which no two buildings can be seen to rise to the same height, that there was no arbitrary project, acting in obedience to imperial will, to Haussmannize the republican thoroughfare. The freedom of the individual has, in Broadway, fully vindicated his right to do as he pleases with his own. The street originally acquired naturally this irregular character in the course of its gradual succession of transformations from country to fashionable street, and finally to business thoroughfare. So that in the progress of development there was often seen rustic cottages and gardens in neighbourly proximity with formal and imposing town-houses and busy shops. The younger Mathews on visiting New York, after a long absence, was asked by a proud citizen eager to provoke a compliment, what he thought now of the great thoroughfare. "Well," said the actor, "it is the same old Broadway -all awry the houses looking as if they had been shaken up in a bag and dropped promiscuously upon the street." This character it still retains, notwithstanding the stately structures which have risen on all sides, for there is no uniformity in height or style of building, and it is even now in a state of constant transition. As "down town" is ever pushing "up town" further off, smaller shops and other humble buildings are daily being demolished to make room for stately warehouses and great hotels.

The great ocean of human affairs, in calm or storm, can neither swell nor sink without producing an ebb or flow in that great tributary, Broadway. If any great fact, national or foreign, is to be publicly manifested, this street is sure to become the medium. Thus, here were the grand demonstrations and processions in celebration of the opening of the great Erie Canal, in honour of the visits of Lafayette and of all the Presidents from Washington to Johnson, in sympathy with the French Revolution of 1830, and in later days then to give éclat to the completion of the Ocean Telegraph, and welcome the young heir of the British crown. Municipal enthusiasm would probably be exposed to a dangerous catastrophe if it did not relieve itself by an occasional demonstration in Broadway. Thus the great street has been made the frequent vent, by means of flurry and noisy parades of the military, civic, political, and other humours of the town corporation, as well as of various other fermenting bodies and effervescent individuals.

It is this variety, stir, brightness, cheerfulness, and the fact that Broadway pulsates so quick in sympathy with the beating of the great heart of the world, which makes it such a favourite not only with Americans, but with all foreigners. No one once in New York can keep

out of Broadway, so great is the force of its attraction, and such in consequence is the influx of people and carriages and conveyances of all kinds, that facility of movement has become so hindered as to compel ingenuity to all sorts of devices for the relief of the over-crowded thoroughfare. The last contrivance for this purpose, is a great dry shod iron bridge, which passes high over Broadway, allowing a free course for the stream of omnibuses below. As, however, some hundred steps are to be ascended and descended before the transit can be made, few except those who may be curious to take a coup d'œil of the busy scene up and down Broadway, have the patience to mount the lofty structure.

Charles Dickens, when he was in New York, lived at the Carleton House (which has long since, by the by, given way to a great business establishment), and never tired, it is said, of looking out upon the lively Broadway before him, and was much surprised, as he said, and edified at beholding, for the first time in his life, Irishmen with whole coats to their backs. Thackeray, too, who had nothing to do when in New York, but to repeat his lectures, and had full time to indulge in that life of indulgent care, for which he confessed a liking, declared, great traveller as he was, that he had never found a street so much to his taste as Broadway, in which he did not fail daily to sun himself. Broadway, too, was always a great favourite with Irving, and especially with Halleck, who has in his "Fanny " given a permanent setting to some of its ancient landmarks.

Foreigners are apt to suppose that Broadway is a scene of violence and disorder, that it resounds with the frequent popping of the revolver and flashes with the brandished steel of the bowie-knife. Broadway, it is true, has not the well-disciplined order of a rigidly-policed European metropolis; but although more license may be allowed to the roughs of New York than to the rude apprentices of London, and the excitable gamins of Paris, so far is the great American thoroughfare from being disturbed by the unruly, that its policemen, as regards their police duties, enjoy quite a sinecure, and are mostly occupied with galanting timid ladies and unprotected females across the over-crowded streets, through the intricacies of jammed omnibuses and complicated cart-wheels.

Second Thoughts.

BY F. C. BURNAND.

CHAPTER VII.

INJUSTA NOVERCA.

POOR Dick Pincott! He had been reared on expectations. Every one had pointed out to him the existence of an uncle-the uncle--as a great fact. This uncle stood to him in loco parentis; was called by the style and title of Governor, in an affectionate sense. So when Dr. Pincott married, we had no other name for his wife, as a relation of Dick's, than Stepmother. The lad's prospects had been of the brightest up to a certain point. That point was where Miss Maud Caswall appeared, the vanishing point in the perspective of expec

tations.

By my advice, I regret to say (why was it necessary for me to meddle, I should like to know ?), Dick tried to make friends with this stepmother. He went home, was greeted in a constrained, uncomfortable manner by his uncle-was smiled upon, murderously, by the mistress of the house. Miss Rachel had already surrendered the keys, and formally delivered over the citadel into the hands of the enemy. She had taken two of the old servants, who were unwilling to live under the new regime, and had set up housekeeping on her own account, in a pretty little cottage at Chorlton-Double, Derbyshire, which the recently-married couple had quitted for Nookside, Sussex.

