granted) at three o'clock a. m. in the green, green month of June." But such a thing is not to be thought of, Sir! therefore in she goes!"-You're quite out, my sweet Miss!-Nina never stirred" Oh! fie! Sir-I'll not read a word more of your naughty book."-Nay! do but listen! Because-because-she neither saw nor heard any thing of them (i. e. the cabbages and the wits!) "La! Janus." Indeed it was almost impossible that she should either view or be viewed-for her room was, as the politer circles say, backwards; nor was it much easier for her to hear their Lyman hymns, for I can make oath they never strayed within twenty streets of her situation!-I hope, madam, I have exculpated my heroine from any charge of indelicacy. Yes, Sir! but how came you to trouble us and your story, with this impertinent episode?" That you should ask me why- and I, in return, make my intent lucid.

Those niceties and particularities of narration which are to be found in myself and all other authors of value and credibility, are the tests, the witnesses, the vouchers, for the authenticity of the tale-for every tale is or ought to be (after a fashion) his torically true (look into the Schlegels! will ye?): you feel assured that the relater has actually been present at the scenes he places before you. It is first hand-fire new! To illustrate; in recounting the manner of X.'s detention of Z. during a prosy argument, I write," and with such speeches he (X) dexterously seized with his sinister hand a button of Z.'s doublet-it was the fifth button counting from the bottom." Now does not this subtle circumstantiality put the fact that, such conference took place, beyond doubt?-for why should X. grapple Z.'s button, save to prevent Z. from escaping; and assuming that Z. attempted to leave a given spot and person, it follows tolerably logically, that Z. must have been on the spot, and with the person he essayed to quit. Is not this very clever reasoning?-And if the ingenious gentleman who has been twice didactic on the Elgin marbles would have the kindness to consider the force of my conclusions as enfeebled by the rottenness of my

premises (not my tenements and he reditaments), I assure him on the word and honour of a gentleman, for so the late king's most excellent ma jesty was graciously pleased to designate your most humble servant in a certain commission (not of the peace). bearing his own sign manual-I really believe I have it now in my pocket. I'll read it, if it will gratify you at all-no! I hav'nt-I'm afraid it's up stairs-never mind———

I say, that on the honour of a gen tleman, I will do as much for every tittle he has advanced in the forementioned two excellent articles-I can't offer fairer: can I? And now having made a capital defence of my precise, and correct, and ingenuous style, I shall be for the future ingenuous, correct, and precise, as hard as ever I can!

You've made yourself extremely agreeable, most silent reader! all this time; and as a reward, you and I will go and gaze on Nina and all her. doings in propriis personis; and then either keep dumbness thereon, or whisper a little in the ears of some of our heartest (a word desiderated L-d knows how long!) of our heartest friends, just as decorum and sense of delicacy, and all that sort of thing shall indicate. See-here we are in Grosvenor Square! "And is the house here, Janus?" No, Sir! but it is not a great way off. This turn, if you please, now! we are arrived! I have the key of this wall-door-pooh postern I mean and here we"Here! Mercy on us-why here lives Lord Hush! for your life! Step in quickly-Stand close behind this bouncing laurel on the left, till I've relocked-There!-What a refreshing spot of summer greenery in the centre of barren brick and Portland stone! The lovely cool of its shade (frigus amabile) pours around the revel-fevered nerves,

As glass-bright showers

On the fainting flowers. The sweet dew which maketh the grass all grey, is not yet licked up by the fourth hour's thirsty sun; and the high swaying trees, and the bushy shrubs seem covered with a light azure bloom. One little bird is awaking-peep-peep-at intervals. Hark! another! a thrush! with how

deep a thrill, like the startling trumpet of a knightly challenger, doth he shake forth his vigorous notes!-What delicious odours fume from that thicket of roses, and sweet-briar! now the yet drowsy breeze varies, and is drowned in the lively perfume of lavender-it subsides, and the steam of dabbled carnations rises conqueringly over the screen of lilacs. And now that the sky is blanching fast with the reflection of Aurora's white robe, and Dian's chaste crescent narrows in the clear dawn, you may descry (a much more poetical expression than bald see) the rich hollyoaks, the endless-hued tall tulips, and the sceptrous wand of fairy Oberon, the lily

lifting up As a Mænad, its moonlight-coloured cup Till the fiery star, which is its eye, Looks through clear dew on the tender sky. Shelley.

