been made. It was a curiously shaped room,
with a bulkhead sort of projection in the middle
which contained the staircase. Opposite to this
bulkhead was a rude sort of platform apparently
made of packing-cases. A high-backed chair
was placed in the centre of the platform, and
before the chair a little round table with an
auctioneer's hammer upon it. The rest of the
apartment was furnished with tables and forms
packed together as closely as possible and
interspersed with wooden chairs of the Windsor
pattern. Taking a seat exactly opposite the
platform, in order that nothing might escape
him, and ordering a glass of brandy-and-water,
the E.-W. set himself to watch the proceedings,
and, as at first there were no proceedings to
watch, to examine the audience. It seemed to
consist chiefly of mechanics and workmen with
their wives. Some of these last had brought
their babies with them, possibly from not knowing
what else to do with them, and one woman,
perhaps for a similar reason, had introduced her
dog into the assembly, a little black and tan
terrier of a very shabby type, which lay at her
feet half covered with sawdust. The room was
already well filled, and was at last as full as it
could be. The audience was well behaved and
orderly, and, perhaps, the person of the highest
grade in the room would be the errand clerk at
an attorney's office.

After about half an hour's waiting, and after
many throes of anxiety lest he should even yet
be disappointed; after listening to so many
orders for old ale, and mild ale, and mixed ale,
as made him feel bilious by deputy; after some
unpleasant reflections on the nature of the
atmosphere, which was so completely composed of
tobacco smoke that you might have cut it into
solid blocks with a hatchet; after noting the
captain-looking man who wore a suspicious aspect
with a long pipe depressing the corner of his
mouth, and the man who looked (as will often
happen with our fellow-countrymen of this
class) as if he were ashamed of being in a
place of amusement, and by his looks
disparaged the entertainment before it began for
being an entertainment; after observing the
patient little mechanic with his large family and
the long endurance, who is also happily often to
be seen in this country, and who is ready to
put up with whatever is given him, to stare, and
wonder, and, not understanding anything that is
going on, to be pleased all the same; after
observing all these things for some time, your
Eye-witness began to hunger for the event of
the evening, and to get exceeding fidgety and
impatient.

It comes, however, at last. The moment has
arrived which is to clear up the mighty mystery
of the Story-tellers. There is a sudden hush,
a general turning of eyes towards the door. The
little mechanic looks up from behind a baby,
highly interested (both of them), the man who
is determined not to be amused pretends not to
look, the suspicious man changes his pipe to the
other corner of his mouth, in order that he may
bring his eyes to bear upon the door—for it is
part of his nature that his eyes are always
turned to the side on which his pipe is not; all
these things indicate that some great portent is
at hand, and indicate it truly, for in another
instant the landlord of the Bedford Head has
scuttled briskly into the room escorting in the
most courteous manner—a lady! Your Eye-
witness sank back in his Windsor chair, and
drew a long, deep breath. So, this was the end
of it. Always something one had not prepared
for. A lady! a plump lady of the type called
"professional," a shrewd, plump lady of about
five-and-thirty, well dressed, with a good,
intelligent face, and nerve enough to ascend the
platform and take the chair, right under the
gas; and, without the slightest encouragement
or applause from the company, to clear her
throat and plunge at once into the business of
the evening.

The little mechanic involved himself in such
entanglements with his large children, in his
endeavours so to place them that they could see
the professional lady, that he became perfectly
invisible himself, and could only be detected
(by sharp scrutiny) at rare intervals, when a
child tumbled down, or otherwise changed its
position; the man who was determined not to
be amused, turned his back on the platform,
and looked disparagingly and gloomily upon
the company: and the suspicious man, finding
it necessary to turn his eyes away from the
door again, and towards the professional lady,
shifted his pipe again as he made the optical
change just mentioned, and moved no more.

If it was the opinion of the Prince of
Denmark that there were more things in heaven
and earth than were dreamt of in his friend's
philosophy. What a strange state of things
was here! In whose philosophy has this
ever been dreamt of, that every week an
assembly of persons come together in this
manner to listen eagerly to a series of stories
which reach them more easily when thus brought
before them, than when coming home to them
in print? It not being with many of them a
matter of such facility to read as we are apt to
imagine, judging by ourselves.

The story itself, as related by the professional
lady, was a sort of make-up from a French tale.
It was about a young surgeon and an actress,
who, coming out at Paris, and making a great
sensation, causes the medical youth to fall
desperately in love with her. It also happens
that the charms of the débutante (pronounced
by the story-teller dep?tant) have a similar effect
upon a more distinguished personage, who is
indeed no other than the Prince de Condé (the
last word being pronounced Cond.) This state
of things naturally brings about many remarkable
results, the surgeon being employed by the
Prince de Cond, who is in ignorance of his
passion, to attend professionally on the dep?tant
and being further stimulated to do his very best
for her, by a cheque for a large amount, bearing
the prince's signature, which the young surgeon
finds upon his table. It is curious to observe
how fond people, who have not five shillings to