is both force and keeping-Who can this be, my lady? | about in quest of a tawny lion, though they are much -Do but see the sky-line-why, this is really a little bit-an exquisite little bit-Who the devil can it be? and how can he have stumbled upon the dog-hole in the Old Town, and the snarling b-I beg your ladyship ten thousand pardons that kennels there?" I dare say, my lady," said a little miss of fourteen, her eyes growing rounder and rounder, and her cheeks redder and redder, as she found herself speaking, and so many folks listening-"O la! I dare say it is the same gentleman we met one day in the Low-wood walk, that looked like a gentleman, and yet was none of the company, and that you said was a handsome man."

"I did not say handsome, Maria," replied her ladyship; "ladies never say men are handsome I only said he looked genteel and interesting."

"And that, my lady," said the young parson, bowing and smiling, "is, I will be judged by the company, the more flattering compliment of the two-We shall be jealous of this Unknown presently."

Nay, but," continued the sweetly communicative Maria, with some real and some assumed simplicity, "your ladyship forgets-for you said presently after, you were sure he was no gentleman, for he did not run after you with your glove which you had dropped -and so I went back myself to find your ladyship's glove, and he never offered to help me, and I saw him closer than your ladyship did, and I am sure he is handsome, though he is not very civil."

"You speak a little too much and too loud, miss," said Lady Penelope, a natural blush reinforcing the nuance of rouge by which it was usually superseded. "What say you to that, Squire Mowbray?" said the elegant Sir Bingo Binks.

"A fair challenge to the field, Sir Bingo," answered the squire; "when a lady throws down the gauntlet, a gentleman may throw the handkerchief."

"I have always the benefit of your best construction, Mr. Mowbray," said the lady with dignity. "I suppose Miss Maria has contrived this pretty story for your amusement. I can hardly answer to Mr. Diggs, for bringing her into company where she receives encouragement to behave so."

66

Nay, nay, my lady," said the president, "you must let the jest pass by; and since this is really such an admirable sketch, you must honour us with your opinion, whether the company can consistently with propriety make any advances to this man."

"In my opinion," said her ladyship, the angry spot still glowing on her brow, "there are enough of men among us already-I wish I could say gentlemen-As matters stand, I see little business ladies can have at St. Ronan's.'

more successful in now and then starting a great bore; and the others, having left all their own ordinary affairs and subjects of interest at home, were glad to make a matter of importance of the most trivial occurrence. A mighty poet, said the former class-who could it possibly be?-All names were recited-all Britain scrutinized, from Highland hills to the Lakes of Cumberland-from Sydenham Common to St. James's Place-even the Banks of the Bosphorus were explored for some name which might rank under this distinguished epithet.—And then, besides his illustrious poesy, to sketch so inimitably!— who could it be? And all the gapers, who had nothing of their own to suggest, answered with the antistrophe, "Who could it be?"

The Claret-Club, which comprised the choicest and firmest adherents of Squire Mowbray and the Baronet-men who scorned that the reversion of one bottle of wine should furnish forth the feast of tomorrow, though caring naught about either of the fine arts in question, found out an interest of their own, which centred in the same individual.

"I say, little Sir Bingo," said the Squire, "this is the very fellow that we saw down at the Willowslack on Saturday-he was tog'd gnostically enough, and cast twelve yards of line with one hand-the fly fell like a thistledown on the water.'

"Nearer sixteen, by

"Will you go a dozen of blue on it to the company?" said the Squire.

"No, d-n me!" croaked the Baronet-" to our own set I will."

"Then, I say done!" quoth the Squire. And "Done" responded the Knight; and out came their red pocketbooks.

"But who shall decide the bet ?" said the Squire. "The genius himself, I suppose; they talk of asking him here, but I suppose he will scarce mind quizzes like them."

"Write myself-John Mowbray," said the Baronet. "You, Baronet!-you write!" answered the Squire, "d-n me, that cock won't fight-you won't.", "I will," growled Sir Bingo, more articulately than usual.

