"and I want to know if you don't his logical attitude, the, conversation agree with me?" was turned into another channel; for the servant opened the parlor door, and announced Miss Moleskin, and Mr. Elkton.

"Then you will find yourself in a dilemma here," Carrol dryly observed, "for in this instance the ladies are di-pany on the subject of the preparavided in their opinions."

CHAPTER X.

'Twas now the merry hour of noon,
And in the lofty arched hall
Was spread the gorgeous festival.
Marshalled the rank of every guest.
Steward and squire, with heedful haste,
Pages with ready blade were there,
The mighty meal to carve and share;
O'er capon, heron shew, and crane,
And princely peacock's gilded train,
And o'er the boar-head, garnished brave,
And cygnet from St. Mary's wave;
O'er ptarmigan and venison
The priest had spoke his benison;
Then rose the riot and the din,
Above, beneath, without, within!

discuss dinners in general; and when they were exhausted-without giving his auditors time to digest them-he launched out into a dissertation on suppers; and it is impossible to say where or when he would have stopped, for, from some hints that dropped from him, it was evident that he anticipated treating them to some remarks, general, comprehensive and critical, on the subject of breakfasts! and winding up with a few comments upon gastronomy as a science. But Adela, who had more than once displayed symptoms of impatience, seized the first favorable moment, to make good her escape with Carrol; declaring to him in a whisper as they went out, "that she was sur- in the history of the life of the great feited with the diet Mr. Elkton had financier of Philadelphia; for it was furnished in such promiscuous pro- on the afternoon of that day that a fusion."

After Adela's departure, Caroline made herself very comfortable with the Baron, without regard to the philosophy of breakfasts, dinners or suppers,Jemima ogled the Duke of Guise, as though she would prefer being alone with him, to hearing all the harangues that were ever uttered, though Cicero, or Demosthenes, might have been the speakers, and Miss Matilda Moleskin alone was left to bestow her undivided attention upon Mr. Elkton and his gastronomical prosings.

SCOTT.

Come wreathe the bowl with flowers of soul,

The brightest wit can find us;
We'll take a flight towards heaven to-night,

And leave dull earth behind us.

MOORE.

THE following Thursday was an era

large company assembled at the Hamilton Hotel to do the honors to a dinner to which he had been publicly invited.

As has already been intimated, the merchants had held a meeting previously, to take into consideration the valuable services which he had rendered the citizens of Philadelphia in particular, and the mercantile world in general; and they had passed a series of resolutions, in which they declared that no mind, however comprehensive, could fully appreciate his merits; and no gratitude, however unlimited, reward them. But, as a slight mark of the unbounded admiration with which the world regarded his talentsas a foretaste of what the present and future generations, till time shall merge into eternity, would be willing to do, to testify their gratitude towards him

they respectfully offered him a public [tion, and in every shape which it was feed! and in order that none should possible for wit to assume. He was a attend the festival but those whose lively man-was Mr. Grinder-and a minds were as enlarged as their pock-pleasant man, and a good-humored ets, and whose gentility could be tested man, and appeared just now to be by the price of the ticket that admitted overflowing with the milk of human thein; they made the price of each kindness. If any one had intimated admission five dollars! to a philanthropic stranger that Mr. Fitz Osborne replied-as became a Grinder was capable of feeling anger modest man and a man of worth; and towards any of his fellow-creatures, after a variety of rhetorical flourishes, or that Mr. Grinder was obnoxious to he concluded as it was the earnest the charges of cruelty and hardness desire of his fellow-citizens-to accept of heart, the philanthropical stranger the offered compliment. The whole would have laughed in derision and correspondence had been published in unbelief-so amiable, pleasant, witty, the daily papers, and the great public and jocular did Mr. Grinder appear! had been greatly edified by the perusal of it. Those of Mr. Fitz Osborne's friends who concluded not to attend this

"Feast of reason and flow of soul,"

Mr. Elkton was there too, and was as pompous and important as usual. Baron Kreutzden, by special invitation, flourished as a rare exotic; and Betterton amused himself with the eccentricities of the whole company. He attended only for pastime, without intending to be ranked among the wor

straw for the predilections or predomi nance of either party political.

because the price of the tickets rendered it aristocratic, and beyond their means, encouraged the mild anticipa-shippers of Fitz Osborne, or caring a tion of a mental share of it from the journals of the next morning; while those who were to be happy by being present—or a great majority of them— put themselves on a low diet a day or two before, in order to be able to do justice to a repast that was to rival the feasts of Croesus or Cleopatra.

