he bargain." In this way we trotted along, gathering good air and
information at every step, until we were in sight of Brighton Downs, a
long chain of hills, which appear on either side; with their undulating
surfaces covered with the sweet herb wild thyme, and diversified by the
numerous flocks of South-down sheep grazing on their loftiest summits.
After winding through the romantic valley of Preston, the white-fronted
houses and glazed bricks of Brighton break upon the sight, sparkling in
the sun-beams, with a distant glimpse of the sea, appearing, at first
sight, to rise above the town like a blue mountain in the distance: we
entered the place along what is called the London Road, with a view of
the Pavilion before us, the favourite abode of royalty, shooting its
minaret towers and glass dome upwards in the most grotesque character,
not unlike the representations of the Kremlin at Moscow; exciting, at
the first glance, among the passengers, the most varied and amusing
sallies of witticisms and conjectures.--Having procured a sketch of it
from this view, I shall leave you to contemplate, while I retire to
my inn and make the necessary arrangements for refreshment and future
habitation.

By way of postscript, I enclose you a very entertaining scene I
witnessed between D'Almaine and ~286~~his wife the night previous to my
journey: they are strange creatures; but you love eccentrics, and may be
amused with this little drama, which formed the motive for my visit.

Horatio Heartly.

[Illustration: page286]

THE PROPOSITION.

_Family Secrets--Female Tactics--How to carry the Point._

~287~~"It was ever thus, D'Almaine," said Lady Mary; "always hesitating
between a natural liberality of disposition, and a cold, calculating,
acquired parsimony, that has never increased our fortune in the sum of
sixpence, or added in the slightest degree to our domestic comforts."
"All the _prejudice of education_" said D'Almaine, good-humouredly; "my
old uncle, the banker, to whose bounty we are both much indebted, my
dear, early inculcated these notions of thrift into the brain of a
certain lighthearted young gentleman, whose buoyant spirits sometimes
led him a little beyond the _barrier of prudence_, and too often left
him environed with difficulties in the _marshes of impediment_. 'Look
before you leap,' was a wise saw of the old gentleman's; and 'be just
before you're generous,' a proverb that never failed to accompany a