The chief object of Mr Gammon's interview with the Earl of Dreddlington, had been to communicate to his lordship information concerning the very alarming position in which he stood with reference to the defunct Artificial Rain Company. The very prominent and active part which his lordship had been seduced into taking, in the patronage and management of that Company, had very reasonably marked him out as the fittest object of attack to the creditors. The Company had no Act of Parliament, nor charter, nor deed of settlement; it was simply a huge unwieldy partnership, consisting of all such persons as could be shown to be interested, or to have held themselves out to the world as interested, in it; and consequently, whether individually known or not, liable to the public who had dealt with the Company, and given credit to it, on the very obvious principle of equity, that all who would seek to share the profits of the speculation must be responsible for its liabilities. In the present instance, had it not been for the circumstance of there being a considerable number of weak, inexperienced, but responsible adventurers, who, by entering into the speculation, had become liable to share Lord Dreddlington's burden of liability, his lordship must have been totally ruined to all intents and purposes. As soon as Sir Sharper Bubble's absconding had opened the eyes of the public, and of the shareholders, it became necessary to take instant measures for ascertaining the exact state of affairs-and the liabilities which had been contracted on behalf of the Company. Heavens! what a frightful array of creditors now made their appearance against the Artificial Rain Company! It was inconceivable how so many, and to so immense an amount, could have arisen during the short period of the Company's being in existence; but the fact is, that there are always thousands of persons who, as soon as they once see individuals of undoubted responsibility fairly committed to a company of this sort, will give almost unlimited credit, and supply any thing that may be ordered on behalf or for the purposes of the company. This Company had originated in a supposed grand discovery of Doctor Diabolus Gander, that there were certain modes of operating upon the atmosphere, by means of electrical agency, which would ensure an abundant supply of rain in seasons of the greatest drought. Now, first and foremost

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among the creditors of the Company, was that distinguished philosopher himself; who, to constitute himself effectually a creditor, had declined to take He now shares in the concern. any claimed £1700 for a series of "preliminary experiments," independently of compensation for his time and services in conducting the aforesaid experiments ;-and, in order to put the question of liability beyond all doubt, the Doctor had taken care, from time to time, to invite the more distinguished and wealthy of the shareholders to come and witness his experiments-always carefully noting down their names, and the names also of those witnesses who could prove their attendance-the interest they took in the experiments-their observations as to the success of the Company, &c. &c., and their repeated acknowledgments of the uniform courtesy of the worthy Doctor, who thought no pains too great to explain the nature of his surprising operations. Then, again, he had entered into an agreement, signed by Lord Dreddlington, and one or two others on behalf of the Company, by which he was appointed "permanent scientific director" for a period of ten years, at a salary of £1000 a-year, over and above the sums agreed to be paid him for "collateral and supplementary services." This latter claim, however, the Doctor very generously offered to compromise, in consideration of the exhalation of the Company, on payment of four thousand pounds down. Then came a demand amounting to little short of £25,000 for an inconceivable quantity of copper wire, which had been purchased for the purpose of being used in all the cities and towns which chose to avail themselves of the services of the Company, in the following way-viz. a complete circle of electric communication was to be obtained, by attaching wires to the summits of all the church steeples, and it was necessary that the wires should be of considerable strength and thickness, to prevent their being broken by birds flying against, and perching upon them: (But, Dr Gander declared that he had discovered a mode of charging the wires, which would cause any bird which came into contact with them immediately to fall down dead.) Then there were fearful charges for at least nine miles' length of leaden pipes and hose, and for steam-engines, and electrical machines, and so forth; particularly an item of eight thousand pounds for the expenses of trying the experiment in a village in the extremity of Cornwall, and which was very

nearly completed, when the unfortunate event occurred which occasioned the sudden break up of the Company. This will suffice to give the uninitiated reader a glimpse of the real nature of the liabilities incurred by those who had become partners in this splendid undertaking. Dr Gander got two actions commenced the very day after the departure of Sir Sharper Bubble, against six of the principal shareholders, in respect of his "preliminary experiments," and his agreement for ten years' service; and writs came fluttering in almost daily; all which rendered it necessary to take measures for coming to an amicable compromise. After very great exertions, and attending many meetings, Mr Gammon succeeded in provisionally extricating Lord Dreddlington, on his paying down, within twelve months, the sum of £18,000; the Duke of Tantallan was in for some £8000, the Marquis of Marmalade for £6000: and those two peers made the most solemn vows never to have any thing to do again with joint-stock companies though it must be owned that they had been, as the phrase is, "let off easily." But I must not disguise from the reader that the Artificial Rain Company was not the only one with which these distinguished individuals, together with Lord Dreddlington, had become connected-there was the Gunpowder and Fresh Water Company, of which Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, were the solicitors-but sufficient for the day is the evil thereof; and let it suffice, for the present, to say, that some short time afterwards the Duke of Tantallan, on the part of the Earl of Dreddlington, paid down the sum of £10,000 on account of the above-mentioned sum of £18,000, the remainder of which was to be called for in six months' time. Mr Gammon, however, could not think of the possibility of the Gunpowder Company's explosion without a shudder, on account of the dreadful extent to which Lord Dreddlington was implicated, and from which Gammon feared that there really were no means of extricating him. What would he have given never to have seduced the Earl into embarking into any such speculations? Nay, what would he not have given, never to have set eyes upon either the Earl of Dreddlington or the Lady Cecilia? What advantage had he ever gained, after all, by his desperate grasp after aristocratic connexion? If, however, the Earl should prove really and permanently insane, what a godsend would such an event be, in

