-now for a dance of devils-Ha-I see! I see!There's and - and , among them!What! all three of you dead-and damned before me? W! Where is your d-d loaded dice?-Filled with fire, eh? So you were the three devils I saw sitting at the table, eh? Well, I shall be last-but, d—e, I'll be the chief of you!—I'll be king in hell! * -What-what's that filthy owl sitting at the bottom of the bed for, eh ?-Kick it off-strike it!-Awayout on thee, thou imp of hell!-I shall make thee sing presently!--Let in the snakes--let them in-I love them! I hear them writhing up stairs!" He began to shake his head violently from side to side, his eyes glaring like coals of fire, and his teeth gnashing. I never could have imagined any thing half so frightful. What with the highly excited state of my feelings, and the horrible scents of death which were diffused about the room, and to which not the strongest salts of ammonia, used incessantly, could render me insensible, I was obliged to leave abruptly. I knew the last act of the black tragedy was closing that night! I left word with the nurse that so soon as Mr. Effingstone should be released from his misery, she should get into a hackney-coach and come to my house.

*

I lay tossing in bed all night long-my mind suffused with the horrors of the scene of which I have endeavoured to give some faint idea above. Were I to record half what I recollect of his hideous ravings it would scare myself to read it!-I will not! Let them and their memory perish! I fancied myself lying side by side with the thing bearing the name of Effingstone-that I could not move away from him that his head, shaking from side to side as I have mentioned above, was battering my cheeks and forehead; in short, I was almost beside myself! I was in the act of uttering a fervent prayer to the Deity, that even in the eleventh hour-the eleventh hourwhen a violent ringing of the night-bell made me

spring out of bed. It was as I suspected. The nurse had come, and already all was over. My heart seemed to grow suddenly cold and motionless. I dressed myself and went down into the drawingroom. On the sofa lay the woman: she had fainted. On recovering her senses, I asked her if all was over; she nodded with an affrighted expression! A little wine and water restored her self-possession. "When did it occur?" I asked. 66 Exactly as the clock struck three," she replied. "George and I and Mr. the apothecary, whom we had sent for out of the next street, were sitting and standing round the bed. Mr. Hardy lay tossing his head about for nearly an hour, saying all manner of horrible things. A few minutes before three he gave a loud howl and shouted, "Here, you wretches-why do you put the candles out-here-here-I'm dying!"

666

"God's peace be with you, sir! The Lord have mercy on you!'- -we groaned, like people distracted. "Ha-ha-ha! D-n you! D-n you all! Dying ?-D-n me! I won't die! I won't die! No no! D-n me-I won't-won't!-won't--' and made a noise as if he was choked. We looked-yes, he was gone!" |

He was interred in an obscure dissenting buryingground in the immediate neighbourhood, under the name of Hardy, for his family refused to recognise him.

So lived and died a "man about town"-and so, alas! will yet live and die many another MAN ABOUT TOWN!

Death at the Toilet.

""Tis no use talking to me, mother, I will go to Mrs. P's party to-night, if I die for it-that's flat! You know as well as I do that Lieutenant N- is to be there, and he's going to leave town to-morrow so up I go to dress."

"Charlotte, why will you be so obstinate? You

know how poorly you have been all the week, and Dr. says late hours are the worst things in the world for you."

66

Pshaw, mother! nonsense, nonsense."

“Be persuaded for once, now, I beg! Oh dear, dear, what a night it is too-it pours with rain, and blows a perfect hurricane! You'll be wet and catch cold, rely on it. Come now, won't you stop and keep me company to-night? That's a good girl!"

"Some other night will do as well for that, you know; for now I'll go to Mrs. P- -'s, if it rains cats and dogs. So up-up-up I go !" singing jauntily

"Oh she shall dance all dress'd in white,
So ladylike."

