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We withdrew to the dining-room; where it was so managed that I occupied the seat next to my intended. This arrangement was by no means agreeable to Miss Sophronia: she therefore, being a lady of frank demean. our, edged her chair in on the other side of me, declaring she had "as good a right to set by Mr. Levis as sister!” The lawyer frowned and said nothing; but his partner saw fit to correct so glaring a breach of decorum.

"Phrony, my love, I am shocked, and astonished, and surprised, that a young lady of your edication and society should show such an open brich of etiquette. One would think you'd never seen better company than tinkers, or taylors, or

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"Brewers," added Mr. Fox, maliciously.

"Or bakers," continued Mrs. Fox, indignantly. Come, take your seat by me, this instant, Miss Sophronia!"

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'La, ma'! I'd rather set by Mr. Levis than you,' whined the dutiful Sophronia; "he's more agreeable, I'm sure."

O, for shame, Miss Fox! to tell a young gentleman you like him! Fie! the carnibals would know better!"

"And I can't see the mighty harm in that, either!" retorted the young lady, while her voice actually rose the sixtieth part of a degree above her ordinary whisper; "you told me your own self, ma', that you did, when I was putting on my new silk stockens for dinner, that I must mind and make myself agreeable to the gentleman, and let him see I know what's what; and so I will!"

I know not what disclosures might have been made, over and above the stockings, had not our lawyer put a timely end to the quarrel by rising to say grace.

"Ah!" exclaimed the hypocrite, when he had finished, "great is the exultation of piety, that it even adds a relish to our vegetables! I can't conceive how any man alive can suffer the concatenation of God's benefactions to be showered upon him in the multiplicity of his providence,

and yet be ingrateful! For my part, I couldn't swallar a mouthful if

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you preach so long, you wount, Mr. Fox!" said his wife; "the dinner is catching cold."

"Odd rot it, and that's true! Qui capit, ille facit, as we lawyers say-Mrs. Levis what'll you take?"

The absurdity of our host's conversation, made up, as it was, of a mixture of far-fetched and misapplied expressions with vulgar oaths and idioms, was too amusing for me to resist the temptation of prolonging it—the more so that I had learned his history from my aunt.

"Pray, tell me, Mr Fox," said I, in a tone of respectful gravity, and taking up the plate before me, whereon was painted- -a coat of arms, dear Reader! with a fox's head as crest.- "Are not these the arms of your family?"

"Ah, my dear sir!" exclaimed the lawyer, throwing down the knife and fork, which he had began to flourish in quality of host," there is my greatest pride! the only flaw! the locum tenens, as I may say, of my character! Yes, sir," he continued, springing from his chair in a seeming ecstacy," you see before you the armorial bearings of the house of Fox! and, much as I estimate every man the child of his own deeds,-and God knows how prideless I am!—still there is a satisfaction, an exacerbation of feeling, to know yourself the-the sprout, the Zion of an opprobrious family! to know that

"The dinner is waiting, Mr. Fox!"

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"Bless me, that's true!-to know that one is not like this mushroom gentility, which springeth up, and is cut down, dried, and withered, in a day; but like the-theLook there, Mr. Levis! look there!"

"Look there, indeed, Mr. Fox! See what comes of your speechifying !" screamed the wife of his bosom, as the roast beef in its superb China dish fell crashing on the floor.

-Well, well! we will not dispute about words :but do her last remarks on Mrs. Bulleye savour of goodnature? And moreover-did she not tread on your toes when the Foxes were wrangling? What say you to that, sir? I say your aunt must have loved slandering a little.

And what of that, sweet sir?-Take the word of a man of sixty-A little love of slander and a great deal of good-nature are by no means incompatible. Many persons like pepper on their melons.

CHAPTER XIII.

How now? What letter are you reading there?

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

SING on, thou sweetest minstrel that ever woo'd the ear of listlessness! Well do I love thy gentle strain, when the thoughtful twilight is fading into darkness, and fatigue weighs heavy on my senses. To me thy notes are never harsh; for they tell of comfort and hospitality.-More welcome than the mellow flute at midnight; more soothing than the ploughboy's whistle, when he homeward drives the lowing herds; and more romantic than the chirp of crickets in a chimney-corner,-is thy voice O thou copper tea-kettle in my aunt's parlour!