It was to Nookside that Dick went.

"Your uncle and myself," said Mrs. Pincott, on the day of his arrival, “dine at five o'clock. I hope you can make that unfashionable hour suit you."

Dick, determined to please, says he likes dining early in the country. She returned that she was glad to hear it, adding that she was afraid he would find their mode of life of a very hum-drum kind, after the gaiety of college. He was ready to meet her on this point He protested (the young hypocrite!) that he was wearied of feasting and playing, and would enjoy nothing now so much as the quiet of Nookside.

This interview was, so far, a very pleasant one. The combatants were shaking hands. Now I daresay this ceremony of hand-shaking

between two unarmed persons has, to the uninitiated, a decidedly amicable appearance. But the next minute the boxers have jumped into sparring attitudes, ready for attack and defence with natural weapons.

If we see two swordsmen saluting, there can't be much mistake as to what use they are going to put their rapiers.

I can tell you what mischief is intended in either case, if the hand is gloved or ungloved, or the rapier buttonless.

But when a young stepmother of twenty-five smiles on her husband's only son and heir, why, I would rather trust her with a parasol than a dagger.

Now to Dr. Pincott Dick had been more than a son. On him he had lavished all the affection whose proper immediate objects had been suddenly removed by that fatal sickness I spoke of a while ago. The Doctor and Miss Rachel between them had spoiled the boy; he had had his own way at home; he had had an unnecessarily large allowance away from home; and finding his wings thus strengthened, he had, while almost a fledgling, attempted flights on which younger birds looked enviously, while older birds regarded them with warning but unheeded caws.

"It was partly my fault that the Governor married," observed Master Dick to me one day, confidentially. "When I was at school

I didn't come home for long during the holidays, but stayed at other boys' houses, because Aunt Rachel was so strict and precise; and when I first went up to the University, I spent my Christmas in Wales, and the Long in roaming about. I didn't make myself a companion to the Governor."

It was true he had come home once or twice unexpectedly, and had found a family in possession-old Caswall without his H's, his wife vulgarly majestic, and Miss Maud accompanying her father on the piano.

Mrs. Caswall (who did possess the aspirate) patronized him, praised him to his uncle as a "dear, fine, handsome boy" (he was just eighteen then), and, asking him to sit on the sofa by her side, condescendingly inquired about his schooling. This was too much for Master Dick's pride; but he foresaw no danger, and even listened to Miss Maud's unmelodious firework performance on the "grand" with pleasure. In fact, the sly youth began a flirtation with her himself, which Miss Maud was clever enough to encourage; so that when, at the end of a few years, Dr. Pincott acted on his Second Thoughts, and married this eligible young woman, there was a little awkwardness, on the younger

Pincott's part, in facing an aunt-stepmother, to whom he had been whispering occasional soft nothings, and his own uncle-father, who had been, as it now seemed to Dick, his rival.

I have a letter by me of that date, signed "D. P.," giving me an account of how he had acted upon my advice, and what was coming of it. He says::

"The Governor (by the way, she objects to my calling him Governor, though Heaven knows he's old enough to be her's and mine too-but, then, she also objects to my calling her stepmother or aunt— fancy!) is very much changed. He is not so hearty as he used to be. He is always lecturing me, after dinner, when we are alone, on extravagance, and hinting that he must reduce his expenditure; and, ergo, mine. The other night he said he hoped I didn't owe much at college. I replied that I hoped I didn't; in fact, that I supposed I didn't. I had a great mind to ask him what (or, more properly, who) had put this idea into his head. He complained that I hadn't studied sufficiently -that I'd wasted my time-that he knew two young men who lived on eighty pounds a year at college, and had taken first-class positions. (That's his way of saying senior wrangler, and so forth, for he is very misty on all University subjects.) I could only be astonished, and ask their names. The two young men were friends of old Caswall's. Sizars, most likely, at some small college, for I've never heard of 'em; and as for first-class positions, I don't know what he means; and, for the matter of that, no more does he. I am sorry to say that I couldn't restrain myself, and spoke sneeringly of old Caswall, with his "'oss and 'is 'ounds.' The dining-room window was open, and Madame ma belle mere, ma tante, or whatever she is to be called, was standing not five yards from where we were talking. I saw her as I went to the window. There was a thorn in that rose-bush. I wish I'd acted upon Second Thoughts then. All that I said was, that old Caswall might be a very good sort of man, but he had had no education, and really couldn't know much about University matters. I'll finish this tomorrow morning. I'm rather late."

CHAPTER VIII.

BETWEEN YOU AND ME AND THE POST.

WHAT will Miss Rachel think of all this?

Chorlton-Double was,

and is, a quiet place. The Rector and myself used to meet at Miss