plants, and tables covered with books and toys, into any of the other apartments. Mine was peculiarly dreary—the bed was of green velvet, black with time, and with those old-fashioned plumes at the corner, which resemble the decorations of a hearse. The chimney-piece was of dark wood, carved with grotesque faces, and an enormous press of the same material might have contained two or three skeletons, or manuscripts enough to have recorded every murder in the country. A large cedar grew so near to the window, that some of the small boughs touched the glass—and when the wind was high, a cry almost like that of human suffering came from the branches. The candles on my table did little more than cast a charmed circle of light around myself; but an enormous wood-fire sent occasional gleams around the gloomy room, giving to every object it touched that fantastic seeming peculiar to fire light. I had left the drawing-room early—
"E'en in the sunniest climes,
Light breezes will ruffle the flowers sometimes,"
and my host and his lady had disagreed about a dinner in the neighbourhood—the lady wished to go, the gentlemen did not. Retreat in such cases is the only plan for a prudent third party, before either thinks of appealing to you. If you give an
