grief that I should so soon be deprived of the pleasure of visiting the family.

“ Indeed," replied she, “ we shall be excessively disappointed; we have presumed upon a longer acquaintance. But you do not depart yet awhile?”

“ You observe, madam, that my time is limited, the passport requiring me to leave Calais prior to the expiration of a month, already far advanced.”

“ So it does—how vexing it is to be deprived of the presence of an- -acquaintance !"

As if she had chosen to have substituted a more familiar epithet, yet, with the appearance of having uttered more than she intended, confusion was apparent on her countenance. Affecting to disregard her embarrassment, I grasped her hand, and thanked her a thousand times for her favourable opinion, and for the honour she conferred upon me.

I remarked a tear stealing gently down her cheek ; it had the effect of electricity : the channels of the heart surcharged, left it at the mercy of its own delirium.-A sudden pressure from the hand I held, alone revived me. The first object that presented

. itself, when I recovered my faculties, was Mrs. Edwards with her eyes fixed stedfastly on the ground, and in tears. Starting from my state, I was about to clasp her in my arms, when I remembered she was married !-Gracious God! I inwardly exclaimed, what do I contemplate ? the ruin of another's wife ? She made an effort to raise herself from her chair, but her head drooped upon the back. This was too much! While yet sufficient presence of mind remained, a retreat seemed prudent. I pressed her

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hand fervently between my own, imploring her forgiveness : I pleaded friendship, esteem, fain had I substituted love—“Adieu,madam!—Eliza, farewell !" -I could say no more, my heart again was full, and I precipitately quitted the room.

I walked a considerable distance before I once thought of my abruptness in addressing Mrs. Edwards by so familiar an appellation as Eliza. I viewed that circumstance, as well as the whole tenor of my conduct, in colours highly reprehensible, and blushed to acknowledge myself guilty of so many improprieties.

In order to turn the current of my thoughts from the contemplation of behaviour so exceedingly irregular, I entered the shop of a caricaturist. Still recurring to the past, to that point I so anxiously wished to avoid, I quitted this, too, without knowing whither I went.

I entered Hyde-Park, when I imagined I was upon the direct road to the city. In fine, it was now so evident that Mrs. Edwards was alone the occupier of my thoughts, that suddenly I resolved to quit England without a moment's delay. Again to visit the family of Mrs. Evans, was irreconcilable to my feelings, though not entirely to my inclination, and a precipitate departure would have been a mark of disrespect.

I returned to the Temple under an impression that an apology might wash away the stain ; and taking up pen,ink, and paper, thus addressed Mrs. Edwards :" I know not madam in what shape to apologize

for my recent behaviour. Is it then possi“ble to force the resolution of taking a personal fare

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“well of Mrs. Edwards, as I promised her, before I “ should leave England.

“Already I too poignantly feel the termination of "an acquaintance-too acutely the annihilation of a “ friendship, from which I anticipated more than usual “gratification ; England has no attraction left-no o charm to detain me.

“ I have one favour to solicit: one only boon I

crave- -Be the opinion of Mrs. Edwards suspended “ until a less inauspicious moment arriveș. A pe“riod will come, when the too unhappy Charles shall “ be more at liberty to detach his actions from those “circumstances which now envelope them.

“While you are perusing this letter, I am flying « far from London. Adieu.

“ CHARLES WESTCOTE.” It was still necessary to drop a few lines to Mrs. Evans, in return for her many civilities. They were expressive of my chagrin, that the necessity for so sudden a departure should prevent a personal acknowledgement.

Both letters I delivered to my servant : the one to Mrs. Edwards, forbidding him to deliver it in the presence of a third person-into no other hands but her own. The other, he had my directions to leave, should Mrs. Evans be from home ; and, should any question be asked, he was to reply that he was hastening after me to Dover.

CHAPTER V.

Pensa, che questo dì mai non raggiorna!

NO

OTWITHSTANDING my determination to

quit England so immediately, I was impressed with a desire to know the result of the letter I had written to Mrs. Edwards. A latent gleam of hope suggested the possibility of an answer, and invited me to prepare for my journey with less exertion than otherwise I should have done.

That hope, cheering as it was, had but momentary duration : soon it fled, to give place to fearful apprehension.

The imagination, fertile at invention, represented Eliza enraged by my presumption, and lavish in reproach.

But even this was transitory. The passions of hope and fear alternately prevailed ; and in this teazing routine of unpleasant expectancy, I threw myself upon the sofa, thinking to relieve the mind from its inquietude.

In the wanderings of the imagination, I alighted upon an observation I had somewhere met.

It was a fresh torment, whose essence was to excite irritability anew : “ He has ill studied life and nature, who “thinks it immaterial which of two opposing princi“ples should have been first inculcated.”

Am I not flying in the face of every thing dear; all that is good and amiable in society ; in thus encouraging an affection for a woman, the wedded wife of another?-I must forget her! My passion must I relinquish a pursuit that will eventually plunge its object into misery, and entail the stigma of perpetual infamy upon myself!

Alas ! how ineffectual are our efforts when directed against the unerring principles of nature. My passion, I acknowledge to be criminal : but guilt is relative; and, unattended by the stamp of public reproach, would be regarded as the mere offspring of natural propensity.

A thousand and a thousand objections, fully maintained themselves. They served but to increase my affection. We must admit in spite of ourselves, the utter dependence of the law moral upon the law physical.

The entrance of Lorenzo put an end to farther meditation. I apprized him that it was my intention to quit England on the morrow. I pressed him to accompany me; business was his plea; but it was not difficult to discover that Maria alone detained him.

We exchanged the promise of keeping a regular correspondence, and I left him, less to farther the preparations for my journey, than with a view to the indulgence of my own reflections.

Directed as it were by something instinctive, I approached that spot which contained at once my torment and my delight. Soon as I discovered where I was, I made a precipitate retreat. Gaining a distance beyond which I deemed myself secure, I slackened my pace : presently my servant appears before me. I ask him a thousand questions without attending to a reply. “ Your honour's pardon, but can't answer so quick."

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