Just before the last fatal moment, the sun came round and shone into the apartment, and, in obedience to a motion from Mr Brims, I went to the window to close a part of the shutter. How strange, I thought, to see this cheerful light gilding the objects of a death-chamber with as much brilliancy as if they belonged to some splendid and festive scene! Before I could accomplish what I was about, the increase of light seemed to break up for a moment the slumber of the dying youth, and he cast a hesitating and languid look towards the window. "Oh, leave the shutter as it is,” said the father eagerly, as if afraid to deprive his child of any thing that could be supposed, even at this last darkening hour, to give him any pleasure. was only for a moment, however, that the eye remained open to this new impression. It closed immediately; and in a minute after, one convulsive movement in the youth, and a burst of overpowering grief from the father, informed me that death had done his work.

It

Other females from the neighbourhood now came crowding in, and were permitted by Brims to perform the last offices to his son. That night he was pressed by my father, in the most earnest and friendly manner, to take up his abode with us; but nothing could prevail upon him to quit his own desolate house, and we were accordingly obliged to leave him, though not till we had seen another room arranged properly for his reception, and provisions laid in for his use. Our attention, alas! was unnecessary. Brims was found next morning stretched lifeless beside the body of his son-his own bed unpressed his meat untasted. Upon the table which had been spread for him lay a scrap of paper, on which were inscribed the words, "It is too late." Nothing else was to be learned, except that a spirit, deserted by all the objects of its affection, and oppressed with misfortunes too heavy to be endured, had sunk beneath its griefs, and fled to rejoin all it held dear in another and better world.

MEN ABOUT TOWN.

In every large city there are a few single gentlemen who move about among what is called the best society, and are every where received as men of proper style and character, who, nevertheless, have no real pretensions to the honours they receive, and are in fact mere adventurers. If a young man have only such an income as will supply him with a little pocket-money, and be possessed of agreeable manners and a prepossessing exterior, let him but get into a single coterie in a fashionable city, and he immediately makes his way through the whole, and may live for years afterwards as a guest at the tables of the great. The grand essential for this kind of life, is to have nothing known about one. Just be a well-dressed and well-bred stranger; and if you are seen at one place, you are asked to another, whence you are asked to a third, and so on to a fourth, no one ever thinking further about you than simply that you are the young man whom we saw at such a place, and who took out Miss Young to dance. Fortunately for those who choose to live in this manner, there are always multitudes of silly women, the wives of men of good income, who, in their anxiety to show off and advance themselves in society, are perpetually giving parties, to which no one is invited on the sacred principles of friendship and hospitality, but multitudes are drawn in to eat and drink for considerations altogether different-chiefly that they may be impressed with a respectful notion of the giver of the entertainment. Such shows might almost be considered as given for the especial benefit of the individuals alluded to, who can always manage to get invitations to them, and are the only individuals to whom such exhibitions of viands and liquor do any real good.

The individual who writes the present paper was once "so far left to himself" as to spend several months amidst the heartless frivolities which characterise a winter of

fashionable life in the Scottish, as in all other capitals. In the course of the season, he had opportunities of observing the tactics of many young men about town, as they are called, some of whom were occasionally put to serious difficulties in the purchase of a single pair of white kid gloves, though they appeared, in company, as perfectly accustomed to the luxury of a full purse as if they had never known the reverse. There was one in particular in whom I had much reason to be interested, as will be observed from the adventure I am about to relate. This was a Mr Hopper, an Englishman of between thirty and forty, who had been fluttering about town for a dozen years, as I was informed, and yet no one knew any more about him than just that he was Mr Hopper. Hopper was a polished and most agreeable man, and, having seen much of the world, possessed really considerable powers of entertainment, insomuch, that at the dullest and worst-assorted parties, a relief was experienced from his conversation. He was supposed to be out four times a-week at an average, throughout the season; and though no instance of his giving a treat in return was upon record, many of these invitations were to the same house. There was even a worse peculiarity in Hopper, which in many persons would have had a very unfavourable effect, but in his case seemed to be pardoned for the sake of his better properties. This was his coarse and uncultivated-looking appetite. While all others were eating with the deliberation proper to good society, and talking as much as possible between every bite, Hopper devoured his victuals with a rapidity and a silence alike odious, and never brought out a remark worth listening to till his mouth was quite disengaged from what he seemed to think a more serious business. In fact, Hopper was universally cried out upon as a gormandiser.

