The Martins Of Cro' Martin, Vol. II (of II)

s still some marvellously pleasant things about it, amongst which, first and foremost, facile princeps, is

free of the guild at the Porte St. Denis. By the time you reach the Boulevards you have ceased to be a stranger. You enter the "Frères" at dinner hour like an old habitué. The atmosphere of light, elastic gayety around you, the tone of charming politeness that meets your commonest inquiry, the courtesy bestowed upon your character as a foreigner, are all as exhilarating i

ne of whose features conveyed this same expression. He had, although not really above twenty-four or twenty-five, the appearance of one ten years older. On a face of singular regularity, and decidedly handsome, dissipation had left its indelible traces. The eyes were deep sunk, the cheeks colorless, and around the angles of the mouth were those tell-tale circles which betray the action of an oft-tried temper, and

ive; the nose, slightly concave in its outline, expanded beneath into nostrils wide and full; but the mouth, thick-lipped, sensual, and coarse, was more distinctive than all, and showed that Mr. Herman Merl was a gentleman of the Jewish persuasion,-a fact well corroborated by the splendor of a very flashy silk waistcoat, and various studs, gold chain,

en made studies, either to correct a natural defect, or show off what he fancied a natural advantage. He seemed to have studied color like a painter, for his dark brown frock was in true keeping with the

id he, as he daintily adjusted one of these delicacies o

turning away from the window, and pacin

r,' the tempting dejeuners at 'Véfour's.' By Jove! how hungry you used to make me, with your descriptions of the appetizing fare before us; an

on to the appeal, and walking

," said he, lazily; "that's the fourth time they ha

nything goi

ned an answer, an

it reminds me of a steamboat," said the Captain,

-" But the rest of the similitude would n't come, and Mr. Merl covered his retreat with the process of lig

rn. In fact, he was a man travelling about the world with abundance of leisure, a well-stocked purse, and what our friends over the Strait would term an "industrial spirit." Messes had occasionally invited him to their tables. Men in society got the habit of seeing him "about," and he was in the enjoyment of that kind of tolerance which made every man feel, "He's not my friend,-I didn't introduce him; but he seems a good sort of fellow enough!" And so he was,-very good-tempered, very obliging, most liberal of his cigars, his lodgings always open to loungers, with pale ale, and even i

aited to be asked to make up a party, or to take or give the odds, as the case might be. To a very shrewd observer, this might have savored a little t

yed, drew, fenced, fished, shot-all, a little-that is, somewhat better than others in general, and giving him that dangerous kind of pre-eminence from which, though the tumble never k

his valet at "Brookes's," as walk down Bond Street with Mr. Merl. Had he met him in London, every characteristic of the man would there have stood out in all the strong glare of contrast, but at the Cape it was different. Criticis

ut, "Hang me, Captain, if you shall say that! I 'll go and take my passage in the 'Elphinstone.'" And he did so, and he gave the Captain his revenge! But of all the passions, there is not one less profitable to indulge in. They played morning, noon, and night, through long days of sickening calm, through dreary nights of storm and hurricane, and they scarcely lifted their heads at the tidings that the Needles were in sight, nor even questioned the pilot for news of England, w

intervals of ill-luck, days even of dubious fortune might occur, but he knew he would win in the end, just as he knew that though there might intervene periods of bad w

housand evil ones,-he is your natural enemy, brought into the world to be your bane, born that he may be your tormentor; and this is the man who always beats you at play! Happily, good reader, you may have no feelings of the gambler,-you may be of those to whom this fatal vice has never appealed, or appealed in vain; but if you have "played," or even mixed with those who have, you could n't have failed to be struck with the fact that there is that one certain man from whom you never win! Wherever he is, there, too, is present your evil destiny! Now, there is no pardonin

rrass himself of his presence. He was ashamed of the man amongst his friends; he avoided him in all public places; he shrunk from his very contact as though infected; but he could not throw off his acquaintance, and he nourished in his heart a small ember of hope that one day or other the scale of fortune would turn, and he might win back again all he had ever lost, and stand free and unembarrassed as in the first hour he had met him! Fifty times had he consulted Fortune, as it were, to ask if

ct it. We see people associate together of widely different habits, and dispositions the most opposite, with nothing

Merl had arrived there. He despatched an answer still briefer, asking him to breakfast on the

shing his chair a little back from the table, while he disposed hi

-for he never suffered so painfully under this man's inti

se,-I mean, w

housand of our countrymen and countrywom

tion took narrower bounds. I me

ile the Jew bore it admirably; but these efforts, after all, are only like the brief intervals a man can live under water, and where the initiated beats the i

e has gone deep enough with his knife, Martin resum

embled, and his eyes wandered listlessly over the columns, and then fu

tter for me, Captain?" said he at last, and

se two bills do you mean

alluded to the Club; you promised you 'd put me up

momentary terror. "Lord Claude Willoughby or Sir Spen

e paper mentions his name in the dinn

with an air of innocence that M

we 've played together; I

a servant, entering with a card, "

his Lordship, entering at the same instant,