and carried off a little money again that night. The next day was Sunday she gave two florins at the collection at church, to Fanny's surprise at mamma's liberality. On this night of course there was no play. Her ladyship wrote letters, and read a sermon. But the next night she was back at the table; and won very plentifully, until the little Russian sprite made his appearance, when it seemed that her luck changed. She began to bet upon him, and the young Calmuck lost too. Her ladyship's temper went along with her money: first she backed the Calmuck, and then she played against him. When she played against him, his luck turned; and he began straightway to win. She put on more and more money as she lost: her winnings went: gold came out of secret pockets. She had but a florin left at last, and tried it on a number, and failed. She got up to go away. I watched her, and I watched Mr. Justice acus, too, who put down a Napoleon when he thought nobody was looking. The next day my Lady Kicklebury walked over to the moneychangers, where she changed a couple of circular notes. She was at the table that night again: and the next night, and the next night, and the next. By about the fifth day she was like a wild woman. She scolded so, that Hirsch, the courier, said he should retire from monsieur's service, as he was not hired by Lady Kicklebury; that Bowman gave warning, and told another footman in the building that he wouldn't stand the old cat no longer, blow him if he would: that the maid (who was a Kicklebury girl) and Fanny cried and that Mrs. Milliken's maid, Finch, complained to her mistress, who ordered her husband to remonstrate with her mother. Milliken remonstrated with his usual mildness, and, of course, was routed by her ladyship. Mrs. Milliken said, "Give me the daggers," and came to her husband's rescue. A battle royal ensued; the scared Milliken hanging about his blessed Lavinia, and entreating and imploring her to be calm. Mrs. Milliken was calm. She asserted her dignity as mistress of her own family: as controller of her own household, as wife of her adored husband; and she told her mamma, that with her or hers she must not interfere; that she knew her duty as a child: but that she also knew it as a wife, as a The rest of the sentence was drowned, as Milliken, rushing to her, called her his soul's angel, his adored blessing. Lady Kicklebury remarked that Shakspeare was very right in stating how much sharper than a thankless tooth it is to have a serpent child. Mrs. Milliken said the conversation could not be carried on in this manner: that it was best her mamma should now know, once for all, that the way in which she assumed the cominand at Pigeoncot was intolerable; that all the servants had given warning, and it was with the greatest difficulty they could be soothed: and that, as their living together only led to quarrels and painful recriminations (the calling her, after her forbearance, a serpent child, was an expression which she would hope to forgive and forget,) they had better part. Lady Kicklebury wears a front, and I make no doubt, a complete jasey; or she certainly would have let down her back hair at this minute, so overpowering were her feelings, and so bitter her indignation at her daughter's black ingratitude. She intimated some of her sentiments by ejaculatory conjurations of evil. She hoped her daughter might not feel what ingratitude was; that she might never have children to turn on her and bring her to the grave with grief. Bring me to the grave with fiddlesticks!" Mrs. Milliken said, with some asperity. "And as we are going to part, mamma, and as Hor ment. ace has paid every thing on the journey | ladyship's solemn promise of repayas yet, and we have only brought a very few circular notes with us, perhaps you will have the kindness to give him your share of the travelling expenses for you, for Fanny, and your two servants whom you would bring with you and the man has only been a perfect hindrance and great useless log, and our courier has had to do every thing. Your share is now eighty-two pounds." Lady Kicklebury at this gave three screams, so loud that even the resolute Lavinia stopped in her speech. Her Ladyship looked wildly: "Lavinia! Horace! Fanny my child," she said, “come here and listen to your mother's shame! "What?" cried Horace, aghast. "I am ruined! I am a beggar! Yes; a beggar. I have lost all all at yonder dreadful table." How do you mean all? much is all?" asked Horace. How "All the money I brought with me, Horace. I intended to have paid the whole expenses of the journey; yours, this ungrateful child's-every thing. But, a week ago, having seen a lovely baby's lace dress at the lace-shop; and and -won enough at wh-whwhoo-ist to pay for it, all but two-two florins in an evil moment I went to the roulette table and lost every shilling; and now, on my knees before you, I confess my shame." I am not a tragic painter, and certainly won't attempt to depict this harrowing scene. But what could she mean by saying she wished to pay every thing? She had but two twenty-pound notes: and how she was to have paid all the expenses of the tour with that small sum, I cannot conjec ture. The confession, however, had the effect of mollifying poor Milliken and his wife after the latter had learned that her mamma had no money at all at her London bankers', and had overdrawn her account there, Lavinia