on my own life, I should have
been greatly tempted to revive some recollections of that evening,--one
of the strangest I ever passed. Assuredly the guild of which I suddenly
found myself a member was not one in which I could have either expected
laws and regulations, or looked for anything like a rigid etiquette; yet
such was precisely the case. The rules, if not many, were imperative,
while the requirements to obtain success were considerable. It was not
enough to know every remarkable character about town, but you should
also have a knowledge of their tone and temper. Some should be dunned
with importunity; others never asked for a farthing; a Scotch accent
went far with General Dundas; a jest never failed with Mr. Sheridan.
Besides this, an unfailing memory for every one who had crossed during
the day was indispensable, and if this gift extended to chairs and
coaches, all the better was it.

My brethren, I must do them the justice to say, were no niggards
of information. To me, perhaps, they felt a sense of exultation in
describing the dignity of the craft,--perhaps they hoped to deter me
from a career so surrounded with difficulties. They little knew that
they were only stimulating the curiosity of one to whom any object or
any direction in life was a boon and a blessing. Hardship and neglect
had so far altered my appearance that, even had I cared for it, any
artificial disguisement was unnecessary. My beard and moustache covered
the lower part of my face, and my hair, long and lank, hung heavily on
my neck behind. But, were it otherwise, how few had ever known me! There
were none to blush for me,--none to feel implicated in what they might
have called the disgrace of my position. I reasoned thus,--I went even
further, and persuaded myself there was something akin to heroism in
thus braving the current of opinion, and stemming the strong tide of
the world's prejudice. If this be my fitting station in life, thought I,
there is no impropriety in my abiding by it; and if, perchance, I might
have worthily filled a higher one, the disgrace is not with me, but with
that world that treated me so harshly.

Though all these arguments satisfied me thoroughly as I thought over
them, they did not give me the support I had hoped for. When the hour
came for me to assume my calling, I am almost ashamed to say how I
shrunk from it. I grieve to think how much more easy for me had it
been to commit a crime than to go forth, broom in