on this absurd affair, without any further éclat; so I begged her to leave me the letter, and let me try what I could do with this inamorata after breakfast.

anxious as her mother to put an extinguisher | way, in order to point out, in answer to my inquiry for "Il Signor O'Kane," his domicile at the farther or front end of the passage. "Piu in la signor," said she; and then slapping the door in my face, she retired to her own affairs, and left me to mine.

"I am delighted to hear you say so; take it, and let me never hear any more of the odious subject," said my sister. "I was afraid I should have to put it into the hands of that hot-headed boy her brother Harry." "Oh, no," said I "that would never do. I think I am a better match for this red-hot Irish lover than Harry could be, for I hope to settle it all without reference to the code of honor or the logic of the horsewhip, and without furnishing a treat to the gossips of Rome."

My preparations for this interview were as follows: My visiting-card, as an English clergyman, which I proposed to lay on the table in the first instance, not as my gage de bataille, but as my announcement that I was "no fighting man," and mine no hostile mission. In my hand I held a slight, but tough, slip of Roman vine, in the shape of a walking-stick, upon the principle of Parson Adams, who "always carried a sermon about him, to be prepared for the worst ;" and lastly, in my waistcoat-pocket, the love-letter received that morning, which I was determined the enamored writer should re

As I stood before the indicated door, I heard loud tones and stamping demonstrations within, such as sometimes issue from a

Breakfast despatched, I set out for the address given, being but a few streets distant from our own. Roman lodgings answer pretty nearly to Voltaire's idea of the Eng-ceive back, as the end of a folly, and put in lish beer and natives: the bottom dregs, the the fire before my face, as a word retracted, top froth, and the middle excellent. The and "tanquam non locutum." ground floor is generally cellarage; the second story, as further removed from the "fumum strepitumque Roma," is preferable to the first floor; the third story still hab-"School of Defence," when the students itable, and " good air; " but all above that goes off into the veriest froth and scum of the shifty, nasty Roman population. As I mounted and mounted yet, in search of Mr. O'Kane's piano sexto, I felt myself engaged in probing and proving the gradations of Roman filth and abomination, foul smells, foul sights, and all those unutterable marks which tell of "the Roman at home," on which the casual visitor never looks, and is seldom conscious that 'mid the chief relics of "imperial Rome" such things exist and ferment.

Arrived at the piano sexto at last, I found it to be what in Mr. O'Kane's vernacular would at home be called "the parlor that's next to the sky." A long corridor ran from front to rear of the large house, doors dotted it all along its length, and from the Babel of sounds proceeding from all, it was evident that behind every door lodged a separate family or establishment.

are hotly engaged in their practices. In a
little time I could, however, perceive that
the inmate was engaged in soliloquy, that
the stamping and noise were but his own
gesticulations, giving force and emphasis to
his own eloquence. I knocked sharply at
the door, and it was at once opened by a
tall young man, without coat or waistcoat,
and with a thin crop of red whiskers, stand-
ing out at right angles from a very thin-vis-
aged countenance.
once for one of those raw young Irishmen
who go out to Rome or elsewhere to seek
a "vocation for the priesthood," but who
occasionally find instead seducing invita-
tions, which draw them, as their own merry
poet has it, "the other way-the other
way."

I knew my man at

"Mr. O'Kane," said I, making a proffer to enter.

The response to this was a sudden pirouette, a precipitous dive behind a check curI tapped par hasard at the first: it was tain, which divided his garret into two comopened by a lavandaja, disturbed in the very partments, beyond which I presently heard mysteries of her craft; her washtub was a vigorous brushing and bustling, as of a seething and frothing just behind her, but completing toilette; meanwhile, I had made her manner civil and obliging, as she stepped, an unceremonious advance into the outer or with her red arms akimbo, beyond her door-sitting-room division of the domicile, and as

I stood, card in hand, ready to announce | letter again, it will be to make my way from myself, Mr. O'Kane made his appearance, this room to Mr. Freeborn, the English conspruce and brushed up, obviously in his sul, and through him to claim the protection best; and yet that best had a shabby gentil- of the police. ity about it, a mixture of pretension and poverty, which, with a lackadaisical visage, fully justified Ellen's mistake of the day before, when she mistook the enamored swain for a genteel beggar.

