a step, and covered his face with his hands. When he saw again, he was alone.

but you are a good young man, and a clever young man, if you would only take to some honest work that is fit for a man to do. Will you think of it, mister?"

"I will, Mrs. Dobbs," said Robert; -"it was what I was even now thinking of."

"And you won't take the widow's bother amiss?"

Robert wondered how Claudia would look when they met next. Ignorant as he was of conventional life, he knew very well that, on the impulse of the moment, he had taken what is called a liberty with a lady of rank; and although completely aware that the judgment of this lady of rank would understand and excuse it, he was "On the contrary, I am sincerely grateful to not so sure of her prejudices. There was much, you, my kind landlady" and as Robert pressed as we have said, that he admired in Claudia, and her hand fervently, for they had now reached the much that he could even have loved - although house, some unbidden moisture was sent into his not without a little mingling of pity, in which, eyes by the motherliness of the good woman's as the philosopher tells us, there is always some manner. He was turning away with a more desportion of contempt; but he knew that in her olate feeling than usual, when he observed a geneverything that was amiable, lovely, and of good tleman looking earnestly at him from the dingy report, was held in check by the feeling of caste; parlor window. He could not at once recall the and he took his way to the house the next morn- features, but all on a sudden the luxurious table ing with the air of a sentenced malefactor, con- of Sir Vivian Falcontower rose upon his imagi scious of a legal offence without a moral crime. nation, and, in the figure before him, he saw the He prepared for what was to come by being stiff elated guest, whose then distinction, and expected and haughty himself; and it may be that the good fortune seemed, as he sat at the table, to preparation saved him. At any rate, Claudia | have thrown a glare of sunshine upon his counwas a tone lower than usual, instead of higher. tenance. The recognition was mutual; and acThere was not a trace of consciousness on her cepting a silent invitation to go in, the two marble face; but her manner was subdued with-" clever people found themselves once more in out being cold: she looked like one who had company. bound herself over to good behavior.

The scene had changed. A few cane-bottomed

But still his labor went on, and its success in-chairs, hollowing to each other, as the Londoners creased; and still he was honored with no invi- say when they wish to convey an idea of distance tation to partake of the public hospitalities of the between, and a small table in the middle of the family, he was offered no introductions, he re-scanty and faded carpet, were the chief furniture ceived no open acknowledgment whatever; and of the room; and four engravings, one on each the appointment was now seldom mentioned, wall, of Nelson's battles, in all manner of gaudy and when it was, with a strange uncertainty and colors, and in black frames, were its only ornahesitation. Robert knew not what to think; and he at last waited only for a proper opportunity to bring Sir Vivian to an explanation, and if this was unsatisfactory, to betake himself anew to another course of life.

One day, while walking along the street plunged in such reflections, he encountered his old landlady. It was near her own house, where he had tenanted the three pair back, and turning to walk a little way with her, he asked kindly after her fortunes in the world.

"Just as you saw," said Mrs. Dobbs; "it's always the same with us on the average, although sometimes we be put about. But how is it with you, mister! you look as glum as ever, and more thin and pale."

"I have no cause to be merry," replied Robert, "although, like you, I do manage to keep afloat

somehow."

"Ah, mister, if you would only take the widow's advice! I had a son like you, as likely a young man as ever the light shone on; but he was uppish; he would not take to his trade like his father before him; he was all for the quality, and for being a gentleman and I lost a son, for my son lost himself. Do, mister, do take thought. It's no use growing thin, and pale, and downcast, when you have work to do in the world, and a strong arm to do it with. It's no use wearing fine clothes, without a shilling in the pockets to get you a meal's victuals. All well enough for such as that Driftwood, as used to come to see you, with his mustaphoes under his nose, and his long greasy hair on his shoulders;

ments. The table, unlike that of Sir Vivian, was furnished only with the food of the mind, in the form of manuscript, and the implements were simply pen and ink. The tenant of the apartment was in the dress of a gentleman, though, like the gentleman himself, rather the worse for the wear and tear of the world; but he received our adventurer as politely as when they met in Miss Falcontower's drawing-room.

