opped within the limits of good order. Music, in which the
young lord was a proficient, succeeded to the circulation of the bottle;
cards and billiards, for those who preferred such amusements, were in
readiness; but the exercise of the morning required early hours, and not
long after eleven o'clock the guests began to retire to their several
apartments.

The young lord himself conducted his friend, General Browne, to the
chamber destined for him, which answered the description he had given
of it, being comfortable, but old-fashioned, The bed was of the massive
form used in the end of the seventeenth century, and the curtains of
faded silk, heavily trimmed with tarnished gold. But then the sheets,
pillows, and blankets looked delightful to the campaigner, when he
thought of his "mansion, the cask." There was an air of gloom in the
tapestry hangings, which, with their worn-out graces, curtained the
walls of the little chamber, and gently undulated as the autumnal breeze
found its way through the ancient lattice window, which pattered and
whistled as the air gained entrance. The toilet, too, with its mirror,
turbaned after the manner of the beginning of the century, with a
coiffure of murrey-coloured silk, and its hundred strange-shaped boxes,
providing for arrangements which had been obsolete for more than fifty
years, had an antique, and in so far a melancholy, aspect. But nothing
could blaze more brightly and cheerfully than the two large wax candles;
or if aught could rival them, it was the flaming, bickering fagots in
the chimney, that sent at once their gleam and their warmth through
the snug apartment, which, notwithstanding the general antiquity of its
appearance, was not wanting in the least convenience that modern habits
rendered either necessary or desirable.

"This is an old-fashioned sleeping apartment, General," said the
young lord; "but I hope you find nothing that makes you envy your old
tobacco-cask."

"I am not particular respecting my lodgings," replied the General; "yet
were I to make any choice, I would prefer this chamber by many degrees
to the gayer and more modern rooms of your family mansion. Believe
me that, when I unite its modern air of comfort with its venerable
antiquity, and recollect that it is your lordship's property, I shall
feel in better quarters here than if I were in the best hotel London
could afford."

"I trust--I have no doubt--that you will find yourself as comfortable
as I