advantage it would be to me if I could have
a little practice with a partner.

The Professor eyes me attentively for some
time. Perhaps he feels that in my state of
proficiency, two more lessons would be a
hollow mockery, unless with some new
feature thrown into them. Perhaps he really
wishes to perfectionate me. Perhaps—
perhaps, it was to be. There is no end to
conjectures. All I know is, that after walking
once up and once down the room, and
looking out of one of the windows for a
minute or two, thoughtfully, while he played
in an abstracted manner the college-hornpipe
in a soft falsetto on the kit, he advanced
towards me, and nearly drove me mad with
joy by saying, that, though entirely opposed
to his practice, he was so pleased with my
rapid progress; that he would, in this case,
depart from his usual rule, and would allow
his eldest daughter to be at the rooms in
time for my next lesson, and that he was
happy to be able in this way to meet the
views of a pupil who (with a bow) did him
so much credit.

Up all night at my work, and at the office.
Not that that mattered much, for I should
not have slept a wink if I had had the great
bed of Ware to sprawl upon. Still, the
condition of my nerves was not what it might
have been, and I found myself in an
apprehensive and excited state, picturing to myself
all sorts of unpleasant things which might
occur. Of these, what I most dreaded was,
that Miss Fenton should recognise in me the
person who had followed her on the occasion
that led to the great Barker failure.

I was received by the kit, which was the
only occupant of the room in Angel Street
when I arrived there. The Professor was
not long, however, in appearing, when
desultory conversation ensued, during which I
contradicted myself, and distorted the English
language, in a manner which, to a bystander,
would have been a curious and interesting
study. Mr. Fenton remarked that his
daughter would join us in a few minutes. I
was speechless, and paid a visit to the
shirt-button: threads much longer; button
sportively loose and easy. The Professor had
just stated his opinion that the air felt very
close that morning; and I had just replied
that I thought a button (I meant a storm)
would clear the atmosphere, when the door
opened,—and Miss Fenton and I were in the
same room.

O, wealth of charm in that delicious figure;
sustenance for a life's affection in that
pleasant face. O, well-chosen subject for a
pursuit more hedged with difficulties a thousandfold
than mine has been! O, well-spent
time, that has brought her before me as she
stands, if it is only for a minute's space!
Nay—'tis not so much. It does not take a
minute scarcely , for this young lady to raise
her eyes to mine, to recognise me, and to
leave the room.

I rushed to the door, and set my back
against it; for I was fearful lest her father
should follow her. I was desperate, feeling
my last chance to have arrived. The
agony I was in inspired me with a maniacal
strength and eloquence, and I burst into a
torrent of words, which I could no more
control than I could the Falls of Niagara.
Her father was before me, and I told him
all. Told him what the reader knows
already,—and what more? This: that,
though far from well off, or able to secure
his daughter from the chances which the
future might have in store, I had that to
offer which, as I believed, did surely entitle
me, or any man, to marry,—a profession by
which, with strict but not painful economy, I
should be able to maintain a wife, and which
offered, as most callings do, the means of
rising higher to men who choose to work arid
think. As long as health and strength
should last—and I had no reason, humanly
speaking, to doubt the continuance of both—
I could give his daughter a home, and all
things necessary to her happiness, and, above
all, a mind made up to work for her, to
protect her, and—O how ardently!—to love her.

I concluded by imploring Mr. Fenton very
urgently to consider well my request; and if
he found the inquiries about me, which it
was only right he should make, satisfactorily
answered, to admit me as an acknowledged
suitor for his daughter's hand. I then gave
him my address, and left him. I met her on
the stairs as I went away; but I only raised
my hat as I passed her, though I longed to
throw myself at her feet.

What remains may be briefly and happily
told.

The result of Mr. Fenton's researches into
my history were so far to his taste, that the
entrée of his house was not denied me, and
the entrée of Mr. Fenton's house was so far
to my taste, that I was never, when I could
help it, out of it. And I am of opinion, that
that acceleration of the wedding-day which I
so eagerly urged, was consented to the more
readily by the family, from its being obviously
the only way to get rid of me.

MR CHARLES DICKENS'S
READINGS.

MR CHARLES DICKENS will read at DUBLIN on the 23rd,
24th, 25th, and 26th of August; at BELFAST on the 27th
and 28th; at CORK on the 30th and 31st August; at
LIMERICK on the 1st and 2nd of September; at HUDDERSFIELD
on the 8th; at WAKEFIELD on the 9th; at YORK on
the 10th; at HARROWGATE on the 11th; at SCARBOROUGH
on the 13th; at HULL on the 14th; at LEEDS on the 15th;
at HALIFAX on the 16th; at SHEFFIELD on the 17th; and
at MANCHESTER on the 18th of September.