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fatuus life till its realities tear the mask from the phasma, and leave the skeleton of love in a cottage in its gaunt deformity. But if a young man could only peer through the vista of years to the time when the raven hair is flecked with gray, or still later on, when the lustre of the eye is misted with age, the nimbleness of the limb stiffened with rheumatism, and the peachblossom cheek pale and furrowed with sickness and care, he would feel there are accomplishments and domesticities to be sought for in a wife, before which the loveliest beauty fades, and to whose spell alone he must look for comfort and society when the blazon of youth is past and its buoyancy superseded by the drowsiness of age.

The first fortnight of Jack Merryton's professional life was spent in the arrangement of his books and papers; the law almanac for the current year, stretched out like a map on two rollers, faced you on the wall as you entered the clerks' office, and the private apartment beyond it displayed a proof engraving of Landseer's Laying down the Law' in a dark oak frame over the mantelpiece, and a compo bust of Lord Chancellor Eldon perched on the summit of a lofty bookcase on the opposite side of the room. A nest of japanned iron deed-boxes reared their heads nearly to the ceiling on the third side, the fronts exhibiting the initials in gold letters of a host of imaginary clients; while huge bundles of suspicious looking briefs, their secrets confined by pink tape, and no doubt relating to the affairs of the same personages, were ranged side by side on the writingtable before which he sat. There, during these two elementary weeks, Jack was to be seen shortly after ten every morning, devouring the 'law intelligence' of the Times,

and debating with himself the justice of the verdict at the Nisi Prius sittings on the previous day, wherein a soi-disant captain, who had, some years previously, suffered a long term of imprisonment for slander, turned out the successful plaintiff in an action for libel; or estimating, in his judgment, the excess of damages in a runningdown case tried in the Common Pleas, and awarded by a special jury, of whom he knew one to be

coach - builder in straitened circumstances, and another a livery stable keeper of questionable credit. But the novelty of this occupation soon waned, and but few clients arriving to vary it, 'life' in chambers began to grow wearisome and slow. He longed for an hour's relief from the officechair-just a stroll down Holborn, where he might run against his friend Lounge, or a walk to the Gaiety Restaurant, for a few minutes' chat with an actor. The difficulty of gratifying this wish was the want of any person to leave in charge during his absencehe had determined to economise his expenses by not engaging clerk, or even an office-boy, till some business came in; but, then, he could not sit there all day by himself-it was so tedious and dulland it was ten to one against anybody calling to see him professionally during the three-quarters of an hour, at the very utmost, he should be away.

Yes! he would run out just for that time. He knew it was a common practice with the profession. He snatched up an envelope, and wrote thereon, 'Return in half an hour,' and, having attached it to the outer door by means of a large pin, put the latchkey in his pocket, and was gone.

In every case of temptation the thin end of the wedge is the evil. The train once laid, the application of the torch is easy, and ceases to

be hazardous to the torch-bearer. Jack Merryton pinned on the office-door, on the succeeding morning, the siren envelope of his bane with less hesitation and infinitely more composure; the third day the act scarcely led to reflection; and, by the end of the week, the pin and the envelope came as ready to his hand as though the custom had existed with him for years. The result was soon apparent. Neglect begat indifference, and indifference led to loss of business. One client visited his chambers only to find the door fast, and the chronic notice of his absence pinned upon it; another, in his credent inexperience, extended the allotted thirty minutes to nearly double that time, to no purpose; a third called on the following day, to meet again the disappointment of yesterday; while a fourth hurried away in dudgeon and disgust, resolved to transfer his interests to a more attentive adviser. This state of affairs soon became known to Jack's father, and many and earnest were the remonstrances with his son. His deep love and generous nature could not restrain a liberal assistance in the removal of pressing difficulties Jack had incurred, although his conscience admonished him it was his duty to disavow them; but the gloom of frustrated hopes and the sadness of disappointed early yearnings stole over his inherent cheerful disposition, and his happiness of heart seemed seared. The jest came not so ready as of yore, but appeared more studied and artificial; and the old joyous laugh, that used to well up from the chest, swelling as it rose to his lips, sounded hollow and imprisoned in its narrow cell, and had lost the merry music of its ring. Meanwhile, Jack's neglect and indifference were stimulated and kept

alive by his friend Lounge's daily visits to the office. As before noticed, this young man's business duties were over in the middle of the day, and left him many leisure hours for amusement; and now that the newly-fledged solicitor was free from his father's restraint, he could invite Mr. Lounge into his chambers openly, and proffer him a cigarette, with the attendant pint bottle of Bass, while the events of the previous evening were discussed, and the programme for the present one arranged. Lounge's funds were at no time above par, and, when tired of loafing about the streets by himself, he found it convenient to drop into a restingplace, where he could while away his time in agreeable company, without any demand being made on the contents of his porte-monnaie. Jack's pockets were never entirely unlined; and, wrapped up as he was in the society of his companion, the idea of the latter sharing the expenses of the entertainment never for a moment entered into his generous mind.

