the cane.

"Yes; why were not you there?"

"I never go anywhere," replied the melancholy Cupid,
"everything bores me so."

"Well, will you go to Epsom with us to-morrow, Alfred?" said
Lord Fitzheron. "I take Berners and Charles Egremont, and
with you our party will be perfect."

"I feel so cursed blas‚!" exclaimed the boy in a tone of
elegant anguish.

"It will give you a fillip, Alfred," said Mr Berners; "do you
all the good in the world."

"Nothing can do me good," said Alfred, throwing away his
almost untasted peach, "I should be quite content if anything
could do me harm. Waiter, bring me a tumbler of Badminton."

"And bring me one too," sighed out Lord Eugene De Vere, who
was a year older than Alfred Mountchesney, his companion and
brother in listlessness. Both had exhausted life in their
teens, and all that remained for them was to mourn, amid the
ruins of their reminiscences, over the extinction of
excitement.

"Well, Eugene, suppose you come with us." said Lord
Fitzheron.