mple) a lion, a tiger, or a panther by way of lapdog, it would have
been impossible for him to take it into the club. Even had its mane and
claws been cut, a schismatic of this description would have been
excluded unconditionally by the committee. Even the cleverest poodles,
and the most highly-trained pugs were declared ineligible, and might
only, (on exceptional occasions in summer, when dinner was in the open
air,) be introduced, on presentation of a card of permission by the
committee. We--Lothair and I--invented a number of addenda and
declarations supplementary to this deeply-considered codex, which we
proposed, with the most solemn gravity, at the next meeting, and, to
our great entertainment, carried the thing so far that the most
preposterous nonsense was discussed and debated on with the gravest
deliberation. But at last one or two saw through our joke, so that all
confidence in us was at an end--although our expectations were not
realised, for we had thought it a certainty that we should be solemnly
expelled from the club."

"I remember it quite well," said Lothair, "and I'm not a little annoyed
to feel that nowadays I could not carry out a similar mystification. I
have grown much too dull and sluggish, and inclined to be annoyed with
matters which used to make me laugh."

"Nothing shall induce me to believe that," said Ottmar; "rather I feel
convinced, Lothair, that the echoes of something painful are louder in
you to-day than common. But a new life will shortly breathe through you
like a breeze of spring; those jarring discords will die away, and you
will be the same Lothair that you were twelve years since. Your club at
P---- reminds me of another, whose founders must have been witty
fellows. It was on the plan of a regular kingdom, with a King,
Ministers, a Parliament, &c. Its sole _raison d'etre_ was good eating,
and better drinking, and its meetings were held in the principal hotel,
where the wines and _cuisine_ were of the best. At those meetings, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs would give notice of the arrival of some
remarkably superior Rhine wine at some merchant's in the town. An
embassy would then be despatched, furnished with minute instructions,
and provided with necessary credits to be drawn against a special
reserve-fund in the hands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. On
occasions when a _ragout_ turned out badly, everything was at sixes and
sevens. Pourparlers and diplomatic notes were exc