On the present occasion, as we ere now observed, the guests were conducted to the dining-room at seven. The thick curtains were drawn over the windows: the apartment was a blaze of light. The table groaned beneath the massive plate: the banquet was choice and luxurious in the highest degree. On Mr. Greenwood's right sate the Marquis of Holmesford—a nobleman of sixty-three years of age, of immense wealth, and notorious for the unbounded licentiousness of his mode of life. His conversation, when his heart was somewhat warmed with wine, bore ample testimony to the profligacy of his morals: seductions were his boast; and he frequently indulged in obscene anecdotes or expressions which even called a blush to the cheeks of his least fastidious male acquaintances. On Mr. Greenwood's left was Sir T. M. B. Muzzlehem, Bart., M.P., and Whipper-in to the Tory party. Next to the two guests already described, sate Sir Cherry Bounce, Bart., and the Honourable Major Smilax Dapper—the latter of whom had recently acquired a grade in the service _by purchase_. Mr. James Tomlinson, Mr. Sheriff Popkins, Mr. Alderman Sniff, Mr. Bubble, Mr. Chouse, and Mr. Twitchem (a solicitor) completed the party. Now this company, the reader will perceive, was somewhat a mixed one: the aristocracy of the West End, the civic authority, and the members of the financial and legal spheres, were assembled on the present occasion. The fact is, gentle reader, that this was a "business dinner;" and that you may be no longer kept in suspense, we will at once inform you that when the cloth was drawn, Mr. Greenwood, in a brief speech, proposed "Success to the Algiers, Oran, and Morocco Railway." The toast was drunk with great applause. "With your permission, my lord and gentlemen," said Mr. Twitchem, the solicitor, "I will read the Prospectus." "Yeth, wead the pwothpeckthuth, by all meanth," exclaimed Sir Cherry Bounce. "Strike me—but I'm anxious to hear _that_," cried the Honourable Major Dapper. The solicitor then drew a bundle of papers from his pocket, and in a business-like manner read the contents of one which he extracted from the parcel:— "ALGIERS, ORAN, AND MOROCCO GREAT DESERT RAILWAY. "(Provisionally Registered Pursuant to Act.) "Capital £1,600,000, in 80,000 shares, of £20 each. "Deposit £3 2_s._ per Share. "COMMITTEE OF DIRECTION. "THE MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUIS OF HOLMESFORD, G. C. B., Chairman. "GEORGE M. GREENWOOD, Esq., M.P., Deputy Chairman. "Sir T. M. B. Muzzlehem, Bart., M.P. "James Tomlinson, Esq. "Sylvester Popkins, Esq., Sheriff of London. "Percival Peter Sniff, Esq., Alderman. "Sir Cherry Bounce, Bart. "The Honourable Major Smilax Dapper. "Charles Cecil Bubble, Esq. "Robert James Baring Chouse, Esq.