intimacy between us, such as is seldom found between men of ages so different as ours. Many years have passed, with many a change of weather, since first its threads were plaited, and not a damp hath come over it to rot the firmness of its union- -George!-I ad. mire you for your talents; I honour you for your virtues ; and I love you for your heart-and yet, do you hesitate to trust your safety to my piloting? that too, when the vessel is so shattered it must go to wreck, if there be no hand to right her? George-I have, many and many a time, crossed that sea on which you are tossing; I know every rock and every shallow: I would lead you through the storm, I would guard you from every breaker, and send you refitted to weather bravely the rest of your voy. age; and George-" The doctor, choking with emotion, rose abruptly and walked the room. There was a single

tear which he tried to check, but could not; and as it trickled slowly down his cheek I almost fancied that it scalded. After he had taken one or two rapid turns, he suddenly paused, and resuming his appeal, relapsed at once into his usual manner; and thus, in a moment, undid by his violence all he had evidently effected by his short-lived tenderness. "Catling, I would not alarm you unseasonably; but I tell you frankly, unless you throw to the dogs those damnable drugs which are very vultures to your vitals, and burn those still more damnable books, you will not live long to be tormented by my entreaties— for I see, and grieve to see, they vex you. There is a wide breach in your constitution, George Catling, and with a madman's hand you are pulling down stone after stone, till the whole wall shall totter and rush into one mass of ruin. Give yourself up to my care, and I do not overrate my powers when I tell you, that I will infuse new vigour into those feeble limbs, raise again that drooping form, and flush that ashy cheek with as clear a tint asas that young girl's who is ogling my nephew Jerry."

I was sitting sideways in the window, so that, while L

seemed intent upon my book, I could in reality both see and hear all that was passing between the friends: but this strange comparison of my uncle's (which was as characteristic of the man as ludicrous in the midst of his energy-) made me turn to the object of his reference; and I saw in an opposite window a remarkably pretty face, which I doubted not had been contemplating the beauty of my profile.

The moment my eyes met the lady's, she blushed-as was natural; I blushed too-as was to be expected (though I doubt whether the reasons were the same); and the blinds were instantly closed. I watched with great patience, and in a few moments was rewarded by seeing a pair of dark eyes sparkle through their openings. Again they were closed; and a third time my charmer deigned to solicit my notice, by a very innocent piece of coquetry :-she pretended to let the blinds escape sher fingers, and they blew open: a very handsome form =leaned out of the window, and a very round and very white arm drew the blinds slowly together: but, as they were about to shut in the fair prospect, a naughty wind blew them back again. Poor lady! imagine her confusion at this fourth exposure! She blushed to the eyes, and again drew them to in a pretty pet, which made me notice a pair of pouting lips-so ripe! and so juicy!ah! -The devil of impudence never yet deserted me when a pretty woman was in reach of his tail, and, on his suggestion that I might lose the chance if I were not prompt, I kissed my hand with my best grace. Blessings on my lady's gentle heart! she smiled, sweet dove, ac. tually smiled! and the blinds were closed-not to be reopened.

I was about to wrap myself in the most agreeable meditations, when a loud oath made me start from my position:-it was the first I had heard from the lips of my uncle Timothy, impatient as he was. I turned round. His friend had gone; and he was walking with rapid

strides the length of the apartment, with his head de pressed, his brows contracted, and the thumb of his right hand between his teeth. He stopped at the noise I made, and (without raising his eyes) threw himself on a chair beside me, and muttered as if in soliloquy-while at each pause he beat the floor with his foot-"What an old foo! I am! Spoiling every thing by my cursed roughness!

I fear I have hurt his feelings grievously!" and again he gnawed his thumb, till I fancied I could see the blood start from the nail.

My surprise was increased to such a pitch that I was on the point of asking the reason of his conduct, when he turned suddenly about, and explained it of his own accord.

"You are astonished no doubt, nephew, at the familiarity existing between a man of Mr. Catling's age and myself, who am old enough to be his father. Listen then, and your astonishment will cease :

CHAPTER XVII.

Improbe amor! quid non mortalia pectora cogis!

And what is friendship but a name,
A charm that lulls to sleep?

VIRG.-EN.

GOLDSMITH.

THIRTY years ago—said my uncle-I was not the old man I am now, as you will have no difficulty in believing. Of course, I had my passions, like all other men; and like all other men I fed them, till they scorched me, Jerry— and I yet may tell the scars of their burning. I had just entered life under the most favourable auspices: I was successful in the practice of my profession; and, fortune

throwing a few cases in my way that raised my reputation to a high pitch, every body courted me, my practice became extensive, and, as I was remarkably temperate in my habits, my income which was very considerable doubled yearly-so that I began to think of settling myself in marriage. At this time, then, I was called to the house of a gentleman whose daughter had injured herself by a fall.

Catharine Aston was, of all women, the most likely to captivate a man of my character. She was the proudest being it has ever been my fate to know-as proud as woman can be without losing the softness of her sex. Yet this pride was not the pride of birth, though her descent was more honourable than our own, Jerry-nor the pride of beauty, though her's was peerless--nor the pride of talents, though they were of the first order; but the pride of moral purity-the pride of a soul which spurned at the very least of those meannesses by which her sex are too often disgraced. Consequent on this was a total want of affectation; a sensitiveness almost sickly, and which, of itself, had been sufficient to enslave one who was troubled with that quality to the excess that I am; and a reserve that was ever attractive to me in woman: but another consequent of this pride, and one which often stood in the light of her brightest merits, was an obstinacy almost insuperable. It was indeed her greatest fault. But her beauty, Jerry!—A form such as poets gave to the wife of Jove, but with more of feminine softness; a head that Raphael would have sighed to imitate, and sighing loved; a forehead high and queenly; an eye, whose habitual expression was pensive even to melancholy, but which, when she spoke, flashed forth all the workings of her noble heartso beautifully! O, Jerry, had you seen her eye when the lightning of disdain was gleaming there-imperiously bright, you had trembled and adored! Her nose too was finely formed; so slightly aquiline as not to hurt the contour of the full face, while it added to the profile an aris

tocratic look that suited her haughty figure. And her mouth" My uncle's emotion overcame him;-he grasped my hand till the bones ached; and his own noble countenance spoke so eloquently, that I could not help thinking how meet a lover he must have been for such a woman as Catharine Aston. The touch of my hand seemed to recall him; for he instantly withdrew his grasp, and, in great confusion, muttered something very like an oath. After a few moments he resumed his story in a calmer tone."You must smile, nephew, at the transports of a man of my age in retracing the picture of his youthful loves; but I have my weaknesses as well as others. I will add but one touch to my portrait, and in the colour ing of your favourite :—

Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman.*

Now tell me, could I be indifferent to such a woman? I saw, Jerry, and worshipped."Here I whispered to myself:-and could I meet with such another, I too would see and worship." But my love-continued the doctor-was not the impression of a first visit, I was struck with her beauty, it is true; but I might have forgotten that but when, on a second, on a third, on repeated visits; when her father, who had conceived an affection for me, invited me to come as a friend; then, when I learned her whole soul from lips and eyes that knew not how to deceive, then I saw-and loved.

From that time a change took place in my habits. Those accomplishments which I had hitherto neglected, I now cultivated with ardour:-I studied music and drawing, because Catharine was fond of both; I learned dancing and fencing, to give gracefulness to my person: in fine, I left nothing unattempted to win her affection-and I

*"Ever soft, gentle, and low."-The Doctor must have forgotten what he had just said of her imperious character. O this Love!-the same bandage that blinds his little eyes extends its thick folds very conveniently, over his delicate ears,