Such were very nearly the words, and such the manner, in which Miss J expressed her deter

mination to act in defiance of her mother's wishes and entreaties. She was the only child of her widowed mother, and had but a few weeks before completed her twenty-sixth year, with yet no other prospect before her than bleak single-blessedness. A weaker, more frivolous and conceited creature never breathed-the torment of her amiable parent, the nuisance of her acquaintance. Though her mother's circumstances were very straitened, sufficing barely to enable them to maintain a footing in what is called the middling genteel class of society, this young woman contrived by some means or other to gratify her penchant for dress, and gadded about here, there, and every where the most showily dressed person in the neighbourhood. Though far from being even prettyfaced, or having any pretensions to a good figure, for she both stooped and was skinny, she yet believed herself handsome; and by a vulgar, flippant forwardness of demeanour, especially when in mixed company, extorted such attentions as persuaded her that others thought so.

For one or two years she had been an occasional

patient of mine. The settled pallor, the tallowiness of her complexion, conjointly with other symptoms, evidenced the existence of a liver complaint; and the last visits I had paid her were in consequence of frequent sensations of oppression and pain in the chest, which clearly indicated some organic disease of her heart. I saw enough to warrant me in warning her mother of the possibility of her daughter's sudden death from this cause, and the imminent peril to which she exposed herself by dancing, late hours, &c.; but Mrs. J- -'s remonstrances, gentle and affectionate as they always were, were thrown away upon her headstrong daughter.

It was striking eight by the church clock when Miss J- -, humming the words of the song above mentioned, lit her chamber-candle by her mother's and withdrew to her room to dress, soundly rating the servant-girl by the way for not having starched some article or other which she intended to have worn that evening. As her toilet was usually a long and laborious business, it did not occasion much surprise to her mother, who was sitting by the fire in their little parlour, reading some book of devotion, that the church chimes announced the first quarter past nine o'clock without her daughter's making her appearance. The noise she had made overhead in walking to and fro to her drawers, dressing-table, &c. had ceased about half an hour ago, and her mother supposed she was then engaged at her glass, adjusting her hair and preparing her complexion.

"Well, I wonder what can make Charlotte so very careful about her dress to-night!" exclaimed Mrs. J- -, removing her eyes from the book and gazing thoughtfully at the fire; "Oh! it must be because young Lieutenant N- is to be there. Well, I was young myself once, and it's very excusable in Charlotte-heigho!" She heard the wind howling so dismally without that she drew together the coals of her brisk fire, and was laying down the poker when the

clock of nine.

church struck the second quarter after

"Why, what in the world can Charlotte be doing all this while ?" she again inquired. She listened"I have not heard her moving for the last three quar ters of an hour! I'll call the maid and ask." She rung the bell and the servant appeared.

"Betty, Miss J is not gone yet, is she?"

66

“La, no, maʼam,” replied the girl, “I took up the curling-irons only about a quarter of an hour ago, as she had put one of her curls out; and she said she should soon be ready. She's burst her new muslin dress behind, and that has put her into a way, ma'am." "Go up to her room then, Betty, and see if she wants any thing; and tell her it's half past nine o'clock," said Mrs. J The servant accordingly went up stairs and knocked at the bedroom-door once, twice, thrice, but received no answer. There was a dead silence, except when the wind shook the window. Could Miss J have fallen asleep? Oh, impossible! She knocked again, but unsuccessfully as before. She became a little flustered, and after a moment's pause opened the door and entered. There was Miss Jsitting at the glass. "Why, la, ma'am," commenced Betty in a petulant tone, walking up to her, "here have I been knocking for these five minutes, and"Betty staggered horror-struck to the bed, and uttering a loud shriek, alarmed Mrs. J-, who instantly tottered up stairs, almost palsied with fright. Miss Jwas dead!

I was there within a few minutes, for my house was not more than two streets distant. It was a stormy night in March: and the desolate aspect of things without-deserted streets-the dreary howling of the wind, and the incessant pattering of the rain, contributed to cast a gloom over my mind, when connected with the intelligence of the awful event that had summoned me out, which was deepened into horror by the spectacle I was doomed to witness.