ph in the opera-machine go up to the clouds at the
end of the piece where Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, and all the divine company
of Olympians are seated, and quaver out her last song as a goddess: so
when this portentous elevation was accomplished in the Esmond family, I am
not sure that every one of us did not treat the divine Beatrix with
special honours; at least, the saucy little beauty carried her head with a
toss of supreme authority, and assumed a touch-me-not air, which all her
friends very good-humouredly bowed to.

An old army acquaintance of Colonel Esmond's, honest Tom Trett, who had
sold his company, married a wife, and turned merchant in the city, was
dreadfully gloomy for a long time, though living in a fine house on the
river, and carrying on a great trade to all appearance. At length Esmond
saw his friend's name in the _Gazette_ as a bankrupt; and a week after
this circumstance my bankrupt walks into Mr. Esmond's lodging with a face
perfectly radiant with good humour, and as jolly and careless as when they
had sailed from Southampton ten years before for Vigo. "This bankruptcy,"
says Tom, "has been hanging over my head these three years; the thought
hath prevented my sleeping, and I have looked at poor Polly's head on
t'other pillow, and then towards my razor on the table, and thought to put
an end to myself, and so give my woes the slip. But now we are bankrupts:
Tom Trett pays as many shillings in the pound as he can; his wife has a
little cottage at Fulham, and her fortune secured to herself. I am afraid
neither of bailiff nor of creditor; and for the last six nights have slept
easy." So it was that when Fortune shook her wings and left him, honest
Tom cuddled himself up in his ragged virtue, and fell asleep.

Esmond did not tell his friend how much his story applied to Esmond too;
but he laughed at it, and used it; and having fairly struck his docket in
this love transaction, determined to put a cheerful face on his
bankruptcy. Perhaps Beatrix was a little offended at his gaiety. "Is this
the way, sir, that you receive the announcement of your misfortune," says
she, "and do you come smiling before me as if you were glad to be rid of
me?"

Esmond would not be put off from his good humour, but told her the story
of Tom Trett and his bankruptcy. "I have been hankering after the grapes
on the wall," says he, "and lost my temper because they were beyond my
reach; was there any wonder? They're gone now, and a