patter, excepting that now and then I was enlivened by the idea of a brisk shower from the rattling of the drops upon a passing umbrella.

It was quite refreshing (if I may be allowed a hacknied phrase of the day) when in the course of the morning a horn blew, and a stage coach whirled through the street, with outside passengers stuck all over it cowering under cotton umbrellas, and seethed together, and reeking with the steams of wet box-coats and upper Benjamins.

for not having cleaned his shoes well; third" sat drumming on the table with his fingers, and looking at the rain as it streamed down the window it's glass; they all appeared infected by the weather, and disappeared the one after the other without exchanging a Wold words as hnedauss Tot qooq asauntered to the window, and stood gazing at the people picking their way to church with petticoats hoisted midleg high and dripping umbrellas. The bell ceased to toll and the streets be came silent. I then amused myself. The sound brought out from their with watching the daughters of a lurking places a crew of vagabond boys tradesman opposite; who, being con- and vagabond dogs, and the carrottyfined to the house for fear of wetting headed hostler, and that non-descript their Sunday finery, played off their animal ycleped Boots, and all the other charms at the front windows, to fas- vagabond race that infest the purlieus cinate the chance tenants of the inn. of an inn; but the bustle was tran They at length were sun They at length were summoned away sient; the coach again whirled on its Bya vigilant vinegar-faced mother, way, and boy and dog and höstler and and I had nothing further from with- boots all slunk back again to their out to amuse h me. The holes; the street again became silent, What was I to do to pass away the and the rain continued to rain on. Fongtired day. I was sadly nervous In fact their was no hope of its clearand lonely, and every thing about an ing up, the barometer pointed to rainy im seems calculated to make a dull weather; mine hostess's tortoise-shell day ten times duller; old newspapers cat sat by the fire washing her face smelling of beer and tobacco smoke and rubbing her paws over her ears and which I had already read half a and on referring to their almanack I dozen of times; good for nothing found a direful prediction stretching books, that were worse than rainy from the top of the page to the bot weather, I fired myself to death with tom, through the whole month exan old volume of the Ladies Maga-pect-much-rain--about this zine I read all the common place time!" is van aris names of ambitious travellers scratched I was dreadfully hipped. The hours on the panes of glass; the eternal seemed as if they would never creep families of the Smiths, and the Browns, by. The very ticking of the clock and the Jacksons, and the Johnsons, became irksome. At length the stilland all the other sons; and I decy-ness of the house was interrupted by phered several scraps of fatiguing inn- the ringing of a bell. Shortly after I window poetry, which I have met with heard the voice of a waiter at the bar in all parts of the world.

The

a subject presented to my mind, and
ample exercise for my imagination.
I am prone to paint pictures to myself,
and on this occasion I had some ma-
terials to work upon. Had the guest
up stairs, been mentioned as Mr.
Smith, or Mr. Brown, or Mr. Jack-compoop for a husband, as shrews are
son, or Mr. Johnson, or merely as
"the gentleman in No. 13," it would
have been a perfect blank to me. I
should have thought nothing of it;
but "the stout Gentlemen!"the
very name had something in it of
the picturesque. It at once gave the
size; it embodied the personage to my
mind's eye, and my fancy did the rest.
He was stout, or, as some term it,
lusty; in all probability therefore he
was advanced in life, some people ex-
panding as they grow old. By his I had not made many turns about
breakfasting rather late, and in his own the travellers' room, when there was
room, he must be a man accustomed another ringing. Shortly afterwards
to live at his ease and above the neces- there was a stir and an inquest about
sity of early rising; no doubt a round, the house. The stout gentleman
rosy, lusty old gentleman.
wanted the Times or the Chronicle
newspaper. I set him down there-
fore for a whig; or rather, from his
being so absolute and lordly when
he had a chance, I suspected him of
being a radical-Hunt I had heard
was a large man: "who knows,
thought I," but it is Hunt himself."

There was another violent ringing. The stout gentleman was impatient for his breakfast. He was evidently a man of importance; "well to do in the world; accustomed to be promptly waited upon; of a keen appetite and a little cross when hungry; perhaps," thought I," he may be some London Alderman; or who knows but he may be a Member of Parliament." Thoqqul that w

My curiosity began to be awakened. I enquired of the waiter who was the stout gentleman that was making all this stir; but I could get no informa The breakfast was sent up and there tion: nobody seemed to know his was a short interval of silence; he was name. The landlords of bustling inns doubtless making the tea. Presently seldom trouble their heads about the there was a violent ringing; and be- names or occupations of their transient fore it could be answered another ring guests. The colour of a coat, the ing still more violent. Bless me the shape or size of the person IS what a choleric old gentleman !" The enough to suggest a travelling name waiter came down in a huff. The It is either the tall gentleman, or the butter was rancid, the eggs were over-short gentleman, or the gentleman in done, the ham was too salt:the black, or the gentleman in snuff-co stout gentleman was evidently nice in lour; or, as in the present instance, his eating; one of those who eat and the stout gentleman; a designation of growl and keep the waiter in a trot, the kind once hit on, answers every

spend money freely it was no rule She'd have no servant maids of her's treated in that way, when they were about their work, that's what she wouldn't."

