spoke of it, and talked of putting off, as a mere matter of course, the event he had so long looked forward to as the dearest hope of his existence, galled and offended him ; and perceiving that as his vexation and perplexity increased, the more distinct became the laughing mischief in her looks, his temper gave way, and the evening in which he had anticipated the planning of so much happiness, was upon the point of ending, as our plans of joy too often do, in bitter disappointment, for Lucy, piqued at finding he could so easily conclude her fallible, offered no explanation, while her lover felt too angry to ask one ; when, fortunately for both, Nat Lee made his appearance, and, seeing the young gardener, he must needs, for the fiftieth time during the day, go over all its history, from his first application to the overseer and doctor, to his piteous request for five shillings (from the former) towards making up, with the assistance of his neighbours, the fee which Mr. Cribb required, before he could be brought to exert his skill for the benefit of the dying woman. Then he described how, when all hope had left them, and the miserable sufferer was fast sinking for want of medical assistance-how Lucy had come forward and paid the doctor, and purchased nourishment, and by her interference saved her life, which would otherwise have fallen a sacrifice to poor-law inhumanity and individual sordidness. “ Ah! I knew,” said Lucy, lifting up her happy face to that of her lover, who, long before Nat Lee had finished his story, had clasped her fast to his heart; “I knew you would forgive me, and not mind waiting a few weeks longer, when you knew a neighbour's life had been at stake ; indeed I could never have forgiven myself, having the means at hand, if I had scrupled to make use of it." “ Nor should I have forgiven you, my own bright girl, if I thought you could have had any doubt of my wishing you to act otherwise,” exclaimed George ; “but why not tell me all about it at first, dear Loo! Were you too modest to speak of your own goodness ?” “I am ashamed now, though," said Lucy, ingenuously, "to tell you why I did not do so, but I wished to tease you a little, to try if you could be angry with me, which you have so often told me you could not.' “Ah, Lucy," whispered George, “ love trusts without trying. Let me have all your confidence, and I do not think I shall ever have it in my power to be angry with you; or if you will keep a secret from me, let it be one like this, that will make me love you ten times dearer when I find it out." T To be brief, the whole circumstances of the case were so bruited about, and such deep indignation was felt by the inhabitants at the brutal conduct of the parish authorities, that the affair ended in a public inquiry, at which one of the former had the modesty to taunt the doctor with his inhumanity, in having left the sufferer in the hour of “nature's sorrow” upon so base a plea as the want of a ten-shilling fee; while the other retorted back the poor man's evidence of the refusal of the parish officers to afford medical assistance or pecuniary aid ; while, amidst all the details of suffering and poverty on the one side, and of heartless, iron-handed inhumanity on the other, the conduct of the cottage girl, beautiful in its simple earnestness and negligence of SELF, shone out a salient sun-touched figure on the darksome background, drawing to itself heart-admiration from all. Nor did the want of the money so generously sacrificed prevent their marriage taking place on the day projected, for the clergyman of the village insisted on performing the ceremony without fees; and the appreciation of rich neighbours, when startled into an acquaintance with the facts, added a purse to the bride of ten times the amount she had expended. C. W. THE MOSS ROSE. The Angel who tends the world's sweet flowers, The Fairest of gifts from the sunny Mạy. JOHN HAMILTON DAVIES. 66 PEARLS FROM POPISH PLACES. BY A SERIOUS PARTY. LETTER II.-To MRS. RUSTLER. Liege, 15th, 1846. My last was expedited. When brimful with the flush of nascent impressions, I first set foot upon this deluded ground, alive to the fatal enormities which are precipitating it rapidly towards bottomless ruin, but awake, with all the pristine ardour of innocent energy, to the sights, and sounds and scents which remind me " that more storied shrines detain my wondering feet” (as Akenside's “ Traveller found it also in his time) than my own dear flower-plot at Tinglebury: or, the school-house, where week after week, I initiated the lowly dwellers of the hamlet into precepts beyond all price : a singular circumstance has been raised up, to give adequacy to my desires. Your Diana, my dear, travels with many eyes upon her! An announcement in “ The Fiery Furnace, penned by Mr. Pecker's powerful pen, with valedictory haste,of our intention to sow true principles where guilty compliance has too often wandered, -was worded, I fear, somewhat more ambiguously than his lucid wont. Known to have stood for some years in the light of fraternity to an heiress, and the tidings of Mrs. Niblett's marriage having insufficiently transpired (with such Jesuitical mystery do these hasteners towards perdition complicate their simplest transactions !) it is announced that he has sacrificed his own Christian privileges, in ministration to the health of a young and lovely heiress under his care. What a faux temps, my dearest friend, for your Diana !