one of clearer head than his Lordship would have seen) most inconsistent answers. Mr. Titmouse's extravagant expenditure was a matter of notoriety; the earl himself had been once or twice compelled to come forward, in order to assist in relieving his son-in-law's house from executions; and he repeatedly reasoned and remonstrated with Mr. Titmouse on the impropriety of many parts of his conduct--Titmouse generally acknowledging, with much appearance of compunction and sincerity, that the earl had too much ground for complaint, and protesting that he meant to change altogether one of these days. Indeed, matters would soon have been brought to a crisis between the earl and Titmouse, had not the former been so constantly immersed in business, as to prevent his mind from dwelling upon the various instances of Titmouse's misconduct which from time to time came under his notice. The condition of Lady Cecilia was one which gave the earl anxiety and interest. She was _enceinte_; and the prospect which this afforded the earl, of the family honors continuing in a course of direct descent, gave him unspeakable satisfaction. Thus is it, in short, that no one's cup is destitute of some ingredients of bitterness or of happiness; that the wheat and the tares--happiness and anxiety--grow up together. The above will suffice to indicate the course taken by his Lordship's thoughts on the present occasion. He sat back in his chair in a sort of revery; having laid down his paper, and placed his gold spectacles on the little stand beside him, where lay also his massive old gold repeater. The _Morning Growl_ of that morning was very late, owing to the arrival of foreign news; but it was brought in to his Lordship just as he was beginning to open his letters. These his Lordship laid aside for a moment, in order to skim over the contents of his paper; on which he had not been long engaged, before his eye lit upon a paragraph which gave him a dreadful shock, blanching his cheek, and throwing him into an universal tremor. He read it over several times, almost doubting whether he could be reading correctly. It is possible that the experienced reader may not be taken as much by surprise as was the Earl of Dreddlington; but the intelligence conveyed by the paragraph in question was simply this--that the ARTIFICIAL RAIN COMPANY had, so to speak, suddenly evaporated!--and that this result had been precipitated by the astounding discovery in the City, in the preceding afternoon, that the managing director of the Company had _bolted_ with all the available funds of the society--and who should this be but the gentleman who had presided so ably the evening but one before, over the Blackwall dinner to his Lordship, viz. SIR SHARPER BUBBLE!!! The plain fact was, that that worthy had at that very time completed all arrangements necessary for taking the very decisive step on which he had determined; and within an hour's time of handing the Earl of Dreddlington to his carriage, in