This mode of passing time had now obtained so firmly with our hero that, notwithstanding his good resolves to sow his wild oats, affirmed at frequent intervals to parents and kind counselling friends with all the sincerity of his ardent and well-intentioned nature, it might never have been our pleasant task to chronicle his present happiness and success, but for a circumstance which unmasked the treachery of his false friend, and made him renounce for ever his fealty to him, and surrender the faithless adventuress on whom he had set his affection, and for whose wiles he would have jeopardised his loyalty to his father, and sacrificed his duty to himself.

A dramatic performance, on a more than usual attractive scale, had been organised by the Thes

pian Club to take place in the early autumn at a fashionable West-end theatre, the proceeds of the night to be handed to the trustees of a French hospital in the Soho district supported by voluntary contributions. As consultations with the French officials of the charity would be necessary, Jack, from his foreign acquirements, was at once pitched upon by his fellow-amateurs as the oral and manual M.C. in all matters connected with the arrangements. It had long been young Merryton's secret desire that his father should see him upon the stage. With the knowledge and confidence of his real talent, the ambition was natural that the amusement he followed should not be regarded by those whose affection he valued as a ridiculous indulgence of vanity in an art for which he was unfitted; and he fancied the French element associated with the coming exhibition might possibly overcome Mr. Merryton's aversion, or at least his indifference, to these stage displays, and induce him to honour the performance with his presence on this particular occasion. He knew well the value his parent attached to keeping thoroughly burnished his Continental polish, and imagined correctly that he could employ this weakness as a lever to bring about the realisation of his wish. To enlist the assistance of his mother in the delicate negotiation was, naturally, his first impulse; and by that lady's influence, aided, it may be, by a secret desire to witness the ability he had heard so highly lauded (though not all the tortures of the Inquisition could have wrung such a confession from him), it was decided that Mr. Merryton should peaceably inurn all prejudice 'for this night only,' and occupy with his lady a private box, disbursing, for the privilege, a guinea to the charity.

Jack was in the stirrups when, one day, about a fortnight before the eventful evening, Mrs. Merryton called at his chambers, and made him acquainted with the success of her mission. He could scarcely control his delight; he kissed her again and again till her cheeks were as red as a firebrand. Perhaps he entertained some ulterior view as regards Adèle, and an introduction to his parents on the occasion. Who knows? Certain it is that, to obtain this desirable consummation, he had tried every means in his power for many months past. To his mother in particular he had eulogised her beauty, commended her virtue, extolled her accomplishments with an enthusiasm and an imaginative ingenuity known only to desperately-smitten lovers, and combated all opposition raised against her social position with an energy any Old Bailey counsel might have envied when pleading for the life of a murderer, and the prisoner at the bar have listened to with confidence as equivalent to a verdict of acquittal. To his father, indeed, he was less enthusiastic in her praise; in fact, he rarely alluded to the object of his attachment; he knew the objections were rooted and undebatable, but still looked. forward hopefully that time and Mrs. Merryton's diplomacy would ultimately overcome his scruples and dislike. The ball seemed now at his feet; Adèle would be there; his father would see her; her eyes would settle the question; and the Roman Emperor's Veni, vidi, vici would announce defiantly the victory of Jack's love and future wife.

In order that Mr. and Mrs. Merryton might enjoy a comprehensive taste of his quality, and be enabled to judge of his farcical, as well as of his more legitimate, claims to dramatic excellence, it was arranged he should imperson

ate the hero of a popular three-act play in the opening piece of the evening, and also enact the first low-comedy character in a broad farce at its close. This involved his attendance at the theatre shortly after six o'clock, and his inability to quit it till a good half hour after the audience had left. In this dilemma, with a hundred apologies and ten times as many regrets, he tremblingly imparted to Adèle that there was nothing left to him but to confide to his dear friend Lounge the sacred trust of acting as her chaperon to and from the theatre. It is unnecessary to impose upon the reader the terms in which this delicate communication was conveyed. The-to him-unnatural elongation of the sixty-minute absent hour; the ardent longing for the morrow, when he should hear the music of her voice, and revel in her gracious indorsement of the last night's tumultuous applause; his envy of Mr. Lounge's transport, as guardian pro tem. of his angelic consignment, when her arm, in the walk out and home, would be linked in his, and his ear alone be made the happy recipient of her dulcet tones; and the attestation-holy as altar's incense of his callous indifference, not to say absolute aversion, to each and every of the female celebrities with whom he might be associated in the business of the scene-all these were dwelt upon with the glowing ardour of youth, and with a sincerity that knew not suspicion, and was innocent of the very existence of guile.