"I have asked you in," said he, after the usual introductory phrases, because I strongly suspect that you, too, are on the road to ruin." "That can hardly be," replied Robert, have nothing to lose."

for I

"Do you call hope nothing? Do you call time nothing? Marvellous error! If they rob you of your time, they deprive you just of so much of your life; if they cast down your hopes, they take away the compensations that make life en durable. You work for the government ?"

"I work for myself; although, in doing so, it may chance that I serve the ends of government."

and

Precisely. That is what we all say. think. And you, of course, believe that government will take steps to secure permanently the aid of so efficient a pen. You have the good word of Sir Vivian Falcontower, and Lord Luxton, and a score of other lords and baronets, and you fancy your fortune made."

"If I had such magnificent interest," said Robert, my hopes would perhaps be more reasonably founded than they are."

"Not a whit. If you had all the great personages in the kingdom on your side it would be

of no use, and for this obvious reason, that not one of them would think his own or his family's interest compromised by a refusal. When ministers yield to influence, they do so for their own sakes, and they are not such fools as to sacrifice the patronage by which they, in a great measure, subsist as a government, when they know very well that in refusing it they neither cool a friend nor make an enemy. A misconception on this simple point is the cause of more tears, more agony, more desperation, more untimely, and sometimes bloody deaths, than any other delusion that besets humanity."

"That your hopes have been cast down," said Robert, "I see only too clearly, but I live so solitary a life I have never heard the particulars."

the head-commissioner-the pivot on which the whole thing was to turn-who was devoted to my cause; and the only doubt that perplexed my mind was as to the possibility of my holding out till the bill passed. At length matters appeared to come to a point-I had neglected the general profession of literature by which I lived; I had disgusted the booksellers; my debts were fast accumulating; my occupation was gone. By some desperate effort I might still continue to hold on-but was it worth making? I resolved to ask counsel. I wrote to Lord John Bedford, as one literary man writes to another, explaining to him the terrible predicament I was in, and entreating him to tell me simply whether he knew of anything likely to prevent my obtaining the appointment I sought. I was at first "And they are not worth hearing now, for disheartened by his reply, which informed me there is nothing uncommon in the story. Yet, that it was his rule never to make a promise besince you do lead a solitary life, and must be all fore the office was actually in existence, although the more governed by illusions, it may do you I was one of those whose claims were deserving good to hear it. My name is not unknown in of consideration; but Lord Birch was overjoyliterature, and it brought me acquainted with ed, telling me it was everything that could be one of the master-spirits of our time. It was my hoped for under the circumstances from a minisprivilege to call as often as I chose in the morn-ter; and the late Lord William B. Tinck, the ing on Lord Birch, and among the subjects of glorious governor-general, to whom I sent it, our conversation, some years ago, was, of course, wrote to me, that on considering the whole matthe great parliamentary question of the day. ter, he could undertake to say, as one who had We took opposite sides; and one day, feeling, been himself the distributer of patronage, that it after I had returned to my lodgings, that I had was already determined to give me the appointnot explained my views properly, I dashed them ment. Do you wonder, then, that I contrived down upon paper, and although afraid of the to live? Do you wonder that at such tables as bulk to which the argument grew, sent off the Sir Vivian's I was the gayest of the gay?" fatal document to his lordship. I need not tell "I wonder at nothing, but I am getting neryou that I did not succeed in convincing the wit-vous."

orator-author-statesman-philosopher; but, with "It will soon be over. The bill passed. Afhis usual kindness of heart, he at once despatch-ter waiting for some time, I could master my ed my paper to Mr. George Knuckles, whose impatience no longer, and called on the commistask it was to be to carry the ministerial measure sioner at the very moment when they were in into effect if it received the sanction of Parlia- grand divan considering the details. After an ment. Mr. Knuckles sought my acquaintance-agony of I know not how long, he came out prevailed upon me to fill out the argument and and informed me, with an agitation which conpublish-and in an evil hour I became, I hardly trolled mine-that I was a lost and ruined man!" know how, a candidate for one of the important As the disappointed place-hunter finished his offices under the sought-for Act." narrative, great drops of sweat loaded his brow, but his lips were pale and dry. Robert stared at him for some time in silence, and then rose.

