and she turned away to a fashionable-looking man who was warring his way through the crowd. Francis was overwhelmed; her coldness, haughty air, and nonchalance, at once surprised and offended him, and he was about to leave the room, when his cousin seized him. "Come, my pupil, that's my mother's way; not the most captivating one to a lover of the melting mood I confess ;but here, I have a true Pastora for you, a sentimentalist of the softest colour-my resistless sister, Seraphina. Beware of your heart."

Seraphina was sitting at a harp, in the very attitude of fascination. One ungloved arm gently reposed upon the strings, which it now and then swept with a fairy touch, producing a whispered harmony to the tone of a voice subdued to the lowest murmurs of music. Her eyes were large, languishing, and of celestial blue; and those she alternately cast down upon a half-opened morocco volume, and raised up to heaven with the air of a Sappho. Her reverie was broke by Seraphina, my dear, our relative, Vaughan -Quite thunderstruck by the sight of human beings; for compassion's sake take him under your patronage, and introduce him to"---"Ah, brother," sighed Seraphina,

66

"Those fair creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i'the plighted clouds."

"Just the thing for him," said Courtney, "for he seems altogether in the clouds already." The fair Seraphina's eyes had discovered that Vaughan was not altogether the repulsive rustic that the family circle had voted him, and she made room for him on the sofa beside her. Vaughan expressed a wish to hear the harp. "Excuse me, Mr. Vaughan," was the reply, "I do not affect to be a mistress of the instrument; I merely touch it as an assistance to the feeblest voice in the world. In short, the little I know of this treasure of sweet sounds,' is the result of a strange passion of mine for all that is harmonious." Vaughan implored. She bent gently over the harp, threw down her eyes in the divinest attitude of meditation, and began. Her voice was sweet, and highly cultivated; and Vaughan was charmed, and listening intently, when he was startled by "Capital! very superb indeed;-the Tenth Muse, by every string of Apollo's lyre!" Seraphina stopped, and Vaughan sprang from his seat with defiance on his brow, which turned into astonishment, as the pale and languid speaker, an utter stranger to him, quietly fixed himself in the vacated seat.-"Poh," said Courtney, coming up and catching Francis by the arm;-" don't you know Flatter?-Oh, I had forgot your verdant education. Take no notice of him; when 4*

VOL. I.

he has talked all his fine things out to Seraphina he will quietly retire." Vaughan resisted. "Come, come," said his cousin, "we must have no fracas. Flatter is the very best fellow within the Bills of Mortality. Why, he's essential to more Dukes and Duchesses, and to something higher still, than any man about town." "Impudent, intolerable," muttered Vaughan. "Yes, both, and yet neither," replied Courtney. "Habit has made them second nature. They are dovetailed into his character, until they give it all its variety. The truth is, society cannot dispense with him; his business is to put every man, woman, and child, on the best terms with themselves. Conceive the importance of such a tongue, when the whole world of fashion have such eternal reason to be discontented with themselves. Let me introduce you. As you are to be an Oxonian, he will congratulate you, at once, upon your talents, your learning, and your certainty of the Bishop's Bench, or of the Woolsack, which you please." "This to a man's face?" said Vaughan. "Undoubtedly," was the answer. "His good things are not to be wasted on the desert air. I can assure you, that for the absent he has quite another style, But the fact is, that just now he is a particular favourite of Mrs. Courtney, and if you wish to be popular here"-Flatter had

risen from beside the fair Seraphina, and had touched Courtney on the shoulder, who turned to speak to him. Vaughan was obviously the object of inquiry, and to his astonishment he heard himself named as Captain Vaughan. "Eh-absolutely--a militaire-showy figure." "Yes," said Courtney. "but not fond of being talked to on professional subjects; so cut the Peninsula, and all that, if you intend to affect his feelings." In another moment Vaughan was honoured by a bow, into which Flatter had thrown his whole captivation. "My best friend, Courtney," said the man of smiles, "who is always doing kindnesses to all the world, has promised to do me an honour of which I have been long ambitious." "Eh! hang it, I was near forgetting," said Courtney." Mr. Flatter, Captain Vaughan." He pressed Vaughan's foot, who, however, between surprise and the oddity of his new acquaintance, made no attempt to speak. "Capt. Vaughan, a relative of this charming family, Courtney tells me.-No circumstance could be more fortunate for a gallant soldier returning from his toils," said Flatter. "Oh, vastly lucky fellow Vaughan is in every thing. The world all before him.-All couleur de rose," said Courtney; "Mars, Venus, and all that sort of affair. I will enlist some time or other, when time or life hangs heavy

on my hands. Faith, even already, but for that villainous gunpowder, I would myself have been a soldier." Vaughan laughed. "For heaven's sake, Philip, no more bantering." Courtney suddenly turned away to plunge into deep conversation with a darkfeatured wily-looking foreigner, who had just entered. "There he goes," said Flatter, "one of the finest fellows in the circuit of May-Fair; but for-" "For what?” inquired Vaughan-"For that ill-countenanced scoundrel that has now got hold of him. There, Sir, see how that fellow, Italian, or Frenchman, or Jew, but black-leg, whatever else he may be, grasps him in his clutches. There they go together; and before twelve tonight" Vaughan looked with unfeigned astonishment at the change in Flatter's gesture and countenance. His feeble and lounging figure had suddenly grown upright, and his languid and sallow visage now deepened and quivered with fierce emotion. "That fellow is a public evil, a preyer on the follies of the inexperienced;-a plunderer of every. man that accidentally associates with him ;a human wolf;-or, all combined in one, at professed gambler. But I will be revenged, deeply, desperately revenged." He suddenly recollected himself; his vehemence had drawn the eyes of the loungers upon him, and he stopped. Vaughan felt interested in