cast-off raiment of Gog and Magog when they
retired from their public duties in London.
The proprietor of these articles was upwards
of six feet high and weighed seventeen stone.

"What a trump he is!" exclaimed Sam,
casting himself forward upon both his hands,
with his heels in the air, the moment they
were left alone, and clapping his soles
together a dozen times without stopping. "I
never knew such a nice old fellow in my life,
and I'll bet you he has excellent port."

"A niece and a daughter," meditated Vincent.
"I wonder which is his daughter. Is
she Blue-ribbons?—or Pink-ribbons? I
suppose I shall find it out at dinner." And in
this hope he waited as patiently as he could
for the arrival of his carpet-bag, for which
the good man of the house had lost no time
in sending to the Waggoner.

III

MR. BLANDERS made a great sensation.
Even on his presentation in the drawing-
room, the effect of his introduction was
remarkable. When the old gentleman took
him up to the sofa where the cousins were
seated, and said, Now girls be proud of your
handiwork, for Mr. Blanders owes his life to
you: the elder of them turned very pale,
and then flushed as red as a rose, and
finally bent down her head without saying
a word. The other was more collected, and
received the thanks of the resuscitated Samuel
without any fear or embarrassment. Mr.
Willis was so overshadowed by the glory of
the hero of the day, that he was merely
presented as the great man's nephew, and
Mr. Smith took a close look at the venerable
relation, to see by what means he managed
to look so young. There was nothing
extraordinary about any of the party, except a
certain fidgetiness and perpetual motion on
the part of the old lady, accompanied with
frequent whispers in the ear of the medical
gentleman. The landlord was open and
good-natured, and told his visitors a good deal of
his family history, which was not worth the
telling. He said his name was Dalwood, and
that he had retired from business for some
years, ("And he's a magistrate, gentlemen,"
interposed his sister, "and very active on the
bench;") that he was a widower, and his
sister, Miss Lavinia, took care of his house,
("And a great deal sharper care, gentlemen,
she takes of it, than some people like.")
Here she looked dreadful things at her
nieces. That he had several brothers and
sisters, whose daughters frequently came to
visit his little Mary, and were deliglited to be
so near London, though they never went into
it, poor souls; but thought themselves quite
metropolitan if they only saw the railway
train which had left it an hour before. That
Rickstone was the name of his property, and
that they were a very happy, prosy
commonplace sort of people, pleased to see the two Mr.
Blanderses, who he hoped would not make this
the Iast of their visits. It was by no means
Mr. Samuel's intention to make it the last of
his. The young lady, who had shown so much
agitation on his introduction, Miss Mary
Dalwood, the old gentleman's daughter, sat next
him all the evening, both at dinner and in the
drawing-room. She listened with glistening
eyes to his eloquence, and that was very
great; for he described several new
performers at Astley's, and explained how people
stood on their heads, and gave a luminous
account of how Spriggs of the Home Office,
(Sir George Spriggs' son, who was governor of
the Feejee Islands, so long:—in fact, he
pathetically observed, till he was eaten by
his rebellious people); how Spriggs, junior,
had strained his back by the stupidity of the
fellows not holding the blanket tight enough
when he leapt through a baker's window at a
private pantomime. To all this the most
interested face in the world did seriously
incline; and the sweetest smiles followed
every anecdote; and their voices dropped
sometimes into a whisper.

About the same time was going on a
conversation between Vincent and Miss Catherine,
whom he recognised by her beautiful
figure and very brilliant eye as the Blue-
ribbons of the forenoon's adventure. He tried
to find out the mystery of the parcel, and
inquired a good deal about canary birds, that
he might tell imaginary anecdotes of friends
of his who buried them under trees. But
the anecdotes had no effect; so it could'nt be
a cageful of canaries she had entombed with
so much care. Then he asked her if she had
heard of some utterly non-existent earl's
daughter, who was detected secreting jewels
in a brown paper parcel, getting a spade
from the gardener, and depositing it under
an elm in her noble father's park. Still
there was no sign that the arrow hit the
mark. Then he imagined a case of a
distinguished French marchioness—he gave the
name with the most perfect Parisian
pronunciation, for he had been once for a fortnight
at the Hôtel Bristol, in the Place Vendôme
—who had been seen digging at the roots of
a large oak, and laying a package in the
hole. The curious thing, said Vincent, was,
"that she took out a pair of scissors, and
made a mark on the trunk, as if for the
purpose of pointing it out to somebody for whom,
the parcel was meant." Aha! what a flush
there was in her face and neck! The
constant recurrence of the one incident of
concealing something in the ground, went home
all of a sudden, and she whispered
mysteriously to the inventor of all those stories,
"Do you know him? Did he send you here?"

"Would it make you happy if I said
yes?"

"Is he coming to-night?" continued the
girl, "Aunt is very suspicious, and has been
searching all our drawers. He can't fail
to find them. Mary wrote to him yesterday."