"I thank you," said he," for this narrative. It will be of use-perhaps to more than myself. It accounts only too well for the changed condition in which I see you;" and at the moment a female voice, and the querulous tones of children from the next room, showed that the condition was either aggravated or lightened by com

"That was beginning well," remarked Robert, for his companion paused in some agitation. "Excellently well. Now, I had abundance of what fools call interest, and showered in testimonials without number. But I did not depend upon that. I worked morning, noon, and night, at indoctrinating the public. I fought the ministerial battle with tongue and pen. I flooded the periodicals with the subject, and through them the people; and my works, owing to their pic-panionship. turesque illustrations, having the entrée of the drawing-rooms, I forced my opinions upon the aristocracy. This went on for nearly two years." "Two years!"

"Yes. It was a hard battle; for many of the best heads in the kingdom disapproved of the measure in theory, and allowed themselves, slowly and unwillingly, to be convinced that, under the exigent circumstances of the case, it was necessary in practice. But you wonder how I carried on the war? I can hardly tell you. My hopes, however, increased as my affairs went to ruin. I had the highest recommendations from all quarters; I was in daily communication with

"Oh, you have seen nothing! I was obliged to sell, not only my furniture, but my booksthe very tools of my trade-carry my family to a mean cottage on the coast of France, and there work hard and live sparingly to avert the degra dation of a prison. Why, man, I am now up again—I am beginning the world anew, and with a large capital of experience!"

66

Enough of blue-devils, then!" cried Robert: come with me, and take a glass of brandy and water, or a bottle of wine for the nonce, and let us have a little conversation of a more cheerful kind before we part." His companion moved towards his hat, which lay upon a chair, but

paused, and then returning to the table sat down | upper rooms; and on this occasion the back paragain deliberately.

"No," said he; "I have not fallen low enough for that kind of consolation. I thank you; you mean well; but I have lived, and I will die a gentleman!"

lor had been borrowed from its tenant, and converted into a cloak-room. When Robert, announced in due form, entered the drawing-room, he imagined for a moment that the family must be in a higher circle than the one he had assignRobert left the house, with the echoes of the ed to them. The company, already sufficiently ominous tale ringing in his ears; and as he passed numerous, were in full evening costume, and a the area he saw the old widow looking up through majority of the ladies were young, pretty, and the begrimmed window, and shaking her clench-showy-looking. This character, indeed, they preed hand at him, as if she said, "Remember!" served throughout; and he was struck, as he had Then came back upon his soul, like spectres, the often been before, by the remarkable superiority whole details of his London life; and he asked in appearance and manner of the fair sex of himself whether it was possible that Driftwood London in a particular station of life. The men could be right in his assertion, that a man, in did not bear inspection so well. Their clothes, spite of himself, gets into a circle from which indeed, were artistically made-for in our times there is no escape? At that moment, his con- it is a ludicrous superstition which believes in nection with the Falcontowers seemed a mad- fashionable tailors-but the limbs they containness or a crime; and he looked upon his submis-ed were not altogether at home in them. It is sion even to the caprices of Claudia as a coward- true, the tiresome uniformity which characterizes ice. But there should be an end of all this, he an aristocratical party was here wanting; but the was determined, before it came the length of variety, unluckily, was not in natural character, downright infatuation. Time was in reality life, but in affectation, which is only another term for and hope its sole compensation. On the very vulgarity. There was one gentleman, for innext day he would have an interview with Sir stance, who had not come there for any particular Vivian, which would doubtless have the effect of reason; who had merely lounged in, he knew not detaching him from a pursuit which appeared to why and cared not wherefore. To be there was him now to be degrading, as well as fantastic. just as good as to be anywhere else, provided people would let him alone. He sat at a table in a corner, immersed in the study of an old annual, and when dancing commenced, submitted himself every now and then to the vehement entreaties of Mrs. Doubleback, and all the Miss

martyr to do his duty. This gentleman was said to be one of the clerks in a great tailoring establishment, and, it was whispered to Robert, was more than suspected of being a contributor to a magazine, the name of which he kept a profound secret.