—To contradict the mistake would be to rivet curiosity upon the pilgrim, and bid "the blushing primrose top the poppy's idle part”-to succumb, elevates me to a position of conspicuosity: which cannot be hid. Brilliantly does Mr. Pecker's wit strike out all the possible conjunctions liable to arise from an error so curiously calculated to give the zest of adventure to my already excited nerves. Once a day, am I requested to select among foreigners-to apportion, presuming that my hand and my heart must be left in the ness. stranger's land—which would be your Diana's choice. But no modest woman will tamper: even in support of infantile sportive To observe—to draw my own auguries—to disclaim the complications of compliment - while no aperture is closed to the frank intercourse, which only Prudery's self (be it far from me!) can stigmatize—is my part: but not, even in jocosity, to fancy, my destinies commingled with those of Gallic or German origin, Mr. Pecker's aim, however,—as always,-is upright and noble: to make his partner smile --- and to draw out powers, which have now an ample field, in your poor friend. It were most ungrateful, then, to remind him that in the matrimonial wisdom of the heart, your Diana has never owned a guide, “save Delicacy's kindred self.” I mention this, because, possibly, Wailford may ere this proceeding on shapeless tongues ! — have awarded me to one or other of those whom courtesy has attracted to me. The solicitude of yourself and the Blackadders must not be abused. Pass off whatever you may hear as a jest of Mr. Pecker's; his sportive mood will be sufficiently explanatory. I am still unattached. On the curiosities of Antwerp I could dwell for pages-to divaricate to less thrilling topics. Reubens, my dear, is here the reigning spirit: and I have stood on the spot, within his mansion, where the Queen of Navarre picked up his pencil, saying, “Let me salute the hand which has declared to the world I am beautiful !” The water-well of Rembrandt (you may correct your Lindley Murray on Mr. Pecker's more certain authority) lies somewhere on the Scheldt a short excursion-hence: but we forewent this, owing to a slight seizure of Mrs. Pecker's, whom the cornichons (or chimes—I am not a Lady Morgan, my dear, to assail you with erroneous foreign phrases !) of the cathedral, disturbed in her light sleep: and imagining that custom-house officers were about to enter her chamber in quest of our brother's bells -attacked by the hysterical terrors which are only to be soothed by anodyne administrations. The churches built by Van Eyck (architect also of - Strasbourg) and Hemlinck the Younger, are vast rather than symmetrical. Of the mummeries we witnessed there, Mr. Pecker's indignant quill shall speak to the “Fiery Furnace. It was fine, and English, to see his manly form towering amongst the genuflexions of the poor ignorant creatures, who “fed on husks, no purer sapience know,"—and turning neither to the right or to the left, as he read aloud from his guide book for us—never prouder of him than at that instant! Would was you believe it that Britons are to be found venial enough to express uneasiness at such overt testimony! An individual of our country, approaching Mr. Pecker, in an under tone, was so audacious as to request his forbearance. " The English,” he asseverated," gave great offence when abroad, by disturbing the rites of others' dogmas.” I hope," replied our brother, " that such offence will never cease in this darkened land-You are not aware, sir, whom you are setting to rights. My name, sir, is Pecker: of Tinglebury." "And mine," replied the other, with a timid smile, s is Lord and he turned away, abashed. Think of our meeting this celebrated traveller, this pillar of our constitution, in an aspect so revolting! Shall foreign travel ever bring us so low ? I answer in the negative. It was sweet of Mr. Pecker, after such a pronunciation of insult, (a foreign idiom, my dear, imbibed from our instructress) to waive animosity by leaving his card on the unworthy Peer, at the latter's hotel. It was not reciprocated: but no stone should fail to be turned on these occasions. I inclosed “ Culpable Compliances with Continental Cus . toms,”-penned ere we quitted England: but neither of this came any acknowledgment : as gentlemanliness towards a shrinking female might have dictated. Mr. Pecker showed an unusual amount of disheartenment. Single handed,” he says, 66 how shall one frail mortal wrestle with Babylon ? Do not afford Mr. Podd matter for triumph--by revealing the unworthy fact. It craves more weighty dealing than my light pen controls. In her own simple way, dear Mrs. Pecker has not shrunk from testimony.--After long and anxious consultations, dining at the public table being agreed upon, (my unworthy voice turning the scale !) it was gratifying to see the same unspoiled creature as ever. No gew-gaws of foreign cookery, my dear, will ever gain her verdict ! " Plain roast and boiled, -to use her own unam.bitious phrase "were all she aimed at." Nor was she satisfied till Mr. Pecker had interpreted her wishes to the waiters : whose conviction assumed an aspect of perplexity, from which it was your friend's mediating part to relieve them, by announcing our country. The subsequent sounds of “ Oui !-une dame Anglaise” made it evident that she had struck deep. « But how she is to live in the meantime," she says, touchingly, "she cannot tell.”_Our brother, ever fertile, proposed eggs ; till corrected by her well-known exclusive fidelity to her own poultry at Tinglebury a joint of meat in slices, to be divided amongst our packages, was the next expe . |