mill would have been admirable fun compared with my toils; yet I was freed from the thraldom of a stepmother, and occasionally felt something like gratification in the consciousness that I could command at least the little boys at the academy.

In the space of three years after my retreat from home, my father had been compelled, by the extravagance of the new head of his family, to sell his half-pay; and with the produce of this lamentable sacrifice he emigrated to America, where he died, leaving his amiable widow to the care of a most excellent friend, to whom the death-bed injunction of my poor parent to grant her his protection was, in point of fact, entirely superfluous.

It was not very long after this event that my old patron, the master of the academy, also died; and having in vain attempted to become successor to his authority and school, I was dismissed from my office by the new arrival, who brought with him what, in my military phraseology, I termed his "personal staff," and therefore had no need of my further services. He, however, behaved extremely well to me, and, in addition to more flattering testimonials which I had received from his predecessor, gave me a letter of introduction to a Dr. Crowpick, who kept a scholastic establishment in the vicinity of London.

The word London, I admit, had something very bewitching in its sound to my ears; and yet I dreaded an approach to it. If I had been a soldier-if I could have entered the metropolis of my country as a captain of a company, or even as a lieutenant-it would have been something; but to go to London a mere nobody, in search of a "place," was very revolting to my feelings; and, as usual, I got rid of my bile by anathematizing the artful woman who had ruined my poor father and overthrown all my bright schemes of preferment.

After much declamation, and finding that country bank-notes do not fructify at any agreeable rate during a period when the payments from the pocket very much exceed the receipts, I resolved upon the plunge ; and accordingly, having deposited all my worldly goods in a black leathern portmanteau, which had been given to me by my former patron, I enveloped myself in a sort of gambroon cloak, which I had had made two or three years before, and started by the "Wonder" (a coach so called), which was to deposit me in London some time about four o'clock in the afternoon.

In these days of swift travelling, adventures on the outside of a stage coach are not to be looked for, and I arrived at the place of my destination by three; for although I think it right, for obvious reasons, to conceal the name of the place where I eventually stopped, it may be necessary to observe that I was, under the advice of the coachman, set down at a remarkably pretty, small, suburban village, the inn of which boasted of a tenant more beautiful than anything I had ever happened to fall in with, in my native Arcadia. The coachman's reasons for suggesting my "halt" there were good and cogent. Dr. Crowpick's academy was situated within a mile and a half of it, and of course stopping where I was would save me the distance from London back to the neighbourhood; but had the reason not been half so good, the sight of Jane Lipscombe—such was her name-would have decided the question of my stay in that particular place.

I never shall forget the sweet, unassuming, modest manner of the

fair-haired girl, as she gently turned a pair of soft, intelligent, and beaming eyes towards the coach-box upon which I was seated, and whence, in a moment afterwards, I descended. There is a sympathy in minds and characters which neither station nor circumstances can control. She was the daughter of the innkeeper—she officiated as bar-maid; but she was so lovely, and so young, that I fancied myself already as much in love with her as I really was in the course of the next half-hour.

I entered the house, it was coldish weather; she saw that I was chilled; she invited me into her little territory, the bar. "Would I take anything?" That was her question,-purely disinterested too, as it proved. I was very shy at that time: this struck her immediately; it was a novelty, I suppose; she made me a glass of hot brandy and water, with a slice of lemon-peel and a lump of sugar in it, that

seemed to me nectar.

"Are you in the army, Sir ?" said Jane, timidly.

I thought I should have died. I really believe, if I had not just in time recollected that I was probably destined to be her neighbour, and perhaps should occasionally march my pigmy regiment under her window, I should have said yes,- -as it was, I answered in the negative.

"There are a good many military gentlemen in this place," said Miss Lipscombe.

I wish they were anywhere else, thought I.

"No," said I, “I am going as far as Dr. Crowpick's, at Magpie Castle."

Oh, to the school!" said Jane,-and she looked as if she doubted whether I was on the point of visiting it to finish my education.

"Oh, dear, then," replied the artless girl, "Stevens ought to have put you down at the Black Swan instead of our house; it is a mile nearer Magpie Castle than this."

"I prefer being here," said I, " if it were twice as far to walk."

I thought she looked pleased at this little innocent bit of civility. "Is the brandy and water to your liking, Sir?" said she.