This was an intimation which always brought the Squire back to good-breeding, which he could make "Why, you can't!" said Mowbray. "You never use of when he pleased. He deprecated her lady-wrote a line in your life, save those you were whipped ship's displeasure, until she told him, in returning for at school." good humour, that she really would not trust him unless he brought his sister to be security for his future politeness.

"Clara, my lady," said Mowbray, "is a little wilful; and I believe your ladyship must take the task of unharbouring her into your own hands. What say you to a gipsy party up to my old shop?-It is a bachelor's house-you must not expect things in much order; but Clara would be honoured"

The Lady Penelope eagerly accepted the proposal of something like a party, and, quite reconciled with Mowbray, began to inquire whether she might bring the stranger artist with her; "that is," said her ladyship, looking to Dinah, "if he be a gentleman."

"I can write-I will write!" said Sir Bingo. "Two to one I will."

And there the affair rested, for the council of the company were in high consultation concerning the most proper manner of opening a communication with the mysterious stranger; and the voice of Mr. Winterblossom, whose tones, originally fine, age had reduced to falsetto, was calling upon the whole party for "Order, order!" So that the bucks were obliged to lounge in silence, with both arms reclined on the table, and testifying, by coughs and yawns, their indifference to the matters in question, while the rest of the company debated upon them, as if they were matters of life and death.

Here Dinah interposed her assurance, "that the 66 A visit from one of the gentlemen-Mr. Wintergentleman at Meg Dods's was quite and clean a gen-blossom, if he would take the trouble-in name of the tleman, and an illustrated poet besides."

An illustrated poet, Dinah?" said Lady Penelope; you must mean an illustrious poet." "I dare to say your ladyship is right," said Dinah, dropping a curtsey.

A joyous flutter of impatient anxiety was instantly excited through all the blue-stocking faction of the company, nor were the news totally indifferent to the rest of the community. The former belonged to that class, who, like the young Ascanius, are ever beating

company at large-would, Lady Penelope Penfeather presumed to think, be a necessary preliminary to an invitation."

Mr. Winterblossom was "quite of her ladyship's opinion, and would gladly have been the personal representative of the company at St. Ronan's Well

*The one or the other was equally ta votis to Ascanius,— "Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leouem." Modern Trojans make a great distinction betwixt these two objects of chase.

but it was up hill-her ladyship knew his tyrant, the | a prodigious clamour was heard without, which, to gout, was hovering upon the frontiers-there were other gentlemen, younger and more worthy to fly at the lady's command than an ancient Vulcan like him-there was the valiant Mars and the eloquent Mercury."

Thus speaking, he bowed to Captain MacTurk and the Rev. Mr. Simon Chatterly, and reclined on his chair, sipping his negus with the self-satisfied smile of one, who, by a pretty speech, has rid himself of a troublesome commission. At the same time, by an act probably of mental absence, he put in his pocket the drawing, which, after circulating around the table, had returned back to the chair of the president, being the point from which it had set out.

"By Cot, madam," said Captain MacTurk, "I should be proud to obey your leddyship's commands -but, by Cot, I never call first on any man that never called upon me at all, unless it were to carry him a friend's message, or such like."

"Twig the old connoisseur," said the Squire to the Knight. He is condiddling the drawing." "Go it, Johnnie Mowbray-pour it into him," whispered Sir Bingo.

"Thank ye for nothing, Sir Bingo," said the Squire, in the same tone. "Winterblossom is one of us was one of us at least-and won't stand the ironing. He has his Wogdens still, that were right things in his day, and can hit the hay-stack with the best of us-but stay, they are hallooing on the parson."

They were indeed busied on all hands, to obtain Mr. Chatterly's consent to wait on the Genius unknown; but though he smiled and simpered, and was absolutely incapable of saying No, he begged leave, in all humility, to decline that commission. "The truth was," he pleaded in his excuse, "that having one day walked to visit the old Castle of St. Ronan's, and returning through the Auld Town, as it was popularly called, he had stopped at the door of the Cleikum, (pronounced Anglicé, with the open diphthong,)" in hopes to get a glass of syrup of capillaire, or a draught of something cooling; and had in fact expressed his wishes, and was knocking pretty loudly, when a sashwindow was thrown suddenly up, and ere he was aware what was about to happen, he was soused with a deluge of water," (as he said,) "while the voice of an old hag from within assured him, that if that did not cool him there was another biding him,-an intimation which induced him to retreat in all haste from the repetition of the shower-bath."

