.

THE ENGAGEMENT.
It is somewhat less than three months after the death of Sir Miles St.John; November reigns in London.

And "reigns" seems scarcely a metaphorical expression as applied to the sullen, absolute sway which that dreary month (first in the dynasty of Winter) spreads over the passive, dejected city.
Elsewhere in England, November is no such gloomy, grim fellow as he is described.

Over the brown glebes and changed woods in the country, his still face looks contemplative and mild; and he has soft smiles, too, at times,--lighting up his taxed vassals the groves; gleaming where the leaves still cling to the boughs, and reflected in dimples from the waves which still glide free from his chains.

But as a conqueror who makes his home in the capital, weighs down with hard policy the mutinous citizens long ere his iron influence is felt in the province, so the first tyrant of Winter has only rigour and frowns for London.