The noble hall was a scene of vulgar festivity, where the ubiquitous kellner, racing to and fro with beer and plates of sausage, solved the problem of perpetual motion.  It was not easy, in such circumstances, to maintain the flow of poetic association, but I accomplished the feat in a measure.  As the shades of evening closed around the hill, and the bells of twenty dining-tables ascended to us through the still air, I thought of Gray’s curfew—­of that glimmering Stoke-Pogis landscape that faded into immortality on his sight.  I thought of Matthisson’s “Elegy” on this forlorn old dandy of a castle.  I thought of the sympathetic chest-notes with which I read to Mary Ashburton the “Song of the Silent Land.”

I thought of Francine, and of the condition of base terror I was in when I ran away from her with the man who momentarily represented my solvency, my credit and my respectability.  May the foul fiend catch me, sweet vision, if I do not find thee soon again!  A Tyrolean, who entered by stealth, persuaded a heart-rending lamentation to issue from his wooden trumpet:  although the acid sounds proceeding from this terrible whistle set my teeth on edge and caused me at first to start off my seat, yet I rewarded him with such a competency in copper as made his eyes emerge from his face.  A singing-girl and some blonde bouquet-sellers had equal cause to rejoice in my generosity.  It is when a gentleman is landed finally on his coppers that he becomes penny-liberal.  I glanced defiance at Berkley, my creditor, as I showered largess on these humble poets.

We descended under the stars, and I began to think that illuminated gravel-roads were, at night, susceptible of some apology.  We returned to the city by easy stages, with a halt at the “Repose of Sophie.”  At the hotel there was given me, re-directed in the pretty hand of Francine, an unlimited credit from Munroe & Co. on the house of Meyer in Baden-Baden.  I was a freeman once more.

EDWARD STRAHAN.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

AUTUMN LEAVES.

  My life is like the autumn leaves
        Now falling fast,
  Which grew of late so fresh and fair—­
        Too fair to last.

  The mar of earth and canker-worm
        The foliage bears;
  So my poor life of sin and care
        The impress wears.

  As shine the leaves before they fall
        With brighter hue,
  And each defect of worm and time
        Is lost to view,

  So may my life, when fading, shine
        With brighter ray,
  And brighter still as nearer to
        The perfect day.

  And as new life still springs again
        From fallen leaves,
  And richer life a thousand-fold
        From gathered sheaves;

  So, God, if aught in me was good,
        The good repeat,
  And let me from my ashes breathe
        An influence sweet.