night only, being lent with the rout-seats at a sure
salary. As Mrs. Brown passed this latter gentleman in silence, we could
not help smiling--hoping she might have to think as well of his powers
as he did himself, and that all titles entrusted to his care might be
safely delivered; for we knew Mrs. Bramston would not be called
_Brimstone_, without turning fiery; or Mr. Reynard Sly put up with
anything but _Slee_, though he may write it Sly, himself.

Having gained the drawing-room, and got fairly through the
muslin-barrier in the doorway, which made the staircase look as if in a
fog, we found the appearance within very gratifying--everything well out
of the way, and no stinting of wax-lights:--altogether exhibiting a
clearer stage than is often to be met with--some antique people inviting
you to polk in an old curiosity shop;--as, the other evening, at the
Dowager Lady Oldbuck's, young Whisk, of the Heavies, brought down a
_buhl_ table, covered with porcelain gimcracks; a thing that Lark
observed--ought to cure itself, if people wished to save their _Sevres_.
Evening parties are not the slow things they used to be:--here the back
balcony is all evergreens and tissue-paper blossoms, lit up with a
Chinese lanthorn--looking like a fairy bower, tenanted by four gaping
gold-fish and a dissipated canary; the little boudoir, beyond, so snug
in sage and silver, seeming but small accommodation for card-players. We
thought of Lady Oldbuck's--the valuable space occupied by _chaperones_
and corpulent cronies,--blessing the new mode;--dances now being
given to dancers, not to dowagers and matrimonial slave-dealers, as
heretofore. Mrs. Brown calculates her company; and thinking there
is enough for a quadrille in either room, she commences to form
them--pouncing, from time to time, upon timid young men by the door, who
are led forward, like lambs from a flock, to sacrifice,--until the sets
are completed--all but one couple--Mrs. Brown stating herself
"distressed for ladies;"--a combination of suffering by no means acute,
for she stood up herself, having engaged the amiable young Slowcoach to
fill the gap.

[Illustration: THE QUADRILLE.]

No sooner did the orchestra commence--barely having finished the
first eight bars of "the Martyrs",--than the guests came rushing up
from the coffee-room, like sheep through a hedge, one bolder than
the rest leading the way, causing Mrs. Brown to desert her partner in
_l'ete_--a figure the g