picion of which, you see, has produced a breach of that family union, which of all men you would be the last to interrupt. I am also induced to make it from the absolute necessity there is for you to awaken from a dream which you may more than ever perceive nothing but madness can make you entertain; for to pursue the philosopher's stone with a hope of success would, I am quite sure, not be so mad as to hope for Bertha. This, indeed, you tell me you never did. Can you then have a doubt what to do? "As I am not yet banished the house by the modern Tybalt her brother—and, indeed, I think both she and her father would not be sorry for such a diversion as my presence can give—I stay a few days longer at their request; a circumstance which, as Foljambe has very honestly apprized me, is not favoured with his approbation. In a word, he is so bitter against you, for what he calls your presumption, and me for abetting you in it, as he says I do, and carries all his feelings to such an excess, that I cannot help thinking there is danger in him. Openness as to the extent of those feelings, and indeed as to every thing, is the only redeeming quality he has, and a great one it is. I wish he would allow me to like him more. Adieu! I have fulfilled a duty to him and to you; profit by it. "ROBERT GRANVILLE." It would not be easy to say what my feelings were on the perusal of this letter, except that they were a compound of grief and mortification, and yet of indignation and resentment at what I thought the indigni ties put upon me, not only by Foljambe, but even, as I thought, by his father. What could be his reason, which he chose not to reveal, for not allowing his daughter's assertions to be questioned? Had he expressed his abhorrence of me to her, and in his pride thought that sufficient? I felt, indeed, that by them all I was treated as a despised outcast, and in regard to my quondam friend, like old Cassius, I felt 'Hated by one I loved, checked like a bondman ;' and like a bondman, with no power, or hope of power, ever to assert my equality as a man with those who thus looked down upon me. Oh, the throes that this occasioned wherever I went! One of my favourite haunts was the churchyard of Bardolfe, on account of a walk of limes, the foliage of which, in the old quaint fashion, was cut into arched windows which overlooked the Bardolfe river, washing the ruins of the old castle, and therefore to me full of deep interest, not lessened by the thought of who had been and who was now the owner of it; flattering the heart as well as the imagination with the semblance of a connection between them, however far fetched. Here I had sometimes recovered myself into calm after agitation, and here I directed my steps on the present occasion, hoping the same result. But the crisis was too violent; and after pacing the walk several times, the letter open in my hand, read, and re-read, till I could read no more, I found myself exclaiming, "Which way I fly is hell-myself am hell;" and throwing myself at the foot of a tree, though I gazed apparently upon the landscape below, for a long time I gazed upon vacancy. By degrees my power of vision returned: I began to discern objects; the river, the quiet meadows through which it flowed; the tranquil cottages which bordered it. These, as they always did, diverted my thoughts, and the paroxysm a little subsided, only however to assume a darker character, with a more lasting effect; for my spirit rebelled. I could forgive, I thought, the being forbidden to aspire, but not the being despised. The anger of my estranged friend I met with equal fire; but what I called the cool disdain of Mr. Hastings hurt me; and for the first time I became a radical, who could not brook the inequality of mankind. It is astonishing with what sincerity of disgust, and determination of purpose, this got hold of me, and made me give the whole aristocracy of England to the devil. I then fell, as I usually did when under excitement, into soliloquy, and, notwithstanding my devotion, found myself complaining of Bertha herself, in no measured language;-for "Wan despair, Low, sullen sounds my grief beguiled, Despair, however, and a sense of affront, by calling out a retributive feeling, will sometimes do great things; and with a noble contempt of all the persons whose contempt, as I thought it, had so hurt me, I once more resolved, though now from different motives, to drive them from my mind for ever. In mere resentment, therefore, I gave myself up to vengeance which however only amounted to this, that I resolved to rise to eminence in the world. How I was to do this, I did not stand much to inquire, but I resolved it. I may not make a fortune, thought I, but I am determined to be distinguished; and this shall be my revenge on these proud Hastingses. The notion consoled and gave me a momentary elevation; I rose from the bank on which I had been lying, and, after taking a few turns in the walk with a firmer tread, I stalked majestically towards home. In the disposition I have described, as I proceeded from the churchyard hill, I met Sir Harry Goff and his daughters, who all reproached me for having, as they said, deserted them. This, at least, seemed friendly, and I felt so deserted myself, that, notwithstanding my gloom, it gave me something like pleasure. I thought Sir Harry quite as kind, and less pompous in his kindness, than usual; and for the daughters, whether from being really better, because more simply dressed, or that the walk had given a peculiar freshness to their complexions; or because, from some unknown cause, they were quieter and less dashing than ordinary; they certainly appeared more than ordinarily natural, and I always was fond of nature. Miss Caroline, the eldest, and generally the loudest, had grown almost sentimental; and Miss Imogene, the youngest, no longer talked of the titled people she had met at Scarborough. Miss Caroline, too, engaged my attention by saying, while she eyed the ruins of Castle Bardolfe, how much they always affected her with the love of the olden time, and how much it would please her to have a real Bardolfe for her knight. Miss Imogene, on the other hand, asked me a great deal about my Oxford studies, and talked of Addison. Whatever was the reason, I attended to them more than usual, and for the first time observed that they had regular features and intelligent eyes. I grew gradually less splenetic as I observed this, and, to my surprise, found I was not only able to bear them, but even tried to be civil. It is very certain that the adverse comparison I always made between them and Bertha, was less adverse this evening than it ever had been before. The walk grew pleasant; and having accompanied them home, I could not refuse their invitation that I should attend their tea-table. After that repast, they obeyed their father's summons to their instruments, one on the piano, the others on the harp, on both of which, it is but justice to say, they discoursed very passable music. In short, to my astonishment, after the excitement I had felt two hours before, and though my mind was still full of Bertha, yet it was not so exclusively full but that I was able to tolerate the presence of two pretty women, who at least treated me without disdain. In the little pomp, tco, of their father's manner, there was mingled so much hearti |