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spoken of her resemblance to her mother; in mind, as well as person, the resemblance held good. Educated at home, under the parental eye, she had acquired all the accomplishments which the present state of society requires, unalloyed by the pertness of display, or the affectation of a bashfulness which she did not feel. Her character was purely natural-of guile or deception she could scarcely form any distinct idea, for her father's heart was full of honour and truth, and her mother's mind was pure as the driven snow.

There are, they say, spots on the sun, and never yet did there exist a faultless human being. Gray had a fault of temper; in earlier life his character had been marked by an irritability of disposition, induced no doubt, in a certain degree, by the habit of command, and the promptitude of discipline to which, in his youth, he had been almost prematurely accustomed. He was the farthest from a quarrelsome man in the world, but he was hasty and even violent, if he even suspected the candour and sincerity of those to whom he had given his friendship and confidence; and sensitively jealous of his honour, which, however, no man had ever ventured to impeach. It was with a consciousness of this almost morbid sensibility, that his existence in youth was a continued struggle to repress feelings which were of so tender and delicate a nature, that few people in the world would give him credit for their real origin. Nothing can more satisfactorily prove to the sceptical-if such there be-in the power of the influence which a charming, amiable, good woman is able to exert over the man of her heart-the husband of her choice than the change which matrimony worked in him. Orpheus softened rocks, and made stones move; but the sweet voice, and yet sweeter example of a beloved wife can do more than the fabled musician ever did. From the day of his marriage to the period at which the reader is introduced to his happy family, this irritability had gradually been subsiding, and at the time now referred to the vivid colourings of a highly excitable temper, like the glaring tints of a new picture, had become mellowed by time, and softened into harmony; and if the fire slumbered in the breast of Gray, it never burst out in any of the irregular coruscations which, at a previous part of his career, it certainly had done.

I have already said that their sweet retirement was an earthly paradise. Surrey was the county he had chosen wherein to pitch his tent after the death of his gallant father. A spot romantically beautiful in its viewsfor although the subjects of Cockaigne judge Surrey by the borough of Southwark or Kennington Common, there are more lovely bits of finished landscape within thirty miles of London, in that county (where it touches Sussex), than are to be found at ten times the same distance in others.

Conceive a cottage-" a cottage of gentility"-placed on the brow of a gentle declivity facing the south, commanding from its woodbinecovered verandah an extensive view over a splendid valley, highly cultivated, studded with farms and villas, bounded at a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles by the boldly-rising downs of Sussex, over whose summits one might almost see that bright gleaming line of light which tells the presence of the sea beyond their swelling undulations. The house combining every comfort-luxury, if you will. Gray's library complete-his well-kept collection of books, of birds, of minerals, of shells-for he was generally scientific, and although not perking

himself up for a man of science," far above the ot woλλo of pretenders. His guns, his rods, and his spears-for he was a sportsman for all game, running, flying, or swimming; his drawing materials -for he was an artist; his flute-for he was a musician; his lathe-for he was a turner. All these, and a thousand other dear literary comforts, crowded and adorned his snuggery, into which the wife of his bosom, and the daughter of his heart, would venture, to call him to a walk, or a ride, or a drive.

His establishment had all that could be wished, and more than was wanted to be comfortable; but comfort was the word by which it was to be designated, and the evenings, as the autumn closed in, were enlivened by visiters from the neighbourhood, which, for the situation, was populous-or from the market-town, distant not more than a mile and a half; and then the sweet and single-minded Mary sang like a syren, while she looked like a sylph. I never saw but one girl who was her equal-perhaps her superior, in this peculiarity. When she sang, she looked more beautiful than at any other moment of her life. In most singers, the act of singing causes an exertion-it might almost be called a distortion of countenance; but Mary Gray, like this one other, looked even more lovely as the rich, melodious tones flowed honey-like over her lips, which, being just enough opened to show a row of pearly teeth, scarce seemed to move as she riveted all eyes, and enchained all ears. I once told her mother, that nothing was wanting but a glass-case to cover her.

