the cabriolet, to whom, on the preceding morning, he had so bashfully presented his ticket.

Scarcely had the London morning dawned, ere Francis heard the door of his bed-room gently opened, and the head waiter himself steal softly and shoeless into the apartment, and remove his clothes and hat, in order that they might be properly and carefully brushed and cleaned; and just before his usual time of rising, a gentle tap announced the modest chambermaid, who bore in her hand a silver mug, teeming with the hottest water; while in his hand, the obsequious porter, upasked, paraded his boots, shining in all the refulgence of Day-and Martin.

When he descended to the coffee-room, he found his breakfast laid on a large table in the largest box; the private plate of mine hostess was furnished out to do him honour; an ewer, of antique form, held his cream; his sugar reposed in a basin of similar pretensions; a tea-pot, of the same material, superseded the pewter one of former days, and the "haymakers" of ordinary guests gave way to silver forks fit for a human being to eat with.

The manners of the attendants were not less changed from what they had been, than the articles for his use; common civility gave place to uncommon servility, and the whole establishment seemed to vie with each other, in offering attentions and respect to the gentleman, on whom an earl and a viscount had called at the sign of the Bell and Crown in Holborn.

Welsted was not long before he had recourse to the Red-book, wherein he discovered that the the earl of Farnborough's family name was Rutherford, and that his eldest son's christian name was Thomas: at once the truth flashed upon him; lord Feversham was neither more nor less than little Tom Rutherford, who was at Rodney's for two or three years before he went to Eton; and the moment this fact was ascertained, the recollec tion of the boy brought to Frank's mind a striking resemblance to the cabriolet driver, whom he had before -identified with the Viscount,

There was one part of this discovery satisfactory to Welsted; it was clear that the invitation did not proceed from mistake, and he felt pleased and gratified that one of his earliest pupils should thus kindly remember him, and that the earl (recently ennobled by the death of his brother) should unite with his son, in bestowing upon him so singular a mark of personal approbation.

Scarcely had Frank ascertained the fact that he was really known and really invited by the nobleman, before the waiter, marching pompously up the centre of the coffee-room, delivered him a small triangular note, saying in an audible voice," His lordship's servant is waiting for an answer, Sir:"-the eyes and ears of the haysalesmen and pettifoggers, were forthwith turned on Welsted. The note was from Lord Feversham, stating, that they were anxious to know if he could dine with the Earl. Welsted forthwith wrote his reply, accepting the invitation, and having despatched the note, proceeded to breakfast with what appetite he might.

His first business for the morning, as he had previously arranged it, was writing a letter to Rodney, but there appeared something so singular in the event which had just occurred-something like a probability that his talents might be required in some other sphere-that he resolved to defer his letter to his old master till the following day, since the delay of one post could do no mischief, and might possibly produce some new adventure. The morning passed feverishly with Frank, for he was unused to-society, and had moreover, since truth must be told, a kind of contempt for nobility. Whence this feeling originated I know not, unless in the perusal of works and public papers, whose writers have the worst of objects in endeavouring to ridicule and vilify the best of people, and who, without ever having had an opportunity of judging personally of good society, consider it part of their daily duty, as tending to the great end they have in view, to make it appear that every individual superior to themselves, is either a fool or a knave; that it is only necessary to place a coronet on a man's head to weaken his intellects; and that vice and dissipation

(which in truth flourish more in the middling and lower classes, than any where else,) are the exclusive characteristics of the best-born and best-bred part of the British population.

To analyze a feeling so absurd, and so unworthy of a man possessing even an average share of common sense, can never be worth while. It is sufficient to state the fact, that under the misleading influence of the underlings of literature, poor Frank had established in his mind as fact, that all lords lolled and lounged about, and pried through "quizzing glasses," and said, "pon my honour," and "gad, how charming," and had no feelings, and were proud, and senseless, and rude to their inferiors; and that ladies of family invariably lisped out nothingnesses, and talked the same silly sort of stuff as their fathers, and brothers, and husbands: in short, he knew no more of such people, than he had learned from those who knew as little as himself, and fretted himself into half a fever with considering how this was to be done, and how that was to be managed in his visit to the Earl, doubting even until the tavern clock had stricken seven, whether he should send an apology, and cat his mutton chop in the coffee-room as heretofore.

Rallying however all his energies, he resolved, full of disagreeable anticipations, to undertake the expedition; and as the clock of Saint Andrew's proclaimed the first quarter after the seventh hour, Frank Welsted mounted the iron ladder of a hackney coach and depositing his legs amongst the dirty straw beneath, directed the driver to Lord Farnborough's house, in Grosvenor-Square.

CHAPTER VII.

O call not to my mind what you have done;
It sets a debt of that account before me,
Which shows me poor and bankrupt."."

CONGREVE.

THE pre-disposition against nobility with which, as I have just observed, Welsted was so unaccountably gifted, preyed upon his mind during his rattling drive towards Grosvenor Square, and as the coach turned into that splendid street, which, while it does honour to the monarch under whose auspices it was designed, will confer immortal fame upon the highly-gifted architect by whose taste and industry it has been so splendidly and rapidly executed, the heart of our hero sank within him; and even thus far advanced in his progress, he was half determined to abandon the enterprise: as it happened, however, the coachman, having nothing to think of but getting to the end of his distance and receiving his fare, proceeded at a more regular pace than the thoughts and resolutions of his inside passenger, and before the young gentleman could perfectly decide upon the measure, the vehicle stopped at Lord Farnborough's door, which trembled with the loud but bungling assaults of the hackney driver's knocking.

Welsted stepped from the coach, defrayed the travelling expenses, was ushered up-stairs, and, having been duly announced, made his entrée into his Lordship's drawing-room; and if the civility of the waiters and landlady at the inn in Holburn, on his return from Mr. Tickle's, had astonished him the night before, the warmth and cordiality with which he was received into Lord Farnborough's family circle, were, if possible, still more surprising.

When Welsted's name was announced, his Lordship was standing in one of the windows in earnest conversation with another nobleman, and the Viscount Feversham was reading a letter which the Countess his mother had desired him to give an opinion upon; but the moment Welsted made his appearance, away went the letter from the Viscount's hand, away came the Earl from his noble friend, and up rose the noble lady from the sofa, all apparently eager to do the young stranger honour, all equally anxious to bid him welcome.

"This, my lord," said Feversham to the earl, " is my friend Welsted."

"Mr. Welsted," said Lord Farnborough, "I am truly happy to see you, truly happy to make your acquaintance, and the Countess, to whom allow me to present you, is equally gratified with myself in having the opportunity of acknowledging personally, that, which we can never cease to remember gratefully."

"I am sure," said the Countess, with one of her kindest smiles," Mr. Welsted will do me the justice to believe how truly happy I am to see him here."

"And I" rejoined the Viscount, with perfect enthusiasm, "need say nothing, I think, to convince him of the pleasure his visit gives me."

Welsted kept bowing and muttering something in the way of acknowledgment for treatment which was to him utterly unaccountable; nor were his wonder and surprise at all decreased, when, after whispering a few words to his noble friend in the window, Lord Farnborough approached Welsted and presented him to the Earl of Headington, who expressed the greatest satisfaction in being known to a person who must be so interesting to his friend Farnborough's family.

Again Welsted bowed, and again felt embarrassed, but not as he had expected to be; he was embarrassed because continual references were made to something relative to himself, which he did not in the least understand, but of which it was evident he ought to be fully aware; and the awkwardness arising from this want of comprehension would, of course, have occurred had he