ber to you, there still remains the ghost of the grey—you cannot dispute all marvels out of the world. And now for our task.”—
He took up The Liberal and began to read “The Grey Chamber,” but before he had got through half a dozen sentences, he dashed the paper violently upon the table; for it contained an explanation, as clear as the sun, of the celebrated goblin of the grey chamber!—
“Alack-a-day,” said he despondingly, “we live in villanous times; every thing venerable is going to decay,—not even a respectable ghost can remain undisturbed in his own territories, but somebody will arise to disprove and displace him. Let nobody come to me again with a story of a spectre.”
“And why not,” replied Wermuth, “it is not till the period when ghosts are banished, that men begin to tell their histories; but through all those stories that appear wanting in probability, the reader, if he be either lucky or witty, will readily discover the truth.”
THE FIRST SONGSTRESSES IN TOWN.
Pray, said Lady Mary to me, the other day,—(and pray, Sir, who are you? Why, Madam, I am Edmund Bruce, at your service, whose name you may find in the list of Lady Mary’s very devoted and humble servants)—Pray, said Lady Mary to me (during a most graciously vouchsafed private audience) what is your opinion of all the best singers now in town?
Your ladyship, I replied, is so comprehensive in the form of your question, that I must despair of obliging you by an answer, unless you will be so kind as to descend a little more to particulars.
Well, returned her ladyship, what think you of a dialogue upon the separate merits of our vocalists; and if you can remember it afterwards, you may, you know, send it to the Magazine, and have it printed.
With all my heart, I replied; I was just racking my brains for a subject for contribution. But to which of our songstresses (for songsters are out of the question—I never could abide a man’s voice) shall we give the palm of precedence? Do I not run an equal hazard with unhappy Paris, in his allotment of the golden apple? To begin with our native warblers, there are three, Salmon, Stephens, and Tree, or Tree, Stephens, and Salmon; or Stephens, Tree, and Salmon, all as eager as any baronet’s wife to be allowed the premier pas on every occasion, and insisting most imperatively to have
