"Why," interrupted Middlemore, despite of a dozen ohs
and ahs--"why, I say, is Villiers like a man of domestic
habits? Do you give it up? Because he is fond of dwelling
on his own premises."

"Middlemore, when will you renounce that vile habit of
punning?" said De Courcy with an earnestness of adjuration
that excited a general laugh at his end of the table--
"Come, Villiers, never mind his nonsense, for your
premises, although a little long, are not without deep
interest--but what has all this to do with our good
friend above?"

"You shall hear. After a succession of balls last winter,
to which the ladies on either shore were invariably
invited, the concluding one was given by the officers in
garrison at Detroit. This was at the very close of the
season, and it chanced that, on the preceding night, the
river had broken up, so that the roar and fracas of
crashing ice, might have been likened, during forty eight
hours afterwards, to some terrible disorganization of
nature. Nothing daunted, however, by the circumstance,
many of the Canadian ladies made the usual preparations,
and amongst others the Miss D'Egvilles."

Here Villiers paused a moment, and with a significant
"hem," sought to arouse the attention of the Grenadier;
but Cranstoun, insensible to the appeal, and perhaps
unwilling to listen to a story that occasioned so much