"Anything that you are good enough to give me I am delighted with," said I.

r

"Jenny," said a fine, handsome-looking fellow, with huge black mustachios, enveloped in a long cloak, and wearing a foraging cap, cigars, dear."

some

I hated the look of the man, his easy assurance-the air of command-" Jenny, dear;"-altogether his appearance produced a most unpleasant effect upon me. Ah! thought I, if my father had not married that infernal Miss Peppercorn, I should have had mustachios and a foraging cap; and I should have called this interesting girl, Jenny-dear! "Who have you got in the corner?" said the Lieutenant (for such he was).

"A gentleman," said Jenny," from the country."

"Oh!" replied the Lieutenant, "a gentleman!" saying which, with a peculiarly strong emphasis on the word, he swaggered away with his half-dozen Havannahs, and marching into a room nearly opposite, banged open the door, and having entered, shut it by a manoeuvre equally noisy and equally decisive.

"That is a very important person," said I. "Who is he?"

"Lieutenant O'Mealy, Sir," said Jane: "he is one of the officers quartered here."

"Here!" said I. "If we meet again, I think I shall be under the necessity of teaching him a little civility."

66

"Oh, Sir!" said Miss Lipscombe, pray don't speak so; he means nothing. For heaven's sake do not get into any quarrel with him!" What," said I," is he so great a favourite of yours?"

66

"Not he," said Jane;-and here she blushed! I never was very conceited; but I do honestly admit that I could not help thinking that Jane's solicitude was on my account rather than his.

66

66

I should like to go into the room," said I. I really must beg to know why he emphasized the word gentleman, in speaking of me. My father

Oh, don't think of it, Sir!" said the dear girl, in a state of no gentle agitation. "He don't mean any harm; he'd emphasize anything, Sir. Pray don't go."

Well," said I, "I cannot refuse you: I will not go. Pray tell me, is there nobody to manage this house but you and the servants?" 66 Oh, yes, " said Jane, 66 my father and mother; at least," continued she,—and I beheld a tear standing in her eye,-“it is not my own mother; it is my father's second wife."

The words rang in my ears;-this, perhaps, was the latent cause whence our sympathetic feelings originally sprang.

"Does she treat you well?" said I.

"Don't ask me, Sir," said the poor girl.

obliged to suffer, you would indeed pity me.'

66 If you knew all I am

"I hope," replied I," to know a great deal more of your history

before long."

"When do you go to the school ?" said Jane.

"I am expected either to-night or to-morrow."

evening; for we have not a bed in the house disengaged."

"You had better go on to the Swan then," said Jane:

This, somehow, vexed me. I had hoped, in the course of the evening, to have heard more of Jane's story, the similarity of which, in some points, to my own, had laid hold of my feelings.

"But," said I," I should very, very much like to see you again.' "You shall," said Jane, whose manner visibly increased in warmth as she began to feel conscious of the interest she had excited. "I tell you, Sir, you don't know how cruelly I am treated. Indeed," continued she, “ I am sure, by your manner, you will forgive what I am going to say; but I am exposed to such scenes and such treatment in this place, that if I could only gain an honest livelihood by working ten times as hard as I am expected to work here, I would gladly change my condition."

Poor, suffering innocent! thought I. Ah! she likes my manner; no doubt the quiet, unassuming modesty of my deportment affords a soothing contrast to the rude, forward, and unfeeling manner of that whiskered lieutenant. I shall never rest till I have taught that fellow manners. "When," said I, "could I see you again, if I am forced to go hence this evening?"

"If you could be here early to-morrow I should be free from inter

ruption," said Jane; "they (meaning her father and his wife) are

never up very soon."

"And these officers ?" said I.

"Are later still at breakfast," replied she.

"Then, depend upon it, I will be with you."

،،

Stay,"
," said Jane, " in that case leave your portmanteau; it will be

an excuse if they should find you here in the morning. I will take the greatest of care of it.”

"If it were all I had in the world," said I,—and, with the exception of fifteen pounds, nine shillings, and seven-pence, it was," I should be the better pleased to place it in your hands."

Dear girl, thought I, why should the prejudices of society interfere to mar our brightest prospects? Why should not a being, sensibly alive to the cruelties of a step-mother, and shrinking from the coarseness of an ill-mannered braggadocio, be a suitable companion for such a man as myself through life?

"I wonder," said I, " that you do not endeavour to escape the thraldom which you so much dislike."

"It is a serious move, Sir," said she. "Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte."

"What!" said I, " do you speak French too?"

"Yes, Sir," said Jane. "I was brought up at boarding-school, and only sent for home, to save my mother-in-law the trouble of attending here."

