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bad enough, I will not add to other atrocities the deception of a confiding

woman.

"

Deception! George: are you not about to deceive her still more painfully? Is she not ignorant of the state of your affairs? Be honest enough, I conjure you at least be honest enough to set her right on this head. If she really loves you, your circumstances will be of minor importance, and she will have nothing to reproach you with hereafter."

"As soon as I am known to be involved, I am "I cannot," replied he, nobody: my credit will cease, and my only means of support-the collectorship of this place-will be withdrawn. I cannot, Charles: it is impossible. Do not urge it; for, I repeat, nothing shall influence me to alter my determination. I am undone-miserable! but I deserve all."

The dead silence which ensued was broken in upon by a servant knocking I rose, took at the door of the apartment, and delivering a note to his master. my hat, and told the Collector that, purposing to leave Cawnpore on the morrow, I would call again in the evening to bid him farewell.

I rushed impetuously into the open air, sprang upon my horse, and felt relieved by finding myself again surrounded by the gay and bright element. My heart was oppressed unspeakably by the scene I had gone through, and the bitter disappointment I had experienced. Whom had I expected to meet? A valued and honourable friend, saddened, perhaps, by a conflict with the A broken-spirited world, but still pure and worthy. What had I found? criminal-(for the fact was too plain !)—seeking to hide, by contemptible foppery, the writhings of a conscience not yet callous, and to perpetuate an un"Is it possible," thought I, "that natural show of prosperity by vile means. he has converted to his own purposes the funds officially entrusted to him?' By a strong exertion of self-command I repressed the idea. He had acknowledged the having received assistance from a Native, and to this circumstance I clung with a sort of desperate hope, seeking rather to attribute George's ravings to a disordered intellect, than to give them the interpretation, alas, too obvious. I was startled from these speculations by feeling the lash of a whip across my shoulder. I turned sharply round, to see from whom this familiar salutation proceeded, and saw the Collector riding, or rather walking his horse close behind mine.

"You were thinking of me, Charles !" said he; "and I have followed to prevent your good heart being unnecessarily distressed. Now promise me two things: first, that you will come back to tiffin, and secondly, that you will think no more of this morning's folly. I have my dark moments, and regret that you should have arrived at a time when my mind has been unusually irritated. Do not refuse to shake hands with me ;" and on looking up, I perceived George's held out.

"You need not fear my estrangement," said I, mournfully, giving him my hand; "you have nothing to fear from me: but I cannot easily forget what has grieved me more than I can express; and I both pity and condemn your want of virtuous resolution."

My horse's head was once more turned towards the Collector's residence ; and as we entered the gate, he again entreated me to dismiss the subject for

ever.

66

To-night," observed he, "this house will be a scene of merriment. I have a ball, and Charlotte is to see the establishment, of which she will soon be mistress, to the best advantage. Every thing will be gay and splendid; and I-yes I-shall appear happy."

We entered the room where tiffin was laid; and being too deeply afflicted to speak, I walked for a while to the bow-window which looked out upon the compound a treat only to be enjoyed in the cold season: for during

*

* That part of an estate in India immediately surrounding the house.

R 2

the summer months the Venetian doors are obliged to be closed all day to keep the house cool, glass being a great source of heat.

Tiffin having been despatched, we resumed our seats over the fire. George's mind was calmer at this moment than, as I had reason to think, for many a day before or after. He shook me warmly by the hand, over and over again, assuring me that his spirits that evening would, for once, be real. Our conversation was interrupted by the Sirdar, who came to remind his master that it was time to dress. He quitted me, saying that he had ordered an early tête-à-tête dinner for us, and I was left to pursue the train of my reflections alone. The singular situation of my friend engrossed my whole thoughts, except when they reverted to the kindred subject of his intended bride. Poor Charlotte! thought I, like too many of your sex, vanity must have induced you to accept the hand of a man double your age, with an impaired constitution and a young family, merely because he can put you at the head of a dashing establishment. The golden dream will vanish after a few years-it may be after a few short months-and show you a deceiver, perhaps a madman, for your husband!

Dinner was now announced, and partaken of without one word having fallen from either, beyond the mere ceremonies of the table; at length, after the whole of the servants had retired, and nearly one chillumt had been exhausted, "I am about to leave you," said 1, "perhaps for ever. Do not suffer me to go hence with a heavy heart. Promise me faithfully that you will act as every honest man should do, and not plunge the lady, to whom you are engaged, blindfold into misfortune."

His countenance underwent many changes, and his heart must surely have trembled whilst he gave me the required pledge, and swore the thing he intended not. Oh, George, too true was your own assurance of your being a fallen man!

