ysms of tinto-mania. The hips and haws were red on the bushes, the mountain-ash berries on the tree; and the robin was beginning to pipe in the hedges his autumnal grace before meat.

My companions noticed these things, like persons accustomed to take pleasure in country sounds and sights; made no complaints of fatigue; well-bred enough to know that any murmur against their present plight might be interpreted into distaste of their companion.-I saw, at once, that they were not Exclusives!

They made no allusion to Windsor; and might have been living at Kamschatka for any thing they seemed to know or care about the court. At first, this delighted me; for I had the silly vanity of fancying myself a sort of Il Bondocani or Knight of Snowdon among them; and determined to burst upon them in the sequel, or at some future time, arrayed in all the splendours of a Mandarin of the royal

button.

But at last, I grew almost impatient of their

friends touching the "home" to which chaise, pony, and selves were to be transported ;-when it appeared that they resided at Sunning Hill; and that, even to persons acquainted with the cross-cuts of the forest, we had a three-miles march before us!

I have said that the weather was not so sultry as to make exertion objectionable, yet I confess my prospects staggered me. Moreover, it was so late in the afternoon, that gallop back as I might, my credit for punctuality, the politeness of Kings, but the duty of Kings' guests, was in considerable danger. I was at all times a reluctant pedestrian. I hated walking, and my boots hated walking. However, I was in for it.

There was no choice.

Besides, a walk in the

forest with two anonymous ladies, had at least the charm of novelty; and

est natura hominum novitatis avida.

Off we set, therefore; pausing a few minutes at the lodge to purify the faces of my compa

nions, and refresh their spirits by a little cold water externally and internally distributed; and a right curious predicament we stood in,-for by the obsequiousness of the lodge-keepers, they saw clearly that their unknown champion was somebody,—perhaps a nobleman-perhaps a prince; while I had reason to opine that they were nobody, for the name of Silwood Cottage seemed altogether new and strange to the keeper of our King's deer, who might be supposed to know something of the notabilities of the neighbourhood. But, at all events, they were charming nobodies. Their faces, after ablution, proved to be just the sort of faces that tempt one to look and look again, from the certainty of never finding them in statu quo;endless variation of bloom-unceasing changes of expression. Both were dark-haired, both brunettes; but the eyes of one were sleepy brown, the other variable grey :—they were "alike-but oh! how different."

For the first half mile, I was desperately in

carelessness of courtly things: and for the life

and soul and philosophy of me could not refrain from certain startling allusions to Windsor, intended to excite their curiosity.

I might as well have made them to the robins! No result!-Not so much as the interchange of a glance between Soph. and Annie purporting to say-Who on earth have we got with us?

For my own share, though on most occasions an expert guesser, I own I reached their garden paling without the most distant surmise as to the Mrs. or Miss-hood of my companions. A family likeness proclaimed them sisters, though I have seen cousins almost as resembling; and they were decidedly Creoles,

-for one of the charms of their animated conversation consisted in comparisons between the green thickets of the forest and a certain home of theirs among the feathery trees of the tropics; and they talked of their Caribbean sea and its surf and coral reefs, with a poetry of

diction that brought my friend Tommy Moore and his Nea only too vividly to my mind. For, as I live by bread, it was not good to be thinking of Nea and Tommy Moore, and acting champeron in a green forest to two young beauties who talked so far above singing.

However, I managed to think of them rather than him, and a little perhaps of His Majesty ; -for though earnestly pressed to stay and partake of a dinner, the modest preparations of which were perceptible through the French windows of a pretty cottage opening through a rustic portico to the lawn, I refrained. I merely asked permission to make early inquiries after the health of my charming companions, mounted my horse, (which a pricker from the lodge had brought to the cottage gate full twenty minutes before our arrival,) and away back to Windsor,-back to gilt plate and Persian carpets,―iced hock and val de penas,-lobster lets and blanc de faisan au céléri,—the kotoo of courtiership and the listlessness of those human