What a happy father-what an enviable mother! Mary Gray was the theme of praise with all, for she was good as she was beautiful, and her mind was as lovely as her person. Go now to the village-nowand ask after her-mention her name, and see how the people, old and young, will lift up their eyes to Heaven and bless her. She lives in the hearts of those who knew her, but

What can mortality have more of happiness than these Grays had ?-Esteemed, respected, courted by the best and worthiest of their neighbours, they lived, indeed, an enviable life; and then, in the season, six weeks at an hotel made a variety in their course of proceedings, and Mary visited her relations, and heard Malibran, and Grisi, and Tosi, and all the unmusically-named musical people of the Opera-went to two or three of the best parties-learned to admire the best artists by their works at exhibitions, and even attended lectures, and visited microscopes, and returned tremblingly alive to the abominations of Thames water, in one drop of which thousands of gigantic monsters are perpetually dancing; and disgusted with the coarseness of the finest French cambric, which, developed to the eye magnified three million times, is infinitely more like a flounder-fisher's net ill-made, than anything else to which I can compare it. That National Gallery of Science in the Lowther Arcade, is enough to turn the heads of men, women, and children, and is better worth seeing than anything I know of, except the late Mr. Irving, and the present Mr. O'Connell.

And, after all this excitement, only fancy the dear delicious repose of the cottage, and the fresh breeze blowing over the valley, and Mary's own dear little boudoir, and the welcome of her little dog, and the warbling of her little birds, nay, the bending heads of her dahlias themselves, just bursting forth, seemed to hail her return.

It would seem, perhaps, ill-timed to expatiate upon the charms of this fair creature's mother; but how many fair creatures does one see every day and evening of one's life, who, like Mrs. Gray, look more like the elder sisters of their lovely daughters than their mothers. This is what I said at first-these are the fruits of early marriages. Mrs. Gray was a being full of soul and intellect, and of that sort of intellect which wins rather than conquers-a masculine mind, clothed in feminine delicacy. I always thought that Mrs. Gray possessed an inherent energy, and a command of powers if she chose to exert them, and if they should at any time be called into action; because, by a constant association with a family, one finds opportunities of judging, not what actually is, but what might be, the line any individual of it would, under certain circumstances, adopt. Mrs. Gray was the sweetest, gentlest creature upon earth; and, as Aaron Hill says,

"As lamps burn silent with unconscious light,

So modest ease and beauty shine most bright;
Unaiming charms with edge resistless fall,

And she, who means no mischief, does it all."

Certainly she meant no mischief; but she was an extraordinary person, and a delightful person, and it was beautiful to see how she exercised what really seemed little else than a sororial sway over her beloved Mary, in order to induce her to what is called "come forward" amongst the gayer parties in London,-for at home dear Mary was really at home.

The reader, who no doubt knows human nature, knows that if a story profess to copy nature, even if it be not a transcript from her wondrous book, it cannot allow a girl like Mary Gray to reach eighteen without a lover-or two-perhaps more; and certainly, if the most valuable qualities of mind and person combined are attractions, our sweet, kind-hearted, unaffected Mary could not fail to do the "mischief" which, in Hill's verses, I have attributed to her mother in her carlier days.

Conceive such a being as Mary Gray. I will not describe her. I have already said she was fit only for a glass-case. But conceive this dear, innocent creature, with eyes too eloquent by half, although they spoke nothing but her innocent thoughts; a figure, unaided by art, perfect as the Medicean Venus; the sweetest voice,-the lightest step, the whitest-But why go on? why talk of her?-rather adopt the well-known lines of the eminent Barnes

"She was

But words are wanting to say what:
Think what a girl should be,-

-And she was that."

Well, then, where the roses blow, and the lilies bow their heads, the bees will come; and of course Gray's house was beset by sundry languishing swains. A neighbouring baronet amongst the number,-an ancient knight came, second in degree, who hinted to Mrs. Gray his anxiety to make poor, dear, downy-cheeked Mary the third Lady Doddlethrops, but he was snubbed by Mamma, who set him half crazy by repeating a satirical couplet made a few years before upon a similar proposition supposed to emanate from the proposer himself :—

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The couplet is rather homely, but Mrs. Gray showed it to him in print, and Doddlethrops was, to use the admirable phraseology of Major Downing," stumped."

The baronet was long, thin, and genteel; but Mary, who really seemed to have no notion of what his object was in being what they call " a good deal there," gave him no encouragement, not because she fancied he expected any, but because she did not feel in the slightest degree interested about him, and not having had the advantages of a boarding-school education, she did not know that it was necessary to fancy every man who came into the house a lover.

