friend; and it may not be uninteresting or improper to
remark that even these brief observations partook in a
double sense of the figurative and poetical character of
Mr. Swiveller's mind, as the rosy wine was in fact repre-
sented by one glass of cold gin-and-water, which was re-
plenished as occasion required from a bottle and jug upon
the table, and was passed from one to another, in a scarcity
of tumblers which, as Mr. Swiveller's was a bachelor's
establishment, may be acknowledged without a blush. By a
like pleasant fiction his single chamber was always men-
tioned in the plural number. In its disengaged times, the
tobacconist had announced it in his window as "apart-
ments" for a single gentleman, and Mr. Swiveller, follow-
ing up the hint, never failed to speak of it as his rooms,
his lodgings, or his chambers, conveying to his hearers a
notion of indefinite space, and leaving their imaginations
to wander through long suites of lofty halls, at pleasure.

In this flight of fancy, Mr. Swiveller was assisted by a
deceptive piece of furniture, in reality a bedstead, but in
semblance a bookcase, which occupied a prominent situa-
tion in his chamber and seemed to defy suspicion and
challenge inquiry. There is no doubt that by day Mr.
Swiveller firmly believed this secret convenience to be a
bookcase and nothing more; that he closed his eyes to the
bed, resolutely denied the existence of the blankets, and
spurned the bolster from his thoughts. No word of its
real use, no hint of its mighty service, no allusion to its
peculiar properties, had ever passed between him and his
most intimate friends. Implicit faith in the deception was
the first article of his creed. To be the friend of Swiveller
you must reject all circumstantial evidence, all reason,
observation, and experience, and repose a blind relief
in the bookcase. It was his pet weakness, and he
cherished it.

" Fred!" said Mr. Swiveller, finding that his former
adjuration had been productive of no effect. "Pass the
rosy."

Young Trent with an impatient gesture pushed the glass
towards him, and fell again into the moody attitude from
which he had been unwillingly roused.

"I'll give you, Fred," said his friend, stirring the
mixture, "a little sentiment appropriate to the occasion.
Here's May the-----"

"Pshaw!" interposed the other. "You worry me to

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