As I hate squabbles, particularly with women, and above all with pretty women, I slunk back into my room and partly closed the door; but my curiosity was too much excited not to listen. The landlady marched intrepidly to the enemy's citadel, and entered it with a storm: the door closed after her. I heard her voice in high windy clamour for a moment or two, then it gradually subsided like a gust of wind in a garret; then there was a laugh; then I heard nothing more.

After a little while my landlady came out with an odd smile on her face, adjusting her cap, which was a little on one side as she went down stairs I heard the landlord ask her what was the matter, she said, "nothing at all, only the girl's a fool." I was more than ever perplexed what to make of this unaccountable personage, who could put a good natured chambermaid in a passion, and send away a termagant landlady in smiles. He could not be so old, nor cross, hor ugly neither.

I now read all the advertisements of coaches and hotels that were stuck about the mantlepiece. The Ladies' Magazine had become an abomination to me; it was as tedious as the day itself. I wandered out, not knowing what to do, and ascended again to my room. I had not been there long, When there was a squall from a neighbouring bed room a door opened and shut violently a chambermaid that I had remarked for having a ruddy good humoured face, ran down stairs in a violent flurry. The stout gentleman had been rude to her. beThis sent a whole host of my deductions to the deuce in a moment. The unknown personage could not be an old gentleman, for old gentlemen I had to go to work at his picture are not apt to be opstreperous to again, and to paint him entirely dif chambermaids. He could not be a ferent. I now set him down for one young gentleman, for young gentle- of those stout gentlemen that are fremen are not apt to inspire such indig-quently met with swaggering about the nation. He must be a middle-aged gentleman, and confoundedly ugly into the bargain, or the girl would not have taken the matter in such terrible dudgeon. I confess I was sorely puzzled. In a few minutes I heard the voice of my landlady. I caught a glance of her as she came up stairs; her face glaring, her cap flaring, her tongue wagging the whole way. She'd have no such doings in her house she'd warrant! If gentlemen did

doors of country inns; moist, merry fellows in Belcher handkerchiefs, whose bulk is a little assisted by malt liquors: men who have seen, the world, and been sworn at Highgate; who are used to tavern life; up to all the tricks of tapsters, and knowing in the ways of sinful publicans; free-livers on a small scale; who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea; who call all the waiters by name; laugh with the maids; gossip with the landlady at the

mysterious kept his room, and, as far as I could judge, his chair, for I did The morning wore away in forming not hear him move. In the meanthese and similar surmises. As fast time, as the day advanced, the traas I wove one system of belief some vellers' room began to be frequented. movement of the unknown would com- Some, who had just arrived, came in pletely overturn it, and throw all my buttoned up in box coats; others came thoughts again into confusion. Such home who had been dispersed about are the solitary operations of a feverish the town. Some took dinner, and mind. I was, as I have said, extreme- some took tea. Had I been in a difly nervous; and the continual medi-ferent mood, I should have found entations in the concerns of this invisi-tertainment in studying this peculiar ble personage began to have its effect: class of men. There were two espeI was getting a fit of the fidgets.cially, who were regular wags of the Dinner-time came, I hoped the road, and up to all the standing jokes. stout gentleman might dine in the tra- of travellers. They had a thousand sly vellers room, and that I might at things to say to the waiting maid, length get a view of his person; but whom they called Louisa, and Etheno he had dinner served in his own linda, and a dozen other fine names, room. What could be the meaning changing the name every time, and of this solitude and mystery? He chuckling amazingly at their own could not be a radical: there was some- waggery. My mind, however, had thing too aristocratical in thus keeping become completely engrossed by the himself apart from the rest of the stout gentleman. He had kept my world, and condemning himself to his fancy in chace during a long day, and own dull company on a rainy day, and it was not now to be diverted from the then, too, he lived too well for a dis- scent. boog Deontented politician. He seemed to The evening gradually wore away. expatiate on a variety of dishes, and The travellers read the papers two or to sit over his wine like a jolly friend three times over. Some drew round of good living. Indeed, my doubts the fire and told long stories about on this head were soon at an end; for their horses, about their adventures, he could not have finished his first their overturns and breakings-down.. bottle before I could faintly hear him They discussed the credits of different humming a tune, and on listening merchants and different inns; and the I found it to be God save the two wags told several choice anecdotes King" 'Twas plain then he was no of pretty chambermaids and kind landradical but a faithful subject; one that ladies; all this passed as they were grew loyal over his bottle, and was quietly taking what they called their ready to stand by king and constitu- nightcaps, that is to say, strong glasses tion, when he could stand by nothing of brandy and water and sugar, or else. But who could he be! My some other mixture of the kind; after conjectures began to run wild. Was which they, one after another, rang for he not some person of distinction tra-"Boots" and the chambermaid, and velling incog? God knows!" said I walked off to bed in old shoes cut at my wit's end, it may be some of down into marvelously uncomfortable the royal family, for aught I know, for slippers. they are all stout gentlemen!"