apparel in a distant corner. She performed
that operation in a ferocious manner, glaring
over at us every now and again. And yet,
when she took notice of me, I marked how
she tried to mollify that rough organ of hers,
altering it to a less discordant key. Nay,
once, when circumstances of a peculiar
nature had compelled me to absent myself
for two whole days, she struck terror into
my heart by the heat and violence of her
reception, bringing me to task, as it were,
in a menacing manner, for this backsliding
of mine;— not in words, indeed, but by that
awful manner of hers. My soul shrank away
within me, and my heart rattled as a nut
within its shell. I would never so offend
again.

It came to pass that one sultry summer's
evening, we— Jemima Bridles, that is, and I—
went forth, looking abroad through nature.
We would wander by the brookside, by the
mill-stream, communing as we walked. I
unfolded the great mysteries of the planets, suns
and adamantine spheres, to use the words of
the poet, for in such matters she was
unsuspecting as a child. Perhaps through the
long course of years it might be my task to
mould, with plastic finger, this gentle
untaught soul.

"Sit, Jemima," I said, ingeniously adapting
the words of a great master to the occasion;
" sit, Jemima. Look how the floor of
heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright
gold."

The gentle creature looks in the direction
pointed to; but I see, has but faint glimmering
of the great master's meaning. No
matter.

"These things," I said, " we shall one day
look closer into, perhaps wandering forth together,
in the cool of the evening, in the sylvan
groves of Tepidstone! By glittering waters—
should there prove to be such in that parish
—we shall sit," I added, looking into her face
tenderly, "speechless,— rapt in sweet
contemplation all day long. We shall be all in
all one to the other! Life shall be a sweet
dream for both of us. Shall it not be so,
fairest of creatures? Wilt thou follow thy
Hoblush to Tepidstone."

She blushed a sweet consent. The delicate
cartilages of her neck quivered spasmodically.
"I will fly with thee— die with
thee! " said the trusting girl, with pleasing
euphony.

The stars came out; the moon rose to its
full; the chill night-air crept down my back,
causing an uncomfortable sensation. " Let
us go in, beloved," I said. Sophia Dorothea
had tea waiting, and received me with ogrish
good-humour. She became playful as a lion's
cub. She guessed, but did not know our
secret.

Precipitate clergyman! led away in an
unguarded moment! Too true: yet consider
but this. How the appreciation of a peerless
woman's perfections may so force itself upon
a loyal heart, that it must become
outspeaking, or die! It may be worth
mentioning as one of those curious coincidences
sometimes found in a life history,
that there had arrived that very morning a
hasty letter from a dear friend residing not
very far from Tepidstone, and who had
charged himself with the task of reporting
to me any news of general interest that
might arise. The hasty letter from a dear
friend, mentioned, in a promiscuous way,
that only the day before the venerable
incumbent of the parish had fallen into a
profound stupor, from which it was to be
feared that all the aid of science would be
insufficient to awaken him. Which news
troubled me not a little: and I made up my
mind not to impart it to Miss Bridles until
the day following. In the whirl of excitement,
I went forth into the night, and
outspoke my soul freely to Jemima, as I have
set it down.

I could scarcely close my eyes the livelong
night: I was in such anxiety as to the fate
of the good man who, now at the close of a
pious and laborious life, lay wrestling with
the grim King of Terrors. How would it
be with him eventually ? Would the stupor
ever leave him ? Nay, do not stupors usually
rather thicken and fall heavier on the
wretched victim ? At his age, too, when the
sword has outworn its sheath, and the candle
flickering in its socket, it was to be feared he
could not wrestle effectually with the powers
of Death. Poor, poor soul! To lay this bitter
anxiety for the sufferer, I made advances to
the medical practitioner,— putting a case
hypothetically, as to the effect of stupors at
an advanced age. Were they fatal? " No,"
the practitioner said, coolly. "He had
known many, many instances to the
contrary."

"Surely— surely, you would not say it was
beneficial to a patient ?"

"Upon his soul," the practitioner answered,
"he did not know but what it might be.
There were the Miss Bridles's, who had a
friend or relation with precisely the same
symptoms, and who had been with him but
an hour since, asking his opinion. Stupors
were very likely to be beneficial."

"What? to a very, very old person?"

"Yes; the older, the better chance."

Not at all relieved in mind by this
reassuring opinion, Mr. Hoblush went his way.
Presently the post bears him a hurried letter
from the Bishop, conveying to him the same
melancholy news, and full of protestations of
grief.

I have heard,

—continued the bishop—

from confidential sources, that it is next to all
over with our poor incumbent,— that he is, I would
say, on his last legs; only that he has never quitted
his bed since yesterday morning. He is in a death-like
stupor, from which no efforts can rouse him.