fame. See all the younger generations bow before him with hope or awe; his word can make their fortune , at his smile a reputation dawns. Well; now let that man say to the young, ' Room among yourselves—all that wins me this homage I would lay at the feet of beauty. I enter the lists of love,' and straight- way his power vanishes, the poorest booby of twenty-four can jostle him aside; before the object of reverence he is now the butt of ridicule. The instant he asks right to win the heart of woman, a boy whom, in all else, he could rule as a lackey, cries, ' Off, Gray-beard! that realm at least is mine! '"
"This were but eloquent extravagance, even if your beard were gray. Men older than you, and with half your pretensions, even of outward form, have carried away hearts from boys like Adonis. Only choose well; that's the difficulty—if it was not difficult who would be a bachelor!"
"Guide my choice. Pilot me to the haven."
"Accepted! But you must remount a suitable establishment; re-open your way to the great world, and penetrate those sacred recesses where awaiting spinsters weave the fatal web. Leave all to me. Let Mills (f see you have him still) call on me to- morrow about your ménage. You will give dinners, of course?"
"Oh, of course. Must I dine at them myself?"
Morley laughed softly, and took up his hat.
"So soon," cried Darrell. " If I fatigue you already, what chance shall I have with new friends."
"So soon! it is past eleven. And it is you who must be fa- tigued."
"No such good luck; were I fatigued, I might hope to sleep. I will walk back with you. Leave me not alone in this room— alone in the jaws of a Fish; swallowed up by a creature whose blood is cold."
"You have something still to say to me," said Alban, when they were in the open air; " I detect it in your manner—what is It?"
"I Know not. But you have told me no news; these streets are grown strange to me. Who live now in yonder houses? once the dwellers were my friends."
"In that house—oh, new people; I forget their names—but rich—in a year or two, with luck, they may be exclusives, and forget my name. In the other house, Carr Vipont, still."
"Vipont; those dear Viponts! what of them all? crawl they r sting they? Bask they in the sun? or are they in anxious pro- cess of a change of skin?"
"Hush, my dear friend; no satire on your own connections;
