On the whole, then, about forty' must be considered a somewhat solitary period of life, but at the same time it possesses not a few advantages peculiarly its own. It is true that most of the illusions of life have vanished, and that high spirit which carried us through difficulties is effectually sobered; but with a man of sound constitution, who has taken tolerable care of himself, all the substantial advantages of life are left.

His eyesight is probably as keen as ever it was ; and he is nearly, if not quite, as good across country as he was ten years ago, though he may ride fifteen stone.

If he be wise, he has given up dancing, though I have met with men considerably past forty, who are such devoted worshippers of Terpsichore, that they still haunt scenes where they formerly distinguished themselves.

Undoubtedly, there is one thing a man ought to have acquired at forty, and that is, the ability to recognise and appreciate a good dinner. I confess I feel nearly as great a contempt for a man of forty who does not care what he eats as I do for a dainty youngster of twenty.

As boys, it is natural we should, as it were, rush upon our chief meal to be in time for the theatre, where we have taken stalls; but, to middle-aged men, the attractions of the drama are less absorbing than they were ten or fifteen years ago, and they have learned that one of the most essential adjuncts to enjoyment at dinner is repose.

On certain matters connected with the table, they have decided opinions-think, for instance, that oysters are always (when in season) the best thing to commence upon; that champagne goes well with cheese; and that dressed fish is a mistake.

Then, again, about forty may be considered physically a safe age; for though people die, of course, at all ages, and thirty-seven is considered, I believe, the average of human life, yet we are not as we were in the days of Edward III., when few gentlemen lived till they were forty, but, on the contrary, have surmounted juvenile disorders, and, with the exception of a hint of approaching gout, are free from the infirmities of age.

So, with all its drawbacks, there is something favourable to be said about forty. Must I confess that when our club party broke up, I was halfoblivious of the lapse of twenty years, and inclined to ask our host: 'Shall you be at morning chapel to-morrow?' but that infliction at least we most of us escape when about forty.

ON AN OLD HARPSICHOR D.

ITs varnish cracked, its paintings scarred,
Its dainty gilding sadly marred,

And turned to dingy umber,

It stands forlorn, a waif or stray
Of glories long since passed away,
An ancient piece of lumber.

What more? And yet how rich it is,
This harpsichord, in memories

And quaint associations,
Recalling that far time, when still
High birth and title had their will,
And kings were more than nations;

When gallants wore the true grand air—
And wigs, by half a morning's care

Made wondrous smooth and sheeny-
And, while the perfumed pinch they took,
Lisped languid rhapsodies on Glück,

Or, maybe, on Piccini.

I touch the keys-the startled chord
Can scarce a weak response afford
That wakes a low vibration
Among the slackened, palsied strings:
A feeble spell, and yet it brings

A magic transformation.
An antique aspect veils the place,
A weird, oppressive, ghostly grace

That almost makes one tremble;
A mystic light pervades the air,
Faint footfalls gather on the stair-

The belles and beaux assemble.
The belles and beaux? Alas, the ghosts!
Thin shadows of once-reigning toasts,

And heroes of the duel.
They smile, they chatter, they parade,
They rustle in superb brocade,

They shine with many a jewel.
They flirt their fans with pretty airs,
They tap their precious tabatières,

They smooth their ruffles grandly;
While here and there an exquisite
Lets fall his studied stroke of wit,

And waits for plaudits blandly.
The harpsichord is quav'ring soon
A minuet's slow triplet-tune.

A courtly powdered couple,
All formal graces, bend and slide,
With court'sies marvellously wide,
And bows politely supple.
The tune is changed, with graceful ease
Fair spirit-fingers sweep the keys,

A spirit voice is trilling;
The passionate Che faro strain
Comes, like a half-heard cry of pain

From some far distance thrilling.
The lights go out; the voices die;
Among the strings strange tremors fly,
That slowly sink to slumber;
The harpsichord remains alone,
A monument of glories done,

An ancient piece of lumber.

b

handsome little boy, ten years old, yellow of hair, blue of eye, and pink of cheek.

