OUR LIBRARY TABLE continued:- Wedding Ring, The Worn: By W. C. Bennett: 163 Tears, A Winter's (Christmas Story): By Silverpen : Temptations, A Day's: By Marian Gwynn: 97 Parted by a Hair's-breadth : By Louis Sand: 183 Paul Ferroll, and why Paul Ferroll killed his Wife: Salt, its Sources and Supplies: 179 Sports and Pastimes of our Forefathers: By C. Tale, A Traveller's: By J. B. S.; 156 Bertha By Merlin: 177 mond: 78 Toilet, The (Especially from Paris): 55, 110, 67, Village Quarrels: By the Author of "Ethell": 40 Edging for Children's Frocks: 318 Penwiper, in German Applique: 38 Point-lace Cover for a Sultana: 207 Sontag, or Woollen Habit-shirt: 39 Sponge-bag: 263 Midnight, December 31st, 1860: By J. H. C.: 17 Moonlight: By Ada Trevanion : 70 "Mother and Child are doing well:" By Mrs. My Way and Thine: By Merlin : 12 Pinturicchio: By J. A. Langford: 232 Italy, The King of: By Mrs. Newton Crosland: 265 Tower, The Silent (A Legend of Cornwall): By Lavender: By Ada Trevanion: 119 Life's Battle-field: By W. R.: 12 Lines for a Gift-book: By G. F. Pardon : 17 Untenanted; By Ada Trevanion: 17 Winter: By James Edmeston : 73 Words, The, we bear away with us: By Mrs. Abdy : Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 346, Strand, London. RUTSON MORLEY. CHAP. I. BY JAMES B. STEPHENS. READER (if I am not apostrophizing merely a phantom impersonality), allow me to present my card : Mr. Rutson Morley. Such was, and still is, my season-ticket on the great Railroad of Life; but, unlike railway tickets in general, it gives you no idea of the class in which I first took my seat. If I may turn your attention to an advertisement which appears in the Wellknownburgh Advertiser of theth day of theth month of the -th year of the reign of Victoria, Dei Gratiâ Britanniar. Reg. F.D., it will be seen that whatever may have been my aspirations, I started as a third-class passenger. The advertisement is as follows: "An M.A. of, having had much experience in tuition, is desirous of entering, in the capacity of tutor, a family either about to travel or at present residing abroad. The highest references can be given. Apply to No. 353, office of this paper (353)." That is to say, in railway language nineteenth-century language-"A third-class passenger is desirous of joining a family in the first-class, and in return for a soft-seat, elbowcushions, and a comfortable salary, will be happy to explain to the little children whatever is to be seen on the road, as well as to keep them from falling out of the window." The above will sufficiently account for the fact that, a few weeks after the date indicated, I found myself in a steamer with its head France-ward. What a day that was to me of new experiences! On that day I saw, for the first time, the white cliffs of England to the north of me, and gradually dying away from the "sensible horizon." On that day I became aware-and it felt like a new consciousness that I had once upon time been born; had lived, and was still alive; had had friends, and was then separated froin them. I became aware too that I was a patriot; had had a country and had loved it. And gradually as my mind expanded, I became aware that I wasn't quite well, that I was not on my own element, and, moreover, that I was every minute getting worse. Then I can recall a confusion of sea and sky, a generous contribution to the universal chaos, and a sad disgust with my newly-discovered existence. After many vain attempts to fix my mind on one idea, to conjure up a pleasing landscape, and to throw my whole soul into recollections of "still life," all resulting in precisely the one's eyes and trying to see a moving darkness same mental state as that produced by shutting full of tormenting sparks-I at length became conscious of a gradual diminution of the speed of the vessel, and lifting my cap to its proper place, on the top of my head, instead of over my face, I had my first view of a foreign land. Everybody travels now-a-days. Distance is conquered. Space is no more. Boulogne is just over there. Take your hat and let us be off. Portmanteau ! Useless encumbrance. My dear sir, we'll be back to-morrow. I have seen a Nubian sunset, a few miles farther south than Juvenal was, when he considered himself banished to the limits of the great Roman Empire. And shall I condescend to record my impressions of Boulogne ? Certainly. Who can ever forget his first day abroad? Who ever forget his delightful bewilderment in the paradox of "everything so like what we have at home, and yet everything so different from what we ever saw before?" Do future-seen wonders ever rekindle the enthusiasm of the first day? How new everything becomes ! How the mind expands! How the heart opens! How nation sinks before kind! How characteristic differences surprise us! How trifling analogies delight us! I confess I was as much charmed to find grass springing from the ground, and to see mud on the gentlemen's Observation the second:- A lady, evidently English and an invalid, issues from the bath house, and walks through the grounds towards a cab which is waiting outside. It is a short distance, but she is too weak even for that, and rests herself on one of the seats midway. Seeing her need of assistance, a well dressed, gentlemanlike person approaches, and, with a courtly bow, offers his arm. It is accepted. Gentleman conducts lady to cab, assists her into it, shuts the door, receives her thanks and adieus with another courtly