But we have no more time to lose, so let us creep carefully down the bank; here is a sinuous path of moss and lawny grass leading quite through the garden to the mansion, between very high hedges of privet, honeysuckle, laurel, box, and holly.Quietly! quietly! stoop low as we cross this brief opening-well stole and lightly!-we have unravelled the verdant tangle, and from behind the thick leafy wall which flanks the terraced approach (those are its marble steps, gleaming white between the boughs of the dark cedars) we may gaze unseen on the planet of our guest.-Lo! there she stands! hanging from her loftiness to catch the incense which the enamoured flowers offer to her benign divinity in their gratitude; for grateful they must be to her whose presence was their life! and, with the tremulously-sensitive and poetical Shelley,

I doubt not the flowers of that garden sweet,
Rejoic'd in the sound of her gentle feet;
I doubt not they felt the spirit that came
From her glowing fingers thro' all their

frame.

For she sprinkled bright water from the stream,

On those that were faint with the sunny

beam;

And out of the cups of the heavy flowers, She emptied the rain of the thundershowers. She lifted their heads with her tender hands, And sustain'd them with rods and ozier bands;

If the flowers had been her own infants, she Could never have nurs'd them more tenderly."

She turns her harmonious face this way-take your opera glass-quick! It is in your right pocket-I saw you put it there three hours agone, when the dark veil of baize cut from your devout eyesight the triumphant legs. of Noblet, and the petit pied of the Circean Spaniard-Ah! ma mignonne, Mercandotti!--Now, did you ever?-What long, soft shadowy lashes! Oh beautiful eyes! so gentle, yet so brilliant-blessed be the garden where first I saw your dark blue!

Sapphires centered with diamond sparks! My little friend Emily S*** has the twin pair!

The sun, which colours all things, is still lingering on the plains of Persia -and her cheek appears pale-yet not pale-but only marbly pure. By day a rich glow of gold is spread like a glory over those wavy streams of hair which, released from their jewelled bands and aureate comb, pour down her sloping shoulders and back, like a dark, deep waterfall among white hills. One massy lock has fallen forwards by the side of her swan-like neck,

And crossing her round, elàstic waist,

Hangs down past her round, light knee. My good curious people who stand outside the garden-gate and wish you could get in-tell me if you have ever studied the Parma Correggios? Ah! miserable, who never truly lived, your countenances are negative! Where do you expect to go? Hey? Home! directly, gentlemen

swine!* for never shall you see with that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude,

the amorous gentility, the intense elegance of those gracile wrists and hands, tingling with sensibility to the rosy-finger tops. Heed them not, good Janus!

In dark oblivion let them dwell. She only is worthy to be heeded-that she-who shrined in a living frame of all odorous exotics and choicer native plants, seems scarcely like a being of this world!-The interior of the room behind her is yet gilt with the flame of her alabaster lamp,-on such a golden ground does the holy Madonna repose in the saintly paintings of those old Italians, Giotto, Cimabue "or later still, Pierre Perugine or Francia."-But what sound is that?' -It is nought but the dashing of the jet d'eau, which the wind wafts this way! Nay, nay, but Nina turns her bright ivory neck into the warm gloom of her splendid chamberagain! there!' And in truth an echoing twang as from a full harp-chord at this moment seemed to ride with a swoop from the open glass doors-a whistling breeze ran round the jections of the building, and floated in rapid folds over the airy but ample robe of the noble maiden-O, white dimpled feet! O, round ancles-one moment-and the cold balcony is

vacant.

CHAP. II.

pro

Did she throw herself over, Mr. Janus?'-Excuse me, madam, but I am not accustomed to be interrupted with foolish questions, when I take on me to relate one of the most interesting adventures that ever was adventured in all London! Another word and I am dumb for ever.-Oh dear, good, nice Janus, pray forgive me this time it was quite a slip!' Exactly so; but allow me to suggest to your discretion that when a young damsel of eighteen makes a slip, it is the Dulwich Watteau to Mr. ******'s

***** (that is the way we painters, and poets, and stock-jobbers, are wont to bet, with goods which never were and never will be the property of said betters) but she scratches off

the skin of her poor (reputation's the word, is'nt it?) of her poor reputation, in such an incurable manner as to keep her tender and raw in that part to the end of her days. Now be a good girl and sit down.

