all. They perhaps conceive themselves to be born to keep down the pavement of Princes Street with boots one inch and a half deep in the heel, or to fumigate the air of that elegant street with cigars at three shillings per dozen; but that is the utmost extent to which their notions of the purposes of life ever extend. These men, of course, are predestined Downdraughts. We see them already, with our mind's eye, exhausting the kindness and patience of a brother, or a wife, yea, almost of a mother, with their idle and dissolute habits-dragging those relations slowly but surely down into misery and disgrace and only in the meantime saved from being kicked out of doors, as they deserve, not by any regard for merits of their own, for they have none, but by the tenderness of those relations for their own reputation.

A decent citizen, of the name of Farney, retired about five-and-twenty years ago from active life, and, planting himself in a neat villa a little way beyond the southern suburbs of Edinburgh, resolved to do nothing all the rest of his life but enjoy the ten or twelve thousand pounds which he had made by business. He was a placid, inoffensive old man, only somewhat easy in his disposition, and, therefore, too much under the control of his wife, who, unfortunately, was a person of a vulgarly ambitious character. The pair had but one child, a daughter, Eliza Farney-the toast of all the apprentices in the South Bridge, and really an elegant, and not unaccomplished young lady. The only object which Mr and Mrs Farney now had in life, besides that of enjoying all its comforts, was the disposal of this young lady in marriage. Whenever there is such a thing as ten thousand pounds connected with the name of a young lady, there is generally a great deal of more fuss made about it than when the sum is said to exist in any other shape or circumstances. It is important in the eyes of all the young men who think themselves within shot of it. It is important in the eyes of all the young women who have to lament that they do not possess similar

advantages. It is important in the eyes of all the fathers and mothers of sons who think themselves within range of it. And, lastly, it is important, immensely important indeed, in the eyes of parties, young lady, mother and father, sister or brother, who have anything to say in the disposal of it. Money in this shape, one would almost think, is of a different value from money in any other: the exchange it bears against cash in business, or cash in the prospect of him who knows he can win it, is prodigious. At the very lowest computation, a thousand pounds in the purse of a young lady is worth ten thousand in the stock of a man of trade. Nay, it is astonishing what airs we have known a few hundred pounds of this kind put on in respect, or rather disrespect, of decent people, who were almost winning as much in the year. In fact, the fiddle-faddle about the disposal of an heiress is a great farce, and never fails to put either the parties concerned in the disposal, or else the candidates for the acquisition, into a thousand shabby and selfish attitudes. It is hard to say if the young lady herself is the better for it all. The only certain effect of her possessing a fortune is, that it deprives her of ever having the pleasing assurance, given to most other women, that she is married for her own sake alone. Sincere love is apt to retire from such a competition, through the pure force of modesty, its natural accompaniment; and the man most apt to be successful is he who, looking upon the affair as only a mercantile adventure, pursues it as such, and only hopes to be able to fall in love after marriage.

It happened that Eliza Farney was loved, truly and tenderly loved, by a young man of the name of Russell, whose parents had been acquainted with the Farneys in their earlier and less prosperous days, but were now left a little behind them. Young Russell had been the playmate of Eliza in their days of childhood; he had read books with her, and taught her to draw, in their riper youth; and all the neighbours said, that, but for the brilliant prospects of Miss Farney, she could not have

Russell, however, was still
He was himself struggling

found a more eligible match.
but the son of a poor man.
in the commencement of a business, which he had begun
with slender means, in order to sustain the declining
fortunes of his parents. His walk in life was much
beneath the scope of his abilities, much beneath his
moral deserts; but, under a strong impulse of duty, he
had narrowed his mind to the path allotted to him,
instead of attempting to do justice to his talents by
entering upon any higher and more perilous pursuit.
Thus, as often happens, an intellect and character, which
might have brightened the highest destinies, were doomed
to a sphere all unmeet for them, where they were in a
manner worse than lost, as they only led to a suspicion
which was apt to be unfavourable to the prospects of
their possessor-namely, that he was likely to be led, by
his superior tastes, into pursuits to which his fortune was
inadequate, or into habits which would shipwreck it
altogether. Russell looked upon Eliza Farney, and des-
paired. He saw her, as she advanced into womanhood,
recede gradually from his sphere in society, and enter
into one more suitable to her father's improving fortunes,
into which it was not for him to intrude. Eliza had,
perhaps, entertained at one time a girlish fondness for
him; but it was not of so strong a character as to resist
the ambitious maxims of her mother, and the sense of
her own importance and prospects, which began to act
upon her in her riper years.

