spectator, to know much of the games that

are in fashion.'

"Quite right, my dear Mrs. Vaughan,' said Brandreth. 'Paulett has grown severe

upon the follies of the young, and has been attempting to convince me that I shall be shocked at all I see.

He says

that such fantastic tricks are played upon low earth as-'

6

May make the devils laugh,' added Paulett. And by-the-by, Brandreth, you saw a new animal when you came in; new, at least, since your time, young Hemingsley' (he was making his parting bow to Mrs. Vaughan) must have been a boy when you left England, and now he is one of the dozens cut out of the same pattern

"Fellows that can distinguish and divide

A hair, 'twixt south and south-west side."

And really (for all that I can see) they can distinguish little beyond the arrangement of their outward man; the cutting and curl

ing of their coats and whiskers, and the ingenious inventions of their feminine-looking jewellery.'

'But they do little harm,' said Helen, deprecatingly. 'And Freddy is a good specimen of his class. He pays his bills and goes to church, and really talks rather amusingly sometimes.'

'How well one knows the kind of man,' exclaimed Arthur. 'Fellows whose small selves are sufficient for them, and whose blood is "very snow broth."

haps for them that it is so.'

Happy, per

These words were added in a low tone, but Helen heard and noted them.

Johnnie Paulett, meantime, was examining Arthur Brandreth with curiosity. He had himself arrived at an age when the passions of many men have subsided into the 'snow broth' state, so evidently envied by his friend. But, though his hair was thinned by the every day living of some fifty years; and though his once strikingly handsome

face and figure had lost something of their comeliness and symmetry, yet Johnnie's blood had not cooled down as yet, nor had the mercury in his temperament sensibly fallen.

6

He was one of the most popular of men in a certain set,' and that 'set' was not the least agreeable to be found in the World of Pleasure. He had much wit, and was anything but shy in using it, and was blest with the high spirits which generally make a man a welcome companion. It is true that there were careful fathers and watchful husbands who occasionally manifested symptoms of a desire to keep him at a distance; but what cared Johnnie for such exceptions? He had enough and to spare of fun and frolic; and for more years than many men can boast he had enjoyed life to the utmost.

But now we must turn to the reverse of

the picture. Johnnie had a mind and a heart, and they had been wasted; he had great talents, and they had been misapplied; and proud, independent feelings, which had

gone down in the wreck of wasted life, never to be recovered. He had been brought up to no profession, having been cursed on his entrance into life with just so many thousands as render the choice of one not a matter of absolute necessity. Those thousands had rapidly dwindled away; and now, with the years of half-a-century over his head, there remained of his small fortune but little more than was sufficient to pay the subscriptions to his clubs, and to defray his travelling expenses from the house of one 'great man' to that of another.

The ruin staring him in the face had apparently but little effect on

spirits.

'At thirty he suspected himself a fool,

Johnnie's

Knew it at forty, and did not change his plan.'

He had never been known to say an illnatured thing of man or woman; and the world who deserved censure, appreciated this forbearance in his early age. But even wit palls upon the pampered; and good nature

grows to be called by some other name, when the obliged one lives constantly on his friends, and can give them nothing in return, save that which gold, or worth of gold, should never buy.

Helen had a true regard and esteem for Johnnie. With her he was his better selfthe man who was meant for higher thingsthe true friend and judicious counsellor. There was something that was analogous in their characters which drew them together, and few were more warmly esteemed in Mrs. Vaughan's pleasant house than the nearly wearied man of the world, whose talents and advantages had been so utterly thrown away.

'You must come and see me,' said Helen, addressing Arthur Brandreth, as they stood waiting for her carriage to be called. 'I have so much to talk about. So much to tell, that it would interest you to know.'

Arthur accepted the invitation with alacrity, and Good nights' having been ex