Do you want to drive me mad?' pettishly exclaimed the person addressed. 'You know I'm a nigger-slave. The partners can go, and the junior clerks can go or at least some of 'em; but the manager must be at his desk every day of every month.'

Bar one, George,' said the ruddy man with a grin.

Ah, I do get a month's holiday, I admit,' rejoined the other petulantly; and,' he added more cheerfully, thanks to you, I enjoy it.'

'Bother the thanks,' said the ruddy man bluntly; 'you're always welcome at the old mill. But we shan't see you this autumn, Bessy tells me; you're off to Jericho or somewhere, like the fashionable folks.'

That depends,' said Mr George Stanhope-Brown with dignity.

6

The old mill's not good enough for you, I suppose, George,' remarked the ruddy man in a frank, hearty tone; and the buxom woman, who was his wife, laughed good-humouredly.

communication, that it really makes very little difference whether your school is in a remote part of England, or on the continent.'

'And so much more attention is paid to manners abroad,' simpered Mrs Stanhope-Brown.

'Poor lad! poor lad!' said the miller compassionately. No cricket nor nothing; only dominoes, they tell me. Well, well; I reckon your month's outing 'll cost a sight o' money, eh?'

'You can't travel for nothing, certainly,' answered Mr Stanhope-Brown evasively; but all my little ventures have lately turned out pretty well-all,

bar one.'

Mr Stanhope-Brown and the somewhat delicatelooking woman, who was his wife, and the some boy, who was their sole offspring, all protested together.

Don't talk rubbish, James,' said Mr StanhopeBrown with a slight air of confusion.

'James, you're very unkind,' exclaimed Mrs Stanhope-Brown, bridling and looking hurt. 'Stainesford Mill's the jolliest place in the world, Uncle James,' roared the youngster lustily. The miller looked pleased, but puzzled.

"If there's nothing the matter with the old mill, then,' he bellowed, and it's as pleasant for you to come as it is for us to have ye (and I know we look forrard to it as our treat), why, in the name of patience and the patriarch Job, should you go off to Jericho?'

'Nearly all the people we know here go abroad somewhere,' insinuated Mrs Stanhope-Brown.

More fools they, Mary,' rejoined the stout miller. Your sister and I are older than you and your husband, and we never wanted to leave what's the best country out, with all its faults. Did we, Bess?'

I never did; I can't answer for you,' replied the buxom Bessy. Perhaps it's that very desire of getting away from home which is wearing you down so.'

At this sally, the jolly miller, who weighed some two-and-twenty stone, winked and chuckled approvingly for full a minute, during which Mrs Stanhope-Brown had thought of something to say. You see, James,' she said coaxingly, addressing Mr Tamlin, the miller, we want to personally visit some schools in Switzerland. We think of sending our little George to school there, education is so much cheaper abroad than in England.'

And so it ought to be,' said the miller, grinning; 'they tell me it's a darned sight nastier. But d' ye mean to say you'll put all them seas and I don't know what else between yourselves and an only child? Why, God bless my soul !'

Mrs Stanhope-Brown looked furtively at her husband, who answered for her.

'Well, Mary didn't like the notion at all at first, but she listened to reason. You see, James, we have nowadays such quick and easy means of

'No, no; thank you,' answered Mr StanhopeBrown decisively.

I'm sure George will not do anything of the kind,' cried Mrs Stanhope-Brown with moisture in her eyes and a flush on her cheek: he hasn't so many ten-pound notes to spare as you have, James.'

Mr Stanhope-Brown shook his head once more; and the miller laughed good-naturedly.

'Do you know what the betting is this morning, George?' asked the latter.

'I don't understand it,' answered Mr StanhopeBrown fretfully: here's the paper.'

'Oh! 3 to 1 bar one,' said the miller eagerly, after a glance at the quotations.

'Bar one!' exclaimed Mr Stanhope-Brown, as if he were puzzled, in a loud and excited voice.

"Yes, replied the miller patronisingly; "bar Mox, of course. You can get 3 to 1 against any hoss you fancy except Mox. But, bless you, it's a certainty; he's been going up in the betting every day, and I put my tenner on him when it was 10 to 1 against him.'

