the senseless proceedings over which he was an involuntary sentinel. Right opposite the main entrance was a door, which led first into a court-the civil court, in point of fact, but it was known to be lighted with only a solitary lamp; it was believed to be appropriated to the trappings of privileged, or perhaps only official persons, and it was sternly barricaded by a woman so broad that her flank would have to be turned before she could be pushed back within the barrier line by any enterprising escaladers. But on the left hand, under the guardianship of a bust about the same size as that of Bacon, quite as awful, quite as dark, but much less distinguishable in its features or expression, a door opened into what was well known as the ordinary or little justice-room. At quarter sessions time it was a robing room, and so also at the time of the county ball. At other times, it was simply the magistrates' room; and at other times a lurking place for the housewifely appurtenances to the larger establishment,-such as dusters, dust-shovels, cobweb brooms, and rickety implements for the maintenance of cleanliness on a great, though only occasional scale. Herein was a portentous library of the 30,000 Statutes of England, more or less condensed or left out. Here were business-looking pigeon holes, and awfully suggestive recesses, shelves, and cupboards. There, too, was a massive lit de Justice, as the French might perhaps have called it, but which Englishmen would denominate an easy chair, at the warm end of a horseshoe-shaped blue baize table. Generally speaking, the English mind is fully alive to the very circumstantials and accidents of English law, and pays involuntary deference to the black death-planks at the debtor's door, and to the shiny buttons of the policeman's coat,-much more, of course, to the antiquated quills, the parchment-looking foolscap, the monstrous pewter inkstands, and the brilliant blot-paper, stainless as Justice, or spotted like the prisoner at the bar. But when policemen are confined in their functions to doing nothing at all, and to saying less than nothing, outside a court-house door, and when magistrates are believed, and even known, to be in their own mansions as jolly and benevolent as ordinary men, and a great deal less terrible than the bulk of men,-English awe of the mere surroundings of law

gives place to a superciliousness which, we must say, is a little overdone, and smacks of a concealed effort after indifference, but answers sufficiently well when the only object to be gained is that English males should hang their hats up without fear, and English maidens and spouses throw off all superstition which would deter them from freely using the cupboards and shelves, and easy chairs, and horseshoe tables, which once a sennight are sacred to the mysteries of the Blind Goddess, and the dignified J. P.'s.

In this room, accordingly, there was an unceasing turmoil for an hour or two,-and indeed up to the very moment of saying grace upstairs. A large screen served to board off a little gloomy corner where hats, umbrellas, goloshes, and mufflers were distributed on extemporized pegs, or bundled indiscriminately into a heap on the floor. The great space (including the gas and the fire, the shelves, the cupboards, the table, the chairs, the snug little out-of-the-way spots) was inviolably dedicated to the service of the fair, and in no long time there was a perfect museum of antiquities and novelties, both in person and in dress, gathered within that irregular triangle. Bonnets in boxes frail as themselves, and both made of chip; boas sable, boas rabbit, boas pussy, boas new, boas old, boas fluffy, boas mangy, boas long, boas short, boas of all names and types, and of all origins, from the romantic wilds of Kamtschatka, and from the sludge of a neighbouring pond, or the marine stores of a neighbouring factor in the skin line, were here, there, everywhere, coiled up like hybernating hairy worms, or digesting rattle-snakes. Wherever the boas were not, and mingled with them wherever they might lie, were mittens, pattens, shawls, combs, caps, and at least one front-Miss Gibbins's (who was of an age not only to require such aids to beauty, but to withstand the evil of such snares to virtue, and to be unmoved by sneers of others, and who had made a point of bringing her every-day wig, lest the night should set in damp, and blight the shiny glory of her new ringletty brown one). In this sanctum was the finishing touch given to the hasty preparations for which the interval of the return home to put the children to bed had been insufficient, and that delicate re-arrangement of rumpled curls

and collars which prudent wrapping-up had rendered necessary. Some of the gentle crowd had been there quite long enough for all proper purposes, and were already wasting their leisure in quizzing and scandal, besides blocking up the room to the great inconvenience and indignation of new comers, as well as of their male friends, who were airing their legs on the staircase and landings which led to the festive hall above.