bow, and-evidently as much to the lady's surprise as my own-mounts the box. It was cocher himself. Corollary (which I have found reason to modify since): The French are as polite as they are said to be. boots, as with the costumes of the soldiers, and change): The French are a nation of grown up the other multitude of novelties. The small children. accessories of foreign life had never obtained a place among my anticipations. Never had I been so forcibly impressed with the universality of gravitation as when I saw a gentleman's trunk slip from the back of a porter, and assert the omnipresent principle in Boulogne mud twenty feet below. Never had my French grammars and dictionaries-dead skeletons as they seemed to me at home-assumed such real flesh and blood and living tongue, as in the person of the proprietor of the gravitated trunk, and in the astounding variety of French imprecations drawn from his lips by this unwelcome illustration of Newton's great discovery. Nor did I fail to be struck with that which seems to surprise all travellers-the fluency with which little children were speaking the language which it costs us so much labour to acquire. Nay, even the "dogs i' the street," when addressed by their masters, seemed perfectly to comprehend the most idiomatic expressions of their masters, making a strong nasal twang in their barks and howls. How I used to prize an hour's conversation with my French master at home, and hail the chance that threw a Frenchman in my way, that I might catch the precious idioms and accents that fell from his lips! But now it was raining French lessons on all sides-voice after voice casting forth treasures of language upon the unhoarding air, and I felt as some thrifty Gentile, resident in Jerusalem, may be supposed to have felt in the days when "the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar-trees as the sycamores that are in the low plains in abundance." I will not ask you, reader, to look at my passport, or into my portmanteau, or to help, me to fight my way through hosts of "touters," or indeed to share with me in any of those minor disagreeables of travelling which have just sufficient melodramatic interest to make one thankful to get through them, without caring to store them in memory. I put up at the Hotel de la - which had been previously recommended to me by the gentleman who had replied to my advertisement. I was delighted to get to a balcony to survey for a time, apart from crowds and interested offers of service, the first foreign town I had ever seen. However, as it was still early in the day, and as the table d'hote was not to be served till five, I soon tired of in-door observations, and resolved upon a sentimental stroll. Observation the first:-Half-a-dozen Frenchmen, varying in age from twenty-five to forty, playing at marbles. There they are, some on their knees, some bending down with their faces almost to the ground, watching the vicissitudes of the game with an interest and eagerness never exceeded by schoolboys. A shout, a laugh, a short dispute, settled by the interpositions of an aged spectator, and the winner shovels his spoils under his blouse into his gaping pocket, mounts a cart which has been standing by, and drives away with the air of a conquering hero. Corollary (which I never found reason to Pleased with my observations and chuckling over my corollaries, I strolled on to the sands. Bathed, bathing, and about to bathe. Boulogne is certainly amphibious. "Pay one sou, if you please;" so chirped a little creature, delicate as Ariel, as I walked over a short pathway of planks forming a slight bridge over a tract of water left by the receding tide. I dropped her two; and as I looked at the pale genius and architect of the bridge, I felt my heart open wider than ever to France and all mankind. And I confess I walked oftener than for the mere sake of dropping the sou. Corollary was necessary over the little bridge that day, (which I have since promoted to the rank of axiom): "Channels interposed don't make enemies of nations." nature, collected during that day's walk, of which I have other observations of a more general the following are a few specimens : That every man, who has two hands, has them both in his trouser's pockets: that the older men, engaged in discourse, occasionally pull them both out, display their palms, back their elbows, and elevate their shoulders to their ears; which seems to be considered an elegant way of winding up a period: that the officer lights his cigar from the private soldier's and the private soldier his from the officer's, sans cérémonie: that all the fishwomen are afflicted with incipient elephantiasis. And many other inductive principles of a similar nature. The table d'hôte, duly served at five, seemed to my untravelled eye the floweriest banquet ever beheld. I have since come to the conclusion that it must have been a very poor affair. A certain portly Englishman seemed to have attained to that idea from the very first, and saluted each disembodied potage and unrecognizable delicacy with a dissatisfied grunt, which the instinctive waiters knew for a negative, and so passed him by: At length, when the winecard was handed to him, and he was requested to take his choice from a list which he could make nothing of, he seemed to consider that the imposition had reached its climax, and the grunt became transformed into English grammar, as he furiously demanded if they couldn't give him |