orders out his wheelbarrow, and flames away to
tell his wrongs and grievance to very great man
indeed. Finds his debtor in the ante-room
with the brightest of spurs and longest of
aigulets; scowls at him in unrelenting manner,
and demands to see his master. Debtor, in the
most good-humoured way in the world, goes
jingling off to announce Creditor, and returns
with a radiant smile to say that very great man
indeed will receive him at once. Creditor's heart
begins to soften—his victim is so polite; but
then he is so impudent, that good nature and
justice have a struggle in his breast as to whether
he shall not forgive the gay young fellow after all.
The gay young fellow saves him all trouble in
deciding this question, by laying his hand with
delightful and winning cordiality on mine host's
shoulder, and conducting him at once, half-
repenting of his design, into the great man's
presence.

"This man, your excellency," says the gallant
youngster, turning round with a beaming face
and protecting smile to his abashed creditor:
"this man is a tavern-keeper, and has come, as
I mentioned to your excellency yesterday that
he said he would, to implore in the humblest
and most respectful manner that your excellency
and staff will do him the infinite honour of taking
a breakfast at his house, which he has prepared
with great care and expense in order that your
patronage, if you grant his prayer, may give
vogue and fashion by your gracious visit to his
establishment. He has entreated me to intercede
for him, and, though awe and respect have
hitherto withheld me, I now do so with all my
heart, and beg your excellency to make him rich
and happy by your favour and countenance."

Very great man rises; he is so tall that he
never seems to have done rising. No man on
earth is so dignified as a very great man in
Russia, and, of all Russian great men this very
great man indeed is the most dignified. With
a slight wave of the hand, and a sweet rare
smile, he utters a word of acceptance, and
is immediately lost among his papers again.
Debtor hustles his gasping and astonished
Creditor out of the room, and the scene
closes: Creditor secretly rejoicing to have
got out of the scrape so well. This perhaps
explains how we come to drink so much
champagne in making up our quarrels. We don't
pay for it; but then the merchant does not
suffer. Suppose he is bankrupt every now and
then? A well-managed bankruptcy is not such
a bad affair in Russia. We don't turn our backs
upon the bankrupt, and, if he should ever be
really poor, can't he borrow as we do? All the
charity and kindliness of our nature will wake
up for him then. There is no such thing as
unpitied distress or hard-heartedness in Russia.

Our clubs, although made up of such amusing
elements, have hitherto been rather dull. Ladies,
unaccustomed to the discipline, have complained
a good deal of being left at home alone during the
long evenings; and we men being allowed more
liberty than is good for us, have given our minds
a great deal too much, to gambling. It is
distressing to think of the new bonnets and dresses
we have lost at cards, while left to our own
devices. We have therefore hit upon an improvement;
our wives and daughters, sisters, and
especially maiden aunts, thereto consenting, we
have arranged to take those ladies to our clubs
with us. Notably every Wednesday, or some
other day in the week set apart for the purpose,
our clubs call in fiddlers and fifes, the violon-
cello and the big bassoon, and we have a dance.
Here, however, at first there was a slight difficulty.
How would it appear to Mrs. Grundy if
those who were known to have an income of
nothing a year, brought their wives in lace and
jewels to the club? This might have
consequences which would be troublesome. The spirit
of inquiry in high quarters, willing enough to
shut its eyes as long as possible, might have
them reluctantly forced open. We therefore
agreed to come in our usual household dresses,
both dames and cavaliers, and to be content
with merely amusing ourselves as they do at
those charming Ducasses in the north of France.
We consider the club as our own house kept
up by general subscription, and determine to
be at ease in it.

These club balls have become quite the rage
in Russia. Our highest aristocracy, who have
much of the spirit that distinguished the gay
nobles who flocked to the OEil de Boeuf at the
courts of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Louises
of France, come to them in crowds, and
patronise them, as they do all things democratic,
with rather too eager and ostentatious a
patronage. Their highnesses and their excellencies
jig it bravely with the shopboy and the huckster;
and the coronet and the working cap sit down
together at supper. Instead of the sleepy waiters
we used to see dozing about and nursing their
stomachs in the entrance-hall, we have a
company of brisk pages with quicksilver in their
shoes; at night, as the quiet man turns drowsily
in his bed between his first and second sleep
during the small hours, clear and loud come the
songs and laughter of our club roysterers sledging
homeward. Such a gay city as we have
made of this city of ours never was seen before.
All the world seems pleasure mad; for pleasure
for the first time has been placed within the
reach of all.

Supposing a few enterprising committees
were to try and make some of our London clubs
rather more popular among the ladies, in this
way, might it not be a pleasant feature in the
London season? Why should not our woman-
kind take part in our pleasures and luxuries,
as well as in the humdrum and worry of our
lives? Some of our club drawing-rooms would
be marvellously improved by the gay sweet
voices and pleasant faces of our daughters, and
our social life would be all the better for a
more frequent and habitual mingling of young
men and women. Many a good young fellow
drifts into bad habits, cigars, grog, billiards,
and worse, for the want of female society of his
own rank. Many a fair girl fades away into old
maidenhood, because she is obliged by the res