indited in the frightfullest handwriting I ever beheld. But I protest that it merited a calligraphic prize, compared with the spitefullooking characters,-the chevaux de frise on Bath post,-purporting to convey a rejoinder to my polite refusal of office under the Crutchley Administration. The conjurations of the Scottish witch, by whom the storm was raised to keep Anne of Denmark out of Leith harbour, can scarcely have been concocted in hieroglyphics more truly diabolical.

Ha ha ha ha ha!-Forty-four years of age, and threatened with an action for breach of promise of marriage by the wealthiest heiress in Great Britain!-At what amount would the gentlemen of the long robe or gentlemen of the short robe, or whatever they may be by whom these matrimonial appraisements areassessed, presume to lay the damages ?-What was supposed to be the prime cost, errors excepted, of CECIL? Conceive my personal merits, weighed in the balance against two hundred and fifty

five thousand pounds, odd shillings, consols,-Tchindagore Park,—and a capital family mansion looking sideways into Berkeley Square!— What glorious fun for the newspapers,—what nuts for the clubs!

Plutus! for what was I reserved!The fate of Aline, reine de Golconde, that queen of diamonds so naïvely pourtrayed by the goldfinch's-quill of the charming Chevalier de Boufflers, was mere common-place compared with mine.

Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra est

Oderit curare!

To be belaboured to death with ingots,smothered in Bank of England notes,-and have it inscribed for epitaph on my tombstone "BY CASH!"

I own I never expected, in the maturity of my years, to have the sterling amount all London was disputing as its redemption from the King's Bench, fling itself with such wilful prodigality at my feet!

It was quite clear to me that if the heiress persisted in her threat of bringing the matter into court, it could only be as a pretext for raising herself cent per cent in the matrimonial market, by the publication of my letters. It is true they were not of a very torrid nature : -as a man of letters, I am habitually cautious. Word of mouth and word of pen ought to be synonymous as regards matters of finance ;but in affairs of the heart, as different as the pace of Satirist from the slow but sure-footed amble of a Spanish mule.-Conceive what vipers would have been hatched in the bosom of a thousand respectable families, had I given the rein to my Pegasus, and committed to wire wove the whispers in which I committed myself! Que de couleuvres à avaler pour les maris if, by some sort of Photographic process, the heart of CECIL had been fac-similarly pourtrayed in his correspondence!

The epistles, therefore, through the reflection of whose brightness the un-fair Marcia intended

to shine for a moment as the Juliet of the

Court of un-Common Pleas, consisted simply in such little notes as

"I shall have the pleasure of joining your party to-night at Covent Garden.

Much your's,

Cecil Danby."

"St. James's Place,

Or.

Monday."

"Enchanted, dear Miss Crutchley, to wait

upon you to-day. You are well aware how

much my time is at your service.

"White's, Tuesday."

Faithfully your's,

Cecil Danby."

Or,

"You have made me very happy by appointing a day for our expedition to the Dulwich

Gallery. Rely upon me.

Always your's,

Cecil Danby."

But though notes such as these are probably received every day of her life by every woman in May Fair between twenty and forty years of age, in quantities to suffice, when properly shred into flakes, for a snow storm in the Christmas pantomime,-imagine, dear Public, the distinction likely to be conferred on that ungainly woman, when it came to be lawyerly known that CECIL had signed himself "MUCH HER'S!'-that CECIL'S time had been at her service! that CECIL had been "made happy' by any concession she could offer!" FAITHFULLY her's," indeed !-How could she be such an idiot as to believe it!

The Douglases, Stanleys, Butlers, and others of the highest and mightiest families of our aristocracy, preserve among their peerage archives certain royal letters, of higher import, as a matter of history, than even their letters patent of nobility.

But what were even the most "private and confidential" of these, compared with a note