon, as I had anticipated,
waving his chapeau bras, and gracefully bowing before one of the
prettiest girls in the room. I had neither skill nor spirits to qualify
me to follow his example; and as the fulness of the room rendered it
easy to do so without its appearing singular, I determined to be merely
a spectator of the scene which surrounded me, without taking an active
part in its amusements.

The room was indeed very much crowded, so that its various groups,
formed as design or accident had thrown the parties together, afforded
no small fund of entertainment to the contemplative observer. There were
the dancers, all gaiety and good-humour; a little further off were the
tables at which sat the card-players, some plying their vocation with
deep and silent anxiety--for in those days gaming often ran very high in
such places--and others disputing with all the vociferous pertinacity
of undisguised ill-temper. There, again, were the sallow, blue-nosed,
grey-eyed dealers in whispered scandal; and, in short, there is scarcely
a group or combination to be met with in the court of kings which might
not have found a humble parallel in the assembly-room of T----.

I was allowed to indulge in undisturbed contemplation, for I suppose I
was not known to more than five or six in the room. I thus had leisure
not only to observe the different classes into which the company had
divided itself, but to amuse myself by speculating as to the rank and
character of many of the individual actors in the drama.

Among many who have long since passed from my memory, one person for
some time engaged my attention, and that person, for many reasons, I
shall not soon forget. He was a tall, square-shouldered man, who stood
in a careless attitude, leaning with his back to the wall; he seemed to
have secluded himself from the