The Collector of Cawnpore was the son of a man of family and fortune, whose manners were haughty and unconciliating, and who sought to gain his son's confidence by intimidating rather than winning him. From this it resulted, that when the young man found himself, on his arrival in India, freed from parental control, he naturally enough fell into that course of extravagance and dissipation, too commonly taken by Europeans sent out to seek their fortunes on the Bengal establishment. It must at the same time be admitted that he did not neglect the cultivation of abilities naturally good, and of a talent for business, which ultimately gained him the lucrative post he held. He married early in life, and contrary to the wishes of his friends, one of those young Englishwomen with whom the Calcutta market is generally well stocked, and who, as their whole object is matrimony, proceed, when no opportunity presents itself at the principal settlements, to the remote cantonments up the country. Here they find no difficulty in making matches, which, formed with little or no previous acquaintance between the parties, seldom turn out otherwise than ill. My poor friend was particularly unfortunate. The lady he married was pleasing in person, but weak, and ultimately criminal in her conduct. For a long while his devotion to her induced him to hesitate in believing what to the eyes of others was sufficiently obvious; but at length the fatal truth became manifest that the chosen partner of his joys and sorrows had betrayed him, and they were separated. During this period of distress, his father's heart relented, and he behaved to the Collector with great kindness. He had the children of his unfortunate son sent to him in England, and educated them liberally; but at the same time signified to their father his decided wish that he should never again (if opportunity offered) tempt his fate by contracting a second marriage, without the express sanction of his parent.

The Collector, after having led for some time a solitary life, extended the hand of forgiveness to his erring partner. He stated his sole motive in doing

Valet.

† A preparation of tobacco held in the cup of a hoogger pipe.

this to be regard for the reputation and feelings of his children. The experiment was, however, as may be imagined, a vain one. It is not our purpose to trace the steps by which this woman graduated in vice: suffice it to say, that one instance of misconduct followed another, and that it soon becanie necessary she should again quit the sanctuary of her husband's roof. My friend's wretchedness was now complete. He became silent and lonely, avoiding all society, and appearing to cherish the grief which was corroding his bosom. Sorrow, however, as has been often said, destroys in the end either the sorrower or itself; and the Collector at length shook off the gloom which had settled over his character. Pride and indignation seemed to take the place of grief, and he made a manly resolution to dismiss the humiliating subject from his mind. But the method was a mistaken one by which he essayed to accomplish this. Instead of rational company and occasional relaxation, he passed at once into a vortex of gaiety and extravagance. He had contracted a pernicious idea that the infamy of his wife had reflected a stigma upon him, and that his society was held in light repute. This notion, once entertained, was madness, and produced the fruits of madness. He sought to conciliate all classes of the community, and to this end no expense whatever was spared. A series of the most costly parties was given at his house; a large establishment of servants was of course superadded. Champagne and claret were distributed with as much profusion as if they had been water; and the young officers and other thoughtless persons about the cantonments were delighted with the opportunity of constantly feasting and carousing at the expense of the Collector, whose real friends looked on with compassionate gravity, while such as were inimical to him, scrupled not to give vent to the bitterest sarcasms.

[To be concluded in our next.]

POPULAR FALLACIES.

That a sulky temper is a misfortune.-We grant that it is, and a very serious one-to a man's friends, and to all that have to do with him; but whether the condition of the man himself is so much to be deplored, may admit of a question. We can speak a little to it, being ourself but lately recovered-we whisper it in confidence, reader-out of a long and desperate fit of the sullens. Was the cure a blessing? The conviction which wrought it, came too clearly to leave a scruple of the fanciful injuries-for they were mere fancies-which had provoked the humour. But the humour itself was too self-pleasing, while it lasted—we know how bare we lay ourself in the confession-to be abandoned all at once with the grounds of it. We still brood over wrongs which we know to have been imaginary; and for our old acquaintance, N-, whom we find to have been a truer friend than we took him for, we substitute some phantom a Caius or a Titiusas like him as we dare to form it, to wreak our yet unsatisfied resentments on. It is mortifying to fall at once from the pinnacle of neglect; to forego the idea of having been ill-used and contumaciously treated by an old friend. The first to aggrandise a man in his own conceit, is to conceive of himself as neglected. There let him fix, if he can. To undeceive him is to deprive him of the most tickling morsel within the range of self-complacency. No flattery can come near it. Happy is he who suspects his friend of an injustice; but supremely blest, who thinks all his friends in a conspiracy to depress and undervalue him. There is a pleasure (we sing not to the profane) far beyond the reach of all that the world counts joy-a deep, enduring satisfaction in the depths, where the superficial seek it not, of discon

you.

