and then gets a kick from his mistress, is as ready to play over his tricks again as

ever.

Mr Bearskin, after many expressions of his happiness in seeing his cousin in his new house, proposed walking us down stairs again, to begin shewing it from the ground story upwards. Umphraville, though I saw him sweating at the idea, was ready to follow his conductor, when we were saved by the interposition of the lady, who uttered a "Psha! Mr Bearskin," with so significant a look, that her husband instantly dropped his design, saying, "to be sure there was not much worth seeing, though he could have wished to have shewn his cousin his study, which he thought was tolerably clever." -"I thought, Papa," said the eldest of the misses, "it was not quite in order yet."-" Why, not altogether;" replied her father: "I have not been able to get up my heads, as Pope has lost an ear, and

Homer the left side of his beard, by the carelessness of a packer; and I want about three feet and a half of folios of my lowest shelf."- "I don't care if there was not a folio in the world," rejoined Miss. "Child!" said her mother in a tone of rebuke-Miss bridled up, and was silent;-I smiled;— Umphraville walked to the window, and wiped his forehead.

Bearskin now pulled out his watch, and telling the hour, said, he wondered his friend Mr Blubber was not come, as he was generally punctual to a minute. While he spoke, a loud rap at the door announced the expected company; and presently Mr Blubber, his wife, a son, and two daughters, entered the room. The first had on an old-fashioned pompadour coat, with gold buttons, and very voluminous sleeves, his head adorned by a large major wig, with curls as white and as stiff as if they had been cast in plaster of Paris; but the females, and

heir of the family, were dressed in the very height of the mode. Bearskin introduced the old gentleman to his cousin Mr Umphraville:-" Mr Blubber, Sir, a very particular friend of mine, and (turning to me with a whisper) worth fourscore thousand pounds, if he's worth a farthing." Blubber said, he feared they had kept us waiting; but that his wife and daughters had got under the hands of the hair-dresser, and he verily thought would never have had done with him. The ladies were too busy to reply to this accusation; they had got into a committee of enquiry on Mr Edward Blubber's waistcoat, which had been tamboured, it seems, by his sisters, and was universally declared to be monstrous handsome. The young man himself seemed to be highly delighted with the reflection of it in a mirror that stood opposite to him. "Isn't it vastly pretty, Sir?" said one of the young ladies to Umphraville. "Ma'am !"

said he, starting from a reverie, in which I saw, by his countenance, he was meditating on the young gentleman and his waistcoat in no very favourable manner. I read her countenance too; she thought Umphraville just the fool he did her bro

ther.

Dinner was now announced, and the company, after some ceremonial, got into their places at table, in the centre of which stood a sumptuous epargne, filled, as Bearskin informed us, with the produce of his farm. This joke, which, I suppose, was as regular as the grace before dinner, was explained to the ignorant to mean, that the sweetmeats came from a plantation in one of the WestIndia islands, in which he had a concern. The epargne itself now produced another dissertation from the ladies, and, like the waistcoat, was also pronounced monstrous handsome. Blubber, taking his eye half off a plate of salmon, to which he had

just been helped, observed, that it would come to a handsome price too;" Sixty ounces, I'll warrant it," said he; "but as the plate-tax is now repealed, it will cost but the interest a-keeping."—" La, papa," said Miss Blubber, " you are always thinking of the money things cost!" "Yes," added her brother, "Tables of interest are an excellent accompaniment for a desert." At this speech all the ladies laughed very loud. Blubber said, he was an impudent dog; but seemed to relish his son's wit notwithstanding. Umphraville looked sternly at him; and, had not a glance at his waistcoat set him down as something beneath a man's anger, I don't know what consequences might have followed. During the rest of the entertainment, I could see the fumet of fool and coxcomb on every morsel that Umphraville swallowed, though Mrs Bearskin, next whom he sat, was at great