Refusals-Lord knows when refused,
Deductions-Lord knows how deduced;
Alas! how sweetly scandal falls
From lips of beauties—after Balls.

The music stops,-the lights expire,
The dance is o'er-the crowds retire;
And all those smiling cheeks have flown!
Away!-the rhymer is alone.

Thou too, the fairest and the best,
Hast fleeted from him with the rest;
Thy name he will not, love! unite
To the rude strain he pours to-night,
Yet often hath he turn'd away
Amidst his harsh and wandering lay,
And often hath his earnest eye
Look'd into thine delightedly,
And often hath his listening ear-
But thou art gone!-what doth he here?

A PARTY AT THE PELICAN.

DEAR COURTENAY,-On a bitter snowy day I have resolved to take our Poet Laureat's advice to 66 write like a devil," and have positively sat down, with the most laudable diligence and solicitude for your amusement, to send you an account of a most delightful party at which I was present the other day; and, if the description pleases you one quarter as much as the more substantial original pleased me, you may be assured that I shall be very well satisfied.

To begin à principiis, as Allen Le Blanc would say; -a single gentleman who had resided some time in the neighbourhood, and had accepted every body's invitation without giving any himself, luckily for me, just before

my arrival, was seized with a sudden and miraculous impulse of hospitality, and determined, out of a proper regard both to economy and good fellowship, to pay all his debts at once, in a general and grand entertainment. The good people here made many very charitable conjectures upon this extraordinary spirit which animated Mr. Hudson. However, as the slander of the place ought not to be circulated too widely, I will only tell you the most unexceptionable of them, that Christmas had its wonted and proper effect in opening his purse-strings. You see this only hints at some supernatural agency, as being necessary for such an important circumstance. To speak to you as a learned man, "Dignus vindice nodus." Well! to proceed regularly in these important matters, the above-mentioned gentleman, after he had resolved to feast his friends upon this extended scale, next began to consider where the collected company could possibly be received, and upon examination discovered that he had no room in his house large enough to hold them. In this terrible emergency he called his housekeeper to his assistance, and, after much consideration, they agreed upon a contrivance; namely, that he should hire the three best rooms in the Pelican, and send out his cards accordingly. This plan she alleged would give great consequence and notoriety to the party; and he acquiesced in it from other and more feeling motives, that he could probably supply a great part of the necessaries from home, and, by contracting with Monsieur the Innkeeper, save a considerable loss to his pocket, and a proportionable bustle and confusion to his household; nor did he forget that by these means he could avoid betraying the imperfections or deficiencies of his establishment.

These preliminaries, I assure you, are all authentic ; having been partly collected from Mrs. Whitehurst, the old dame who manages every thing, and partly from himself, for he is very communicative in these respects;

much more so, indeed, than most of his acquaintance desire. I dare say you will have thought me dreadfully tedious in these calumnious accounts, which so little concern me; so now, with your leave, I will introduce to you Mr. F. Golightly, in his proper dress and character, not forgetting his quizzing-glass, taking the place of a cousin fortunately absent; and, with his natural impudence, by a sort of self-invitation, proceeding in a royal cavalcade to the Pelican. And prithee, good Courtenay, do not disdainfully regard this Pelican. Take my word for it, it is a house of the very first respectability; renowned far and wide for every sort of excellence; and decorated, as all inns should be, with an effigy of its patron bird, remarkable for its size, its variety of plumage, and, in short, for its total defiance of any resemblance to nature. Here we arrived in very decent and fashionable time; that is to say, after everybody else: but scarce had I set my foot within the door, when I was surrounded by a multitude of harpies: one snatched away my hat, another my gloves, another my newlymounted shag-coat, and so on, till I really fancied myself beset by pickpockets, particularly after the terrible instances we have lately heard of their audacity. This, I afterwards understood, proceeded from Mr. Hudson's particular desire that everybody should be expressly attended to at his coming, and ushered into the drawingroom with proper ceremony and respect. I am sure we had no reason to complain of any neglect ;-two or three smart-looking fellows, in a sort of livery, escorted us up the stairs; and two more, standing like sentinels at the door, introduced us to the whole assemblage of company, not forgetting our names and titles. My uncle, who, of course, together with his family, was pretty well known to his neighbours, took the trouble to make apologies to the Host for my unexpected appearance, which, I assure you, were most graciously received; and he was pleased to express his happiness at having the honour of seeing

I was

Mr. F. Golightly. What a fine thing it would be, thought I to myself, if I could but be a Lord just for a few hours that little augment to my name would sound so well for an introduction, and carry off any kind of singularity; for what is impudence in a Commoner is nothing but condescension in a Nobleman. I did not continue in this fancy very long, but put up my glass, and took a regular, but rapid, reconnoitre; by which I discovered, to my great pleasure, that there were a vast number of people whom I knew nothing about; and I was still more gratified to see one person on the other side of the room, whom I determined, in half a minute, to make my oracle. This was a young man of the name of Brooke, who had been at Eton, and was just released from Oxford, and to whom I had taken a great fancy when I met him a few days before at my uncle's. by his side in less than a moment, although I was necessarily impeded by several bows and salutations which I was obliged to make in the course of my passing from one side of the apartment to the other. After we had both settled that we were as well as we possibly could be, I took the liberty to ask him the names of several people, both male and female, which will not interest you very particularly; for the greatest part of them were only remarkable for having long noses, high feathers, odd voices, or something particular either in dress or figure. You cannot imagine how much I missed my old Rawsdon Court Friend, Mr. Ormsby. My new substitute was but a very indifferent one, compared to him; for he could not, or would not, give me half the information I desired. In spite of my endeavours to keep him to the subject, he was continually flying off to know how we managed different things at Eton now: how the boats were manned; whether Collegers or Oppidans beat the last match at Football; and several other matters of equal importance: to all of which I had the patience to return becoming answers. I have

uniformly observed that old Etonians are very like old men, inasmuch as they always maintain the superiority of things as they existed in their time; and argue that every alteration must be for the worse, although frequently they know nothing about it. Pray do not suspect that I mean to impute any uncharitableness to our predecessors, for whom I entertain the greatest respect and veneration, as well as for all their institutions. It is really a natural sort of feeling which we ourselves begin to hold towards the rising generation in our "little World," which we suspect will be neither half so big, nor half so clever, as the one which went before it.

I had long wished to know the name of a little man, with piercing grey eyes, shaggy red eyebrows, and a cast of countenance altogether more strongly indicative of cunning than any I ever remember to have seen. After I had heard, with due fortitude, many very severe remarks upon our deficiency in divers points, about which, to tell you the truth, I cared not a farthing, such as having no bonfire on the 5th of November, being locked up in our houses at five o'clock instead of six, and several others which I cannot remember, I returned to the charge, and demanded some particulars of the above-mentioned gentleman, who was evidently. smiling, to the best of his endeavours, and, in fact, playing the agreeable to a fat old lady of a most portly presence, his next neighbour. "That," answered young Brooke, “is a lawyer of this place, the learned Mr. Jobson. He has the credit of having a great deal of money; but nobody pretends to say where it ever came from. In addition to this qualification, he has interest enough with his fellow-citizens to persuade them to elect for their Members whomsoever he likes best; and it is said that he always likes those best, who have no objection to fee their legal advisers handsomely. This, of course, is as much a secret as things of that sort generally are. However, he keeps a good table, and will give you a fine dinner,