"In that case your situation is hopeless."

"Then I must bear it patiently. I shall therefore wish Colonel Archer good morning."

Mrs. Manners curtseyed with a bend of the true ease belonging to the old school, and quitted the apartment. Sir Andrew, when the door was shut, observed to Louis, "Her pride and obstinacy make her deaf to all my endeavours. She will never listen to any thing like reasonable argument, but what can we expect from an old woman!"

"At least," answered Louis, she is one of your best and warmest hearted friends."

"I never questioned that, Colonel, but I hate obstinacy in old women notwithstanding. This, what you have heard, is nothing compared to our former grand battles; 'tis a mere skirmish in comparison to our long, regular, and hard fought actions. There was she with

only poor Chamber's to help her out, whilst I had thousands of masters and professors on my side. I once gained a victory over her merely with Ptolomy's Introduction."

"Some credit," said Louis, "is at least due to the consistency this lady shews in maintaining her opinion."

"At that rate," replied the Baronet,

obstinacy is a virtue, and the most stubborn will stand the best chance of gaining credit. But, with your leave, we will adjourn to the room wherein I always receive my tenants, So give me your arm,"

CHAPTER II.

An inner room receives the num'rous shoals,
Of such as pay to be reputed fools:

Globes stand on globes, volumes on volumes lie,
And planetary schemes amuse the eye.
The sage in velvet chair here lolls at ease,
To promise future health for present fees,
Then, as from Tripod, solemn shams reveals,
And, what the stars know nothing of, tortels.

They'll feel the pulses of the stars,
To find out agues, coughs, catarrhs:
And tell that CRISIS doth divine
The rot in sheep, and mange in swine.

GARTH.

HUDIBRAS.

THE audieuce hall into which Sir Andrew conducted his son, lay at the right hand of the principal entrance of the mansion, and was added to it by the grandfather of the present Baronet, for the purpose of accommodating the nu

merous guests he occasionally invited to dinner, after the pleasures of a day's hunt, to which he was passionately addicted. Consonant to the taste of its original constructor, the apartment was ornamented with numerous paintings, containing the portraits of favorite horses and dogs, esteemed as excellent and correct likenesses. It is true that an old lady, rather blind, mistook the picture of a mastiff's head for that of the present baronet, protesting she never saw such a likeness, until her encomiums were stopped by Sir Andrew, who corrected her in this blunder. What a triumph for Mirabeau was this! At the upper end of the room, and directly above an immense high chair, in which the former Baronet presided at table, was placed an immense pair of antlers, the fruits of two days absence in the chase, and on these he frequently used to cast an exulting glance, regarding them as a trophy which adorned the sporting charac

ter of his family. In this said chair, and consequently under this ornament, Sir Andrew seated himself, accommodating our hero with a smaller chair by his side. Before him stood a large walnut table, and on this lay several huge folios, books treating upon astrology, and a quantity of almanacks of every year as far back as Lilly's æra.

"This volume, Colonel," said the Baronet, turning over the leaves of a folio, contains the nativity of the tenants and others who reside on my estate. Thus, you see, I have their charac ters at a glance, nor can I imagine there exists a system that was ever wrought to such perfection as this of mine: 1 can develope in a minute every private intention they may conceive either to their advantage or disadvantage. What are the registers and documents preserved in your police offices compared to the simplicity and utility of this? I am not only able to distinguish the person who