When Nina entered the room she fancied for one indivisible dot of time that it was pervaded with the light which occasionally envelopes the Paradises of sleep. Her heart felt a sharply pleasing thrill like an electric stroke. Nonsense! the lamp but flared up with the whirl-blast, and her harp (it stood near the window) vibrated under its rude onset. All is the same as when she left it--her door is fast

her favourite Leonardo hangs just where it did-How silly to have felt fluttered!-She gazed on the wily eyes of Gioconda, she knew not why. The light of the lamp mingledstrangely with the light of dawn:the eyes looked at her altogether quite painfully, and the corners of the mouth curled slightly upwards. It seemed to Nina as if the domed ceiling panted forth a nightmare weight; and her breath seemed to heave in sympathetic pants! All re~ miniscences of her former corporeal life were blotted out; and the present mystic condition swallowed all faculties. The colours of the portrait bloomed into a fresher vividness, and a splendid iris concealed the features. for the space of an eyewink. Could it be that the imaged lips were indued with the power of evoking like phantoms? - For lo! they move and the eyes closing up narrower and narrower-leer amorously at a masculine head which appeared over her shoulder!-How, and when it came there, Nina was unconscious; yet her specular orbs had remained fastened to the picture. The apparition was of a man about thirty-the hair black, and parted on the forehead, was long, thick and curled ;-one large white hand decorated with regal rings encircled the waist of Gioconda ;-the other pointed at the beautiful human creature before it. It was the very countenance-the ideal of all the spiritual Nina's deep aspirations:-a countenance not of feature, but of mind; and yet the features were noble and love-instilling.-A harp

Here's a pretty business! to have got into the marrow of a story that would have-Mercy upon me! what a system of philosophy and psychology should have been disclosed in it! It would have brought to light the riddle which has driven the world crazy so long, namely the doctrine of-O Jupiter Ammon! that all the bursting hopes of the public should be blasted by the folly of a bread-and-butter-faced chit, that ought to have By the side of it, the Romances of Fouqué should have been Fables for the Nursery; the Categories of Kant, Mrs. Lovechild's Primmer; and the Analogies of Novalis, Dilworth's Spelling book.But, alas! I swore that a second interruption-my oath is sacred-and there is nothing for it but that the world must go on-just as it has done for these--How many thousand years ago was this earth created, my little boy? I learnt these things so long ago-(if I ever learnt them at all) Ah, exactly so! nine thousand seven hundred and sixty three years! quite correct! a very forward child indeed-there's a penny for you to buy some twopenny tarts with! and take care not to eat too many at once, there's a man!

And now this article, or work, or paper is to be commenced a second time! I declare I feel as if I was set backwards two hours of my life. You shall have my sensations on the business in a parable. Being dressed an hour sooner than usual one morning, for the purpose of obtaining an interview with an early great man, I discover from a finishing look in the parlour glass that my clean shirt and neckcloth are starred and flowered with chin-blood.-Obliged to unshirt and reshirt!

I shall never do it without a bottle of soda.-Fiz-whiz!-wishwush-bounce!-Uh! Uh! O my breath's gone!-Now give me my fiddle-trum--trum--this string's wrong-Now, let us try-trumtrum-tram-diddle-diddle-diddle -diddle-very well!

"Come! Come! Master Janus! be serious for a minute, and tell us what you mean by sticking up a Pygma lion's idol to be admired; and hiring lodgings for her, and buying jewels, and a harp, and a Leonardo, and no one knows what besides; and frisking, and skipping about her; and fidgetting her gown this way, and twitching her ribbons t'other, and all sorts of monkey tricks; and then as soon as you have got together a tolerable crowd of spectators, you give her a slap on the back-tumble her down on the flags, and break her all to bits! We say again, what do you mean by it, Sir?" Most respected Editor! have mercy on me, and don't look so black! I didn't go to do any harm ; indeed I didn't! I'll tell you the truth upon my word!

You must know I've been grieving some time at the unfair dealing of Sir Walter towards Mr. Francis Tunstall (The fortunes of Niggle). He introduced him to us at first with great ceremony, and semblance of almost parental regard-he painted his mind and body in the most flattering colours; and then suddenly without any visible cause turned his back on him, and never showed him any countenance thenceforwards.

Now, Sir! my sister took a liking to the young man; (and so did a great many girls for that matter!) she said it was pity he couldn't find a wife suitable to him-and so- I said

I'd write him one, and so Sir!

That's all, Sir." Yes, Sir. It is all indeed! all that you shall ever speak in this house. Thomas! show Mr. Weathercock down stairs !—Mr. Secretary! Erase his name from the list of contributors!"

Oh! pray dear-charming ladies! do speak for me! I'll never (The double door recoils, and knocks Janus backwards down the stone staircase. Exit Janus !)