every point of view, to Gammon-silencing for ever the chief sufferer-and saving Gammon from all the endless vexations and anxieties arising out of personal explanations and collisions with the man whom he had drawn into the vortex of pecuniary ruin— from, in short, a world of reproaches and execrations.

As for Mr Titmouse, the fortunate (!) possessor of ten thousand a-year—as thousands, with a sigh of envy, regarded himthose of the public who had an opportunity of watching his public motions, gave him credit for feeling very deeply the melancholy bereavement which he had sustained in the loss of the Lady Cecilia; but those more intimately acquainted with his family circumstances, could not help remarking one little ingredient of pleasure in his recent cup of bitterness; viz. that as Lady Cecilia had left no offspring-no dear pledge of affection -Mr Titmouse was not only saved a vast deal of anxiety as to the bringing up of the child, but had become himself heir-apparent to the barony of Drelincourt, on the death of the Earl of Dreddlington; who, whatever might be the effect of his whispered misfortunes in his pecuniary speculations, had not the power, being merely tenant for life under the entail, of injuring the fortune annexed to the title. Though Mr Gammon loathed the very sight, the very thought, of Titmouse, he was yet the centre of prodigious anxiety to Gammon, who felt that he had, at all events at present, a deep stake in the upholding to the world Mr Titmouse's position and credit. He had been frightened by Gammon into a state of the most abject submission to all his requirements-one of which was, the preservation of that external decorum, when in public, which had produced the very favourable impression already adverted to. The other was-a vast contraction of his expenditure. Mr Gammon insisted upon his disposing of his house in Park Lane—which had, indeed, been for months almost destitute of furniture, that having fallen a prey to divers of his execution-creditors-but engaged for him a suit of handsome furnished apartments in Chapel Street, May Fair, allowing him the attendance of a valet, as usual; and also hiring for him a cab, tiger, groom, and a couple of saddle-horses, with which Mr Titmouse contrived to make an appearance, before so much of the world as was left in London during the autumn, suitable to his station. Some of the more clamorous of his cre

ditors, Mr Gammon had contrived to pacify by considerable payments on account, and a solemn assurance that every one of Mr Titmouse's debts was in train for rapid liquidation. Could his creditors, indeed-Gammon asked-fail to see and judge for themselves, what an altered man, in his person and habits, Mr Titmouse had become, since the shock he had received on the death of Lady Cecilia? Had, indeed, Mr Titmouse felt never so disposed to re-enter the scenes of gay and expensive profligacy -in which he bad revelled so madly during the first eighteen months after his extraordinary exaltation-there was a serious obstacle to his doing so, in his having neglected to pay divers heavy "debts of honour," as they are strangely called; for which delinquencies he had twice had his nose pulled in public, and once been horsewhipped. The gates of the sporting world were thus finally closed against him, and so at least one source of profligate expenditure shut out. Though, however, he was free to ride or drive whithersoever he chose-and that, too, as became a man of fashion, in respect of appearance and equipment-he felt but a prisoner at large, and dependent entirely upon the will and pleasure of Mr Gammon for his very means of subsistence. Most of his evenings were spent in such of the theatres as were open, while his nights were often passed amidst scenes which were very strange ones indeed for a young widower to be seen in! Though he was a frequent visitor at Brookes', I must nevertheless do that respectable club the justice of saying, that its members were not very anxious for the presence or company of Mr Titmouse. In fact, but for the continued countenance afforded to him, for reasons best known to that gentleman, by Mr O'Gibbet, my friend would have been some time ago unceremoniously expelled from the club, where he had made, certainly, one or two exceedingly disagreeable exhibitions. Liquor was made for fools to get drunk with, and so shorten their encumbering existence upon the earth; and as for Titmouse, I really do not think he ever went to bed completely sober; and he avowed, that "whenever he was alone, he felt so miserable ;" and there was only one way, he said, which he knew of to "drive dull care away." Though aware of it in point of fact, Titmouse had neither sense nor sensibility enough to appreciate the fearful frailty of that tenure by which he held his present advantages of station-never reflecting that he was