'Then, if you'd put ten tenners on, you'd have stood to win a thousand pounds, besides getting back your hundred,' said Mr Stanhope-Brown with an air of interest.

have

Less the commissioner's percentage, and unless you hedged,' assented the miller: but you to go in for the regular book-making business for that sort of thing, and that wouldn't suit either you or me.'

6

'Decidedly not,' said Mr Stanhope-Brown emphatically: why, you could hardly keep your transactions concealed, and your character as a steady man of business would be gone.'

'You speak like a book, George,' rejoined the miller, laughing: 'just bet once on one horse, and stick to him. If you lose one time, you'll win another. All you have to do is to write to a proper sort of commissioner, and even your own wife,' he added, winking at Mrs Tamlin, 'needn't know anything about it, unless you like.'

I had a curious dream last night,' said Mrs

句

Tamlin, 'I suppose in consequence of your talking so much about this race just before we went to bed. I saw the whole race as distinctly as if I had been there and wide awake.'

'Did 'ee, now!' exclaimed the miller with a broad grin. "Tell us what you saw; that's a good

woman.'

'I saw about thirty or more horses, with riders looking like harlequins and what-not, all going round and round, and jumping about at the bottom of a hill with white railings on each side of it; and all of a sudden away they went up the hill as if they'd been shot from a catapult'

That was the start,' interrupted the miller, rubbing his hands with glee.

They were all in a cluster at the top of the hill,' continued Mrs Tamlin, and then they turned to the left, and I lost sight of them for a few seconds'

'The bushes hid 'em,' broke in the miller. "When I saw them again,' proceeded Mrs Tamlin, 'they were broken up into fours, and threes, and twos, streaming along in a crooked line: then they turned sharp to the left again, and rushed down a fearful hill close by some more white railings'

'Tattenham Corner,' roared the miller.

'And, just as the leaders were turning the corner, one of the horses-the one nearest the rails seemed to slip up and fall with a frightful crash. All the others went on like a flash of lightning, and, about a hundred yards before they reached a sort of sentry-box, in which I could see nothing but a man's hat, one horse jumped right away from the other three that had been in front, and they never caught him, so I suppose he won. At anyrate, he was brought back in custody by a mounted policeman, and was taken, with his rider, into some place near the sentry-box.'

Ah! he won, safe enough,' roared the miller. But I reckon now you couldn't tell us what colour he was, and what his rider's colours were?'

'He seemed to me,' said Mrs Tamlin quietly, to be a very dark-coloured horse, and his rider looked like a chimney-sweep with a white night

cap on'

:

It was Mox, by gum,' observed the miller solemnly he's a very dark bay hoss, and his rider's colours are black and white cap. And how about that un that fell, my dear?'

I only tell you what I dreamt, mind,' answered Mrs Tamlin, with the half-deprecatory, half-patronising air of a person who has had an unexpected triumph; but I have it impressed upon my mind that it was a beautiful cream-coloured creature'

'Never was a race-hoss that colour, and never will be,' sneered the miller, contemptuously interrupting.

Well, it may have been chestnut,' resumed Mrs Tamlin with less confidence; 'but I know the rider wore a red jacket and black cap, something like the Queen's outriders.'

'That'll do,' said the miller reflectively; 'it was Beggarman. And now,' he added, slapping his thigh, I attach so much importance to dreams, especially when I can account for 'em by the pickles you took and the stories I told you last night, that I'll be darned like an old stocking if I don't put an extra ten-pun note on Beggarman as soon as I have settled you all right at Epsom.'

'And I attach so much importance to dreams,'

cried Mr Stanhope-Brown, so violently as to make the jolly miller start and look serious, 'that I think you'll be an infernal fool.'

'Why? If you were going to bet,' said the miller anxiously, 'would you still back Mox?' 'I'll stake my life on him,' answered Mr Stanhope-Brown.

The betting-men would rather have your money,' remarked the miller smiling: 'I don't know that they'd object to take both, but they'd prefer the money.'

