rds town in a calmer and more cheerful humor
than that in which he had quitted it an hour or two before.

As he approached Cumberland Gate, it was about half-past five; and the
Park might be said to be at its _acme_ of fashion, as far as that could
be indicated by a sluggish stream of carriages, three and four
abreast--coroneted panels in abundance--noble and well-known equestrians
of both sexes, in troops--and some hundreds of pedestrians of the same
description. So continuous was the throng of carriages and horsemen,
that Titmouse did not find it the easiest matter in the world to dart
across to the footpath in the inner circle. That, however, he presently
safely accomplished, encountering no more serious mischance than the
muttered "D--n your eyes!" of a haughty groom, between whom and his
master Mr. Titmouse had presumed to intervene. What a crowd of elegant
women, many of them young and beautiful, (who but such, to be sure,
would have become, or been allowed to become, pedestrians in the Park?)
he encountered, as he slowly sauntered on, all of them obsequiously
attended by brilliant beaux! Lords and ladies were here manifestly as
plentiful as plebeians in Oxford Street. What an enchanted ground!--How
delicious this soft crush and flutter of aristocracy! Poor Titmouse felt
at once an intense pleasure, and a withering consciousness of his utter
insignificance. Many a sigh of dissatisfaction and envy escaped him; yet
he stepped along with a tolerably assured air, looking everybody he met
straight in the face, and occasionally twirling about his little cane
with an air which seemed to say--"Whatever opinion _you_ may form of me,
I have a very good opinion of myself." Indeed, was he not as much a
man--an Englishman--as the best of them? What was the real difference
between Count Do-'em-all and Mr. Tittlebat Titmouse? Only that the Count
had dark hair and whiskers, and owed more money than Mr. Titmouse's
creditors could be persuaded to allow _him_ to owe! Would to
Heaven--thought Titmouse--that any _one_ tailor would patronize _him_ as
half a dozen had patronized the Count! If pretty ladies of quality did
not disdain a walking advertisement of a few first-rate tailors, like
the Count, why should they turn up their noses at an assistant in an
extensive wholesale and retail establishment in Oxford Street,
conversant with the qualities and prices of the most beautiful articles
of female attire? Yet alas, they _did_ so!---- H