Meredith Demaistre, "Leave that to me,' said I cheerfully. "Have I your full authority for it?' Mr. Meredith Demaistre here made a peculiar gesture, with a peculiar expression of his mouth, upon observing which Jenkins smacked his lips and knocked the bottom of his glass against the mahogany. "But how," said he, "could you drag poor Tipptoff into such an extravagance ?" "There," replied Demaistre, lowering his voice, "lies the secret of the whole transaction. You are aware of T.'s habits." poor "Drinks and plays deep?" "Yes: plays a great deal with the Major, my friend-you know who. Major is under heavy obligations to me. Well, the have him, so to speak, in the hollow of my I hand. He has been regularly robbing Tipptoff, this last season, of some five thousand. A fool and his money are soon parted. I directed the Major to lose it back to him at his earliest convenience, as we say, but to keep it all by him, and run in debt to T. for the amount. As ordered, so did the Major; and about a week after, T. informed me, with a look of vast satisfaction, that he had won five thousand, which, considering that he had been a loser until then, he thought no less than providential. Providential!' said I. 'Indeed! Are you aware, my dear T., that the P.'s and the Q.'s talk of dropping your wife?' Feb. ranged. The widow, partly knowing my plans, patronized poor Mrs. T. openly, so that all saw it, not excepting the party patronized. him, as a friend, not to go on at that rate, Squabb took Tipptoff aside and advised and offered, if he found himself in any sudden difficulty, to accommodate him with a few thousand, if he would give good security." "And Mrs. Squabbs?" said Jenkins, interrogatively. thing. The Major, who you know is a con"Ah! ha!-there lies the fun of the summate exaggerator, and an abandoned it all meant nothing but a compliment to eulogizer, whispered Mrs. S. in her ear, that her daughter Emeline Ginevra, a thing in Broadway." which you may have seen rolling in a coach "Aye,—very fat !” -- as a bunch of artificial flowers. Mrs. Squabb, "As fat, sir, as a firkin, and as affected whose shrewdness never gets the better of her vanity, swallowed this leaden bait, and immediately invited the plumpy Major to dine. He will make love to the divine butter firkin, and the two will conclude the child's fable of happiness-die in a pot of grease." "But did Mrs. Squabb betray any thing?" Tipptoff and complimented him with the "Everything. She waddled up to poor the secret, and even whispered her daughter, air of a duchess; she let everybody into loud enough for half a dozen to hear, that on such an occasion it was her duty to hold up her head, and be pleasant. But the young lady needed no instigation; her vanity ran even with her mother's information, and the two came in neck and neck." to contradict this stupid rumor." "His countenance fell. Don't be alarmed, my good sir,' said I; 'she will very easily recover her position. It is only necessary to give poor Mrs. T. a little more pin money. The poor lady, you know, is very economical, in fact much more careful of your concerns than of her own. day she lamented her inability to do anyIt was but yesterthing handsome. know, my dear Tipptoff, those Squabbs Those Squabbs, you have set such a frightful fashion of expense.' In short, I advised the poor fool to advise Mrs. T. to make a bold stroke, outshine the entire Squabb concern, and strike Mrs. Washington Tibbs quite dumb. I offered on the spur of the moment to manage every-old Squabb. thing. Tipptoff, poor fool, was grateful and count, suffered the impression to remain; The Tipptoffs, on that acsaid he would sustain Mrs. T., if it cost him and poor Mrs. T. could only bite her lips in all he was worth. The rest you know. silence. She told it all to me the next mornEverything came off just as it had been ar-ing in a fit of chagrin and weeping.". pened that her husband had recently ap- CHAPTER V. THE CAFÉ. DEMAISTRE and his companions sat talking over the table until dusk, when they were disturbed by the setting of the cups for tea. They rose and took their accustomed stroll along the quieter side of Broadway. The crowd of home-returning clerks and artisans, that shuffles nightly over the harsh pavement, had grown thin and interrupted. The thunder of the empty cart and loaded omnibus, the cries of hawkers, and the pattering and scraping of ten thousand feet, made it impossible to converse; almost to think. They moved on quietly and leisurely, regarding nothing; until Demaistre turned quickly to the right, crossed over, beckoning Jenkins to follow him-and the two were immediately buried in the darkness of an intersecting street. Again it is light, and we discover our two friends seated in a remote corner of a large and brilliantly-lighted apartment, set throughout with small marble tables, for the convenience of pairs, or limited parties, of social bachelors, who meet here, and while away the tedious hours of evening, with coffee, or the keener pleasures of strong drink. The early hour had brought few visitors, and a feeling of privacy and quiet stole over the two, as they sat. "When you cheat." my ex "Call it by hard names if you will, but every kind of