The Disappointments Of Life.

youth . We were Pylades and Orestes we were always together ; we shared the same " sock " we played in the same eleven , we rowed in the same boat , we agreed in everything , w e had the same likes and dislikes , the same political

opinion , the same Brittanic prejudices . But how is it now ? Life has passed on , we have found that we do not agree on many points , to say nothing of the politics of the houror the religious controversies of the

, season , and we especially divide about Ellen Dansey , and so we meet each other carelessly in the "Forum , " or greet each other distantly at the " Pieunion , " and think and talk of each other with much of cold constraint .

We , indeed , console ourselves by saying that ours are necessarily different ways of life now , different habits of thought , differing tastes and sympathies and aims . But yet , alas ! how disappointing it is to witness such a blight gather over the glowing friendship of earlier and happier years . Or that fair cousin of ours with whom we bad such

cheery romps , and walks , and rides in " life ' s young morn , " such scamperings overhedges , and ditches , and rural stiles . Well Ave had an intense sympathetic feeling between us , which the cold world coidd not , and would not

understand , and of which our prudent parents so entirely disapproved . How odd it is , that Ave met that once merry lass with the dishevelled hair , and those eyes of hers with the long lashes , that dejjtb . of gaze and sentiment , poetry and

pathos , in all her looks and motion , a stout , fat , good natured , motherly , elderly Avoman the other clay , with a daughter just coming out , and a son who has volunteered for the Ashantee War . How disappointing is this realization of a

passed primaeval dream . Or again , there is that old neighbour and crony of ours , whom Ave have known so intimately for so many long and happy years , " good old Jorum , " as be was called at school , at college , and still is termed by many admiring mates . How often have we stretched our legs

under his hospitable mahogany , and he under ours , for Ave have been fast friends through life . Nothing about him that we did not and do not think admirable , nay , deeply respect ; whether it was his Cook , or his Champagne , his old Port or

bis hand at whist . And what pleasant bachelor clays were ours , and what a comfortable bachelor ' s house AA as his . And there , lie ' s gone and married a most charming person indeed , very young , very pretty , very clever , very

decided , and AVIIO does not veryproperly , as her clear mother says , " mean to allow any more bachelor ways , for my Louisa Jane has been better brought rip . " And our good old Mend looks on ns when Ave meet , which is seldom noAA , with a rueful face , as much as to sajr , " Behold , old boy , my infatuation , be

warned , and wiser than poor old Jorum . " And then the wife of our bosom , our own admired and adored Emily , she who when we married was the gentlest of beings , the most sympathetic of turtle cloves , whose only wish , as she

bleated continually in our entranced ears , was to please her clear Ernest Sigismund . There she is—Ave hear her voice at this very moment , though at a considerable distance , we can swear to it under any circumstances , we know

it immediately ; there ' s no mistaking it—that elevated key-note , and that shrillest of all bronchial utterances . What good lungs that woman has , and bless her too , what a very decided will and way of her own ! And so we might go on in this Avay , through the various lots of us all , and depict the many disappointments Avhieh await us all .

Is not public life , for instance , full of disappointment , nay for the matter of that , is not private life too ? Yes , indeed must be our answer , for many are the petty cares and childish inanities , the " petites miseres de la vie humaine , "

which cast a shade of dejection on many a honest heart of us all , and throAV a colouring of disappointment over the outer broadway of society , and the inner " regime " of the family circle . Now do not suppose that I wish to be