not have required, but my steward, Duncan, does not return from the country till to-morrow, when I will take care that you shall be paid in full."

Sir Thomas then joined the dancers with apparent glee, while I remained standing in the same spot, astonished at his heartless effrontery. He was no sooner out of hearing, than a couple of our lacqueys, who were lounging near the door, burst out into a laugh, saying at the same time to one of the housemaids who had also been looking on, "Well, that is a good 'un. How master could keep his countenance I can't think; as if he ever meant to pay that silly young chap, and to talk about Mr. Duncan being in the country, when he is in the house all the time."

They then vanished, leaving me petrified at their impudence, and their master's villany.

As the housemaid joined me for a few minutes, I observed that she had something in her apron, and soon discovered that it contained her perquisites, in the shape of numerous pieces of soap and wax-candles, which she

had evidently been fishing out of the different

rooms.

Thoroughly disgusted, I was hastening to the seclusion of my own room, inwardly resolving to take the first opportunity of quitting a place so repugnant to my feelings and habits, when a fresh dance striking up, stayed my steps, and riveted my attention. It was the very air to which I had danced with Lord St. George in the delicious groves of Beaulieu.

The sounds and the associations to which they gave rise, banished sleep for that night from my eyes.

As morning dawned, the gay throng began to depart, and I roused myself to assist my lady, now really tired by her pleasing exertions, to undress.

As soon as I left her, I passed into the deserted ball-rooms, where the unpleasant glare of the candles was beginning to fade in the daylight. As no one attempted to put them out, and as I was fearful the drapery of the curtains might be in danger from the nu

merous lights still burning, I hastened to extinguish them.

I had nearly completed my task, when a sort of grunt startled me, and looking around, I saw extended, on two delicate silk couches, a couple of the footmen fast asleep. I immediately left the room in hopes of finding one of the housemaids to assist me. After some time I secured one, and we returned to finish what I had begun. We then went through the other rooms, and in the one appropriated to cards, two more of the footmen were discovered, with some of them grasped in their hands, one in a chair, and the other stretched upon the carpet, either asleep or drunk.

We agreed it was better to leave them as we found them, and then hastened down stairs to see if the lights were out in the library and dining-rooms, all of which had been used for

supper.

Here every thing was in the same reckless confusion. The supper had been only partially cleared away, and the lights were still burning.

As we extinguished the last candle in the library, and opened the shutters, through which the sun was streaming gloriously, we were startled by a loud report from Sir Thomas Dryden's dressing-room, which opened into the library.

We looked at each other inquiringly, when a second report startled us again, and we exclaimed, "Surely that was a gun!" and in the same moment something heavy fell to the ground. We rushed into the hall to tell the porter what we had heard, thinking that Sir Thomas might have been trying his pistols, (as we knew that he was not gone to bed,) and that they had gone off accidentally and injured him.

That this gay, thoughtless man had committed suicide, never once entered into my imagination. The porter, however, thought otherwise, as he instantly observed, with a nonchalance that was quite shocking, "I'll be bound he has paid his debts with a bullet!"

The very idea made me quite sick, and I implored the man to force open the door, as it was fastened inside, that we might render Sir

Thomas every assistance in our power, as I hoped that he might not be quite dead.

The door resisting all efforts to force it, the housemaid advised the porter to take a ladder and enter by the window which opened back upon the paved court-yard. This he hastened to do, while we waited at the door in the most agonizing suspense.

In a few minutes we heard him throw down the sash, as the upper shutters were not closed. An exclamation of horror burst from the man's lips as he hurried across the apartment to let

us in.

What a sight presented itself! As long as I live I can never forget it.

The unhappy Sir Thomas lay on his face on the floor, with one pistol clenched in his hand, and another by his side. His blood was gushing from a wound in his neck, while the upper part of his head seemed blown off. He had evidently fired off both the pistols nearly at the same instant.

After the porter had laid his unfortunate master upon a sofa, I despatched him for the