"What profanation!" whispered I. Never shall I forget with what rapt attention I watched her delicate fingers turn the tap of the patent porter-machine as she drew out the Meux's heavy, the double X, and the half-and-half, for the thirsty company who seemed to fill a large long tap-room to the right; nor cease to remember the thrill of pleasure which tingled through my veins as she replenished my portly tumbler of what she called "hot with," and cut the curling lemonpeel to give it flavour. Romeo wishes himself a glove that he may touch his Juliet's cheek-I would have given the world at that moment to have been half a lemon to have been pressed by Jenny's hand.

There occur in the course of our lives events, which are afterwards scarcely reconcilable in our own minds with what is called probability; and certainly, the deep interest, nay, I will go the length of calling it the earnest affection, I felt for Jane Lipscombe in so short a space of time is one of those miracles which, perhaps, those who had seen her as I saw her at that moment, might have considered not miraculous at all.

The thing that particularly struck me in her conduct was a sort of patronage of me, which mingled with her humility and reserve;-the humility was natural to her station-the reserve was characteristic of her modesty; but the patronage was evidently the result of a superior knowledge of what may be called the "worldly" world. She saw I was new to the environs of London, she saw in my manners an artless earnest of my real character, she felt assured that I meant well and spoke truly, and—may I say it? it is a long time ago-I think she was pleased with my personal appearance, she certainly looked as if she were.

Our preliminaries were soon settled. I abstracted from the portmanteau one or two articles essential to my comfort, and deposited my portmanteau in the hands of my dear girl, promising to be with her by Jan.-VOL. XL. NO. CLVII.

D

eight o'clock the next morning, and resolving in my own mind at least to show such a front to Lieutenant O'Mealy, if I fell in with him out of her sight, as might convince him that I inherited my father's spirit and professional feeling, even though I had no other claim to military consideration than that of teaching the "young idea how to shoot.”

I parted from Jane; it was all like a dream. I had even then established a principle upon which I have acted through life. I make a point of never developing circumstances which in point of fact can be interesting to nobody but the parties concerned: suffice it to say, we parted, and I left the bar, self-convicted of love for Miss Lipscombe. It was love at first sight; but its results, as we shall presently see, were not quite so

evanescent.

I followed the instructions given me by my fair monitress; and after å pleasant walk of three-quarters of an hour, reached the rara avis of the next village—the Black Swan, at which I was perhaps to rest, or, at all events, receive my further marching orders. It was a neat, countrylooking inn, with a swinging sign, and a long water-trough in front, the stabling stood to the left hand, and there was a bay-window on the right of the door; in the passage stood a nice comely woman, mistress of the house. As I approached she made way for me, and courtesying quite as low as a foot-traveller had any right to expect, bade me good afternoon. I glanced my eye from her smiling, shining countenance, and beheld in a glazed three-cornered larder opposite me, a cold round of beef.

Then and then only did it strike me that I had had no dinner; my appetite had been converted into a sentimental desire of hearing Jane Lipscombe talk, and the grosser and more sensual ideas of mutton-chops and beef-steaks had given place to visions of future happiness with the unsophisticated "Maid of the Inn." The sight of the cold round of beef, however, recalled me to a recollection of my bodily wants. I desired the landlady to lay a cloth and set the tempting viand before me. “Ay, that I will," said Mrs. Bunny, (so was mine hostess called,) "and you sha'n't wait long, neither;" and she, like my lovely Jane, gave me a look, which I remember to this moment, expressive not only of readiness and anxiety to oblige me, but of a desire to patronise and protect me. The fact is, that the freshness and innocence of my appearance bespoke the particular fostering care which both the young and the old lady were so well disposed to afford me.

Mrs. Bunny ushered me into a small sanded parlour, in which stood a round claw table and several leather-bottomed chairs; in less than five minutes the table was robed for duty, and certainly before ten had expired I was seated before it, shaving the beef in the true boardingschool style. Mine hostess reappeared with a brown jug of foaming home-brewed ale, which she placed by the side of my plate.

"Pray," said I," how far is it to Dr. Crowpick's academy

Crowpick?" said mine hostess, "Magpie Castle do you mean ?” "Exactly so," replied I.

Why, Sir," answered the gentle Bunny, "I should say a good mile and a half. You cross over there by the finger-post; keep straight on, till you come to Mrs. Gubbins's gate; then turn to the left by Harrison's wall, over the stile; then to the right till you get to Simpson's farm, and so round by Dallington-green, to the high-road just above Gurney's, and that brings you out just by the gate."