drooping, his hands hanging over the arms of the chair, and his dull and sunken eyes fixed on the floor. I felt it a second time necessary to awaken his attention, by repeating, in a louder voice, a sentence which passed unheard when spoken for the first time.

"Thinking more deeply on your proposal, generous as it is," I said, "I have reason to say that the obstacle, of which I spoke, may not be found so obstinate as I at first imagined.

66

Why?-Is she not contracted to another?"

"She was, but the contract was a conditional one-and the conditions have been broken on our side.'

"So that the contract is, in fact, again invalid ?" "In point of fact, yes."

"Here comes the wind round to the old point again.The sum total of your deliberation therefore is-that my plan is still practicable."

"I see no objection to it.".

“And you will ensure the consent of your daughter?" "I think I am sure, I can-I will ensure it."

"It is very well. I ask you not by what means you propose to obtain it—what difficulties you may have to encounter-or how you design to surmount them-I shall leave the question of your daughter's consent entirely in your own hands, and proceed to carry the other parts of my arrangement into effect."

"You may rely with security on our compliance," I repeated, anxious that he should retain no doubt of his success. "The contract was, in a great measure, one of convenience, and since the convenience has fallen to the ground, I see not what should uphold the agreement that was founded upon it."

Lifting my eyes, as if by way of appealing to him for the truth of what I said, the sudden alteration that had taken place in the stranger's look and manner startled and confused me. He seemed, for the instant, to have lost all that languid inertness of look and attitude which was habitual to him. His head was elevated with an air of proud indignation; his eye, fully opened and filled with fire, was bent fixedly upon my face; and his lips, on which I thought I could discern a certain doubtful and flickering expression of contempt throughout the whole interview, was now

curled, and set, in the unequivocal expression of that offensive sentiment. I felt, at the same instant, a hurried and agitating recollection, like the dim and transitory glimpses which the memory retains of a troubled dream, pass swiftly through my mind, and vanish, before I could distinctly define a single image of the suddenly awakened picture. It is impossible to convey an accurate impression of the sensation which I underwent. A number of familiar faces, all expressive of trouble or apprehension, and figures in various attitudes of anxious expectance and dismay, were, by some strange association, presented to my mind at the instant I met the stranger's glance, and withdrawn as suddenly and as completely, as if they had never been. I had not the power to recall or retain any figure of the phantasma a moment longer on my sight. In the same manner, oftentimes, on recurring accidentally to that position of the frame in which I had slept during the preceding night-the story of a forgotten dream has swept across my memory, like the shadows of a careering sky over a sheltered lake.

The change in the demeanour of my visiter was as momentary as the impression which it produced. He quickly relapsed into his usual indolence of manner, and said, in the faint and hesitating tone which was peculiar to him,

"We will meet then, soon, again. I intend at present, to proceed to the house of my young friend, and after I have rejoiced him with the tidings of his good fortune, we will lose no time in returning to Cushlane Beg, and rendering ourselves agreeable to one another. I suppose I shall find you with your daughter?"

"There is little doubt of it, for I intend travelling to-day, and the distance is not more than a few miles. You must be sensible," I continued, after a pause, "of a very exquisite pleasure in the possession of the power which your fortune gives you-and which enables you to exercise something like a magic influence on the condition of others."

He tossed his head slightly, and replied to my observation, rather as if in communion with his own reason than with the intention of honouring me by any confidence.

"I am not generous enough," he said, sadly, "to be content with this secondary species of enjoyment, though it is all that is now left me. As I entered this inn, last night, I saw a stout fellow, without shoes or stockings, seated at a

table in the landlord's kitchen, with a mountain of laughing, mealy potatoes, and a wooden piggin of thick milk before him. His cheeks were flushed with health and exercise, his eyes, (they were gay, happy, light blue eyes as ever I looked on) wandered with such an enviable satisfaction over the plenteous fare, and his whole face was lighted up with such a keen sense of enjoyment, that, if I were to look no further than this world, (I have hitherto seldom looked further,) I would have gladly changed persons with the boor. Aye, and minds also, for if knowledge be only valuable for the increase of happiness it brings, he had no loss in his inferiority. But," he added, with a sudden change of manner, "this long interview in your present condition must be of little service to you, and I am myself somewhat weary. I will take my leave for the present.

