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ginal-looking man? No other, my dearest Helen, than Mr. Spriggs, Lady Barbara's new shoemaker, whom she met as she was going out, and sent him into the drawing-room to try on my white satin dancing shoes; which he was just kneeling to do, when Capt. Gahagan entered, and I screamed as I have described.

"Mais ce n'est pas tout; his stedfast gaze upon me at the theatre is explained by his having a glass eye; (why does not the odious creature wear a black patch ?) and Captain Gahagan, who was aware of this infirmity, had placed himself upon his blind side to avoid recognition, as the horrid man has been in the habit of dunning him for his bill, which he has not yet found it convenient to pay. He had given his card upon leaving Lady Barbara's house, because the shoemaker insisted upon knowing his address; and the alarming decla ration, that there was no time like the present, alluded to his demand of instant payment, when the Captain talked of a future day. "De mal en pis, my dear Helen! Atkins has had the curiosity to open the bundle which

the wretch left behind him in the eagerness of his exit with the Captain, and what do you think it contained? Three pair of horrid red Morocco shoes for children, two pair of odious embroidered slippers, and one pair of hateful French clogs!! Detestable creature! I am already sick to death, and shall go to bed immediately, or this long, long, and eventful evening will never come to an end. Ah! how much more rapidly passed the time when I was listening to my own dear Arcadius!

'Quoi donc ! rien ne suspend le cours
De nos heures trop fortunées;
Plaisirs! vous n'avez que des jours,
Et les chagrins ont des années.'

Your unfortunate

ADELINE TREVANIAN."

VOL. III.

E

CHAPTER III.

"What equal torment to the griefe of mind,
And pyning anguish hid in gentle heart,
That inly feeds itself with thoughts unkind,
And nourisheth her own consuming smart?
What medicine can any leache's art
Yield such a sore, that doth her grievance hide,
And will to none her maladie impart?"

SPENSER.

THE bachelor uncle with whom Helen had resided until in advanced life he fulfilled his destiny by marrying his housekeeper died at this period, and as he had been long enough united to his spouse to discover that he had caught a Tartar, he limited her provision in his will to a few hundred pounds a-year, bequeathed the bulk of his property to public charities, and left twenty thousand pounds to his favourite

niece Helen.

Young as she was at the time of

her visit, he had been enabled to make a due appreciation of her character; so highly indeed did he estimate her good sense and discretion, and so poor was his opinion both of her father's principles, and her mother's judgment, that he ordered the legacy to be secured in the hands of trustees named by himself, and to be paid over to her, either upon her attaining the age of twenty-one, or upon the day of her marriage, without inserting the usual clause in the latter case of its being with the consent of her parents. Gratified as she was by this mark of her uncle's confidence and affection, she felt keenly the indignity it implied to her mother, because she believed it to be perfectly unnecessary; and though she had seen little or nothing of her father, except during his short visit to Harpsden-Hall, she was vexed that he should have experienced so marked an instance of disrespect from so near a relative.

For herself Helen was very doubtful whether this bequest might be considered in the light of a benefit, for she reflected with a deep sigh that the only man she would have wished

to enrich was beloved by her sister, and had
been repudiated by herself; while she could
not but be sensible that the young female in
uncontrolled possession of such a fortune was
liable to become an object of contention among
spendthrifts and sordid profligates, from whose
snares no prudence might ultimately defend her.
Her free agency seemed to her apprehensions
only an increase of her own responsibility, and
she anticipated the annoyance of being pester-
ed with candidates for her hand and fortune,
when she had already, unfortunately, bestowed
her heart upon another.

Reuben only saw in this bequest, which was
bruited about the neighbourhood soon after
his return with his sick cousin, an additional
bar to his hopes and happiness. It elevated
his mistress still higher above his own sphere;
it would increase the number of competitors,
all of whom might have better claims than
himself; and even if he were not already des
pised, rejected, and almost hopeless, his inde-
pendence and delicacy recoiled from the idea
of renewing his suit under circumstances which

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