out of practice, as he said, owing to the confounded voyage, during which, though a person is "riding" all the time, he has small opportunity of improving his horsemanship.

Having reached Cape Town, he did not, like Peregrine Pultuney, make the best of his way to the hotel, but he inquired of a soldier he met in the streets, the shortest way to the citadel, and the soldier being struck by the military air of the cornet, to say nothing of that officer's moustaches, put his hand to the peak of his cap, and afforded the required directions.

So the cornet turned his horse round and rode straight for the citadel, congratulating himself, as he went along, on the advantages of possessing a friend in a strange place, getting free quarters in a government building, and messing at the expense of a regiment. With these pleasant reflections in his mind, only varied a little in their character by a few obtrusive thoughts of the duel, that he was to fight on the following morning, Mr. Drawlincourt having passed over one or two bridges, and under one or two archways, and across one or two squares, and having consulted some half-a-dozen sentries on the way, found himself halting opposite the quarters of Lieutenant Peterkin, of the hundredth.

It was about three o'clock, and the lieutenant, not being on duty that day, was only recently out of bed; he was in his dressing-gown and slippers, and there was a degagé look about him, which,

coupled with a pale face and a pair of very bloodshot eyes, was quite enough to acquaint any keen observer of humanity with the fact that Lieutenant Peterkin had retired to bed, certainly not before midnight, in a very considerable state of very beastly intoxication.

He was breakfasting, for of course it was his first meal, off red herrings and porter; and a fresh-looking youth in a blue surtout, buttoned up to the chin, and a red sash about his waist, whose healthy aspect, clear eyes, and brisk manner, formed a remarkable contrast to Lieutenant Peterkin's languid attitude and look of sickly dissipation, was sitting at the table too, but not at breakfast, for he had been up since gun-fire, and was now discussing his tiffin; for people do tiff at the Cape of Good Hope, as every body knows who has been there.

The two officers were engaged in conversation, at least in something that was doing duty for suchthe elder spoke very slowly and very languidly, and did not eat much faster, whilst the younger one talked as fast as an individual can do, who is engaged upon the pleasant task of making a hearty meal, and is too polite to speak with his mouth full.

"Well now, confound it, Allworthy," drawled the lieutenant, as he picked the smallest imaginable piece of the red herring in his plate, looked disgusted at it, and laid down his fork again,-" confound it now, it's really too bad of you, to shirk in this way every night; diraictly ten o'clock strikes

you are off just like a shot. I declare now if you weren't such a man across country, and such a brick at billiards as you are, I should call you a downright spoon-I should, upon honour."

"Oh, I can't stand it at all," replied Ensign Allworthy, who did not care two straws whether his companion thought him a spoon or not, as long as he was all right every hunting morning to go out with Blake or "the butcher." "I can't stand all this lushing at nights; it makes one's hand shake, and spoils one's nerve. I can't stand it at all."

Now, a stern moralist might take it into his head to think that there might be many better reasons for not getting drunk, than those adduced by Ensign Allworthy, and we have no doubt that the stern moralist would be right; but as we are treating of human nature, not of angel-nature, he must not be too hard upon us, especially as upon some former occasions we have done our best to exalt humanity, without receiving any thanks or any reward from humanity for so doing.

"Ah, well," returned Lieutenant Peterkin, after another ineffectual effort to get a morsel of the dry fish up to his mouth, " you don't know what you missed last night; it was a bang-up party indeed— upon my soul a bang-up party. The major was jolly screwed and came out with a song. I'll take my oath he did, and so did Bangham. It was worth a small annuity, upon my soul it was—worth a moderate fortune and no mistake."

The ensign thought to himself that if the choice had been offered to him he would have preferred the small annuity to the song; but as his mouth happened just at that moment to be moderately full of bread and cheese, he did not make an observation to that effect.

"And then," continued the lieutenant, throwing himself back in his chair, and flinging one leg over the corner of the table," there was such a jolly row between Dawkins and Bangham, about which belongs to the oldest fa-a-mily. I quite expected a spree, upon my soul, I did; but they found out at last they were cousins-ha, ha, ha! cousins! And then they began hugging one another, and became as thick as three in a bed. It was worth a small annuity to have seen them, upon my soul, Allworthy, it was."

But the gentleman thus addressed, still kept to his opinion, that he would have infinitely preferred the small annuity; and as, at this time, his mouth was empty, he expressed himself to that effect, adding a request, that the lieutenant would acquaint him with some of his own exploits on the preceding night.

"Oh! now, Allworthy, you are really too bad," replied the lieutenant to this invitation. "You are too hard upon me, upon my soul you are. My own exploits, why I don't know, I drank a confounded lot of wine."

"You look as though you had," remarked Allworthy.

"Ah! well, I suppose I do," continued the lieutenant, who was of a remarkably candid disposition, and generally acknowledged that he had been drunk over night, when he had a vague idea in the morning of having been carried to his quarters. "I suppose I am a little seedy or so-just a little-"

"Not a little," suggested the ensign.

"Ah, now you are really too hard upon me, upon my soul you are, my good fellow. Well, I was cut, but not till the last-I'll take my oath, not till the last. We mizzled out somewhere, I believe, and I have a sort of dim recollection that I made a confounded fool of myself; upon my soul, I believe I did."

"You need not swear to it," remarked Allworthy, "I'll believe you without that.”

"You certainly are va-a-ry hard upon me," continued Lieutenant Peterkin, as he laid the silver mug, from which he had been drinking, on the table; "but I'll forgive you, upon my soul I will, for you are a good fellow in your way;" and having given vent to his magnanimity in this manner, he rose from his chair and flung himself at full length on a sofa, having previously kicked off a large setter dog, who had been lying there all the morning.

"Well," he said, stretching out his long legs, and throwing one of his arms languidly over the back of the couch. "Upon my soul there's nothing like stout, when you've been screwed over