white torches, and a full dressed lady and gentleman inquiring after
them, and the meaning of the extraordinary descent. A few minutes served
to explain the mal à propos mistake; the detected pair sought refuge
in the hall of the house, with some such feeling as our first parents
experienced when they had tasted the fatal apple in the garden of Eden.
The carriage rolled away with the tittering coachman and footmen, and
the ill-suppressed mirth of their master and mistress, who quickly
disseminated the story throughout the fashionable throng of the party
whither they were bent, and which remained for the rest of the season
a standing joke wherever Lord and Lady B. appeared.

Humbled and confused, the unhappy Flybekins could not retrieve the
blunder they had committed, and prudently resigned all their ambitious
schemes. So they returned to Devonshire with the unlucky fire-escapes,
sincerely regretting they had ever been tempted to purchase them.
But, although the disaster had got wind, and with various versions had
reached even into Devonshire, they were much consoled by the following
narration of it which appeared in the county paper, in a light most
favourable to their interests and reputation, although totally devoid
of truth in almost every particular.

The _flaming_ paragraph ran thus:--"We understand that Mr. and.
Mrs. Flybekin of ------ in this county, while upon a visit to their
noble relatives, Lord and Lady B. in London, narrowly escaped being
burnt to death. The devouring element almost destroyed the lower part
of the family mansion in Grosvenor-square, over which the lady and
gentleman slept, who had retired early to bed, and who by the accidental
return of Lord and Lady B. from a party, were awakened only just in time
to effect their retreat by means of a fire-escape, fortunately attached
to their bed-room window. We are informed that the fire occurred in