Doctor and sent off my letter, and had the satisfaction of finding upon Mrs. Wells's arrival that what I had done met with her entire approbation. From the moment, however, that the Doctor was sent for and my respected mother-inlaw proceeded to her daughter's room, I felt— certainly as I had never felt before—my anxiety had commenced-my worry had begun. I dreaded lest the Doctor should come too late-that some unforeseen accident might befall my beloved Harriet I felt, in short, as if I had suddenly become a useless and superfluous member of my own family; I walked about the hall, went into one room, and then into another-stopped-listened -then sat down; until at length I resolved upon going into the grounds, and made a sort of business of looking at the celery and sea-kale in the kitchen garden. The kale covers might have been bee-hives, the celery trenches an asparagus-bed for all I cared, and into the house I came again, when to my horror I heard a sound certainly most unexpected by me at such a moment: that of the tuning of a fiddle in the drawing-room next

to my wife's bed-chamber. I hurried up-stairs astounded at such a circumstance, and there beheld Mr. Kittington, the dancing-master, just in the act of beginning the then popular countrydance of the "Opera Hat," that being fixed upon for the first practice of the before-breakfast lesson to the young ladies.

When I entered the room the two pets, dressed with remarkably short petticoats and dirty white kid shoes, sprang forward to welcome me, and expected, I conclude, to see me look remarkably well pleased.

My dear girls," said I, "you cannot take your lesson here, nor, as I think, anywhere else this morning; Mrs. Gurney is extremely ill, and the noise will distract her."

"Ill," said Jane, "what's the matter with her, uncle ?"

"Jane," said Kitty, "how can you be so foolish-she is not very ill, uncle?"

"Indeed she is," said I.

"And so is Tom," said Jane, "he is all out

in a rash, and can't see out of his eyes. Pappy

is not up yet, but I'll tell him as soon as I

can.

"Indeed!" said I, wondering at the sort of mind in which my Harriet and Mrs. Falwasser's Tom could be by any means associated.

During this little colloquy, Mr. Kittington, in stockinet pantaloons and pumps-time halfpast eight in the morning-stood fiddle in hand, naturally looking particularly awkward.

66

"I tell you what we can do," said Kate, we can go and take our lesson in the laundry, because I know it will vex Pappy if we lose it altogether."

"It is," said I, "indeed an essential point in your education.”

"Besides," added Kate," Mr. Kittington has had to come so early on purpose to give it us."

"Do what you please, my love," said I, "only Harriet is not well enough to bear

I assure you

the noise here."

I did this civilly and quietly, although I felt sick and wretched, because I did not like to allow

the dancing-master to see that the domination of the Falwassers was so irksome to us as it really was, and because I did not wish the professor of the Terpsichorean art-or science—as the case may be, to think that I underrated either the importance of the study, or his own personal assiduity in giving his attendance; and so I conclude they did retire to the laundry, for I heard no more fiddling, nor did I see the young ladies, as it turned out, till a late period of the day.

I sent for Foxcroft, inquired how her mistress was, not daring to venture near the room myself. She told me that she was going on very well. This satisfied me; I did not quite understand what it meant; but the words " very well," conveyed to my mind the intelligence generally which I wished to receive. I went to the breakfast-room; there everything was in ordercomfortable and proper-just the same as if Harriet had been in perfect health. So it is if the master of a house dies-the whole establishment goes on seemingly of itself, for a week or two, without being in the slightest degree affected

by his disappearance. This arises from the fact, that after all the discussions and dissertations upon feeling and gratitude and affection, and all the rest of it, in the relative position of servant and master, there is nothing in either death or destruction sufficiently strong to break in upon the routine of duty so long as it is paid for. The man who cleans the plate, cleans it as energetically, while the man whose plate it was three days before, lies upon tressels screwed up in his coffin, as he did that day week, when the defunct used his portion of it. Kittington, the dancing-master, in his stockinets and pumps, would just as enthusiastically have taught my half or three-quarter nieces (whichever they are) to jump and wriggle and twist, to the tune of the "Opera Hat," if Harriet had been lying dead in the next room, instead of being only seriously indisposed and so it is in all callings and professions. Hamlet, we all know, asks Horatio, speaking of the grave-digger—

"Hath this fellow no feeling in his trade?"

And as Shakspeare shows in every line he has

11