game is a delusion, and your success depends half upon chance, and half upon your own secresy and knowledge of your enemy's ignorance." "You ruined yonder gentleman, I suppose." "Yes. He informed against me for a common swindler,--I challenged him, and at the same time gave information to the police that he was a German radical. Louis Philippe had a great dislike of radicals, and our friend was directed to leave Paris." "What was your travelling name at that time?" "Cocksure,-I was English,-Charles Cocksure, Esq., of Cocksure. Conrad did not suspect me. He had a sister at Paris, a very pretty creature, and the heiress of a small property in Pennsylvania. My intention was to marry the girl, and go with her to America; but I fell into temptation, lost all my money to a female communist, was compelled to ruin Conrad, and lost his countenance with his sister. It is four years since, but if the dog sees me, he will remind me of the challenge." A heavy chandelier, hanging from the centre of the ceiling above a broad reading table, sent a clear and soft light through the room. Leaning over the table and apparently lost in the perusal of a German newspaper, you might have seen a gray-haired gentleman, in whose face traces of care and of reflection mingled painfully with the tokens of a night-worn and dissipatied life. On observing this person, Demaistre start-sigh. "Did she love you?" ed, and then with as little noise as possible changed his position so as to throw his face in shadow, and conceal it from the stranger. A look of inquiry passed over the face of his companion. Demaistre observed it, and presently, after having ordered coffee and cigars, he began to speak in a low voice. "An old enemy of mine," said he, "and one of the few men in this world whom I wish to avoid." "I begin to see," replied the other with a sneer, "that even your impudence is not equal to mine. I can look any man in the face and defy scrutiny." "But the girl?" inquired Jenkins, with a "I was no less than a divinity in her eyes, and the poor thing absolutely died of disappointment, as I know. She was Conrad's sole relative, and he made a pet of her. His rage was terrific. He believed, too, that I had harmed the girl, but I never had any inclination that way." "I dare say not," said Jenkins, with a sneer; "you are a great philosopher, and have wonderful self-command. Enviable man!" "Mr. Jenkins," said Demaistre, bowing very coolly, "you have your joke.” "And you your self-command, ha! ha! ha! an even share. I am content with my joke, and you doubtless with the other quality, what do you call it? self-command, ha! ha!-a great philosopher. Here's to self-command, the king of all the virtues the very Pope of the merits: May he never want opportunities." Demaistre bit his lip and turned pale; but like the hero Narses, defeat cowed not his spirit, and contempt rather inspired than abashed him. Dropping the subject easily, he took up a very jocular and confiding tone, rattled over a variety of pleasant topics, and pretending to have an appointment at eight, left Jenkins in a high good-humor with himself, and consequently with every one else. The German soon looked up, and recognizing Jenkins, who had not till then seen that the enemy of Demaistre was an old acquaintance of his own, the two joined company and entered into conversation, assisting their wits with an occasional glass of brandy-and-water. The German had before him a copy of the London Times-Jenkins, a Herald. They exchanged. The two papers, of the same date, had each an article on the military power of the respective countries. 46 "Your countrymen," said the German, are the most irascible and insolent in the world, and the strongest for war, but they do not feel it. The English, on the contrary, feel powerful, and are essentially weak: they outface you." "We shall one day feel and understand our power," replied Jenkins, "and England her weakness, and she will then perhaps assume a civiller tone toward us, But how is it that you Prussians, who are a military people, trained, every man of you, to arms, are not the leading power in Europe?" "For the same reason, sir," replied Conrad," that you Americans are not the first in the world. I call you Americans,-I should have said Republicans; for though you are a compactly organized power, you are not a nation, in the ancient sense. Neither is Prussia a nation; its nationality is young and weak; it could even reconcile itself, as some of your fools do, to dismemberment and subjugation. The masses of the people have not liberty enough; they have discipline and education instead." Jenkins smiled. "Liberty," said he, "is no longer a passion with us. The old enthusi asm has worn itself out. With your people it has not yet come." "Nor perhaps ever will," replied Conrad, sighing, "though I would give my life to be assured of it. But you have it in your hearts as warm as ever, though you talk less about it; and that is no doubt right. But you are looking for something new to interest you, and must have change." "Do you mean to say that our form of government will change?" "No, not materially; but the spirit of your early history, your 'spirit of '76,' as you call it, is