they were so entirely local, and bore a reference so exclusive to people of whom I knew nothing, and manners of which I really desired to know nothing more, that I found some difficulty in contributing the expected quota of laughter, to the general chorus of my more hilarious companions. My situation, indeed, was tiresome enough, but I endured it for an hour or two, before I quitted the party, then waxing deep in their cups, and joined the ladies in the drawing-room. On my entrance there, it was pretty evident that I was considered an unwelcome intruder. The female guests were gone, and the Lady Provost had, in the assurance that none of the gentlemen would be tempted to forsake the charms of punch for those of coffee and female society, divested her head of its former splendid garniture, and substituted a cap of very homely pretensions in its room. Miss Jacky was seated in front of the fire with her feet on the fender, apparently half asleep, and Lexy was busily engaged in repairing a garment, which, on my entrance, was hastily thrust under a chair, and obscured as much as possible from observation. The appearance of

a gentleman in the drawing-room was indeed a novelty, and, under the circumstances, not a very pleasing one. After partaking, therefore, of a dish of cold tea, and exerting myself for some time to keep up a languid conversation, I wished the ladies good night, and departed.

As I retrod my way to the College, I reflected on the novel scene and characters I had just quitted, and when my head was on my pillow, the contrast rose strongly between that society in which I had recently mingled, and the calm and quiet elegance of my beloved home. In my dreams that night, I returned to Thornhill. My mother came forth to embrace me, with love beaming from her pale countenance, and even the welcome of my father was kind. There,

too, was Jane with her dove-like eyes, and little Lucy, than whom

No dolphin ever was more gay,

Upon the tropic sea,

as, with beating heart and glowing cheeks, she ran to cast herself into my arms.

Such were the visions of the night; they were broken only by the sound of the College bell, which recalled me unwillingly to the more

material world in which I was destined to move. After dressing by the cold hazy twilight of a winter's morning, I hurried across the College courts, more than ancle deep in snow, to my class. I was too late. Prayers were over, and the lecture had begun. The Professor lowered his huge eye-brows on me as I entered, and in a moment all my pleasing dreams were forgot

ten,

CHAPTER IX.

My apprehension

Winc. And what's this Delaval ?
Wife.

Can give him no more true expression,
Than that he first appears a gentleman,
And well conditioned.

English Traveller.

Ar breakfast, Professor R

appeared curious to know what impression had been made on me by the society into which on the day previous I had for the first time been introduced. He laughed at the description I gave of it, but said it was perhaps scarcely fair to judge entirely of the society of Glasgow by the specimen I had already seen. "In this city,” he said, "there are two circles. Of the one, which includes the great majority of the mercantile and manufacturing aristocracy, I need say nothing, since you are already, from actual observation, tolerably qualified to judge for yourself,

But

there is another, a smaller circle, to which you have not yet been introduced. It consists principally of those who have united a taste for literature with the pursuits of business, and have not merged all the higher powers of a rational being, in the manufacture of muslins or the importation of tobacco. The individuals of whom this circle is composed, are of course comparatively few, and, like their neighbours, are not untinged with some ludicrous peculiarities. These are fair game, and may be laughed at; yet you will find that in many essential points, they rise superior to the general body of society by which they are surrounded. It is in this circle alone that the Professors of the University ever mingle, and though not much in the habit of frequenting it myself, I will take care, if your curiosity is not yet satiated, to procure you an introduction."

I thanked the Professor for his offer, and accepted it; nor did I neglect, during my residence in Glasgow, frequently to take advantage of the introduction he was good enough to afford.

Nothing, I think, tends more to open the un