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when the morning came, and after it had got on its journey within a stage of afternoon, the reappearance of the manservant with brandy and tea-not for choice, but for mixture-revived the influence of his yesterday's reasoning with unabated force.

CHAPTER VII.

AN ANGEL VISIT-UNAWARES.

THE very fog had got the jaundice, and the young debauchee was not very far from having it, too; so that everything immediately about him conspired to make him wish himself anywhere but where he was, and the Oxford plan loomed most distinctly on his perturbed mind for the space of a full hour. Other thoughts, about that time, began to make their presence felt, undefined and shadowy, but just clear enough and dense enough to hide Oxford from the view. In short, he turned maudlin, thought about his father, trembled lest the maritime lawyer should take it into his head to drop in, and then-yes, and then-he thought tenderly of the mealy-faced Sarah till he cried like a baby, and, as he looked through his tears right into that mealy face, he thought it was angelic; and so it was at that moment, covered with natural confusion at the spectacle before her. She had never seen a man crying. Nathaniel never gave way to such nonsense, and she was ashamed, and felt unspeakably awkward, to find herself face to face with the living reality of her favourite dreams; and to find such a contrast between the visions of the night and the actual man of eleven o'clock in the morning-in deshabille and tears.

How this contretemps came to pass, we cannot explain as fully as might be necessary to understanding and excusing it, but thus much was the result of putting this and that together; the apologies and assurances of dear innocent Sarah, the angry subsequent expostulations of Charles, and the somewhat backward confessions of the ingenuous Mr. Mottram. It appeared that this dove had been sent out of the maritime lawyer's ark, not to find but to carry an olive-branch from Mrs. Drake to the suffering Charles, in the shape of a soothing

Now, it was not the

she

invitation to dinner on that very day. proper thing to do; but, as Sarah had received no special instructions, and, moreover, was accustomed to wait for an answer in most cases of errand-going for her mamma, thought proper to reply to the worthy servant's inquiry as to "Any answer, Miss?" that "she thought there might be;" and that worthy having forgotten the transfer of his master to the front room, which he had both suggested and superintended, ushered her straight a-head into the room within a yard or two of the pondering and weeping youth.

It was a shocking state of affairs to all concerned. To Mottram it looked like a month's warning when he entered the bedroom, and found that Charles must have gone in his dressing-gown into that very room-" Oh, it was 'orrid !" Mr. M. in after life often found occasion to observe, "and made him feel as if he deserved to be hanged." But the principals. in this strange interview! Sarah ought to have turned right about face and vanished instanter; but she hadn't been properly drilled, and so there she stood, like a beautiful statue in neat apparel, as rigid and nearly as white.

"Good heavens, Miss Drake! I mean, Miss Sarahwhat's your name-go away, do. What on earth do you want?"

"Some mistake, Mr. Barton, as you perceive; never mind, it's unlucky, and there's an end of it," said Sarah, recovering her presence of mind, and bridling up a little; for she could not do it very well, however she tried. "I brought a note from mamma, and, as I thought there might be an answer, I waited, and your ridiculous man showed me in here. Good morning, sir. We shall have no need to recur to, or even remember this scene, if you please," and she courtesied her slim little self swiftly through the still halfopened door, almost into the embrace of the appalled Mottram, then fled like a ghost at cock-crow down the stairs-up the street to her own home. One half of her flight was shared at some distance by the remorseful serving man. Not that he had any motive for following her; but he had every conceivable motive for following her example, for he felt of a truth that he durst never show his face again to his master;

and if he'd only brought his hat and his wages along with him, he would have been found next morning in his old haunt on the banks of the classical Isis. As it was, however, he had no resource but to roam up and down like a maniac for two or three hours, in the course of which he was greatly afflicted, like other insane persons in similar circumstances, with an anxiety to know the time every ten minutes; and to relieve that anxiety he went in to inquire at every turn in every street where he could find one of those places in which the public of that day were accommodated with the knowledge of what was o'clock, until he recovered his would-be frame of valour, and wended his way home, prepared to receive his doom with the patience of one who hadn't deserved it.

