of wine was all they drank; but before the cloth was removed, they applied themselves to the comfort of the cigar: a glutton might have said, like the apostrophiser in the old play, "All our joys end in smoke," but with my companions it was in the words of the poet, "Never ending, still beginning;" and we had not finished our recreation, before we were summoned, by a special invitation, to a ball. I was a little startled at the proposal, for I had no dress fit for the purpose, and had nothing on but a Cashmire shawl jacket, worked with frogs and lace, according to the Mexican costume, and white waistcoat and trowsers: and I doubted whether my Chinese, who was a great enemy to redundancy in apparel, had put me up, what the tailors term, a "dress frock coat." But my speculations were defeated, upon the first expression of my doubts, as to the propriety of my apparel: I was assured that it was a party, sans ceremonie, and, without ordering the carriage, for the distance was not a hundred yards
