CHAPTER II.

The little chevalier.

     A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
     A threadbare juggler.

     Comedy of Errors.

     Nay, then, he is a conjuror.

     Henry VI.

My adventure with Miss Lascelles did me good service, and cured me for some time, at least, of my leaning towards the tender passion.  I consequently devoted myself more closely than ever to my studies—­indulged in a passing mania for genealogy and heraldry—­began a collection of local geological specimens, all of which I threw away at the end of the first fortnight—­and took to rearing rabbits in an old tumble-down summer-house at the end of the garden.  I believe that from somewhere about this time I may also date the commencement of a great epic poem in blank verse, and Heaven knows how many cantos, which was to be called the Columbiad.  It began, I remember, with a description of the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the departure of Columbus, and was intended to celebrate the discovery, colonization, and subsequent history of America.  I never got beyond ten or a dozen pages of the first canto, however, and that Transatlantic epic remains unfinished to this day.

The great event which I have recorded in the preceding chapter took place in the early summer.  It must, therefore, have been towards the close of autumn in the same year when my next important adventure befell.  This time the temptation assumed a different shape.

Coming briskly homewards one fine frosty morning after having left a note at the Vicarage, I saw a bill-sticker at work upon a line of dead wall which at that time reached from the Red Lion Inn to the corner of Pitcairn’s Lane.  His posters were printed in enormous type, and decorated with a florid bordering in which the signs of the zodiac conspicuously figured Being somewhat idly disposed, I followed the example of other passers-by, and lingered to watch the process and read the advertisement.  It ran as follows:——­

Magic and mystery!  Magic and mystery!

* * * * *

M. Le chevalier Armand Proudhine, (of Paris) surnamed

The wizard of the Caucasus,

Has the honor to announce to the Nobility and Gentry of Saxonholme and its vicinity, that he will, to-morrow evening (October—­, 18—­), hold his First

SOIREE FANTASTIQUE

IN

The large room of the red lion hotel.

* * * * *

Admission 1s.  Reserved seats 2s. 6d.

To commence at Seven.

N.B.—­The performance will include a variety of new and surprising feats of Legerdemain never before exhibited.