Mrs.

taste them. Christians, my dear, cannot be too cautious. Pecker, however, who has more than once transgressed in a sip, gives it as a verdict that the pre-eminency of her famous green currant receipt remains still unshaken. The innkeepers, we are aware, seek to pillage British tourists, by affixing the highest figures to the most inferior qualities. We make a point, therefore, of always demanding the lowest description: dress has some features here, which modesty enjoins me to request should not be read aloud to a miscellaneous circle. Males not present: you may diffuse, that here the female garb is taken out of the hands of the sex, and committed to tailors!! This was ascertained by Mrs. Pecker, wanting a wrap. Can you wonder that her nocturnal restlessness was exasperated by such discoveries? She did not sleep a wink, she assures me. As a pis prendre congé then, Sophie was set to work but proved, as might have been anticipated, inadequate, and sullen under correction. Those, my dear, of her unfortunate doctrines * Further collision in fraudulency has unhappily developed itself on her part. Perfectly aware, that the natives purchase everything at half the cost which our countrymen must undergo, we were shocked on ascertaining that a purchase of flowered calico revealed no such established fact ! When charged, our attendant attempted evasion-by indignancy and tears. How long? * * * but till Cologne, when, we are assured, that the steam-boats will render further assistance abortive-we shall continue forbearance.

*

*

Adieu: what rich materials for future minglings are we not now reaping!-Mr. Pecker desires me to confide to you for Mr. Rustler's sole use, that the Spanish-match and the Corn-bill go hand in hand and that he is not hoodwinked by the paraded vanities of the Pope. Jesuitism lurks behind all three. The silence of M. Sue, we have reason to know, will be bought by the proffer of the hand of an Israelitish banker's daughter; dowered by Russia and Austria for this unworthy purpose. He is to be made a Baron of the Lower Empire. This for our reading society.-All, however, is not lost.

Your stedfast, though stricken sister in

DIANA RILL.

66

THE MERCHANT BRIDEGROOM.

'JOHNSON," said Herman Miller, pausing as he was about to leave his counting-house, "let me have the pleasure of your company to-day at dinner: I have a great deal to say to you."

The quiet grey-headed man thus addressed bowed in silent acceptance of the invitation, and his employer passed on. He was a handsome man, about five-and-thirty, with an ercet animated carriage, and a bland open expression. More than twenty years before he had arrived in England a mere youth, with no possessions but those high qualities-talent, integrity, and the most persevering industry. Great were the obstacles which had beset his path, but, like a moral Hannibal, he had cut his way through them, and saw the rocks yield to his energies. Urbanity and good-feeling marked his rise, as economy and diligence had distinguished his progress: the shrewdest observers allowed that he deserved success, and few without satisfaction saw him attain it ; for his conduct had disarmed compeers and competitors of the too prevalent disposition to grudge the fortune, and misjudge the motives, of those who outrun them in the race of life. To great personal advantages, he added a happy address, at once unaffected and prepossessing; if he met his fellow-men with the free bearing of an independent spirit, and the consciousness of his achieved position, it was also with the open-browed good-humour and kindliness which won regard, and gave evidence of a disposition to which no appeal of a high and generous character could be made in vain.

With the punctuality of the man of business, Johnson presented himself at the house of Mr. Miller some minutes before the hour of dinner. Pale, thin, and bent, the sixty winters which had passed over his head had evidently done ruthless work; but the last ten had secured him the friendship of Mr. Miller, and these had effected much to repair the previous ravage: on the dark background, created by early adverse circumstances, now lay feelings and expression that had grown out of gratitude, regard, and enjoyment of the comforts of life: respect for the integrity of his

employer, and admiration of his talent, were mingled with attachment to his person, and interest in his concerns which rarely find place in the relations in which they stood to each other. Much of this was to be traced to the genial character of Herman Miller; recognising the essential equality of the nature with which he acted, he treated Johnson with a frank and generous cordiality that called out all that was kindly in his disposition.

Strongly contrasted were the men that met that day, and after dinner sat long in conversation of no ordinary interest and importance. Johnson, sedate and anxious, with more than his usual precision of appearance, was chiefly engaged in listening to details of the extensive and valuable business about to be temporarily committed (by what appeared to him a strange eccentricity of his employer) to his sole management and control; while Miller, confident and energetic, with a certain happy carelessness in his aspect, sat with his hand upon the head of a favourite hound, which had taken its accustomed place by his side.