The company, to the number of one hundred and fifty, had all assembled by about half-past three o'clock, though the dinner was not to be on table until four; but they lounged about the parlors and bar-rooms, talking politics and discussing business, until the ringing of the bell announced that the more immediate business of the afternoon was about to commence. When that signal

Among the company assembled on this important occasion, Mr. Lewison and Mr. Burly of course were present. Besides these, was Mr. Gregory Grinder; and he at this particular time dis- was heard, the doors of the long diningplayed an unusual flow of spirits-room were thrown open; and through unusual even for him-for his jokes them a fragrance exhaled and a perfollowed each other in rapid succession, spective was presented, that added no and his wit flew about in every direc- little to the impatience of the guests, as

they thronged in, in clusters, to secure ist was to call for an air to correspond with the song or sentiment, as the case might be.

the vacant seats.

The apartment was tastefully decorated with a variety of evergreens, Mr. Lewison, as president of the which hung from the walls and ceiling meeting, took the head of the table; in wreaths and festoons. At the head while the vice presidents occupied the of the room, and directly opposite the lower end. Mr. Fitz Osborne was seatfolding doors, was displayed a full-length ed on the right hand of the president, portrait of Henry Fitz Osborne, paint- and Baron Kreutzden had the honor of ed expressly for the occasion, and sur- sitting opposite to him, on the presimounted by a pair of national flags, dent's left. At the commencement of crossed so as to represent a triumphal the dinner there was very little converarch. Immediately in front of the pic-sation. The company were too busy ture was a stuffed eagle, with beak to talk. An occasional air from the erect, and out-spread wings,-one foot band, and the constant rattle of the was perched upon a liberty pole, while knives, forks and plates, was all that, with the other it held a very large for the first ten minutes, relieved the wreath of laurel, with which it was in monotony of eating. the act to crown Fitz Osborne. From its mouth floated in graceful folds a silk streamer, bearing the following inscription, in large characters,-"First in peace, and First in the hearts of his countrymen!" Over the door, at the lower end of the room, was a painting of the Union Bank, upon the s'eps of which Fitz Osborne again appeared, and pointed in silent eloquence to the motto: "Wealth is power," which was inscribed above it. The committee had exhausted their invention to have the decorations as appropriate, and, as they announced it in the papers, as recherche as possible..

There was a band of musicians stationed on a platform immediately under Fitz Osborne's picture, and they performed a national air as the company entered and took their seats. The committee had arranged, that this band was to play at intervals during the dinner; and also when toasts and songs were introduced, the proposer or vocal

"This is what I like," said Mr. Grinder, to a fat man who sat next to him, as he finished a second plate of boiled turkey and oysters, with a large piece of roast beef, and called to a waiter for a bit of the roast turkey with cranberry sauce, and a slice of ham. "This is what I like," said he, with a nod of approval; 66 none of your French dishes for me! none of your kickshaws, (Mr. Grinder was not a French scholar,) and trifle sauces; -none of your fricasees and blue monges for me! give me something substantial, sir,-something substantial, that will make a man feel that he is a man, and not a sick Frenchman, or a lean anatomy."

"Try some of the venison and currant jelly!" said his neighbor, as he took off the sharp edge of his own appetite, and shovelled in a mouthful, at the same time that he nodded an assent to the sentiment of Mr. Grinder. "It is delightful," said he, as he wiped his mouth with a napkin, preparatory to an

other attack upon it: "I have eaten from his lips untasted, and looked innothing else yet; though I want,-as quiringly at his interrogator.

"Well, in brandy, then," said the whose knife and fork worked with man, as he helped himself.

That gentleman withdrew his glass Dunderly," said Betterton; "I have