tent. Were we to recite one half of this mystery, which we were let into by our late dissatisfaction, all the world would be in love with disrespect; we should wear a slight for a bracelet, and neglects and contumacies would be the only matter for courtship. Unlike to that mystical book in the Apocalypse, the study of this mystery is unpalatable only in the commencement. The first sting of a suspicion is grievous; but wait-out of that wound, which to flesh and blood seemed so difficult, there is balm and honey to be extracted. Your friend passed you on such or such a day,-having in his company one that you conceived worse than ambiguously disposed towards you,-passed you in the street without notice. To be sure he is something short-sighted; and it was in your power to have accosted him. But facts and sane inferences are trifles to a true adept in the science of dissatisfaction. He must have seen you; and S, who was with him, must have been the cause of the contempt. It galls you, and well it may. But have patience. Go home, and make the worst of it, and you are a made man from this time. Shut yourself up, and-rejecting, as an enemy to your peace, every whispering suggestion that but insinuates there may be a mistake-reflect seriously upon the many lesser instances which you had begun to perceive, in proof of your friend's disaffection towards None of them singly was much to the purpose, but the aggregate weight is positive; and you have this last affront to clench them. Thus far the process is any thing but agreeable. But now to your relief comes in the comparative faculty. You conjure up all the kind feelings you have had for your friend; what you have been to him, and what you would have been to him, if he would have suffered you; how you defended him in this or that place; and his good name-his literary reputation, and so forth, was always dearer to you than your own! Your heart, spite of itself, yearns towards him. You could weep tears of blood but for a restraining pride. How say you? do you not yet begin to apprehend a comfort? some allay of sweetness in the bitter waters? Stop not here, nor penuriously cheat yourself of your reversions. You are on vantage ground. Enlarge your speculations, and take in the rest of your friends, as a spark kindles more sparks. Was there one among them, who has not to you proved hollow, false, slippery as water? Begin to think that the relation itself is inconsistent with mortality. That the very idea of friendship, with its component parts, as honour, fidelity, steadiness, exists but in your single bosom. Image yourself to yourself, as the only possible friend in a world incapable of that communion. Now the gloom thickens. The little star of self-love twinkles, that is to encourage you through deeper glooms than this. You are not yet at the half point of your elevation. You are not yet, believe me, half sulky enough. Adverting to the world in general, (as these circles in the mind will spread to infinity) reflect with what strange injustice you have been treated in quarters where, (setting gratitude and the expectation of friendly returns aside as chimeras,) you pretended no claim beyond justice, the naked due of all men. Think the very idea of right and fit fled from the earth, or your breast the solitary receptacle of it, till you have swelled yourself into at least one hemisphere; the other being the vast Arabia Stony of your friends and the world aforesaid. To grow bigger every moment in your own conceit, and the world to

lessen; to deify yourself at the expense of your species; to judge the world-this is the acme and supreme point of your mystery-these the true PLEASURES of SULKIN ESS. We profess no more of this grand secret than what ourself experimented on one rainy afternoon in the last week, sulking in our study. We had proceeded to the penultimate point, at which the true adept seldom stops, where the consideration of benefit forgot is about to merge in the meditation of general injustice-when a knock at the door was followed by the entrance of the very friend, whose not seeing of us in the morning (for we will now confess the case our own), an accidental oversight, had given rise to so much agreeable generalization! To mortify us still more, and take down the whole flattering superstructure which pride had piled upon neglect, he had brought in his hand the identical S--, in whose favour we had suspected him of the contumacy. Asseverations were needless, where the frank manner of them both was convictive of the injurious nature of the suspicion. We fancied that they perceived our embarrassment; but were too proud, or something else, to confess to the secret of it. We had been but too lately in the condition of the noble patient in Horace :

Qui se credebat miros audire tragœdos,

In vacuo lætus sessor plausorque theatro—

and could have exclaimed with equal reason #gainst the friendly hand that cured us—

Pol me occidistis, amici,

Non servâstis, ait; cui sic extorta voluptas,

Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error.

ELIA.

CHARACTER OF THE REAL YANKEES; WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE, AND WHAT THEY ARE.

THE people of Europe and the people of America never mean the same people, when they speak of the Yankees. They misunderstand each other continually therefore, if an allusion be made by either to the habits or character of the real Yankee.

Throughout the whole of the United States, except New England, the country of the Yankees, where alone the name of a Yankee is not a reproach, you find that the people of every state regard the people of every other place lying, to the east or north of their own, either as absolute Yankees, or as a sort of qualified Yankees. Out of New England_the_true Yankees are always a state or two off, on the New England side of the speaker's own state; the people, whose territory touches upon his particular place, are, in his view, but a kind of quasi or half-Yankees, a kind of intermediate race, between that which he belongs to, and that which he looks upon as quite another people. Thus the Georgian considers the whole population eastward of Maryland as the real Yankees, and the Marylanders themselves as not much better; while the North Carolinian laughs at his prejudices, charges him with great ignorance of history and geography, and stiffly maintains that the Marylander is no more of a Yankee than the Georgian is, if you come to that; adding with a grave, determined air, that the Yankee territory does not extend, strictly speaking, much beyond the state of New York, or New Jersey, or Delaware, though he is willing to concede that the Pennsylvanians do pass for a sort of Yankees, by courtesy, The Marylander, in his turn, laughs at the stupidity and prejudice of both; declares that such nicknames are exceedingly unworthy of a great free people;

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