'I must be off,' was Mr Stanhope-Brown's rejoinder: 'we've been chattering for an hour, and I shall hardly catch my train. Make yourselves as happy as you can without me,' he added with a sad smile.

'You'll be home by seven, George,' his wife called after him.

'If I live,' he replied.

'He always says that,' remarked Mrs StanhopeBrown to her sister.

'He seems very low this morning,' was the rejoinder: 'I'm so sorry he couldn't go with us.'

Oh! he is so good,' replied Mrs StanhopeBrown: he wouldn't stay away for the world, unless he were ill; the firm speak so highly of him; and I do so hope his last little speculation may turn out well-he is so anxious to see a little of foreign life.'

'He said all his little ventures had been successful "bar one," "' remarked Mrs Tamlin. 'Yes,' said Mrs Stanhope-Brown, 'that is the one. I don't know what it is, as I don't understand funds and that sort of thing.'

And so they conversed, whilst Mr Tamlin and George were watching at the window, round which the pretty creeper climbed, the pedestrians and the vehicles growing every minute more numerous and noisy, and incompatible with the ordinary habits of the aboriginal denizens of Clapham.

At 11 A.M. there drove up to Mrs StanhopeBrown's cottage a wagonette with a pair of good horses. Hampers were put in; blue veils were assumed by Mr and Mrs Tamlin, Mrs StanhopeBrown, and little George; and away they went in grand style to the Derby. It was the jolly miller's principal holiday; he always insisted, to use his own language, upon 'standing the trap;' and the only drawback to his enjoyment of his great annual festival was, that he never could induce his dutiful brother-in-law to take part in the Epsom carnival.

Meanwhile, Mr Stanhope-Brown was seated at his desk in his own room, doing all the work there was to do on the Derby-day; and that was, apparently, to walk about and bite his nails. He had been grievously annoyed on his railway-journey, and on his walk from the station to the office; for his ears had caught nothing but a buzzing sound in which no words were clearly distinguishable but 'Mox' and 'Bar one.' Until nearly two o'clock he paced the floor of his private room, and then he went out to luncheon.

About the same time, at Epsom, his relatives were at the height of their enjoyment. The miller, as good as his word, had at the earliest opportunity gone off to put his 'tenner' on Beggarman. He was not a member of the 'ring,' and he had therefore been delighted to find an affable man presiding at a board on which was the name of Podex; for Podex was the name of the miller's own commissioner,' and the affable man at once replied, in

answer to a question, that 'it was all one and the same firm,' and volunteered to give the jovial miller, as an old customer, a ‘pint' over. The 'pint' was not liquid measure, but, otherwise pronounced, a 'point' over the odds. So the miller returned rejoicing to his relatives; and they all made a hearty meal, with a good many libations of champagne, to prepare them for the imminent Derby. There had been some change in the betting. There were voices shouting "Three to two on the field,' and 'Two to one bar one;' and Stentor and Leviathan were proclaiming, at the risk of breaking a blood-vessel, their earnest desire to 'bet against Mox; but they wouldn't offer more than three to two, though occasionally a queer-looking customer, who, even if he were not a native of the Principality, bore the lineaments of a Welsher, was liberal enough (as money was no object to him) to offer a sovereign to anybody to make a bet,' and an additional "alf-pint' over the odds. At last the course was cleared; the dog was driven mad; the dust-cloud was raised; hats were taken off; the sea of faces heaved and roared; the hoofs thundered and the colours flashed; the crowd closed in behind the horses as they passed; the winner's number was duly hoisted; and the miller's wife read No. 7.'

'Beggarman's won,' roared the excited miller; 'but dang me if I didn't think it was Squoggles; at any rate, it was too near to be pleasant.'

Babel at once set in and continued, and in the midst of it all the worthy miller went in search of the affable man who professed to represent Podex & Co. But Affability's place knew him no more; the man and the board had vanished together; and the only information the miller could obtain was coldly imparted in two words: "’Ooked it.'

'I see 'im getting ready to step it,' remarked a policeman, grinning, 'jest as the 'osses passed the distance-post with Beggarman a-pullin' double.'

