bring my mistress to live with her-yes! a common harlot to associate, to be an inmate with Catharine !- -When

I did this-when I did this, Levis,then, for the first time, did her feelings find utterance, and she declared, by the God that made her, she would wander in the open streets before she would be thus polluted,—and I did not dare the villainy I had threatened."

66

66

"Well may you shudder, Levis! The misery I wrought that angel woman weighs with a leaden weight upon my soul; it has been my one thought by day, my one dream by night. At the scene of merriment, when the laugh and the song were loudest, a voice far louder would cryDespair!"; in the lone hour, when no other sound was heard, that voice has still rung in my ears-" Despair!"; and now, that Death is busy with me, and I have most need of consolation, it is still here-ever cryingDespair! Despair!"-Nay, reverend sir, trouble not yourself for me; no prayers of other men can avail me aught, if my own are not heard; no soothing of theirs can smooth my dying hour, where my own conscience fails of comfort. It is not for that I have had you here— no, no, not for that! but that I might do justice, while my breath was spared me, to the virtues of my murdered wife. With the same object have I borne your presence, Levis for not of the wrongs I have done ou do I now trouble myself so greatly, they were, in part, of your own inciting. And yet―methinks it were good to have, your forgiveness, it may spare me one pang at least :Say, Levis-can you? do you-forgive me?"

I rose I leaned over the dying man. There was a struggle in my heart for the words he asked; but they would not out: 66 May God forgive you !" I muttered,

and left the room.

Six doctors, eminent in their profession and the gravity of their wigs, had solemnly assured Catling he could not survive six hours; and the patient's own belief had yielded to so respectable a majority. However, he

lived long after, to the ruin of many women, and the credit of the learned gentlemen, whose skill had been so wonderous as even to set at naught their own decisions.

I never visited him after his recovery. Nor did he take my conduct much to heart;—indeed, I can well imagine his mortification at the recollection of the confessions a death-bed had extorted; but he evidently encouraged the affection between me and his little son. Every day did the lovely boy come to my office; and you can have no idea, my nephew, of the joy with which my heart throbbed, as I heard his voice at my door :—“ I'm come Levis! Let me in!" The love I bore him afforded me more true happiness than I had ever known from the love I had borne his mother, for there was none of the earth of passion to mingle with its pure gold ;—it was like the love I cherished for that mother's memory. Often did I weep over him tears of delicious feeling; while he, sweet child, unknowing what it meant, would press his beautiful lips to mine, and prattle in that softest voice of his so like my sainted Catharine's!" Now don't cry, Levis! I don't love to see a man cry. My mama used to tell me, when I cried, that none but women ever did so, and my mama herself used to drop so many tears! O, you don't know how many, Levis !"

When he had attained his twelfth year, he fell dangerously ill. His father, who began to take some pride in his growing virtues, added to his own attentions the best medical advice in the city; but it would not do,-the boy continually fretted for his dear Levis', and would even murmur my name in his troubled sleep. In consequence of this, his father sent me a letter of the most earnest entreaty-promising to intrust his son to my sole care so I would but come. Need I say that I did every thing my skill could suggest, or my feelings prompt, for one I loved so fondly? -The boy recovered, to become dearer to me than ever. When he had reached the age of puberty, I discovered, that, with all the virtues his

character was rapidly developing, he had a strong propensity to pleasure, inherited doubtless from his father, and also a pride and `obstinacy which might be traced to his unfortunate mother. I endeavoured to check his dissipation by what I considered the most efficient discipline-namely, by appealing to his reason; but, though he always listened to my admonitions with the most respectful attention, and even seemed grieved at my solicitude, he did not reform.-He reached manhood, and com. menced under his father the study of surgery. Then it was that an incident occurred, which riveted for life the chain of our mutual affection.

The disappointments of my early life had increased the natural austerity of my disposition to such a degree, as to render me far from a favourite with many people, and an especial object of dislike to the members of my own profession. George was one evening in company with a number of these amiable gentlemen, when, my name happening to be mentioned in the course of conversation, one of the party who fancied himself a wag, after premising a most significant "Humph!", observed that, for his part, he had never known what to make of me ;-I was a true chimæra-being a lion in arrogance, a goat in understanding, and a dragon in spleen. George, without a single word in reply, struck him to the floor; and the consequence was a duel, in which my champion received a dangerous wound.

The sense of obligation, Jerry, is more apt to destroy than create affection in the party obliged, because it lessens him in his own estimation. Hence George Catling, by venturing his life in defence of my character, had made, for any benefits under which he might conceive himself indebted to me, a return that raised him in his own esteem, and enabled the current of his love to flow without restraint. From that day, the difference in our ages ceased to be regarded-we were more on a footing of equality; and him, whom I had once fondled on my

knee the child of my adoption, I now took to my arms the friend of my choice.

Can you wonder, then, that I feel hurt at his obstinate neglect of my counsel, when I know that the follow. ing that counsel is the only chance of preserving a life so valuable ?.......You saw that miserable form? It is, believe me, the wreck of a person which I once thought almost symmetry itself. George had the misfortune to be born when his mother's health was in its decline: consequently, with that mother's beauty he inherited the sad entail of a feeble constitution.-Pleasure has done the rest for him; and now-he is dying of debility. For years has he tampered with that worst of disorders, trying in turn all the favourite prescriptions of all his favourite authors, and rejecting mine-Why I know not; since in every thing else he subscribes implicitly to my opinion. Perhaps, they are too simple! perhaps—and I fear me it is too true-my violence disgusts him : but I cannot help it, Jerry-indeed, I cannot help it. O, it maddens me that any man, whom God has gifted with a moiety of brains, should make a mere drug-shop of his body, crowding in poison after poison till he has filled every cranny with his villainous compounds! Poor Life is thus driven from nook to nook, till her persecution ends in absolute banishment. George Catling, sir, cannot live eight months !"—and my uncle, wringing my hand with that warmth of affection one feels-so naturally !— for an attentive hearer, left me to my meditations.

Poor George Catling! eight days after I heard the earth rattle on his coffin.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Τίς δὲ βίος, τί δὲ τερπνὸν ἄτες χρυσέης Αφροδίτης;

Poet. Gr. Gnom.-MIMNERM. COLOPH.

WELL! how deceived one may be in appearances!thought I, as the door closed on the Doctor's stately figure:-Who would have said, that so grave a man as my uncle Timothy could make such a fool of himself for the sake of a pretty woman? —; and, by way of comment, I looked to the opposite side of the street to see if my lady was at her window. Sure enough, there she stood !— though it was so dark that I could not distinguish her features. However, there is, as readers of romance well know, a certain instinct between lovers, or those who are destined to be lovers, which infallibly instructs them of each other's presence-even though they be both stoneblind.

The moment this same infallible instinct informed the lady who it was that watched her from the doctor's window, she dropped her handkerchief by accident.Here was a chance too lucky to be neglected by a lad of so much enterprise as myself; so putting on my hat, I sallied from the office, tripped lightly over the pavement,