There certainly was a Captain Fitzpatrick-not that I mean any scandal against Queen Elizabeth-but there certainly was a Captain Fitzpatrick who, without appearing in the character of suitor to Mary, did contrive to be "there "" a good deal. He had some military appointment, something about reserve companies, or recruiting, or something; what, I don't profess exactly to understand, but which Captain Gray did, which kept him at the neighbouring town; and although he was not very handsome, he was very agreeable; and he suited Papa so, he was a dabbler in science-a good fisherman, and liked so much to go out with the Captain, and whip the water, and catch trout, or troll for jack,—and he was such a good shot, not quite so good a shot as Papa, but still he was fond of the sport; and then he drew prettily, and fluted to admiration : and Mrs. Gray told Mary she had never seen a man of his age so talented and so unaffected;-and then they came home from their shooting, and Captain Gray asked Captain Fitzpatrick to stop and dine, and send home his horse, and send for his clothes, and sleep, and so he did. And Captain Fitzpatrick got up in the morning carly, and so did Mary; and he was a bit of a botanist, and he had made a collection of the indigenous plants of the neighbourhood, and he had a little hortus siccus of his own, and he squashed the leaves of roses between the leaves of books, and dried them, and gummed them; and then Mary sat down and drew them, and then they dried some more; and then the Baronet called; and then, at Mary's earnest request, there was nobody at home, although they were all sitting in Papa's sanctum; and then Captain Fitzpatrick sent to his lodgings for a double flageolet, and an electrifying machine, and a key-bugle, and an air-gun, and a stuffed duck with red feet, which he had shot a month before. And when they came, they talked of red-footed ducks, and were electrified, and played the keybugle and the double flageolet; and then Captain Fitzpatrick showed them how to do Cardinal Puff, and sing " Great A, little A," and "The Pigs;" and thence glanced off into a disquisition upon the different schools of painting, in which he so much distinguished himself, that, after the family-party had retired for the night, Captain Gray pronounced it as his opinion to Mrs. Gray that Captain Fitzpatrick was a very extraordinary creature.

There seemed to be a gaiety in the very atmosphere of Gray's villa: the air appeared to have the quality of the laughing-gas of which we have heard and seen the effects; and certainly the conversation of Fitzpatrick, who was the delight of his host, was never so agreeable as when under its roof. One of the family began to think no man could be so agreeable anywhere else. There was a vivacity about the Captain mixed with strong talent, and feelings of sympathy with misfortune, which to Mary's youthful fancy gave indications of qualities in the heart equal to those of the head

which it was impossible to deny their said friend. Gray saw the effect the Captain had produced upon his darling daughter, and saw it without regret. Fitzpatrick was of his own profession,-held a similar rank with himself, was the nephew of a man whom he had known on service, who was now dead-of a highly respectable family,—and holding what in peace time was as good a command as he could hold, -and Gray said to his dearest Fanny, after some fortnight or three weeks of this intimacy,—

"Fanny, that Captain Fitzpatrick is a clever, agreeable, and gentlemanly man. I know his connexions. I think he has attached himself to our beloved girl. I am sure she admires and esteems him. I don't blame her. Speak to her about it. We have no disguises amongst us. Tell her to be candid. Ask her if he has said anything. I am somewhat of an adept in looks. But, above all, do this, you need not, I believe, tell her to speak her mind; for if their affection is mutual it shall be a match."

"I believe," said his wife," that nothing of the sort you suspect has taken place. Mary, unused to the world and its ways, is caught and attracted by the gaiety of our visiter, his universality of accomplishments, his excessive good humour, and above all, the total absence of affectation, which she so utterly detests in the generality of young men of the present day. But as for love;-no, no: she would have made me her confidante in the first instance had any such sentiment taken possession of her."

"I am not so sure of that," said Captain Gray; "she may have taken the infection without being aware of the character of the complaint. As a physician, I judge of my patient by the eyes; and I think I am not to be deceived."

He was not deceived. It was after the next day's breakfast, while Gray was preparing his fishing-tackle, and his exemplary wife was putting in order certain pieces of work for the evening exercise (for they were a notable family), that Mary rushed into the room where her mother was, her eyes streaming with tears, and her cheeks burning red. She spoke not, but threw her arms around her mother's neck, and sobbed aloud. "What is it, my child?" said Mrs. Gray.

Mary could return no answer.

"Speak, dearest; compose yourself: tell me."

"Henry! Henry!" were the only words Mary could utter, and she then fell into a fit of weeping.

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My love, my dearest love," said the anxious mother, "tell meexplain what has happened?"

I do not know," said Mary; “I cannot tell. I-am,”—and here she relapsed into another fit of sobbing, which rendered all attempts at explanation unavailing.

The dénouement, however, was at hand. Before the recovery of the dear girl, Captain Gray had entered the room. He saw the state of affairs there, and relieved the agitated partner of his fate by announcing that, as he had anticipated, Henry had proposed to Mary, and Mary had, as far as she was concerned, accepted him.

"God forbid," added Gray," that I should prevent their union. Tell my beloved child how I feel upon the subject, the moment she is able to hear and bear the intelligence."

Soon did the tender, terrified creature awake to life and happiness,

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