The frame of mind in which he returned home was not very well suited for the remaining business of the day. This business was of a very unaccustomed kind, and one a little formidable to our solitary adventurer. On the present evening was to come off a grand party at Mrs. Dou-Doublebacks, and came forth with the air of a bleback's, an invitation for which he had accepted some three weeks before. The length of the interval bespoke the magnificent nature of the entertainment, and Mrs. Margery was actually overwhelmed with the responsibility of "getting up" a shirt for the occasion. Robert, indeed, was somewhat reassured by the fact, that the in- Another gentleman considered himself, and vitation had come to him through Mr. Drift- was considered by the company, to be a general wood, who was himself to be one of the party; lover. That was his métier in the world. He but he had an intuitive feeling that the thing couldn't help it. It came natural to him; and would be more trying to his savoir faire than a wherever he went in the room, the genteel-lookdinner at so unpretending a house as Sir Vivian ing girl he addressed himself to would whisper Falcontower's. At any rate he was out of spirits, and giggle, and when he glided off to another, dissatisfied with himself and his position, and it would say in a stage aside behind her fanwas with anything but the genial humor befit-"He's such a flirt!" This gentleman was a linting the occasion he went through the necessary endraper's assistant, and was thought to have a preparations.

Mrs. Margery awaited his reappearance from the bedroom with great anxiety; but her comely face broke into smiles of triumph and delight when he at length came forth. She had frequently before seen him in evening costume; but on this occasion he had an added charm for her romantic imagination, the nature of which she could not guess, although it was in all probability nothing more than the gloomy abstraction of his manner, giving, in her eye, a touch of the heroic to the portrait. Indeed, if she ever had a misgiving about him at all, it was owing to a certain good-humored simplicity of character, for which she could find no prototype in the whole Minerva press.

Mrs. Doubleback resided on the first floor of a respectable house, where she had likewise some accommodation for her numerous family in the

very tolerable chance of being promoted by and by to be the shop-walker. Robert observed with some curiosity another gentleman, who did not miss a single quadrille the whole evening, but who never danced. He walked through the figure with a correctness that might have seemed the result of instinct, but with a lassitude that appeared ready to drop, and was frequently heard to observe that this sort of thing was the greatest bore in the world, and that he really thought he should be obliged to decline every invitation during the rest of the season. Mr. Driftwood was in excellent contrast to this gentleman. He danced with as much earnestness as if he was painting a sign; not with any nice acquaintance with the figure, it is true, but sometimes making happy guesses, and always thankful to be set right, and go back to the proper lady, and poussette it with her over again conscientiously.

Upon my word," said Robert, "you must permit me to say that the mention in this way of such a name even in jest".

66

The ladies exhibited more uniformity-more case, is it unnatural to conjecture that her proud conventionalism. They were all to a certain heart would grieve, and her bright eyes weep extent genteel, as it is called, and yet their abso- over the crossness of fortune?" lute unconsciousness of the eccentricity of the gentlemen gave a strange effect to their gentility. They were interested in the flirt; they looked with womanly sympathy upon the hermit- Oh, I know, I know! You cannot hear of quadriller; they considered the walking-dancer a such a thing; you are too much of a gentleman; very elegant person; and they were delighted I understand all that: but you are a naughty even with the gaucheries of Mr. Driftwood, which man, notwitstanding. Don't I know of another they set down as practical witticisms. They gave lady who has travelled scores of miles from the Robert the idea that if detached from the circum-country to see you? and instead of hastening to stances by which they were trammelled, and sud- thank her for her condescension, don't I see you denly transferred to a higher rank of life, they here flirting away at Mrs. Doubleback's, and saywould pass very well as lay-figures of society. ing fine things-if they were but true! -even to But while thus occupied in observing others, poor me, who have nothing different from other he became gradually conscious that he was him- girls, but a heart that laughs at rank and richself the observed of all observers. The numer- es?" and the young lady sighed again. ous introductions with which he was honored called forth the sweetest smiles and most graceful bends from the ladies, and the most awful bows from the gentlemen. A score or two of eyes were constantly upon him, and he could observe that he was the subject of numerous feminine whispers. The hostess was unremitting in her attentions, and was always directing his observation, on some pretext or other, to her town-and you are here!" The young lady at eldest daughter. When he danced, the rest only moved sufficiently to beat time-all were occupied in studying his motions; and his partners for the time being seemed at the summit of human ambition. One of these young ladies was a little franker, not to say more forward than the rest; and after the quadrille, she defeated with great skill the stratagems of Mrs. Doubleback to dissolve the temporary connection.

