Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

very happy to meet her again—would not you, Sophia?"

"Yes-I don't know-perhaps-heigh-ho! I declare I feel quite tired—and thank goodness! here I am, at home. Walk up, good people."

"Well," quoth Lauder, as he mounted the steps "I shall learn to-night, at the bar of the Tremont, whether he has brought his wife with him."

"Or-or-if you see Cicero-he will be able to tell you all about it," said Sophia, eagerly.

CHAPTER III.

MR. LAUDER was right;—it was CHARLES ALLEYNE whom they had met. Let us follow that young gentleman across the Common. From Beacon-Street, he turned down School-Street— passed the Court-house,-and, keeping to the right, presently found himself before a Restau

rant.

"I recollect taking some turtle-soup here, with Colonel Allison, two years ago," said he to himself, "and very good it was. I am confoundedly hungry; no wonder !-I have not tasted a morsel since breakfast. Shall I go in? No-yes!-To be sure I have money enough left to pay for a dinner. Yet if-pshaw! Here goes! "—And, in he walked.

While the waiter was gone to execute his orders, Alleyne amused himself by drawing figures on the tablecloth with his fork. His mind, however, had

nothing to do with the operation. He was thinking of Sophia Enfield, and Saratoga Springs. Had he thought aloud, (a habit, of which, by the way, he was frequently guilty,) his meditations would have clothed themselves, in something like the following words.

"GOOD GOD! That I should have met her!the woman of all others, I should now most studiously avoid! For, though I feel that I love herand never loved but her, what hope-what chance of success is there for such a miserabledegraded-poverty-stricken wretch as I am?No-no!-were I certain that her heart was mine -that I could obtain her hand, to-morrow-I would not-could not have recourse to such a means of mending my broken fortunes. Could I endure to hear it said, that my wife had married a beggar? I would shoot any man who dared to say it! If, now, I could embark in any undertaking-but, no-no! What am I fit for? Brought up to no profession,-utterly unacquainted with, and unfit for business-shrinking from its drudgeries-loathing its petty niceties,too proud to solicit a favor—or even to accept one, when kindly and freely offered, what can I do? What is to become of me?

"If I cut my throat, the Coroner's inquest will declare, that I did it in a fit of temporary insanity! Besides, my principles are opposed to self-slaughter;

yet, I fear me, it must come to that, after all. Well -let me wait till I have spent my LAST DOLLAR and then!

"What an unlucky wretch have I been! How true is the saying, that misfortunes never come singly!-Yet have not these been caused by mine own folly?—No, no;-not all-not all of them.— Caroline was fickle-discarded me- and married another. Well, she was right. She had discovered that I did not love HER. I ought to have rejoiced at the event; but my pride, my cursed self-love was hurt. I could not bear, forsooth, to be pointed at, as the man who was jilted by the beautiful Miss Sinclair-humph!

"Then, as to my pecuniary losses. That gambling business was bad. I admit that. Yes, I detest myself for having indulged in that vile propensity; no inducement on earth should prevail on me to touch a card, or enter a gaming-house, again! Oh, that I could wipe out the recollection of that wretched, wretched folly!

"As for the loss I sustained, in becoming bound for poor Somerville,-I have no right to find fault with myself for that. No,-I would do it again. By Heaven! if it were for twice the sum, and I had it, I would be his bondsman again. Like myself, he has been confoundedly unlucky; but he is the best-the noblest-the most honorable being on earth! Thank God! I have got one friend left!

“Would that he had returned from England! I sadly stand in need of his counsel and sympathy. For his sake I must-yes, I must make up my mind to live on. He would fancy, that my loss, incurred through him, had preyed on my mindhad driven me to despair. He might so fancy, and the thought would kill him. D-n it! when the LAST DOLLAR is gone, I must look out for some means to procure a fresh supply. It don't require a long apprenticeship to make a truckman.

"Heaven be praised, that I had the means of providing for my dear sister! She and her children are now placed above want;-(let her poor, stupid husband get into trouble again, and as often as he likes.) That is, indeed, a consoling reflection. And now, here comes the soup."

"In strong and healthy constitutions, Love," says Fielding, (and let me add, in a parenthesis, any other misfortune)" hath a very different effect from that it causes in the puny part of the species. In the latter it generally destroys all that appetite which tends towards the conservation of the individual; but in the former, though it often induces forgetfulness, and a neglect of food, as well as of everything else, yet place a good piece of roastbeef before a hungry lover, and he seldom fails very handsomely to play his part."

Thus it was with our hero on the present occasion. He ate as heartily, as if he had never met

« AnteriorContinuar »