the first apprehensions of the company, seemed to be Meg, in all her terrors, come to anticipate the proposed invasion. Upon inquiry, however, it proved to be her gossip, Trotting Nelly, or Nelly Trotter, in the act of forcing her way up stairs, against the united strength of the whole household of the hotel, to reclaim Luckie Dod's picture, as she called it. This made the connoisseur's treasure tremble in his pocket, who, thrusting a half-crown into Toby's hand, exhorted him to give it her, and try his influence in keeping her back. Toby, who knew Nelly's nature, put the half-crown into his own pocket, and snatched up a gill-stoup of whisky from the sideboard. Thus armed, he boldly confronted the virago, and interposing a remora, which was able to check poor Nelly's course in her most determined moods, not only succeeded in averting the immediate storm which approached the company in general, and Mr. Winterblossom in particular, but brought the guests the satisfactory information, that Trotting Nelly had agreed, after she had slept out her nap in the barn, to convey their commands to the Unknown of Cleikum of Aultoun.

Mr. Winterblossom, therefore, having authenticated his proceedings, by inserting in the Minutes of the Committee, the authority which he had received, wrote his card in the best style of diplomacy, and sealed it with the seal of the Spa, which bore something like a nymph, seated beside what was designed to represent an urn.

The rival factions, however did not trust entirely to this official invitation. Lady Penelope was of opinion that they should find some way of letting the stranger-a man of talent unquestionably-understand that there were in the society to which he was invited, spirits of a more select sort, who felt worthy to intrude themselves on his solitude.

Accordingly, her ladyship imposed upon the elegant Mr. Chatterly the task of expressing the desire of the company to see the unknown artist, in a neat occasional copy of verses. The poor gentleman's muse, however, proved unpropitious; for he was able to proceed no farther than two lines in half an hour, which, coupled with its variations, we insert from the blotted manuscript, as Dr. Johnson has printed the alterations in Pope's version of the Iliad: 1. Maids. 2. Dames.

unity joining. The [nymphs] of St. Ronan's [in purpose combining 1. Swain, 2. Man.

dining.

All laughed at the account of the chaplain's mis-To the [youth] who is great both in verse and designing, fortune, the history of which seemed to be wrung from him reluctantly, by the necessity of assigning some weighty cause for declining to execute the ladies' commands. But the Squire and Baronet continued their mirth far longer than decorum allowed, flinging themselves back in their chairs, with their hands thrust into their side-pockets, and their mouths expanded with unrestrained enjoyment, until the sufferer, angry, disconcerted, and endeavouring to look scornful, incurred another general burst of laughter on all hands.

who could throw twelve yards of line at a cast with such precision, might consider the invitation of Winterblossom as that of an old twaddler, and care as little for the good graces of an affected blue stocking and her coterie, whose conversation, in Sir Bingo's mind, relished of nothing but of weak tea and bread and butter. Thus the happy Mr. Francis Tyrrel received, considerably to his surprise, no less than three invitations at once from the Well of St. Ronan's.

The eloquence of a prose billet was necessarily resorted to in the absence of the heavenly muse, and the said billet was secretly intrusted to the care of Trotting Nelly. The same trusty emissary, when refreshed by her nap among the pease-straw, and about to harness her cart for her return to the sea-coast, (in the course of which she was to pass the Aultoun, received another card, written, as he had threatened, by Sir Bingo Binks himself, who had given himself this trouble to secure the settlement of the bet; con When Mr. Winterblossom had succeeded in restor-jecturing that a man with a fashionable exterior, ing some degree of order, he found the mishaps of the young divine proved as intimidating as ludicrous. Not one of the company chose to go Envoy Extraordinary to the dominions of Queen Meg, who might be suspected of paying little respect to the sanctity of an ambassador's person. And what was worse, when it was resolved that a civil card from Mr. Winterblossom, in the name of the company, should be sent to the stranger, instead of a personal visit, Dinah informed them that she was sure no one about the house could be bribed to carry up a letter of the kind; for, when such an event had taken place two summers since, Meg, who construed it into an attempt to seduce from her tenement the invited guest, had so handled a ploughboy who carried the letter, that he fled the country-side altogether, and never thought himself safe till he was at a village ten miles off, where it was afterwards learned he enlisted with a recruiting party, choosing rather to face the French than to return within the sphere of Meg's displeasure. Just while they were agitating this new difficulty,

CHAPTER V.

