"I will endeavour. It is related of Zoroaster, that"Zoroaster before Ladies! monstrous! you might as well eulogize couleur de rose before the President of the Royal Society." Upon my credit, Frederic, when I look at the faces before my eyes, and the narrow limits within which the officer compels me to run, I almost fancy myself tottering into Paradise by the command of Monkir, over Mahomet's narrow bridge, with the Houris beckoning from the bank."

"Then for heaven's sake step straight forward, or you cannot chuse but sink by the way."

"An algebraist could not travel more scrupulously to his point. Confucius himself

"To what point you are tending, my dear Tristram, may I die a blockhead if I know: but you have now started from twenty different points of the compass, and are travelling—

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Even as Kehama drove into Padalon!""

"Oh, that he had chained you to his axle!" said Frederic, tearing off his wig in a passion, "put it all in the book, and be gone for the sober part of our jury have left us, and old Time has tolled his longest chime, and my sister is as tired as the Chancellor at the close of the Session."

:

"And now whom of our formidable list will your Ladyship wish me to question. Shall Henry Baldwin the politician prate to you upon late occurrences, or shall Joseph Haller the moralist prose to you upon late hours? Will you have Ellis the short with his high heels, or Aymer the tall with his low bow? Will you have Eustace from the glee club with his song of life and merriment, or Edward from Waterloo with his narrative of death and woe? Will you have William from Brighton with news of the Pavillion and the King, or Archibald from Edinburgh with his anecdotes of Jeffrey and Sir James? Shall I call Murray who hunts with the Derby, or Pendragon who dines with the Kitcat? Lewis who comes out of the Temple, or John who is going into the Church? Edmund who rhymes for his Mistress, or Reginald who rhymes for the Chronicle?"

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You shall call no body but me," cried a shrill voice; "you shall call nobody but me, Vyvyan Joyeuse!" And immediately a whimsical apparition leaped with an Opera step into the front of the battalia; a tall thin youth, with long sallow features, thick. brown hair curled attentively, and small grey eyes. He threw a quick shifting glance upon his auditors, and then, dangling the ribbon of his glass with both hands, stood prepared for his interrogator.

"From what school of manners, good Vyvyan, have you come out so perfect?"

"I come from Cambridge, Sir; have passed six pleasant hours in your company; shall be happy to return all kindness received

from Lady Mary and her coterie, at my rooms in the Great Court, Trinity College!"

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In sooth there is a great possibility of her Ladyship's profiting by your suggestion: meantime, if your wild brain is sufficiently clear,

"Upon my conscience, Frederic, you cannot be ignorant that your claret is sufficiently meritorious, and that Vyvyan Joyeuse hath the wit to know it; nevertheless, if I am suspected of less wisdom or more fun than was my natural allotment,-lend me a rapier, and I will scratch Shock on his little smutty nose, before he has time to wink with his eyes."

"Mercy forbid!" cried Miss Amelia, and caught up her lapdog in a fright.

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Or give me your new pistols, and I will knock little Alabaster's bow from his hand, without grazing one of his fingers!" "You will dare no such rebellion," said Lady Mary, pointing archly to the little torch-bearer,

'Qui que tu sois, voila ton maitre,

Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être."

"Or a pencil," continued the jester, " and I will caricature you all in ten minutes."

"And send us to the print shops, do," said Laura, who knew she had nothing to apprehend.

"Or wake Dr. Heavyhit, and I will talk Homer for an hour." "Homer was a great man, a very great man," said the Doctor opening his eyes.

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Or call Julia into court, and I will talk nonsense for two." "You are a great fool, a very great fool," said the Doctor, closing them again.

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"I am afraid the Doctor is very right," said a kinder and sweeter voice; "but his buffoonery shall be pardoned, and his bidding shall be done." And Julia Vernon stept lightly forward; a slight, childish figure, with loose raven ringlets dancing upon her neck, eyes of the most prying jet, dark yet delicate complexion, and small features, expressive of almost hoydenish merriment. 66 I am here at your call," she continued; and Vyvyan, flinging himself on one knee with a theatrical air, began to chaunt

And all fell down in a ring around

That youth and maiden fair,

For she they deemed was an ocean nymph.” ”

"Is it so, Vyvyan?" said the lady; "then, indeed,

'You can call spirits from the vasty deep,

And they will come when you do call for them.'

"But rise, I beseech you; for you kneel very awkwardly, and I have a thousand questions to ask."

"Speak-demand; I'll answer."

"Vyvyan Joyeuse, ten years back you were my playmate in the nursery; you were called little Vyvy; you were a noisy, refractory elf, whose principal delight it was to quarrel with me, and to fight with the mastiff,-to steal my grandfather's snuffbox, and to burn Dr. Heavyhit's wig. We shook hands and parted, before I could watch the developement of powers so early indicated; and now, what have ten years done for you?"