Miss Gibbins (as became her age and social standing) was the first to make a move; and bravely cutting a channel through the concourse, she was soon in full sail up the broad stairs, followed by a whole bevy of arm-locked, simpering youngsters. At the curtained door of the large room, there was another pause, another press, for indecision seemed to prevail in all minds, as to whether it would be better to risk stifling in a good place, or to sit in a draught where nothing could be seen or heard. The indecision was not set at rest by the vague shouts reverberating round inaccessible spots, "Plenty of room up here, ladies;" nor yet by Miss Gibbins' ghostly caution, "It would be so awkward if one should faint ;" but by that general progressive tendency which impels the human race to migrate when hungry hordes are thrusting from behind. Arrested at the very door, every eye had time to recover from the dazzling glory suffused over platform and benches by the grand chandelier (only lighted about twice in a twelve-month), and to gaze without pain, and with much complacency, on the true marvels of the scene before them. Huge evergreens that must have come from Dodona, so large, and so brightly, darkly verdant, and must (one should suppose) have been ordered to grow where they hung, by the silver-voiced Apollo himself, so high up on the smooth walls did they crisply rustle to the draught. Immortality was (as Miss G. explained) the sentiment of the evergreen, and all minds felt the force of the allusion, more especially when they gathered from the embroidered flags on the four walls, that the Society of the Friends of Home had expressly appropriated the sentiment of the holly and yew bushes around, in such stirring mottoes as- "Our Immortal Founder," "Nil Desperandum," "Sow by all Waters" (this last in conspicuous

and emphatic emblazonment); while the two-legged banner waved its motto, "We come to rescue the fallen," much like a visible echo to the texts on the other three walls. Places were found, changes were tried,-first places were lost while trying the second, and the second on trying to regain the first.

CHAPTER II.

TEA, ET CETERA.

Ar length there was the appearance of order, and indeed, there was a martial reality about the ranks, arising partly from the extreme difficulty of crushing into a place, and partly from the absolute impossibility of getting out again. For now the intervening spaces from form to form, and back to back, were themselves blocked up, so much as to necessitate a leaning forward hurtful to delicate chests, by reason of the passing to and fro of puffing, wheezing, red-faced, tight-chokered, irritable individuals with urns, tea-pots, pitchers, and formidable burdens of lukewarm muffins and sweaty toast. As if by preconcert, after everything else had been deposited, there was a hand-to-hand passing of large dishes blooming with ham shavings. Indeed, it had been resolved by the committee of provisions, under the influence of that love of fair play which is the glory of Englishmen, that, judging from former experience, it would not be advisable to put the ham slices as a temptation to the weak and hungry, whose very weakness might be foreknown by the fact of their coming early. Although in the wide world without there was a pretty extensive adoption of the principle "First come, first served," these reflecting counsellors did not deem it a wise or neighbourly principle to introduce, without any limitations, into a company who were on a footing of vulgar equality at a shilling a head. The ham was the crown of the feast, and the principle on which it was introduced was a master-piece of strategy which completely foiled the chuckling selfishness of those who had purposely come with stomachs empty of

everything, and with minds full of evil designs on the muffins and ham-but especially the ham. When all was ready on the table, and everybody more than ready to fall-to, the hum of many voices broke up into a hundred coughs, hems, and other petulant signs of impatience. This plain intimation that all were waiting, induced the amiable Secretary to lay aside, as if intending shortly, very shortly to resume, his dolce far niente, and after a benevolent and inquisitive survey, to propose a song of praise. All were willing to accord at least external reverence, and therefore all rose to sing; but it would appear that fresh illustration was about to be given of the well-attested truth that there is no such thing in the world as unmixed good. For it was soon discovered that one effect of the brilliant musical display in the gala, was to excite a very general disposition to music in the company assembled, and in some minds-many, we should say—a spirit of rivalry fed with envy. Now it seemed that a fair field and no favour was open for a contest. The band numbered some eighteen, (as we have seen), but then they had instruments of incredible power (for chamber music), and it was considered not unfair to pitch, as against these eighteen, the whole vocal violence of six hundred lungs. The ambition displayed itself in loudness, the envious spirit in swiftness. The tune, unfortunately for the band, was a common one to sing, but a new one to them on their instruments. The whole lung power, then, was developed at the second note, and the band was as good as stifled; while the malicious and secret foes to their wellearned fame, posted on at such a rate that, by the end of the first line, the band was nowhere. In such a volume of sound each one felt he could do as he liked, and have an unrestricted try at all the parts. The effect was prodigious, and in every sense, and to every sense, stunning. There must have been a very large proportion of the assembly who were thus, by outrageous exercise of their lungs, adding dangerously to appetites already keen enough to intensify official difficulties on the subject of supply. But there were a few (oh, no! call them many, for one such, in some sort, counts as ten thousand) who lent a lowly part to the simple and familiar hymn, while their folded hands, and closed eyes, and quivering lips