EPISTOLARY ELOQUENCE.

But how can I answer, since first I must read thee 7-PRIOR.

DESIROUS of authenticating our more important facts, by as many original documents as possible, we have, after much research, enabled ourselves to present the reader with the following accurate tran

Winterblossom, straining their ingenuity to discover, in the most ordinary expressions, a deeper and esoteric meaning, expressive of something mysterious, and not meant to meet the eye. Mr. Meiklewham, the writer, dwelt on the word circumstances, which he read with peculiar emphasis.

66

Ah, poor lad!" he concluded, "I doubt he sits cheaper at Meg Dort's chimney-corner than he could do with the present company.'

desired to see nor hear more of the supposed Timon | microscopically the response of the stranger to Mr. of Cleikum, and that was Mr. Mowbray of St. Ronan's. Through the medium of that venerable character John Pirner, professed weaver and practical black-fisher in the Aultoun of St. Ronan's, who usually attended Tyrrel, to show him the casts of the river, carry his bag, and so forth, the Squire had ascertained that the judgment of Sir Bingo regarding the disputed weight of the fish was more correct than his own. This inferred an immediate loss of honour, besides the payment of a heavy bill. And the consequences might be yet more serious; nothing short of the emancipation of Sir Bingo, who had hitherto been Mowbray's convenient shadow and adherent, but who, if triumphant, confiding in his superiority of judgment upon so important a point, might either cut him altogether, or expect that, in future, the Squire, who had long seemed the planet of their set, should be content to roll around himself, Sir Bingo, in the capacity of a satellite.

Doctor Quackleben, in the manner of a clergyman selecting a word from his text, as that which is to be particularly insisted upon, repeated in an under tone, the words, "State of health ?-umph-state of health? Nothing acute-no one has been sent for-must be chronic-tending to gout, perhaps. Or his shyness to society-light wild eye-irregular step-starting when met suddenly by a stranger, and turning abruptly and angrily away-Pray, Mr. Winterblossom, let me have an order to look over the file of newspapers-it's very troublesome that restriction about consulting them."

"You know it is a necessary one, Doctor," said the president; "because so few of the good company read any thing else, that the old newspapers would have been worn to pieces long since."

The Squire, therefore, devoutly hoped that Tyrrel's restive disposition might continue, to prevent the decision of the bet, while, at the same time, he nourished a very reasonable degree of dislike to that stranger, who had been the indirect occasion of the unpleasant predicament in which he found himself, by not catching a salmon weighing a pound heavier. "Well, well, let me have the order," said the DocHe, therefore, openly censured the meanness of those tor; "I remember something of a gentleman run who proposed taking further notice of Tyrrel, and away from his friends-I must look at the description. referred to the unanswered letters, as a piece of im--I believe I have a strait-jacket somewhere about pertinence which announced him to be no gentle- the Dispensary."

man.

But though appearances were against him, and though he was in truth naturally inclined to solitude, and averse to the affectation and bustle of such a society, that part of Tyrrel's behaviour which indicated ill-breeding was easily accounted for, by his never having received the letters which required an answer. Trotting Nelly, whether unwilling to face her gossip, Meg Dods, without bringing back the drawing, or whether oblivious through the influence of the double dram wth which she had been indulged at the Well, jumbled off with her cart to her beloved village of Scate-raw, from which she transmitted the letters by the first bare-legged gillie who travelled towards Aultoun of St. Ronan's; so that at last, but after a long delay, they reached the Cleikum Inn and the hands of Mr. Tyrrel.

