t spes.--Horace.

And look always that they be shape, What garment that thou shalt make Of
him that can best do With all that pertaineth thereto.--Romaunt of the
Rose

How well I can remember the feelings with which I entered London, and
took possession of the apartments prepared for me at Mivart's. A year
had made a vast alteration in my mind; I had ceased to regard pleasure
for its own sake, I rather coveted its enjoyments, as the great sources
of worldly distinction. I was not the less a coxcomb than heretofore,
nor the less a voluptuary, nor the less choice in my perfumes, nor the
less fastidious in my horses and my dress; but I viewed these matters
in a light wholly different from that in which I had hitherto regarded
them. Beneath all the carelessness of my exterior, my mind was close,
keen, and inquiring; and under the affectations of foppery, and the
levity of a manner almost unique, for the effeminacy of its tone, I
veiled an ambition the most extensive in its object, and a resolution
the most daring in the accomplishment of its means.

I was still lounging over my breakfast, on the second morning of my
arrival, when Mr. N--, the tailor, was announced.

"Good morning, Mr. Pelham; happy to see you returned. Do I disturb you
too early? shall I wait on you again?"

"No, Mr. N--, I am ready to receive you; you may renew my measure."

"We are a very good figure, Mr. Pelham; very good figure," replied the
Schneider, surveying me from head to foot, while he was preparing his
measure; "we want a little assistance though; we must be padded well
here; we must have our chest thrown out, and have an additional inch
across the shoulders; we must live for effect in this world, Mr. Pelham;
a leetle tighter round the waist, eh?"

"Mr. N--," said I, "you will take, first, my exact measure, and,
secondly, my exact instructions. Have you done the first?"

"We are done now, Mr. Pelham," replied my man-maker, in a slow, solemn
tone.

"You will have the goodness then to put no stuffing of any description
in my coat; you will not pinch me an iota tighter across the waist
than is natural to that part of my body, and you will please, in your
infinite mercy, to leave me as much after the fashion in which God made
me, as you possibly can."

"But, Sir, we must be padded; we are much too thin; all the gentlemen in
the Life Guards are padded, Sir."

"Mr. N--," answered I, "you will please to speak of us, with a separate,
and n