The miller returned chop-fallen to his party, but with the assistance of champagne he soon recovered his spirits.

'Twenty pounds gone,' said he with rueful grimace at his wife. Well, twenty pounds won't break me; but if ever I set eyes on that infernal Welsher, I'll break every bone in his skin.'

"Ah!' said the two sisters reproachfully, 'George was wise; he never bets.'

'Stuff!' growled the miller: you women would ha' been the first to crow if I'd brought the money back wi' me. It ain't betting, it's swindling that lost me my twenty pounds.' The handsome little boy had been looking wonderingly from one to another.

'You'll never bet, Georgy, will you?' said his mother, drawing him close to her.

'Not I,' replied the boy laughing; 'I'll be like

dad.'

The miller looked a little disconcerted, and drew attention to the fact that the horses were coming out for the next race; and the whole party became absorbed in the proceedings, and divided their time between watching preliminary canters, and breaks away, and downright racing, amidst an uproar caused by Ethiopian melodists, mountebanks, and the like, until the last event was decided. Then they set out for home with little George as happy as a king; for round his cap were stuck innumerable dolls; on what pugilists call his 'smeller' was a false nose of gigantic size; and in his two hands

were two wind-instruments, which he used alternately for the production of sounds delicious to boys and pandemoniacs. By half-past 6 P.M. they had reached the pretty cottage, between Balham and Clapham, in a condition which the miller acknowledged was appropriate to his calling.

Before 4 P.M. there had been gathered together in front of certain shop-windows in the City many clusters of men, women, boys, and girls, all waiting for the appearance of a little piece of paper. It is probable that not one in twenty of the gazers had any pecuniary interest in what they were so anxious to see; nor, from the artistic point of view, is there much to look at in a piece of foolscap paper inscribed with three more or less outlandish names having appended to them respectively the first three numerals. And yet the human clusters could not have displayed greater eagerness had they been expecting the exhibition of a new painting by a great master, or of a live Claimant weighing something under a ton. But nowadays, with the help of the press, interest in anything gathers bulk, as does a snowball by continual rolling in the snow; so that it would not be wonderful if the whole world were to be divided into two hostile camps on the question of a family difference between two fleas, supported by their respective organs.' At any rate, example is catching; and, whether a man has a bet on' or not, he is not singular if he stands amongst his fellowcreatures, and joins them in staring at a particular pane of glass.

There was nothing very remarkable, then, in the fact, that amongst one group of starers should be Mr George Stanhope-Brown. It was far more remarkable that, when the expected bit of paper was put up and bore the inscription ‘Beggarman 1, Squoggles 2, Kick-the-bucket 3-won easily by a length,' Mr Stanhope-Brown's neighbour should have uttered a cry of agony, and pushed him fiercely away, saying: 'What the devil are you adoin' of?'

'Beg pardon,' said Mr Stanhope-Brown dreamily as he elbowed his way out of the throng.

'Beg pardon! I should think you did-pinchin' people like that,' roared the injured neighbour after him. Why, the man must be mad.'

Mad or not, Mr Stanhope-Brown sauntered leisurely along, looking very pale, and grinding his teeth together, insomuch that a friend who met him cried: Hollo, Stanhope-Brown! you didn't back Beggarman, evidently. But I know you don't bet, old fellow. What's the matter? Toothache?'

Mr Stanhope-Brown nodded.

"Then look here,' continued his friend: 'just you run over the way to Cory's, the chemist's. He gave me some rare stuff. Tell him I sent you'

'Chemist's!' exclaimed Mr Stanhope-Brown, as if it gave him an idea. Ah! thanks I'll go.'

And Mr Stanhope-Brown went not only to Cory's, but to several other chemists;' and when he got back to his office, he said to the porter: 'I have some work that I must finish to-night, Peter. You can shut up as usual at five.'

'Very well, sir. Shall I get you some dinner?' 'No, thank you; I've had all the dinner I mean to have. That'll do.'

Peter retired, and Mr Stanhope-Brown shut himself up in his room, and set seriously to work. Seven, eight, and nine struck, and Mr Stanhope