a regular blazer; a day on which the leaves seem to crackle and blister, and the brown turf on the hill-side has an odour of hay; a day on which the cloudless blue sky makes you wink as you look heavenward; a day on which pleasure-seekers who issue forth blonde and delicate of aspect go home at night with the complexions of Red Indians. The picnickers assembling in Mrs. Dobb's small sitting-room congratulated one another on the weather, and wore off the ceremonial edges of intercourse by that means.

No social gathering could have been inaugurated with greater ceremony. Mrs. Dobb, who was nothing unless she was intensely polite, had enough to do in making ceremonial presentations. There was Mr. Spinner's sister, who had to be introduced to Mrs. Pocombe; and there was Mr. Smith's mother-a mysterious old woman in a poke bonnet-who had not been invited, and who had to be introduced to every body. There were more new bonnets and more dazzling garments of every description than had been seen collected together on the pavement before Amanda Villas

within the memory of the inhabitants; and confidential murmurs of "fifteen and nine," "seventeen and sixpence, my dear, and reduced from sevenand-twenty on account of the lateness of the season," might have been heard among the ladies; while even the men congratulated one another facetiously on their splendour of appearance.

"An early rise in the current price of starch may be safely prophesied by any one who beholds Spinner's waistcoat. I saw that buff doeskins were looking lively, and I can understand the reason, now I contemplate my noble Pocombe's legs. Never mind the creases in that blue frock of yours, Sanders; that young man at Cawly's does not know how to fold a coat. I had mine ironed when I took it out last Saturday night; but do not blush, my Sanders; there is no shame in honest poverty." Thus, in the abandon of his gaiety, said Mr. Dobb, as he stood amongst his Lares and Penates, with a decanter in one hand and a glass in the other. The decanter contained a cordial composed of gin, sugar, and orange-peel; which compound Henry Adolphus declared was almost

as good as curaçoa; but then "almost" is a very wide word.

An omnibus had been hired for the conveyance of the party, and that vehicle overshadowed Mr. Dobb's mansion, while the clerk regaled his friends in the parlour. To the denizens of Amanda Villas, stationed at windows and lounging on door-steps, an omnibus might have been the newest and rarest object in creation, so fondly did they gaze on the vehicle, on which "Railway Station," "Roxborough Arms," "Castleford," "King's Head," were inscribed in gilded capitals. But although an omnibus devoted to the public service may be the most commonplace of conveyances, there is something almost awful in the idea of an omnibus withdrawn from its common

uses and placed at the disposal of an individual. To have the destiny of an omnibus in one's own hands; to be able to order that mighty vehicle to the right or the left; to take it up narrow lanes and ignominious turnings; to keep it standing unconscionable periods before one's own door, is to feel a sense of power that is not without its intoxicating

influence. It is to feel, in a minor degree, the triumphant thrill that must have stirred the veins of Joshua at Ajalon; it is to enjoy the sense of masterdom that makes a Robespierre drunken with blood, when he finds the axe of the national guillotine a plaything for his cruel hand.

Henry Adolphus was not proof against the intoxication of the omnibus. He looked at it with a fond admiring gaze, and discovered points of beauty which he had never found in that class of vehicle until now. And then there was the delight of packing the comestibles; the hampers which had to be "humoured," as the driver of the noble vehicle said; the brown bottles that had to be "offered" to all sorts of niches and corners, and were generally refused as too long or too wide. Surely so many gallon-measures of beer, so many hampers of provision, so many open baskets of green stuffs, were never stowed into the recesses of one omnibus since the invention of that vehicle. A savoury odour, as of roast-fowl and overdone veal-pie, pervaded the atmosphere of Amanda Villas; and the mouths of Mr. Dobb's neighbours

watered as basket after basket was handed into the vehicle, amid the rather derisive cheers of the juvenile population gathered around the gate.

Dorothy arrived in the chaise-cart, driven by a hobbledehoy brother, and accompanied by two rosy-cheeked sisters; for so splendid had been the contributions from the home-farm, that Mr. Dobb had extended his invitations to the Tursgood family. And over and above all past contributions, Dorothy brought with her an offering which eclipsed all meaner gifts as the sun eclipses the stars. Miss Denison had been pleased to give her little maid pleasure on the occasion of this family festival, and had ordered the butler to pack a basket of wine-real wine, such as Sir Jasper drank with his own patrician lips, and which Sir Jasper's friends considered it a privilege to share. The butler had done the thing with that liberality which distinguishes human nature in the disposal of other people's property.

Mr. Dobb could not resist the temptation of opening the basket; while his friends watched his proceedings in rapt admiration. The basket con