ll reviews are conducted with such
want of principle?"

"By no means. There are many very impartial and clever critiques. The
misfortune is, that unless you read the work that is reviewed, you
cannot distinguish one from the other."

"And pray what induced you to abandon this creditable employment?"

"A quarrel, sir. I had reviewed a work, with the private mark of
approval, when it was found out to be a mistake, and I was desired to
review it with censure. I expected to be paid for the second review as
well as for the first. My employer thought proper to consider it all as
one job, and refused--so we parted."

"Pretty tricks in trade, indeed!" replied Captain M---. "Why, Mr
Collier, you appear to have belonged to a gang of literary bravos, whose
pens, like stilettoes, were always ready to stab, in the dark, the
unfortunate individuals who might be pointed out to them by interest or
revenge."

"I acknowledge the justice of your remark, sir; all that I can offer in
my defence is, the excuse of the libeller to Cardinal Richelieu--`_Il
faut vivre, monsieur_.'"

"And I answer you, with the Cardinal--`_Je ne vois pas la necessite_,'"
replied Captain M---, with a smile, as he rose to resume his labours.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

He fell, and, deadly pale,
Groaned out his soul.
MILTON.

"Do, mamma, come here," said Emily, as she was looking out of the window
of an inn on the road, where they had stopped to take some
refreshment--"do come, and see what a pretty lady is in the chariot
which has stopped at the door."

Mrs Rainscourt complied with her daughter's request, and acknowledged
the justice of the remark when she saw the expressive countenance of
Susan (now Mrs McElvina), who was listening to the proposal of her
husband that they should alight and partake of some refreshment. Susan
consented, and was followed by old Hornblow, who, pulling out his watch
from his white cassimere _femoralia_, which he had continued to wear
ever since the day of the wedding, declared that they must stop to dine.

"This country air makes one confoundedly hungry," said the old man; "I
declare I never had such an appetite in Cateaton-street. Susan, my
dear, order something that won't take long in cooking--a beef-steak, if
they have nothing down at the fire."

Mrs Rainscourt, who was as much prepossessed with the appearance of
McElvina as with that of his wife, gave vent to her thoughts with "I
wonder who they are!"