"She wants you to dance with her daughter," said she; "and I am sure if you wish it, I would not stand in your way for the world. But it is such a treat to me to converse with a sensible man-to indulge in the feeling of sympathy! You have no idea how romantic I am. I despise everything low and conventional; and would be proud, even if I were a queen, to descend to the station of the meanest of my subjects, if he had awakened an interest in my affections. Do you not feel in this way? Can you conceive that there is any real inequality between heart and heart? Robert, who was not an adept at small talk, lost himself for a moment in thinking to what this could be ápropos, but at length came out with some gallant observation about her heart being able, he was sure, to ennoble the one it condescended to select for sympathy. The young lady sighed, and murmured something about his being as romantic as herself; but she added archly and suddenly:

tower?

ני

"Do you find this the case with Miss FalconShocked and alarmed, he looked at her with consternation; but she added with a pretty laugh:

"Your country lady," said Robert, "is a bad guess; but I must entreat

"What! have you no recollection of Wearyfoot Common?" Robert almost leaped where he stood.

"What do you mean?" said he. "What do you know of Wearyfoot Common ?"

"Just what I have said. Miss Semple is in

the moment accepted an invitation to dance, and taking the gentleman's arm, walked away, leaving Robert in a flutter of surprise, delight, and mortification. His speculations had nothing more to do now with Miss Falcontower; and even if it had been otherwise, he could never have conjectured the meaning of the distinction with which he was treated by his partner and the company:-not knowing that he had been represented by Driftwood as the newly discovered but still unrecognized scion of a noble house, and the object of deep interest to Miss Falcontower and the whole of her distinguished family. But Sara! she in town! And why not? She had now come of age, and there was nothing extraordinary in the visit of the heiress to the place where her fortune was invested-nothing but her suffering him to remain in ignorance of her intention. He now recollected that he had noticed an air of constraint in her last communication. Had that any connection with the mystery?-and a jealous pang wrung his heart as he reflected on his own desperate circumstances. But this was only momentary; and he walked up to his late partner as she stood in one of the intervals of the quadrille.

"On reflection," said he, "I perceive that you must be correct with regard to Miss Semple's being in town. Pray do me the favor to tell me where she is to be found?"

"Walk home with me to-night," replied the young lady," and I will take you to the very house." It was late before he could persuade her to go; but when they did set forth, her home "Oh, don't you fancy that I mean anything was so near, that she had scarcely time for exmore than a joke! A grand lady like Miss Fal-planation before they had arrived. The family contower is, of course, out of the question; but supposing she did chance to fall in with a handsome and amiable young man of genius, but of low rank-not that I suppose she did, or could, or that there can by possibility be such a young man in the whole world-yet supposing this

of the Lodge had in fact taken up their abode there" Ma' having a larger house than they required, and letting a part of it for the sake of company." Sara had despatched a letter by the post that afternoon to Robert, and the young lady had read the address.

1

Observing a light still in the parlor-window, support. At length the young lady reappeared, Robert would at once have gone in; but this his shutting the parlor-door after her. She opened conductress would not permit. She would in- the street-door. sist upon announcing him herself; and throwing off her cloak, adjusting her drapery, and tossing her ringlets into order, with a slight tap at the door, which was answered in Sara's voice, she bounded into the room.

Robert's heart beat wildly for a time; then it hardly beat at all; then he grew faint-the great strong man-and leaned against the wall for

MR. SARGENT'S READER.