He was met on his return with no loud reproaches; but his punishment was hardly less severe, that it came to him from the evident and excessive distress of his generous young master, whom he found more than half crazy with vexation, scratching whole sheets of foolscap with wild self-rebukings in a letter to the guardian of the insulted lady. But "Time and the Hours," and the subtle servant man, and a bottle of the very best wine, brought sensible relief to the distraction of Charles, and though it did not altogether amount to a positive consolation, there was enough to soften him down so far that he could pen the following epistle to Mr. Nathaniel Drake :

MY DEAR SIR AND MUCH VALUED FRIEND,

"I regret that a pressure of engagements will deprive me of the pleasure of joining your amiable family circle this evening; but I hope an opportunity will arise in the course of a few days of which I may avail myself, for the purpose of saying farewell to those from whom a sense of duty to my country and myself will compel me soon to separate, perhaps, for ever.

"I need not, I am sure, my dear Sir, tell you how gladly I would have put myself under your guidance, could I have reconciled such a step with the admonitions of conscience, and the strenuous advice of valued friends, that I should return and complete my college course.

"You well know what an effort it must have cost a sensitive nature like mine, to form this resolution after all that has passed; but I trust you will give me full credit for sincerity, when I say that I have been induced to this change solely with a view of overcoming the little weaknesses of a disposition that is far too much given to change. I feel that I must gird myself for the battle of life; and I know no better discipline for a temperament such as mine, than renewing that battle on the field of disaster.

"Yours very truly,

"CHARLES BARTON."

So far as we can learn, there was a slight difference between Mr. Drake's reflections on this charming epistle, and the comments we feel disposed to put forth: our view is exceedingly simple, and we would commend it to general adoption. It is that either Mr. Charles was so much given to change that he had suddenly taken up the character of a liar, or his last night's debauch, together with his morning's reflection, had so far besotted him, that he actually believed that he was writing the truth. We confess a leaning to the latter alternative, for two powerful reasons. In the first place, the gradual surrender of the conscience to the dominion of drink is a much more common occurrence, and so much more probable than the violent rupture of truth-speaking habits-the sudden making and loving of a lie. Then, secondly, when a short time afterwards (the wine having lost some of its power) Mr. Drake put the matter before Charles in the light in which Charles had tried to put it to Mr. Drake, he felt very much disposed to charge that respectable man with having altered the form of the letter so as to make the writer ridiculous; on these grounds, we are disposed to thrust the blame of the untruth on the bottle, wherever the blame of the bottle may happen to lie, which is no present concern of ours.

We are not in a position to state with authority what were the feelings of Nathaniel on the first perusal of this apparently unexceptionable letter; but we cannot be far wrong in comparing them with those of a griffin, who should be called to the great trial of seeing the gold he had been set to guard

deliberately melting itself, and flowing irrecoverably in every direction. For if the antique portraits of those interesting guardian angels be correct, they certainly must be held to have been the prototype and model after which Mr. Drake elongated and twisted his bronzed features on the receipt of this strange communication from the son of one who had been, once on a time, his best client.

Be this as it may, we know that he almost instantly bethought himself of his great coat, and at the same time made up his mind to try a little of that wholesome terrorism which he had often wielded with beneficial results; and to this end he deemed his personal presence essential, although there was more than one eager suitor dangling his legs fretfully on a high stool in the outer office.

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VISIT.

If the quiet intrusion of the morning had produced such consternation, it was fairly matched in this respect by the obstreperous inroad which the Griffin made in the afternoon. There was no time for putting things away,—and indeed, the fright of the young man drove all prudence to the winds,—so that there was the palpable pressure of engagements," an empty bottle and a full one, and a half glass besides, standing ready to confirm the high opinion which Mr. D. had already been shaping in his own mind on the subject of Mr. Charles's trustworthiness and solidity of character. Matters were sufficiently embarrassing, and the first few sentences spoken gave little prospect of amendment.

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Hope I don't intrude; not busy now, are you? How do ye do? Finished all your engagements? Because, if you haven't, I'll wait; my time's no consideration. Shall I help myself?" "To be sure, Mr. Drake, by all means."

"Thank ye all the same, but I won't; never drink till I've dined. Come, my boy, out with it; what's the matter. Who, in the name of goodness, are the valued friends that have been

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