For I can not but believe that somewhere in the purple Future, or latent amid the green leaves of the possible Fairy-dom, (in which some rich enchanter of an uncle is to lea-re us all an heritage,) there bide, waitingly, certain dear friends--delightful, daring, witty, and wicked creatures--like yourself, O reader I--with whom I am destined to be, spiritually, 'very much married indeed;' or if the expression sound too polygamatical, let me simply say _lie._ [For Heaven's sake, accept that as French, warm with an accent, and not as English, cold without one.] _Lie_ means 'bound'--anchored, so to speak, to an intimate in an amicable manner. And it is in their friendship--in their kind and tender words and courteous deeds, and winsome ways, that I most truly _live_. Where these dearmost ones may bide, I know not. Seven--yes--seven I have met, whom I cherish like diamonds of delight in the cotton of memory. It is worth noting, my dear, in this connection, that _sev-en_ is one of the conjugations in Turkish of the root _sev_, or 'loving,' and 'them old Turks,' you know--but I am digressing. Are there not still to come seven--yea, seventy times seven, (I have mislaid my Koran, in which the number is more accurately stated,) of my Friends of the Future! But I know what they are like. Oh! the charming, delightful wretches, how I enjoy looking at them--in fact, 'I admire to see' them--as they sweep along through the golden halls of my Schloss Dream-berg. Such nice clothes as they wear--the ducks! Such good things as they say--such--such-- It is too warm to-day to attempt superlatives. It were better to drink--say, iced lemonade, in which--for you, dear reader--by some mistake a _little_ sherry has been cobblered. _Sherrare est humanum_. The Rabbis, we are told, forbade the children of Israel to puff the fire on the Sabbath with bellows, though they might keep it going by blowing through a straw. Wherefore, to this day, certain of the devout 'keep it a-going' by means of a straw--only by some strange mistake in interpretation, or by some vowel-points getting mislaid, they, instead of blowing _from_ them in the straw, suck _toward_ them. And their 'society' is a large one. But we were talking of 'good company,' as they say in 'good society'--not of 'good society,' as they say in 'good company.' And, therefore, although _not_ 'a retired clergyman,' and devoutly hoping that my 'sands of life' are not by a very long while 'run out,' (for I want to see my future friends,) I would yet (without these advantages) offer you 'some slight relief,' and would seek to assuage your sufferings resulting from too much good company; and since we have so few friends in the past who have amused us, turn we our 'regards' to the possible FRIENDS OF THE FUTURE. First among whom is BAGNOLE