Fatigued by the company I had left, I threw myself upon the sofa the moment I returned home. It was the finest part of the evening-neither dark nor light-but just the time, when John, according to custom, brought in the little tea-kettle and set it on the hearth. So reclining at ease, in the most classical, graceful, luxurious, and meditative of attitudes, videlicet-upon my elbow,― at the most poetical, beautiful, agreeable, and meditativo

of hours, that is to say-at twilight,-I cast a tender glance at the much loved copper, and apostrophized it as -You may smile, dear Reader; but I am neither old bachelor nor Doctor Johnson, I assure you; yet do I love to gaze upon the round, sleek sides of the polished boiler, as they reflect the coals of the three-legged chafing dish; for they seem to me so good-natured, so jolly, so-so like the laughing and laughable belly of a turtle-fed alder. man,—and then the serpent mouth appears to smile with so much satisfaction, as it sings its vesper hymn,—and that very hymn, as, in graceful curls of steam, it issues visible from that very mouth, charming both eye and ear, is so soothing! O, my reader! I can compare it to nothing so well as the sighing of the evening breeze through the long grass-or the murmur of a distant waterfall-or the buzzing of flies in a sugar-barrel. And as for the dear, fat, little copper kettle itself-what does it resemble so much as the Pythoness of old, on her tripod, singing oracles through the inspiration of vapour?-By the by, this proves that Solomon was correct in saying "there is nothing new under the sun;" for the ancients must have been better acquainted with the properties of steam than ourselves, when they applied it to the purposes of divination.

-Stop a minute, Mr. Levis! The ancients never put a sixpence into my pocket; so I shall not allow their claims to superiority to pass undisputed. You can never have been in one of our conventicles, or you would know that we preach and prophecy by steam as well as they.

Well, well, my reader! I merely threw out my remark as a hint to the Antiquarian Society. For though I should be sorry to have Mr. Watt convicted of larceny,-yet, as the whole world must be interested in an investigation of such importance, I am willing to have my private feelings disregarded. Nay-should not Sir Walter Scott, or any other member of the society, be inclined to profit

guished man, from whom we have induced our origin, and the mutability of our name !-Look there, Mr. Levis! Look there, sir! He was indeed a man-" aye! every inch a man!" as the divine and pathetic Milton says of Juliet-you admirate Milton, Mr. Levis?"

"Why-yes!" drawled I; "but between you and me, Mr. Fox,"-lowering my voice, and winking very facetiously-" he's rather indelicate."

"Ah! only rich passages! only rich passages, Mr. Levis!"-and the critic smacked his lips in a manner very edifying to young people. "Yes, sir!" he contin ued" he was every inch a man !—but, ask your pardon, what will you have sir? Jeffrey! hand me Mr. Levis's plate. He was a great favourite with Henry the ninth, and particularly surpassed in the exercise of extirpating and eradicating foxes-Ha; ha! you begin to smoke it, I see, Mr. Levis !-Well, one day as my ancestor—he was generally known by the name of Bravo John, from his fearfulness you understand,-was hunting with his majesty in the royal forests, they started a huge white fox with a black mane and red tail. This fox with a red mane and black tail, defied the outmost adventures of the king and all his court―tearing up the ground with his teeth, scattering fire from his blazing nostrils, and breathing havoc and destitution on every one in the company. length his gracious majesty, whom God in heaven bless! was pleased-but I tire you, I deprehend?-was pleased to say, "Which one of you, my respected friends, will eradicate that fox for me?" Then up started Bravo John, my ancestor; and, poising himself upon his knees, he deprecated his majesty― "Here the noble descendant of Bravo John was interrupted by Mrs. Bulleye's grandchild, which insisted upon thrusting its hand into the dish of pease. "Ah, you naughty little darling! you must❜nt do so!" said grandmama, while she wiped the darling's hand with her cambric handkerchief-"the lady wont like it. Don't cry, now; and grandma' will give it a new

So at

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