an extinct form of enthusiasm. Your hot adventurers, who know little of the past, cannot feed their imaginations on the glory of their fathers; they wish to make a little fresh glory for themselves." "And what follows?" "Look at history and it will tell you. What followed liberty in Athens ?” "Conquest !" "What in Rome?" "Conquest, too." "What is it that has made England a conquering and enterprising power?" "Do you mean to suggest," said Jenkins, with an expression of surprise, "that Great Britain owes her vigor, these last two centuries, to an infusion of the democratic principle?" "Why not? The more of democracy the more of war, and the more, too, of public authority and of popular activity. The most despotic empires are the most peaceful. When the will of the multitude rules, you have perpetual wars. Merchants under a strong government delight in war: witness Greece, Carthage, Egypt, England. And you too must come to it. War opens the way for commerce. We say Commerce is king, we mean to say, interest is king. The Southerner is valiant in defense of his property, the Englishman in defense of his commerce. The American will again make war, as he has already made it, for his freedom of industry, the liberty to work and sell. He must shut out the foreigner or he starves, and if he cannot otherwise do it, he will fight for it. "When the American cotton grower, farmer, and cloth maker believe in a common interest, and feel that together they can stand against the world, they will make one nation, and be masters of the seas. In Prussia, the people do not know "Do you mean Demaistre?" said Jenkins, really offended. "The same," said the old radical. “I know the man and his character; and it surprised me much to see a gentleman, and an honest man, keeping such company. This Demaistre, as you call him, is an adventurer of the worst sort, of base origin, now under an assumed name, a true agent of the devil, distributing vanity and folly among silly women." Jenkins could not refrain from laughing at the heat of the stranger's expression; but the other either did not or would not observe it, and continued his strictures upon our handsome hero, interspersing a variety of tedious political observations, too hot and acrid for the cultivated taste of an American Democrat. what a great government is made for; in yourselves is the vice of your people, and they are children. Neither do you Amer- it may be your ruin. You fancy you know icans understand the matter much better. too much. Do not pride yourself on that. You are still too speculative and metaphysi- You yourself, Mr. Jenkins, do not know a cal; the old ideas haunt you; you do not knave from an honest man; at least if I seem to know that your government is an may judge by your company," said Conrad, engine of progress. The English aristocracy very much irritated. and the millionaires have the secret of your ignorance, and they regulate your affairs for you, very easily, through books, agents, envoys, and newspapers. One of these days you will be your own masters, and then you will throw the old pilot into the sea, and seize the ship, and the world will be yours; you will be first in commerce, first in everything. Then you will have fine arts and letters; now you have the refuse of England reprinted, for your cheap and vulgar market. Europeans have but a qualified respect for you, it is 'good boy' smart boy,' but afraid of his papa,-a great hobby de hoy.' Faugh! In fact I sometimes despise America in my heart, and admire England for her skill in governing such a great sly booby as Brother Jonathan, were it not that I despise Prussia more. I will tell you a thing which one of the wisest of your statesmen told to me, a few days before his death,-a man, since Franklin, of unequalled prescience and prudence, and a true Republican. I had been only a week in America, and found your politicians very much heated about the addition of a bit of territory, which they called Texas,-lately settled by a colony of your Southern cutthroats. I was astonished at the stir it made. The old man bade me listen and learn more, and my astonishment would be less. 'We are at the turning point,' said he; 'the Republic of '76 is no longer in existence; we are an Empire, and now we shall go on conquering, we shall have a powerful army and navy, we shall be ambitious, and profuse, imperial; our legislation will be henceforth changed;-it is a new order of things. The old goes out."" Mr. Jenkins, who, though young, had inherited Federal gray hairs, listened with an amused attention to the remarks of the old German, but did not attempt to conceal an expression of incredulity, which rather irritated his companion. ,,, "Young gentleman," continued the other, my prophecy is founded on the continuance of your Union; and that depends on faith. Incredulity and want of confidence Jenkins, concealing his knowledge of the man, remarked, that he thought foppery a harmless folly, and beneath criticism. The German ground his teeth together as if troubled with an inward grief. "The man," said Jenkins, "has, perhaps, injured you in some way." "As for private griefs," said Conrad, "I have no spirits to waste upon them. It is society that