One  circumstance,  however,  gave  me  con-
siderable pleasure.  It  was  this  :  I  took
it  for  granted  that,  in  the  varied  and
agreeable  occupations  which  so  pleasurable
a  career  opened,  my  adventures  in  love
would  escape  notice,  and  that  I  should
avoid  the  merciless  raillery  my  two  failures,
in  six  months,  might  reasonably  be  sup-
posed to  call  forth.  I  therefore  wrote  a
hurried  note  to  Curzon,  setting  forth  the
great  interest  all  their  proceedings  had  for
me,  and  assuring  him  that  my  stay  in  town
should  be  as  short  as  possible,  for  that  I
longed  once,  more  to  "strut  the  monarch
of  the  boards,"  and  concluded  with  a  sly
paragraph,  artfully  intended  to  act  as  a
paratonnierre  to  the  gibes  and  jests  which
I  dreaded,  by  endeavoring  to  make  light
of  my  matrimonial  speculations.  The
postscript  ran  somewhat  thus— "Glorious
fun  have  I  had  since  we  met  ;  but  were  it
not  that  my  good  angel  stood  by  me,  I
should  write   these  hurried   lines  with  a


wife  at    in-,   i  Ibow  :  but  luck,  that  ne
yet  deserted,  ie  still   faithful   to  your  old
friend,  II.  Lorbeqi  bb."

My  reader  may  b  oppose — for  he  is  suffi-
ciently behind  the  Bcenes  with  mi — with
what.  Eeelings  1  penned  I  be  word  ;  yet
anything  was  better  than  the  attack  1
looked  forward  to  :  and  1  should  rather
bare  changed  into  the  <  'ape  Rifle  <  iorps,  or
any  other  army  of  martyrs,  than  meel  my
mess  with  all  the  ridicule  my  late  proceed-
ings exposed  me  to.  Eaving  disburdened
im\  conscience  of  this  dread.  I  finished  my
breakfast,  and  set  out  on  a  Btroll  through
the  town.