Every thing I was then foolish and four feet high—I am now clever without vanity, and five feet ten without my shoes; I was as noisy as Bow bells-I am as quiet as a bishop; I was as obstinate as adamant-I am as pliable as a placeman; my wit was as dull as a Mussulman's firelock-it is as ready as Forsyth's patent; my hair was as white as snow - it is as dark- -no, not quite so dark, as yours; I was as clumsy as a churchwarden-I dance like Apollo; I was little Vyvy, little Pickle, little Joy, monkey, puppet, toad-and I am Vyvyan Joyeuse, Esq. of Trinity College, Cambridge."

"And here," said Julia, tapping her forehead; "here ;-has time been able to do nothing more than the deepening of the colour of the hair?"

"Why, yes, no,-yes; I can hardly tell. I have been but an idle being; talked a great deal, seen a great deal, laughed a great deal. Now and then I contrived to pick up a mad, smattering kind of learning-studied a little character, and a little Greek-puzzled myself with reasoning, and amused myself with rhyme. Many think me a genius, and you know I was always quick."

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Quick, Vyvyan!" cried the malicious lady; "how often have you come to me with tears in your eyes, and your French lesson in your hand

"A truce, a truce, my dear Julia-I confess every thing. Ah! I remember well you could translate all— J'aime un peu -beaucoup passionnément-tendrement-à la folie-point du tout, before poor Vyvyan could accomplish one stage of the passion."

Julia coloured a little, but recovered herself in a moment. "Ten years have made some alteration, I suppose;" and she put her little finger solemnly to her chin, and asked, "How often have you loved now, Vyvyan?"

Vyvyan paused for a minute, looked very serious, and began to recite slowly

"Many a time, many a time,

In moonlight and mirth, in prose and rhyme,
Blithly and blindly, warmly and coolly,
Idly and angrily, falsely and truly;

I have wandered about in the nights of June,
All out of heart, and all out of tune,

To serenade eyes of liquid blue,

And murmur my song to a sigh or a shoe.
This have I done for nymphs and fairies,
Kates and Carolines, Maudes and Marys;
Two or three Janes, and two or three-

** Oh, no; only one Julia!" said he, sinking into prose and a bow; and we all laughed for five minutes, Julia the most heartily of us all.

"And what has brought you back to my feet so suddenly? How happens it, that out of so many idols you have none worth a distich to-night?"

"Gone, fled;-smoke, dreams, lies," said Vyvyan; "how happens it that I am mad, sentimental, grave?-why, do you not know how that

The little girl, the innocent child,
With whom I drank and danced;
With whom for a while I sang and smil❜d,
Wrote, reasoned, and romanced,
Has posted to Andover,-flood and fire!

And married with Christoper Stubbs, Esquire.

"Never mind; vive la bagatelle! I might have expected it.

Così fan tutte,
Tutte fan così.'

"To-day I am here as free as the wind; and to-morrow I will be the slave of Julia, Julia Vernon, whom I remember at seven years old, a wicked, smiling girl, wonderfully well skilled to tease and to torment-to guess riddles, and to tell fortunes-to mimic the old for the benefit of the young-to steal the tortoiseshell from her sister's ringlets, and to play Goosey Gander with variations."

"Excellent! but I am wonderfully altered." "Wonderfully."

"Now I am a beauty and a wit; I invent fashions and bonmots, adorn the dress circle, and shine in the Morning Post. I read Ariosto and Petrarch; I study Mozart and Rossini; musicians dedicate their songs to me; novelists draw me for their heroine; Villars raves of my waltzing; and Irvine writes sonnets to my eyebrow."

"It is well; I will dedicate, draw, rave, and write with any on the list."

"Be it so and now mark me, Vyvyan; for every bad jest I will doom you to absence, sobriety, and Zimmerman on Solitude."

"I will endeavour to become most laudably stupid."

"For every bad stanza, I condemn you to read Montgomery, (not Gerard,) and drink weak tea."

"Horrible! a vast octavo warring upon a little verse! Congo in arms against conceit!"

"And lastly," said the lady, laughing and shaking her head prettily;

'My lord, my lord, beware of jealousy." "

"I will, I will," said Vyvyan, laughing too; "with the help of St. George and our Lady, I will hold mine own as I can.' "You must hold your tongue as you can, Vyvyan; for my sister is going to pass sentence;" and Julia skipped up to the throne of her sister-in-law.

Then the Attorney-General rose, and read a paper, thus:

"Be it known to all whom it may concern,

"We have accepted the rule and sovereignty of Knight's Quarterly Magazine.'

"And we appoint our trusty brother, Frederic Vernon, to take upon himself the subordinate administration of its affairs.

“And we desire that all who do us homage, tender their service to the said Frederic Vernon, at his office, Pall-Mall.

"And we will that all our faithful subjects bestir themselves in this cause.

"And now," said Lady Mary, "what is become of our worthy uncle?"

"Sir Geoffrey has left us these three hours," said Frederic. "And we have been holding a levee of all the young nobility of our realm, without his countenance and sanction. What will the world say! I shall figure in the papers with four asterisks, and the Duchess of will cut me. But to you I commit my defence. Good night to all."--And the company separated.

(Signed,)

PEREGRINE COURTENAY,

Secretary.