Showing the arts by which a man, however high in the air Nature may have formed his nose, may be led by that nose, and in directions perversely opposite to those which, in following his nose, he might be supposed to take; and, therefore, that nations the most liberally endowed with practical good sense, and in conceit thereof, carrying their noses the most horizontally aloof, when they come into conference with nations more skilled in diplomacy and more practised in “stage-play,” end by the surrender of the precise object which it was intended they should surrender before they laid their noses together. We all know that Demosthenes said, Everything in oratory was acting,--stage-play. Is it in oratory alone that the saying holds good? Apply it to all circumstances of fife, “stage-play, stage-play, stage-play!”--only _ars est celare artem_, conceal the art. Gleesome in soul to behold his visitors, calculating already on the three pounds to be extracted from them, seeing in that hope the crisis in his own checkered existence, Mr. Waife rose from his seat in superb _upocrisia_ or stage-play, and asked, with mild dignity,--“To what am I indebted, gentlemen, for the honour of your visit?” In spite of his, nose, even Vance was taken aback. Pope says that Lord Bolingbroke had “the nobleman air.” A great comedian Lord Bolingbroke surely was. But, ah, had Pope seen Gentleman Waife! Taking advantage of the impression he had created, the actor added, with the finest imaginable breeding,--“But pray be seated;” and, once seeing them seated, resumed his easy-chair, and felt himself master of the situation. “Hum!” said Vance, recovering his self-possession, after a pause--“hum!” “Hem!” re-echoed Gentleman Waife; and the two men eyed each other much in the same way as Admiral Napier might have eyed the fort of Cronstadt, and the fort of Cronstadt have eyed Admiral Napier. Lionel struck in with that youthful boldness which plays the deuce with all dignified strategical science. “You must be aware why we come, sir; Mr. Merle will have explained. My friend, a distinguished artist, wished to make a sketch, if you do not object, of this young lady’s very”-- “Pretty little face,” quoth Vance, taking up the dis course. “Mr. Rugge, this morning, was willing,--I understand that your grandchild refused. We are come here to see if she will be more complaisant under your own roof, or Under Mr. Merle’s, which, I take it, is the same thing for the present.”--Sophy had sidled up to Lionel. He might not have been flattered if he knew why she preferred him to Vance. She looked on him as a boy, a fellow-child; and an instinct, moreover, told her, that more easily through him than his shrewd-looking bearded guest could she attain the object of her cupidity,--“three pounds!” “Three pounds!” whispered Sophy, with the tones of an angel, into Lionel’s thrilling ear.