Perhaps few hearts in the world at that moment sat lighter than Herman Miller's-with high health, with realised and perspective fortune, he was under the influence of hopes and feelings which shed the softest colours upon life. His heart had been for some time surrendered to an attachment of singular intensity. Accident had introduced him to a beautiful girl of humble fortune: left an orphan, her little portion had barely sufficed to educate her for her destination-a private governess, when her meeting with Herman Miller turned the current of her fate. Friends she had few to consult, and those she had were not sorry to be relieved of such responsibility as the degree of protection they afforded her involved; she therefore chiefly consulted her own heart, which immediately acknowledged the merits of Herman and responded to the sentiments he professed for her. Thus in the meeting with Johnson, Miller, in the midst of the review and explanation of his commercial affairs, had floating before him, like a transparent picture, his new prospects of happiness, and her image who was to be their partaker. His comprehensive mind, with rapid and decided action, traversed diverse fields of thought, yielding funds of information, and a flow of instruction, at once clear, concise, and abundant, while simultaneously the under current of hightoned feeling and infelt happiness swept through his heart, and quickened its pulsation.

"Now Johnson," he exclaimed, as the evening gained upon

their counsels, "you see the whole of my scheme. All, during my absence, will devolve on you. The trust is entire, as my confidence is perfect. I mean to be like a boat broke from its moorings and gone adrift upon a sunny sea. I deprecate-I denounce all annoyance; you will therefore know nothing of my whereabouts till you see me again."

Still Johnson found something more to ask-recollected something which required further explanation-some clearer direction -suggested some probable or improbable contingency which might occur, willing to delay the moment of parting with his director and friend, feeling how much the moral atmosphere of his life would lose in the event. At length the conference was broken up, and a change of character seemed instantaneously effected for Johnson, under the influence of the excitement, overcame his habitual taciturnity; and Herman lost his usual fluency. "God bless you, Sir!" was reiterated again and again by the grateful clerk, while, touched and silent, the merchant expressively shook the hand of his honest delegate and they parted the one to pursue the old city process of turning and multiplying pounds, shillings, and pence; the other for a career of pleasure on the Continent, where he proposed to realize a scheme of PERFECT HAPPINESS.

It was a brilliant morning in May when Herman and Bertha, his young wife, arrived in Paris, then some few years open to the efflux of British travellers. Herman was a remarkable man; he had held, with wonderful tenacity, propensities of his nature in abeyance, so long as the warfare of life, and the struggles of fortune, had rendered them unsuitable indulgences; but now, privileged by former prudence and its attendant success, he took the seals from the fountains, and they came leaping forth into the sunshine of the moral and material fortune he had achieved, with irrepressible force. His poetic temperament-his literary tendencies the snatches of cultivation which had every now and then refreshed his commercial life, rose like tributary streams to swell the current of his happiness. Beyond all these was the choice he had made-Bertha was no less the companion of his mind, than the partner of his heart; day by day his self-gratu lation grew as he traced in her transparent nature sympathies so kindred with his own and tastes so accordant. Her grace of person was to her beauty, what the sweetness of her temper was to her moral character, and her winning manners to her intel

lect-auxiliaries that fairly rivalled the higher attributes they companioned.

So pleasurable is it to dwell on such a rare assemblage of harmonious circumstances, and breathe the air of a felicity so unique, that we would willingly join company with the wedded friends in their subsequent rambles through France and Switzerland. With feelings so affluent of enjoyment that they possess a power to gild, like sunshine, the coarsest materials of which life can be composed, they beheld the marvels of art, and the magnificence of nature, and at length made a pause upon the banks of Lake Leman.

Hitherto with the exclusiveness of the happy, that highest and rarest aristocracy, they had shunned all association; but at Geneva they formed an acquaintance with a Madame Roden, travelling with two young daughters. In their company our Herman and his wife reached Milan. There Madame Roden

The

met her husband, a German of rank, and when the friends parted, a promise was claimed and given, that ere the Millers returned to England, they would pay a visit to Roden Castle, a romantic place in the neighbourhood of Presburg. prospect of this visit hung like a star in the onward horizon of Bertha, so much had she been won by these passing friends; they were the theme of frequent comment during the rest of her tour, till a new and engrossing scene opened upon her in Venice.

"Here," she exclaimed, "let us make a stay-in this scene of enchantment let us review and register all that we have seen and much that we have felt."

When the moon rose that night it beheld them standing in the balcony of one of those palaces which seem to float upon the waters, gazing entranced upon a scene so suggestive to the imaginative faculty in which they abounded, so much in harmony with their feelings. Lavish luxury, peace, repose, and love were present, and as Herman felt the magic of his position, he heightened the picture by contrasting it with all his early fortune threatened, and the toils and privations which had attended his progress.

The next morning and the next were given to the peculiar pleasures of the place, especially that calm delicious enjoyment which the gondola affords, when the moments seemed to melt away in tranquil beatitude, and our travellers might have said with the poet,