The adventure just alluded to was a dinner which Hopper once gave to me he who had never given a dinner or any thing else before, and who was supposed by all who knew him to be incapable of giving dinners. An enter.

tainment that took place under such remarkable circumstances, may well be expected to excite some curiosity in the reader, and I shall therefore describe it in the most minute and faithful manner possible.

What it was that inspired Hopper with the desire of having me to dine with him, I never could exactly make out. Perhaps it was a vague report, to which I gave no credit myself, that I was about to be married to a great heiress then in vogue ;-possibly he might reckon upon an invitation, at no distant date, to Hall, in return for his own. Whatever was the motive, one thing is certain : it could only be from some hope of turning the affair to his own advantage. At first, I must confess, I was rather startled by the event. I saw that he was a mere man about town, and wished to have as little to do with him as possible. On second thoughts, however, I resolved to go, just to see what kind of dinner such a man would give.

During the interval between the invitation and the appointed day, I found myself completely possessed by speculations on this latter point. What kind of dinner, thought I, is to be expected from a man who never gave a dinner before? Will it be good, or bad, or simply indifferent? I tried it all the ways, but at last fairly made up my mind to this: that, when the man was making a plunge, as it is called, he would do it to some purpose. The dinner would be splendid, even although there should be nobody there but myself.

Accordingly, on the evening of the great day, I moved towards the lodgings of Mr Hopper, in the full hope, like the dog invited by his friend to sup, of regaling myself at one of the most exquisite banquets that the world had ever produced. I had that day refused lunch at three places, that my appetite might be in proper order for so rich a treat; and having walked a good deal without any refection since breakfast, it may be guessed that I was considerably disposed to do justice to whatever should be set before me. On arriving at my friend's lodgings, which were for the

time in a rather shabby cottage near Newhaven, I was informed by him, that, from some misunderstanding with his landlady, dinner would not yet be ready for half an hour, and he proposed that we should while away the time by a walk on the beach. To this I agreed, and, by so doing, gave the last fine edge to an appetite already almost as keen as a razor. However, thought I, there can be no doing too much justice to such an entertainment. In the course of our walk, the conversation somehow turned upon desserts. He was a great critic, I found, in this branch of gastronomical knowledge. He had eaten all kinds of desserts, in all quarters of the world, and, said he in conclusion, "I have got into such a habit of devouring these fine things, that I never dine, even by myself, without something of the kind." Well, thought I, this is better promise still the dinner, to be sure, is something long a-coming; but when it does come, what will it not be?

At length, in a perfect agony of appetite, I was led back to his lodgings, where we found, in the first place, a very neatly spread table, but as yet no viands: neither was there any wine as yet visible above the horizon. After a little farther conversation, Hopper went to a cupboard, and brought out a black bottle, which he placed very carefully near his own plate. By and bye, the honest woman of the house brought in a small covered dish, which proved to be of curried mutton-chops, with another containing boiled rice. This gave, of course, a revolution to my expectations, and informed me, that, after all, it was to be only a bachelor's, or, to describe it more emphatically, a lodging-house dinner. However, I still thought there might be a rough sufficiency in the affair. In this, alas, how much was I deceived! The cover being removed from the chops, disclosed three small pieces about as many inches square, piled above each other, and a small quantity of sauce floating at the bottom. 'Now," said Mr Hopper, "here are curried chops to begin with the best dish in the world: Will you be helped to any?"

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