on in an agony of apprehension lest it should
begin to rain before we set out; it might have rained all day, after we
were once too far to turn back again, and welcome, for aught they cared.

However, the cavalcade moved at length, every coachman being accommodated
with a hamper between his legs something larger than a wheelbarrow; and
the company being packed as closely as they possibly could in the
carriages, 'according,' as one married lady observed, 'to the immemorial
custom, which was half the diversion of gipsy parties.' Thinking it very
likely it might be (we have never been able to discover the other half),
we submitted to be stowed away with a cheerful aspect, and were fortunate
enough to occupy one corner of a coach in which were one old lady, four
young ladies, and the renowned Mr. Balim the young ladies' young
gentleman.

We were no sooner fairly off, than the young ladies' young gentleman
hummed a fragment of an air, which induced a young lady to inquire
whether he had danced to that the night before. 'By Heaven, then, I
did,' replied the young gentleman, 'and with a lovely heiress; a superb
creature, with twenty thousand pounds.' 'You seem rather struck,'
observed another young lady. ''Gad she was a sweet creature,' returned
the young gentleman, arranging his hair. 'Of course _she_ was struck
too?' inquired the first young lady. 'How can you ask, love?' interposed
the second; 'could she fail to be?' 'Well, honestly I think she was,'
observed the young gentleman. At this point of the dialogue, the young
lady who had spoken first, and who sat on the young gentleman's right,
struck him a severe blow on the arm with a rosebud, and said he was a
vain man--whereupon the young gentleman insisted on having the rosebud,
and the young lady appealing for help to the other young ladies, a
charming struggle ensued, terminating in the victory of the young
gentleman, and the capture of the rosebud. This little skirmish over,
the married lady, who was the mother of the rosebud, smiled sweetly upon
the young gentleman, and accused him of being a flirt; the young
gentleman pleading not guilty, a most interesting discussion took place
upon the important point whether the young gentleman was a flirt or not,
which being an agreeable conversation of a light kind, lasted a
considerable time. At length, a short silence occurring, the young
ladies on either side of the young gentleman fell suddenly fast asleep;
and the