One of those awkward mistakes in ceremonial, which are so mortifying when committed, and which stick so long and so sharply in the memory, here occurred to me. As the stranger rose, he reached his hand towards me; I thought it was with the intention of taking mine, and offered it in consequence. But he declined the courtesy.

"I beg pardon," he said, very coolly, and without any embarrassment, "it was only my cane I wanted, which is near your chair."

I handed it to him in great confusion; which was not abated by my observing a contemptuous smile upon his lip, as if he were surprised at my expecting such a familiarity. Before I had recovered my self-possession sufficiently to make any observation, he had gathered up his furs close about his ears, sunk his head low betweeen his shoulders, applied a silk handkerchief to his mouth, and made all the necessary preparations for beating across a broken pane in McGawyl's lobby, which admitted a thorough draught of air that rendered the enterprise one of a sufficiently hazardous nature.

Never was an individual left in a state of greater perplexity, confusion, pleasure, mortification, attachment, and dislike, than that into which this professed eccentric had contrived to throw me. His pride filled me with indignation, and I felt my heart rise up and call for the rejection of his acquaintance; his generosity attracted me, and I forgave him, his good-nature pleased me, his indifference mortified me, the singular and unaccountable influ

ence which he exercised on my memory confused me, and I contemplated him with a degree of awe; his eccentricity perplexed me, and I threw up the subject in despair of arriving at any conclusion.

I now referred for information with more of leisure to the letter of my daughter. After a gentle reproach for my absence, it ran in the following words :

"A tall, and somewhat sun-burnt gentleman, very apprehensive of cold, and very languid and absent in his manner, called here to see you last night, and remained to tea with us. I was polite to him, not only because he was an acquaintance of Rowan's, and because I thought he might be a person of consequence, and likely to be of service to you in your present necessity, but because even from the first moment of his appearance, the gentleman attracted my liveliest interest. They call him an eccentric, and I think correctly, for he took no sugar nor cream in his tea, and wore his travelling cap the whole evening. He is the politest old gentleman you ever saw. I am ashamed to tell you what a strange and unaccountable feeling the very first sight of him excited within my mind, for I suppose you would call it ridiculous nonsense. But though that might be fancy, this at all events is a fact, that on the second day of our acquaintance, for he stopped the night, I felt towards him the confidence, affection, and reverence which I should have felt towards an aged and well known relative. If Rowan does not look about him, I cannot answer for what I may be tempted to do with myself. Don't you know he is a very rich old gentleman, and though he is now past the bloom of youth, I think there is something exceedingly, and, to me, mystically, interesting in his features? He was particularly anxious to be made acquainted with the fortunes of our family, but finding me reserved on that subject, as I did not like to say anything without your permission, he desisted with a ready delicacy, for which I admired him. If he should not become a constant friend, I shall surely break my heart.

"And now, my dear father, for our own sad story. Do not remain long from us, do not leave me longer alone, while you go to struggle with misfortune at a distance; do not any longer put me away from you, as if I had no interest in your afflictions. It is not treating me well, my

dear father, although I am sure you mean it kindly. My heart is heavier than I have told you. My dear brothers! Let us remain together, my father, and all will yet be well. They will become irreclaimable truants in your absence, for my authority is nothing. Let me echo the invitation of the tuneful Amiens :

Who doth Ambition shun,
And love to lie i' th' sun,
Seeking the food he eats,

And pleased with what he gets.
Come hither, come hither, come hither,
Here shall he see

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

"ELLEN TRACY."

"Who doth Ambition shun !"

I repeated to myself as I folded the letter, and placed it in my capacious pocket book. "She is a fond little knave, but sufficiently self-assured, when she bestows such a satirical inuendo as that upon her father. 'Twas a little hard, but let it go. I deserve it. I am rejoiced however to see that my purpose with respect to the stranger seems to be more than half achieved before I have made known a single wish. There is no ambition in this, at all events."

I was shallow enough to think so, and shallow enough to take for the serious feelings of her heart, the light and toying gayety of her allusion to her old affection. There never were father and daughter who lived together so long in ignorance of each other. She little dreamed that I could be a tyrant, and I never suspected beneath that light gayety and submissive gentleness, which illumined all her character, the existence of such depth and strength of passion, such an unhesitating firmness of determination, and such a piercing clearness of perception, as I afterward found it necessary to contend with.

While I was still engaged in considering the emergencies in which I was placed, a smart knocking at the door announced the return of my landlord.