THE FLYBEKINS, OR THE FIRE-ESCAPE.

The Flybekins were distant connexions of the great Lord B., living “genteelly” in the west of England:  and Mr. and Mrs. Flybekin were the only adult members of the family at the period of the incident which gave rise to this anecdote.  It happened once that these “country cousins” were possessed with an uncontrollable desire to enter within the hitherto unapproached circle of London fashion and gaiety in which their noble relatives moved with such distinction.  Every thing was propitious in furtherance of the meditated scheme:  the spring was approaching, London filling, the country emptying, and the children could all go to school.  A few weeks “in Town, just to see what was going on,” would be fully worth the journey, especially as it would afford an opportunity for them to commence an acquaintance with their magnificent relation.  And as the boys were growing up, it might be serviceable to their interests to tighten the bonds of connexion a little, which had, from lapse of time, and want of intercourse, become somewhat loosened.  There is an old saying—­“where there is a will, there is always a way.”—­In a short time Mr. and Mrs. Flybekin, being bent on the measure, argued themselves into a belief of the projected visit being nothing short of an imperative moral duty.

When matters had gone thus far, a hint was dropped in the drawing-room, which immediately reached the “domestic department,” and very soon spread through the village,—­as the smallest stone falling into water creates successive circles around the spot where it fell, each increasing in circumference.  Accordingly, the Flybekins were the centre of attraction on the following Sunday, after morning service.  Hearty congratulations, and ardent wishes for a pleasant trip, with various commissions, pressed upon them.  The newest fashions were promised to be brought down, and the village milliner looked forward to a glorious triumph over all her rivals in the trade about the country.  The happy pair were on the pinnacle of provincial glory; he was expected to return with the true state of foreign affairs, and the nation, from the intercourse he would enjoy with the peer; she was expected to import news of operas, plays, music, novels, writers, balls, routs, drawing-rooms and dresses, from her intercourse with the peeress.

In all the pleasure to which they looked forward there was but one draw-back, viz. a most extraordinary dread of London fires at night:  and this originated in the frequent occurrence in their county paper of paragraphs headed “Another alarming conflagration:  many lives lost!”—­put in either to aid the Insurance office, or fill the paper.  As our rustic pair had never visited the metropolis, they did not know but Leadenhall Street and Hyde Park, Lambeth and Portland Place, might all be close neighbours; therefore, however distant the different fires might be, they fancied they all occurred nearly in the same place; and from the time Mr. and Mrs. Flybekins resolved to visit Town, scarcely a night passed in which they did not start in terror from their dreams, screaming “Fire, Fire!”