has injured me, and Demaistre is a pet of society. Society, sir, is rotten, it is aristocratized, corrupted, even in America. This harmless fop, as you seem to think him, with his cat-like affectations, debases and ruins your women." "I have heard," said Jenkins, "that he is quite moral, a very Joseph." A "A mistake," said the other, "I can swear, for there are men who will corrupt the imaginations of a hundred women, while you and I, poor rogues, are honestly ruining one. Vanity is the great seducer. cowardly fop, with the malice of a lap-dog, and the united arts of a card-player and flatterer, let loose upon a society of wealthy parvenus, like yours, will graft moral diseases upon you that neither church nor school can cure. Such an one is this silkenhaired, white-faced devil, who calls himself Demaistre, but whose name ought to be - Judas, at least he is my ideal of that worthy. He is the embodiment of European servility, and his appearance here is an evidence of a new spirit that will spoil your silly Republic." Jenkins could not avoid laughing outright at the extraordinary excitement of the old German, about so insignificant a person as he took our hero to be; he had not then heard of the terrible affair of C. B-, the great bribe offered to the member from J-k-n, by the Russian Autocrat, to betray the whole Continent to a handful of bayonets. F -nce was certainly mixed up in that business. Could the Widow Tibbs, and the P.'s, and the Q.'s, and the S-'bbs, and C-tt-ings have known it, doubtless they would have had their coats of arms newly furbished. The talk of the German grew wearisome to Jenkins, who, of all topics, hated a political one. To escape its continuance he drew the old gentleman into a talk upon music, which was a hobby with both. They soon left the Café, and Jenkins, by the invitation of his friend, went with him to his lodgings, though it was late. CHAPTER VI. THE FOREIGN ARTIST. at these things, and I shall make bold to insert here a description of Sir Charles, written for the "Maniac :" 66 His eye was large and open, with wetlooking lids, like a young heifer's; and his nose turned up at the tip, thin and very white, as though he pulled it much himself. Sir Charles, it was evident, never drank; his dietary holds him to a milk diet, for," said Jotting, rising on the theme, "he had no more of dyspepsia about him than a pig. His teeth, white, long, and even, had a harmless look, and pushed the upper lip a little forward, as though nature had mixed a trace of the herbivorous, or horse temperament, (racer, of course,) in his blood. "On being introduced he shook hands with his glove between the little finger and the palm, and smiled sweetly like a girl of sixteen, but very cool, like old maids at morning visits the day after a funeral. The unconscious superiority of his nature enabled Sir Charles to govern with discretion a pair of the longest and straightest legs I ever saw, which were, in fact, perfectly continuous with his body from the armpits to the ankles. Their absolute length could not be accurately determined; one could only broach conjecture on that important point from the gentlemanly movement of the hips, which were high and narrow. But what we most admired," continues Jotting, was the wonderful ease of his fingers, which resembled a bunch of peeled radishes, so easy were they, and independent of each other; so white and taper, with the high blood of Normandy imparting a flush to the cuticle. He gave us his two fingers in a lord and master' style, and seemed ennuyée with the effort. He coughed slightly, and with great ease; yawned almost imperceptibly, examined my boots an instant with his eye-glass, and turned to a friend, who stood near, as if to say, 'My dear fellaw, who the juce have you here?' exactly as English lords do these things in real life." Ar Conrad's they found a stranger waiting for that gentleman. This was the veritable Sir Charles Humdrum, gentleman artist, from his studies at Dusseldorf. Attending upon his heels stood the veritable Tom Jotting, the "items man" of the world-wide "Sunday Morning Maniac." As a living representative of English nobility, Sir Charles seemed to be an object of intense and awful interest to Jotting, which he made no effort to hide; and between the knight and his admirer, there was a harmony of natures like that of the sexes, or, not to desecrate that generous relationship, like the "You may laugh if you will, sir," said affinity between a big schoolboy and his Jotting, as I was looking over the delittle fag. Sir Charles was a tall, fresh-look- scription, in a wet proof of the Maniac, ing youth, very white and red, and with a no-" but I can tell you, sir, there are points ticeably clean skin. It was evident he washed with regularity; and Jotting, who, with a view to correct information, got up an intimacy with his washerwoman, assured me that his shirts, (of fine linen,) two dozen, were changed twice a day. Jotting is happy about real nobility beyond the comprehension of a republican, and one of these is the voice. God knows, my sister has a silvery voice, but Sir Charles's is the pure thing.. Voice, Mr. Rigmarole, is a thing that indicates blood. A man must |