The First-class Standard Reader for Public and Private Schools; containing a summary of rules for pronunciation and elocution; numerous exercises for reading and recitation; a new system of references to rules and definitions; and a copious explanatory index. By EPES SARGENT, author of "The Standard Speaker." Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.

"She is the only one up," was the report; "it is too late to receive visitors; the family will be glad to see you in the morning. Good-night, you naughty man!"

Robert turned away from the door mechanically, and wandered homeward through the mist of Wearyfoot Common.

sometimes exceedingly effective; but a declamthough unfortunately by no means unfrequent. atory tone in ordinary reading is always offensive, Mr. Sargent has brought together the extracts in the present volume with the same skill and success as in his Speaker, and though, for the obvi ous reason to which we have referred, he has not made a book so brilliant and ponderous with the gems of expression as that was, he has made one in all respects equally valuable and calculated for a still wider circulation.

PRESTIGE OF SPECTACLES.-I descended to

When we are going on an excursion that A vast deal of labor has been bestowed upon promises some broken hours for a book, we throw into our valise our well-worn copy of the Stand- the preparation of this volume. The brief inard Speaker, as the most portable cyclopædia of troductory chapters condense in a clear and simthe finest things ever uttered in poetry or elo-ple style the best rules which illustrate the prinquence. It is the best common-place book of ciples of articulation, pronunciation and inflecliterature that ever fell under our eye; and with tion; and the explanatory index leaves no excuse. it in our possession we are never at a loss for the to the reader for passing over any word or parameans of whiling away the tedious intervals of graph without understanding it. On these parts travel, or stopping the gaps that interpose be- of the book the most scrupulous and conscientween us and our meal times when we exchange much to its value. We take pleasure in comtious care has been bestowed, and they add very car or steamboat for a strange hotel. It is an invaluable travelling companion, and our grati- mending "The Standard Reader," therefore, to tude to Mr. Sargent for the pleasure he has giv-teachers and learners. It is full of novelty and en us by his first book in this branch of literature entertainment, and yet shows that as much labor, and scholarship, and good taste, and literary rehas induced us to give more attention than we perhaps might have done otherwise to the volume source can be exhibited in the suitable preparabefore us. We have read it from the title-page tion of an educational manual as in much more to the conclusion, a qualification for reviewing ambitious and pretending volumes.—National Inso unusual that we think it not out of the way telligencer. to make special mention of it. From the first page to the last we have diligently conned this volume to satisfy ourself if there were anything the Kulhait river, on my route back to Dorjiling, in it in any respect exceptionable for the purpo-visiting my very hospitable tippling friend, the ses for which it is designed. In this examination we have been struck with bly begged me to get him a pair of spectacles, Kajee of Lingcham, on the way down. He humthe perfect taste and judgment manifested for no other object than to look wise, as he had throughout. There is not a line in it to which a the eyes of a hawk. He told me that mine drew moralist of any sect of religion can make objec-down universal respect in Sikkim, and that I had tion. There is nothing of a local or sectional been drawn with them on in the temple at Changspirit in it; the work is adapted for use wherever achelling, and that a pair would not only wonthe English language is spoken. There is great derfully become him, but afford him the most variety in the contents, which combine very fre-pleasing recollections of myself. Happily, I had quently the interest of story and anecdote with the means of gratifying him, and have since been literary merit of high order. The selections are told that he wears them on state occasions. generally from the most distinguished writers of England and this country, interspersed with translations from the French and German, many of the latter from the pen of the editor, and INFANT AMBITION.-" Toute l'ambition des constituting a valuable portion of the volume. enfans est de devenir hommes. Ils ne voient The editor, however, has uniformly kept in view dans les hommes que la supériorité de leurs the distinction between a reader and a speaker; forces; et ils ne peuvent savoir combien les and the selections have been made with great préjugés et les passions rendent si souvent les judgment with reference to this important dis- hommes plus faibles et plus malheureux que des tinction. A colloquial passage in a speech is enfans."-Eloge de Pascal.

Hooker's Himalayan Journals.