`Yes, but you wouldn't let me; and I was such a fool I couldn't live without you. But now I see what it is that keeps me back, and what's wanted to save me; and I'd compass sea and land to get it--only I'm afraid there's n chance.' And be sighed as if his heart would break.

`What is it Lowborough?' said I, thinking be was fairly cracked at last,

`A wife,' he answered; `for I can't live alone, because my own mind distracts me, and I can't live with you, because you take the devil's part against me.'

`Who--I?'

`Yes--all of you do,--and you more than any of them, you know, But if I could get a wife, with fortune enough to pay off my debts and set me straight in the world--`

`To be sure,' said I.

`And sweetness and goodness enough,' be continued, `to make home tolerable, and to reconcile me to myself,--I think I should do, yet, I shall never be in love again, that's certain; but perhaps that would be no great matter, it would enable me to choose with my eyes open,--and I should make a good husband in spite of it; but could anyone be in love with me?--that's the question--With your good looks and powers of fascination' (he was pleased to say), `I might hope; but as it is, Huntingdon, do you think anybody would take me--ruined and wretched as I am?'

`Yes, certainly.'

`Who?'

`Why, any neglected old maid, fasting in despair, would be delighted to--`

`No, no,' said he--`it must be somebody that I can love.'

`Why, you just said you never could be in love again!'

`Well, love is not the word,--but somebody that I can like.--I'll search all England through, at all events!' he cried, with a sudden burst of hope, or desperation. `Succeed or fall, it will be better than rushing headlong to destruction at that d--d club: so farewell to it and you, Whenever I meet you on honest ground or under a Christian roof, I shall be glad to see you; but never more shall you entice me to that devil's den!'

`This was shameful language, but I shook hands with him, and we parted. He kept his word; and from that time forward, he has been a pattern of propriety, as far as I can tell; but, till lately, I have not had very much to do with him. He occasionally sought my company but as frequently shrunk from it, fearing lest I should wile him back to destruction, and I found his not very entertaining, especially as he sometimes attempted to awaken my conscience and draw me from the perdition he considered himself to have escaped; but when I did happen to meet him, I seldom failed to ask after the progress of his matrimonial efforts and re searches, and, in general he could give me but a poor account. The mothers were repelled by his empty coffers and his reputation for gambling, and the daughters by his cloudy brow and melancholy temper,--besides, he didn't understand them; he wanted the spirit and assurance to carry his point.

`I left him at it when I went to the continent; and on my return, at the year's end, I found him still a disconsolate bachelor--though, certainly, looking somewhat less like an unblest exile from the tomb than before. The young ladies had ceased to be afraid of him, and were beginning to think him quite interesting; but the mammas were still unrelenting, It was about this time, Helen, that my good angel brought me into conjunction with you; and then I had eyes and ears for nobody else, But meantime, Lowborough became acquainted with our charming friend, Miss Wilmot--through intervention of his good angel, no doubt he would tell you, though he did not dare to fix his hopes on one so courted and admired, till after they were brought into closer contact here at Staningley, and she, in the absence of her other admirers, indubitably courted