'Amongst the rest young Edwin sighed,
But never talked of love.'

Some appearance of coldness, which he saw, or fancied he saw, in her conduct towards him, caused his proud and pure nature to shrink back from the vulgar competition which was going forward for the hand of 'the heiress.' It was not that the fondest wishes of his heart were met with disappointment-perhaps he could have endured that-but he writhed under the reflection, that external circumstances should separate hearts that once

were allied, and that no conscious purity of feeling, no hope of hereafter distinguishing himself by his abilities, was of avail against the selfish and worldly philosophy which dictated his rejection. It was only left for him to retire into the chambers of his own thoughts, and there form such solemn resolutions for improving his circumstances, and distinguishing his character, as might hereafter, perhaps, enable him to prove to the cold being who now despised him, how worthy, how more than worthy perhaps, he was of having enjoyed her affections, even upon the mean calculations by which he was now measured and found wanting.

The mother, to whom this rupture was chiefly owing, now applied herself heartily to the grand task of getting her daughter 'properly disposed of. Every month or so, her house was turned topsy-turvy, for the purpose of shewing off the young lady in gay assemblies. Care was taken that no one should be invited to these assemblies who was merely of their own rank. Unless some capture could be made in a loftier, or what appeared a loftier circle, it was all as nothing. The human race hang all in a concatenation at each other's skirts - those before kicking with all their might to drive off those behind them, at the same time that they are struggling might and main, despite of corresponding kicks, to hold fast, and pull themselves up by means of their own predecesThis is particularly the case where a mother has a daughter to dispose of with the reversion of a few thousands. Money under these circumstances, as already explained, would be absolutely thrown away if given only to a person who estimated it at its ordinary value; it must be given to one who will appreciate it as it ought to be, and sell pounds of free - will and honourable manhood for shillings of the vile dross. At length, at a ball held in the Archers' Hall-a kind of Almacks in the east-the very man was met with: a genteel young spark, said to be the grand-nephew to a baronet in the north, and who was hand in glove with the Greigsons, a family of quis quis gentility in the New Town, but who

sors.

loomed very large in the eyes of a person dwelling in the south side. This fellow, a mere loose adventurer, whose highest destiny seemed to be to carry a pair of colours, if he could get them, and who positively had no claims upon consideration whatsoever, except that he kept a decent suit of clothes upon his back, and was on terms of intimacy with a family supposed to belong to the haut ton-this poor, unannealed wretch, recommended by impudence and a moustache, which he amiably swore he would take off when married, gained the prize from which the modest merit of Russell was repelled. In a perfect fluster of delight with the attention he paid to her daughter, terrified lest he should change his mind, or any unforeseen event prevent the consummation so devoutly to be wished, the managing mother presented no obstruction to the courtship. Such a genteel young man!' she would say to her husband. He is greatly taken out in good company. Just the night before last, he was at the Honourable Mrs. party in Oman's Rooms. He danced with Miss Foster, the great heiress, who, they say, is distractedly in love with him. But he says she has naething like the elegant carriage o' our 'Liza. Indeed, between you and me, says he, jokingly, to me the other day, she's splay-footed. He could make his fortune at once, you see, however; and I'm sure it's really extraordinary o' him to particulareese the like o' us in the way he's doing'-and so forth.

-'s

The old man sat twirling his thumbs, and saying nothing, but having his own fears all the time that all was not really gold that glittered. He was, however, one of those people who, upon habit and principle, never say a single word about any speculative thing that is proposed to them, till the result has been decided, and then they can tell that they all along thought it would turn out so. It was untelling the prescience and wisdom that old Farney believed himself to be thus possessed of. Suffice it to say, the managing mother, within the month, made out a mittimus of destruction in favour of her daughter, Eliza Farney, spinster, consigning her to the custody of