consented that Horace should advance her fifty pounds upon her And now it was agreed that this highly respectable lady should return to England, quick as she might: somewhat sooner than all the rest of the public did; and leave Mr. and Mrs. Horace Milliken behind her, as the waters were still considered highly salutary to that most interesting invalid. And to England Lady Kicklebury went; taking advantage of Lord Talboys' return thither to place herself under his Lordship's protection as if the enormous Bowman was not protector sufficient for her ladyship; and as if Captain Hicks would have allowed any mortal man, any German student, any French tourist, any Prussian whiskerando, to do a harm to Miss Fanny! though Hicks is not a brilliant or poetical genius, I am bound to say that the fellow has good sense, good manners, and a good heart; and with these qualities, a competent sum of money, and a pair of exceedingly handsome mustaches, perhaps the poor little Mrs. Launcelot Hicks may be happy. For No accident befell Lady Kicklebury on her voyage homewards; but she got one more lesson at Aix-la-Chapelle, which may serve to make her ladyship more cautious for the future: for, seeing Madame la Princesse de Mogador enter into a carriage on the railway, into which Lord Talboys followed, nothing would content Lady Kicklebury but to rush into the carriage after this noble pair; and the vehicle turned out to be what is called on the German lines, and what I wish were established in England, the Rauch Coupé. Having seated himself in this vehicle, and looked rather sulkily at my Lady, Lord Talboys began to smoke: which as the son of an English earl, heir to many thous ands per annum, Lady Kickleb permitted him to do. And s troduced herself to Madame cesse de Mogador, mentioning to her highness that she had the pleasure of meeting Madame la Princesse at Rougetnoirbourg; that she, Lady K., was the mother of the Chevalier de Kicklebury, who had the advantage of the acquaintance of Madame la Princesse; and that she hoped Madame la Princesse had enjoyed her stay at the waters. To these advances the Princess of Mogador returned a gracious and affable salutation, exchanging glances of peculiar meaning with two highly respectable bearded gentlemen who travelled in her suite; and, when asked by milady whereabouts her highness's residence was at Paris, said that her hotel was in the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette: where Lady Kicklebury hoped to have the honor of waiting upon Madame la Princesse de Mogador. But when one of the bearded gentlemen called the Princess by the familiar name of Fifine, and the other said "Veux-tu fumer, Mogador?" and the princess actually took a cigar and began to smoke, Lady Kicklebury was aghast and trembled; and presently Lord Talboys burst into a loud fit of laughter. "What is the cause of your Lordship's amusement?" asked the dowager, looking very much frightened, and blushing like a maiden of six teen. "Excuse me, Lady Kicklebury, but I can't help it," he said. "You've been talking to your opposite neighbor-she don't understand a word of English and calling her a princess and highness, and she's no more a princess than you or I. She is a little milliner in the street she mentioned, and she dances at Mabille and Château Rouge." to have the advantage of her company and conversation. And so they went back to England, and the Kickleburys were no longer seen on the Rhine. If her ladyship is not cured of hunting after great people, it will not be for want of warning: but which of us in life has not had many warnings; and is it for lack of them that we stick to our little failings still? When the Kickleburys were gone, that merry little Rougetnoirbourg did not seem the same place to me somehow. The sun shone still, but the wind came down cold from the purple hills; the band played, but their tunes were stale; the promenaders paced the alleys, but I knew all their faces: as I looked out of my windows in the Tissisch House upon the great blank casements lately occupied by the Kickleburys, and remembered what a pretty face I had seen looking thence but a few days back, I cared not to look any longer; and though Mrs. Milliken did invite me to tea, and talked fine arts and poetry over the meal, both the beverage and the conversation seemed very weak and insipid to me, and I fell asleep once in my chair opposite that highly cultivated being. "Let us go back, Lankin," said I to the Serjeant, and he was nothing loth; for most of the other serjeants, barristers, and Queen's counsel were turning homewards, by this time, the period of term time summoning them all to the Temple. So we went straight one day to Biberich on the Rhine, and found the little town full of Britons, all trooping home like ourselves. Everybody comes, and everybody goes away again at about the same time. The Rhine innkeepers say that their customers cease with a single day almost : Hearing these two familiar names, the princess looked hard at Lord Talboys, but he never lost countenance; and at the next station Lady Kickle--that in three days they shall have bury rushed out of the smoking carriage and returned to her own place; where, I dare say, Captain Hicks and Miss Fanny were delighted once more ninety, eighty, a hundred guests; on the fourth, ten or eight. We do as our neighbors do. Though we don't speak to each other much when we |