The night came. Jack, by repeated appeals to his friend's gallantry and their mutual friendship, had thoroughly imbued Mr. Lounge with the responsibility he had undertaken, and elicited from that gentleman in return a due avowal of the sanctity of his trust. As the clock of the Lincoln's Inn

chapel struck six, the former, bearing in his hand a small black leather bag containing his theatrical properties, closed the outer door of No. 1 Sessions-court, and wended his way, with a light heart and a buoyant step, to the stage-door of the theatre, to prepare himself for the night's triumph; and little more than an hour later, the latter, with his fair and precious charge by his side, were discovered by Don Cæsar de Bazan—for such was the character our hero was to represent-through the peep-hole in the green baize curtain, comfortably seated near the entrance-door of the stalls, awaiting the commencement of the play.

For many months past, Adèle had contrived to throw dust into Jack's eyes as to the sincerity of her love. She was, indeed, a mere adventuress, the cast off of a former admirer, who had fortunately discovered her fickleness and deceit in time to keep his heart whole and preserve his fortune. Young Merryton's position and prospects appeared to offer her a desirable future, and she had employed all the blandishments of which she was mistress to obtain the one and to share the other. Though scarcely Jack's equal in years, she was a perfect woman of the world, and much more than a match for him in its artifice and duplicity. She saw the young man idolised her, was dazzled by her beauty and blind to her social deficiencies. She had entrapped him, as she imagined, past recall, and he was willing to dare all for her sake. In this mind she had coquetted with his affection, and made him the slave of her will. She was perfectly aware of Mr. Merryton's aversion to herself and her connections, but, secure in her hold on her lover, fancied she should yet overcome the difficulties that stood in the way of her preferment. Edward Lounge had

been an admirer of Adèle long before her introduction to the young solicitor, and she had reciprocated the sentiment; but in the struggle between her feelings and her interest, the latter proved too powerful to resist. Often had he urged his suit to her-fully aware of her indifference to his friend-promising, if she would. but accept his hand, to reform his mode of life and turn out a model husband; but the worldly sorceress turned a deaf ear to the protestations of love and poverty, and decided to reserve the treasure of her affections for their more lucrative competitor.

From the fatal morning when Jack Merryton imparted to his friend the hallowed trust he was about to delegate to his honour, the latter had made a secret resolve to improve the opportunity offered him. He had frequently spoken to Adèle of his uncle, a widower, and his father's brother, residing in the South of France, where he was extensively engaged in the shipbuilding trade, and had invariably referred to himself as being this gentleman's nearest relation, and the undoubted recipient of a considerable sum of money at his decease. To this uncle he was wont to make occasional appeals for assistance when his exchequer ran low, and, in the belief that his nephew was, as he represented himself to be, a struggling young man, assiduous in his employment and careful in his expenditure, these applications not unfrequently bore remunerative fruit, always accompanied by letters expressive of anxiety for his future welfare and advancement, and couched in terms of regard and solicitous affection. We may be sure he did not omit to exhibit these epistles to Adèle, to strengthen her faith in his prospects, and indorse his representations as to their value.

The mode of life this young scapegrace had so long pursued had deeply involved him in diffi culties, and, this circumstance having reached the ears of his employers, the firm had given him notice to quit their service at the

of the current month. He was now being sued right and left for payment of promissory notes he had contrived to get discounted at ruinous rates of interest, in order to keep up his dissolute idleness, and he had drawn so copiously on the generosity of friends that they began to stand aloof from rendering further assistance. To remain in London, when discharged from his present employ, was impossible; his old associates would hunt him up, his old haunts would be visited, his former pleasures pursued, and how could he manage to contract new debts with ravenous creditors opposing him at every turn? He knew too well his own disposition to believe he could retire into some secluded country town by himself, and live a humdrum solitary existence, gaining a hand to-mouth livelihood by the exercise of his pen. But one course appeared open to him—to leave the country at once, and thus escape his debts, and dispose for ever of his acquaintance with his old life and its follies. He ruminated over the considerate kindness his uncle had so often expressed for his welfare, and the solid indorsement of its sincerity, in the shape of sundry Bank of France notes that accompanied the letters, and fancied he perceived a haven of refuge in the sunny South, and happiness, with easy and profitable employment, in his relative's establishment. Could he only contrive to take with him Adèle, and introduce her to his uncle as his wedded wife? The old gentleman's lone condition, the barren enjoyment of a home where female presence is wanting and its

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