The Express.
London, England, 1864-04-29 00:00:00

TEN VENBERINGS.

(From Our Mutual /rived, by Qualm DICICLIS. No. L)
Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people
la a brea-new boon in a bran-new quarter of London.
Everything abort the Veneariags wee @pick and spa.
new. All their furniture was new, all their friends
were new, all their servants were new, their plate
wee new, their carriage was new, their harness wee
new, their horses were new, their pictures were new,
they themselves were new, they owe as newly
married as was lawfully compatible with their baying a
bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather,
he would have come home in matting from the Nowa-
oboe, without a scratch upon him, French polished to the
' crown of his head.

;tiefens:lring eataldishment, from the hall-chides
with the new coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with
the new action, and upstairs spin to the new dre-escape,
all things were in a state or high varnish and radish. And
what was observable in the furniture, was observable in
the Vesseriegs—the ruder* smelt a little too much of the
workshop and was a trifle stickey.
There was an Innocent piece of dinner furniture that went
upon easy castors and was kept over a livery stable-yard in
Duke-street, Saint James's, wino not in use, t • whom the
Vaneeetsge were a source of blind coefuloo. The name of
this article was Twemlow. Being lint cootie to Lord Sons-
worth, he was in frequent requisition, and at many houses
might be said to represent the dining-table in its normal state.
.
Mr. and Mn. Veneering, forexample,arcangi eg a dinner, halo-
Wally Masted with Twemlow, and then put leaves in him,
or added guests to him. Sometimes the table consisted of
Twemlow and half-a-dozen leave" ; sometimes, of Twemlow
and a dozen leaves ; sometime', Twemlow was polled out to
his utmost extent of twenty leaves. Mr. and Mrs. Veneer-
ing on occasions of ceremony faced each other io the centre
of the board, and thus the parallel still held ; fur, it
always happened that the more Twemlow was pulled
out, the further be found himself from the centre. and the
nearer to the sideboard at one end of the room, or the win-
dow-amities at the other.
But, it wee not this which steeped the feeble soul of
Twemlow in confusion. This he was used to, and could
take soundings of. The abyas to which he could find no
bottom, and from which started forth the engrossing and ever-
swelling difficulty of his life, was the insoluble gayeties
whether he was Veneming's oldest friend, or newest friend.
To the ezeogitatioa of this problem, the harmless gentleman
had devoted many anxious Loan, both in his lodgings over
the livery stable-yard, and in the cold gloom, favourable
to meditation of St. James's-square. Thus. Twemlow
had first knows Veneering at his dab, where Veneeriog
thee knew nobody bat the man who made them known
to one another, who seemed to be the most intimate friend
he bad in the world, and whom be had known two
days—the hoed of union between their goals, the nefarious
coaduot of the committee respecting the cookery of a fillet
orti=haing been accidental) cemented at that date.
y upon this, Twemlow received ea
invitatioa to dine with Veneering ; and dined :
the min being or the party. Immediately upon that.
Twemlow received an la VltLtio• to die* with the man, and
dined : Veneering being of the party. At the man's were
a member, an engineer, a payer-off of the National Debt,
poem as Shakespeare, a Grimm', sod a Public Office, who
all seemed to be utterotrengers to Veneering. And Yee
immediately after that, Twemlow received an invitation
to dine at Valorises, eirpresely to meet the member, the
engineer, the payer-off or the National Debt, the poem oa
Shakespeare, the Grievance, and the Public Odin., and
dining, discovered that all of them were the most intimate
friends Veneering bad in the world, and that the wives of
all or than (who were all there) were the objects of Mrs.
Vas/arise's most devoted affection sod tender 000tidentei.
Thus it had come about, that Mr. Twemlow had said to
himself ia hi lodgings, with his hand to hi forehead, " I
Mart act think of this. This i enough to sortie any
man's hays,"—and yet wee always thinking of it, sad
Gould sever form a soselasice.

The first mackerel of the season have just been
caught off Weymouth. Large quantities were caught off the
Devoe and Cornish waste a few days since.