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us, and a voice articulating en avant deux, vis-à-vis, and dos-à-dos; but before we got to the second floor, the tune suddenly changed to a German air; and as my graceful conductress opened the door of the chamber, I saw Charles Mortimer committing waltzery with Mademoiselle Je le Croix.

"Our meeting was as singular as cordial, and I learned from him that he had finished

his tour on the Continent, and was about to return to England."

CHAPTER III.

"Mali corvi malum ovum."

"MORTIMER was the only son of one of those men who treated friends as if they might become enemies, and enemies as if they might become friends.

"By his cautious conduct, inherent love of money, and indefatigable attention to business, he had accumulated a large fortune; which although it was his intention his son should inherit, he insisted that he should follow a profession, and sent him to the University for the purpose. Charles had the choice of law or physic, and may be said to have followed both without having overtaken either; for his father dying sooner than he expected, without having made a

will, my gay friend came suddenly into the
possession of a property which sent all notions
of law and physic to the dogs. The little he
knew of either of those professions proved rather
a bane than a blessing to him; for although he
could talk on both without committing egre

gious blunders, yet he was so unfortunate in
his acquaintance at College, as to render the pre
cautions of his wary father, to accustom him to
habits of thinking and attention to business,
entirely nugatory.

"He was not altogether an Atheist or a Deist, or a Materialist, but had a tincture of each in his way of thinking. His sole object in life was plersure, without one notion of that species of it which proceeds from the fulfilment of duty. He was not a drunkard, for he knew that would destroy

his constitution; he was not a gambler, for he I did not like the risk of being poor; he was not a blasphemer in public, for he concluded that would render him disgusting; and he w

no more licentious than what was

perfectly

consistent with the preservation of his health, appearance, and that which he considered character; with a handsome person and engaging manners-such was Charles Mortimer, who promised to visit me, the following shooting-season, at my father's house in Scotland, for which I was then about to leave Paris.

"As I had met my father in London, at the period when the ship to which I belonged was paid off, I had not since the conclusion of the war visited my native country; and thither I now hied, with heart elate, ready and willing to renew all my early friendships: but time and war, which since my departure had run handin-hand, had shorn the number to a very few, and many a fireside conversation was occupied in the distressing detail of Fate's career in cutting short the days of friends and schoolfellows, whose talent, generosity, or courage, still clung to the memory. There was one among the number whom I had deeply to deplore: it was Horner, who died young, and good, and wise

He was the son of a neighbouring Laird, whose little estate joined that of my father, and their houses were within an evening's walk of each other-a walk which to me was once strewed with flowers, but which time and circumstances have turned to thorns. I have already said, my home was in the eastern part of Scotland; and, a few days after my arrival, I bent my steps to wards the dwelling of our amiable neighbours.

"It was one of those calm autumnal evenings, which in northern climates often succeed a storm. The sun was shedding his mellow tints on the western hills, whose quiet shades gleamed on the now gently swelling bosom of the ocean, which had been raging during the morn ing. The moan of the surf still echoed in the hollow caverns of the coast, the sea-birds, tired of contending with the elements, sunk into their favourite niches of the rocks, where they were occasionally hidden from the view by the clouds of spray which the surge sent up.

"A few straggling vessels, tossed to and fro'

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