The heated spell was at its height, and the gentility had, long since, sought the cool and quiet of their country estates, along the Eastern and Western Shores. The Governor's house was open, with its usual retinue of servants, but it was alone in its grandeur. The rest showed only a single light at night, and a solitary servant, left to care for the man of the family who was in presence. They, too, would vanish on the morrow, and Annapolis would, so far as the sacred precincts of the quality were concerned, become a dead city, until Autumn touched it again to life. It was something after ten o'clock, when Sir Edward Parkington, being bored with himself, left the Governor's mansion, and sauntered through the deserted precincts of the town to the Coffee-house, on Church Street. He could count on finding some of the young bloods there, and some of the old bloods, as well--the legislature could not hold every one, on such a night. Before he came to State House Hill, he saw that the Assembly had risen, and, when he reached the Coffee-house, the noise, from within, told him that he should find plenty of companionship. In the larger room, were gathered a coterie of the younger men, who greeted him with a shout of welcome. "Come in, Parkington! come in, and join us!" shouted Mr. Cole. He thundered on the table. "Here, Sparrow, a glas'h for Sir Edward. We are drinking confush'on to those who think differently from us." "I can drink that toast, and think as I please!" laughed Parkington. "'Zactly! 'Zactly! that's just it--you have the idea--shink as you please--the point isn't to shink, it's to take a drink.--Sir Edward, your good health!" Parkington drank, then put aside his glass, and sat down. Mr. Jennings, who was reading the Gazette, looked up. "Here is a fellow who must have been as mellow as our friend Cole," he said. "Listen: "'_A hat was taken off a gentleman's head in the street before the Subscriber's House in Upper Marlborough, on Friday night, the 7th ultimo. Whoever will stop the said hat, if offered for sale, and discover the thief, so that he may be brought to justice, shall have a reward of two pistoles paid by_ _B. Brookes._'" "Go 'long, Jennings!" said Dr. Upton Scott, (who having been the surgeon on Wolfe's staff, at the battle of Quebec, had come to Annapolis, married a daughter of John Ross, the Proprietor's Deputy, and built one of the most attractive houses in town--on the banks of the Spa, adjoining the residences of Carroll and Tasker). "You are trading on our credulity." "I swear it is here--just as I read it." "Well, even Cole has a long way to go, before he gets as drunk as Brookes' friend. But, cheer up, old man, you are getting there!" said the Doctor, clapping Cole on the shoulder, and spilling a pint of Madeira out of his hands. "I'm getting there!" Cole agreed, looking up with a silly smile, "but I'll get there fas'her if you spilled les'h, Scott.