My reader is no doubt aware that at the fashionable bar-room the cigars are all of the same quality, though the prices mount according to the ambition of the purchaser. I found Mr. Mellasys gasping with efforts to light a dime cigar. Between his gasps, profane expressions escaped him. "Sir," said I, "allow a stranger to offer you a better article." At the same time I presented my case filled with choice Cabañas,--smuggled. My limited means oblige me to employ these judicious economies. Mr. Mellasys took a cigar, lighted, whiffed, looked at me, whiffed again,-- "Sir," says he, "dashed if that a'n't the best cigar I've smoked sence I quit Bayou La Farouche!" "Ah! a Southerner!" said I. "Pray, allow the harmless weed to serve as a token of amity between our respective sections." Mr. Mellasys grasped my hand. "Take a drink, Mr. ----?" said he. "Bratley Chylde," rejoined I, filling the hiatus,--"and I shall be most happy." The name evidently struck him. It was a combination of all aristocracy and all plutocracy. As I gave my name, I produced and presented my card. I was aware, that, with the uncultured, the possession of a card is a proof of gentility, as the wearing of a coat-of-arms proves a long line of distinguished ancestry. Mr. Mellasys took my card, studied it, and believed in it with refreshing _naiveté_. "I'm proud to know you, Mr. Chylde," said he. "I haven't a card; but Mellasys is my name, and I'll show it to you written on the hotel-books." "We will waive that ceremony," said I. "And allow me to welcome you to Newport and the Millard. Shall we enjoy the breeze upon the piazza?" Before our second cigar was smoked, the great planter and I were on the friendliest terms. My political sentiments he found precisely in accord with his own. Indeed, our general views of life harmonized. "I dare say you have heard," said Mellasys, "from some of the bloated aristocrats of my section that I was a slave-dealer once." "Such a rumor has reached me," rejoined I. "And I was surprised to find, that, in some minds of limited intelligence and without development of the logical faculty, there was a prejudice against the business." "You think that buyin' and sellin' 'em is just the same as ownin' 'em?" "I do." "Your hand!" said he, fervently. "Mr. Mellasys," said I, "let me take this opportunity to lay down my platform,--allow me the playful expression. Meeting a gentleman of your intelligence from the sunny South, I desire to express my sentiments as a Christian and a gentleman." Here I thought it well to pause and spit, to keep myself in harmony with my friend.