focus of five hundred pairs of impatient eyes:
or thirty-five minutes the colonel and the
Queen's Counsel had been clearing their
throats at intervals, and suffering their burning
eloquence to escape them inarticulately—
by a beautiful arrangement of Nature for the
relief of choleric persons—through the safety-
valve of a curious kind of snort: for thirty-
five minutes the chairman had been arranging
his double gold eye-glasses—borrowed, I
suspect, for the occasion, since they did not
fit his nose by any means—and wiping them
nervously with his pocket-handkerchief, but
still the coming of Mr. Carelittel, Member of
Parliament, seemed as far off as ever.

His absence was the more remarkable as so
many Pixhamites in my neighbourhood, from
the first, said that he had arrived in the town
a week ago, incog.; the evening before; that
very afternoon, by the five o'clock train; that
he was looking careworn and anxious, they
thought (as well he might); that he had been
warm and friendly to them individually, but
complained bitterly of the conduct of certain
other persons. Fellow burghers in my vicinity,
I say, had been boasting aloud—for an M.P.
is an M.P., even when he is only an unpopular
warming-pan—of how they had been closeted
that identical morning with Carelittel, or had
been taking a confidential walk with Carelittel
in the suburbs, with the intention, upon the
honourable member's part, of soothing their
exasperated feelings, and of persuading them to
give him their very influential support that
evening, only they had remained steadfast and
firm, and undazzled, as became men whose feet
were set upon the path of public duty. But,
when the honourable gentleman "kept on not
coming in this sort of way," these assertions
began to be less and less boldly made, and in
particular the alleged personal interviews got
shaded off into proposed interviews, or interviews
which somebody else had had with Mr.
Carelittel—beyond all moral doubt—still only
depending upon the credibility of witnesses.
When three-quarters of an hour had passed
away without our seeing the expected victim,
a number of persons who had never before
opened their mouths, except when greedily
drinking in the most vague and floating pieces
of intelligence from every quarter, became
one by one, in their turn, oracles and
repositories of facts. Mr. Carelittel, they
had reason to state, had never been within
fifty miles of Pixham that day, or that month,
since he was elected a year and a half ago;
that he was at present in London; that he
was in Paris; that he was on a bed of sickness,
and that he had started the day before
yesterday to the East, in company with their
first cousin by the mother's side.

At all events, it was abundantly manifest
that the pen, or pound, would remain unoccupied,
and that the member for Pixham declined
to make his appearance among his
constituents. In his place, however, there arrived
a letter from him, which was read aloud to
us by the mayor, and affords a very tolerable
specimen of the style of the honourable
gentleman who has represented us for the last
eighteen months in parliament:—

MY VERY DEAR RAZON,—

Ironical cheering, and a cry of "What is
gammon a-pound, old Sand-and-Sugar ?"

I received some time ago, but inadvertently
omitted to acknowledge——

O O! and groans.

——the pressing invitation of yourself and others
of my constituents to attend a meeting to-morrow evening
in your beautiful borough Hall.

Approbation from the local architect upon
the platform, drowned in a torrent of hisses.

With regard to my past conduct as your highly
honoured representative, it is possible there may be some
among you——

"There are!"

——whom it may not altogether have pleased; but,
Fiat justitia ruat cÅ“lum,——

Cries of " What does that mean? " and
'' None of his French!"

——our duty must be done at all risks; and it is
my comfort to feel that, whatever passing unpleasantness
may have been created in other hearts, the
Mentor in my own is satisfied. Discussion, my very
dear sir, you must perceive, would, under these
circumstances, where private opinion is involved, be utterly
futile, and I am sure that I am consulting all our
interests—painful as absence from the town of my
adoption must always be to me—by keeping away from
Pixham just at present.

Tremendous groaning.

"Whether myself or my opponents are right, time alone
can show; and, by the bye, I perceive, upon again
glancing over your letter, that besides a reference to
the possible expediency of my resignation (suggested,
doubtless, to your friendly heart by some fallacious
report, such as we public men are so subject to, about
the state of my health), there is some mention made
respecting the term of my representative duties being
nearly expired; this, as well as an obscure allusion
to Viscount Firstchop, I confess I do not at all understand.

"O, don't he though ?" and re-iterated
disapprobation.

It is possible, from your official situation, my dear
Mr. Mayor, that you may be in possession of
political information of which I am wholly ignorant;
but certainly I have observed no intimation of an
appeal to the country being likely to be made before
the usual time, which will be exactly five years, six
months, and one day of twenty-four hours, from this
present time. By your laying so much stress upon the
approaching majority of the heir of Pixham Park, I
suppose there are going to be grand doings upon that
auspicious occasion, and that you and your fellow-
townsmen may enjoy yourselves at the noble lord's
festivities is my earnest hope. I suppose the young
man will travel on the Continent for a year or two,
before entering the diplomatic profession, for which I