While this suggestion appalled the male part of the company, who did not much relish the approaching dinner in company with a gentleman whose situation seemed so precarious, some of the younger Misses whispered to each other-"Ah, poor fellow!-and if it be as the Doctor supposes, my lady, who knows what the cause of his illness may have been?-His spirits he complains of-ah, poor man!"

And thus, by the ingenious commentaries of the company at the Well, on as plain a note as ever covered the eighth part of a sheet of foolscap, the writer was deprived of his property, his reason, and his heart, "all or either, or one or other of them," as is briefly and distinctly expressed in the law phrase.

In short, so much was said pro and con. so many ideas started and theories maintained, concerning the disposition and character of the Misanthrope, that, The arrival of these documents explained some when the company assembled at the usual time, bepart of the oddity of behaviour which had surprised fore proceeding to dinner, they doubted, as it seemed, him in his neighbours of the Well; and as he saw whether the expected addition to their society was to they had got somehow an idea of his being a lion enter the room on his hands or his feet; and when extraordinary, and was sensible that such is a cha-"Mr. Tyrrel" was announced by Toby, at the top of racter equally ridiculous, and difficult to support, he his voice, the gentleman who entered the room had hastened to write to Mr. Winterblossom a card in the so very little to distinguish him from others, that there style of ordinary mortals. In this he stated the de- was a momentary disappointment. The ladies, in lay occasioned by miscarriage of the letter, and his particular, began to doubt whether the compound of regret on that account; expressed his intention of talent, misanthropy, madness, and mental sensibility, dining with the company at the Well on the suc- which they had pictured to themselves, actually was ceeding day, while he regretted that other circum- the same with the genteel, and even fashionable lookstances, as well as the state of his health and spirits, ing man whom they saw before them; who, though in would permit him this honour very infrequently during a morning-dress, which the distance of his residence, his stay in the country, and begged no trouble might and the freedom of the place, made excusable, had, be taken about his accommodation at the Well, as even in the minute points of his exterior, none of the he was perfectly satisfied with his present residence. negligence, or wildness, which might be supposed to A separate note to Sir Bingo, said he was happy he attach to the vestments of a misanthropic recluse, could verify the weight of the fish, which he had whether sane or insane. As he paid his compliments noted in his diary; ("D-n the fellow, does he keep a round the circle, the scales seemed to fall from the dairy?" said the Baronet,) and though the result eyes of those he spoke to; and they saw with surcould only be particularly agreeable to one party, prise, that the exaggerations had existed entirely in he should wish both winner and loser mirth with their own preconceptions, and that whatever the fortheir wine; he was sorry he was unable to promise tunes, or rank in life, of Mr. Tyrrel might be, his manhimself the pleasure of participating in either. En-ners, without being showy, were gentlemanlike and closed was a signed note of the weight of the fish. pleasing. He returned his thanks to Mr. WinterArmed with this, Sir Bingo claimed his wine-tri- blossom in a manner which made that gentleman umped in his judgment-swore louder and more ar- recall his best breeding to answer the stranger's adticulately than ever he was known to utter any pre-dress in kind. He then escaped from the awkwardness vious sounds, that this Tyrrel was a devilish honest of remaining the sole object of attention, by gliding fellow, and he trusted to be better acquainted with gradually among the company, not like an owl, him; while the crest-fallen Squire, privately cursing which seeks to hide itself in a thicket, or an awkward the stranger by all his gods, had no mode of silencing and retired man, shrinking from the society into which his companion but by allowing his loss, and fixing a he is compelled, but with the air of one who could day for discussing the bet. maintain with ease his part in a higher circle. His address to Lady Penelope was adapted to the roman.

In the public rooms the company examined even
VOL. IV. 3 I

tic tone of Mr. Chatterly's epistle, to which it was answered Mowbray. "Best speak to the Captain necessary to allude. He was afraid, he said, he must before hand-it is a hellish scrape you are running complain to Juno of the neglect of Iris, for her irre-into-I'll let you off yet, Bingie, for a guinea forfeit.gularity in delivery of a certain ethereal command, See, I am just going to start the tattler." which he had not dared to answer otherwise than by mute obedience unless, indeed, as the import of the letter seemed to infer, the invitation was designed for some more gifted individual than he to whom chance had assigned it.