"Mr. O'Kane," I said, “I think it best to open this conference by handing you my card."

He took it in a swaggering manner, but evidently seemed to be taken aback, and unprepared for the announcement it made.

"I have come," I said, "to put an end to a folly, which cannot go further without disagreeable consequences. This is your letter."

"O sir," gasped out the poor fellow, "if you knew the devoted feelings which agitate and excite me at this moment." (He was apparently as cool as a cucumber, and as pale as a tallow candle.)

"Nonsense, sir," I said. "You write a letter to my niece this morning, to whom you have never spoken in your life- -" (I could not bring myself to tell him for what he had been mistaken in the Pincian Gardens the day before.)

"O sir," he repeated, "if I could but obtain an introduction-my zeal, my devotion, my-"

"Come, come," I said, gaining courage as the interview went on, "this must have an end. Every young man has his dream; yours is a mere dream. Miss does not desire your acquaintance, nor can you make hers; differences in position, in religion-all forbid it. There is your letter; now, like a sensible fellow, put it with your own hand into the fire-let us have done with this folly."

He hung fire at this; he had no wish to have done with his folly-he wanted to argue.

"Mr. O'Kane," I said, "this must pass away. You have, I presume, other objects and pursuits in Rome with which I should be sorry to interfere, but if I take up this

As I made this announcement he evidently quailed, and after a few minutes of hesitation, during which I pretended to look carelessly round his chamber, though really and painfully anxious for his next move, the poor man took up his letter, and, after looking at it with a sheepish air for a few moments, thrust it into the brazier, which stood with him as a fireplace.

66

I believe, sir," he said, "I have been very foolish, but rely on me Miss - need not fear any further annoyance from me."

"Now," said I, "that is well done and well spoken, and like the ' galant'uomo,' one from your country, might be expected to prove."

He bowed profoundly at the compliment, but, as I turned to take my departure, the poor fellow seemed disposed to open a fresh argument upon the sacrifice of feeling which the resignation of his absurd hopes involved; but when I cut him short by saying, "Such things will happen to young men of elevated sentiments, but the same elevation of sentiment enables them to overcome disappointment

I repressed the endorsement which rose to my lips of "a regular ass indeed," and substituted, "I have the honor to wish you goodday, Mr. O'Kane."

"I wish you a very good-morning, sir," was the response.

I never saw, nor did we ever hear more of this "nate Irishman." I found my sister waiting the result of my interview in deep anxiety, which passed into amusement as I told it; and as for the object of this "burnt proposal," I doubt if to the hour in which she may read this article Ellen —— ever knew what a "catch" she had missed in Mr. O'Kane. I never had the heart to quiz her on her conquest.

-

From Chambers's Journal.

THE PRINCIPAL BOARDER.

in Leadenhall Street, by way of occupying his spare time. The boarders being select, I AM not sure that my Aunt Somers were not numerous; moreover, they had the thought she was serving her country, but I advantage of being, every soul, more or less think she believed herself somehow entitled related to the mistress of the establishment; to public gratitude, for condescending to re- for Mrs. Captain Browne was a third-cousin move to Barnsbury, and take in boarders, of her father; and the East India merchant when my uncle the doctor died, after buying counted kindred somewhere at a remote disa West-end practice, and left her a disconso- tance on the maternal side. We all sat at late widow, with two maiden sisters and his the same table, and could have talked through orphan niece. Each of the sisters-their the partitions of our rooms, yet my aunt's names were Miss Charlotte and Sophia Sin-boarding-house was a complete hierarchy. gleton-had a few hundreds vested in the The scale ascended inversely to my sumFive Per Cents, on the interest of which they mary. I was its lowest note; appointed lived, and exerted themselves to get off. The to the seat in the draught, lodged in the atniece, little Bessy Somers, should have had tic-room, expected never to be helped twice a few hundreds too; but the late doctor be- to anything, nor poke the fire unless speing her guardian, had thought proper to vest cially requested. The Misses Singleton octhem in his West-end practice, with solemn cupied the position immediately above me. vows and promises made to himself that they The second-floor back was sacred to them. should be gathered out of it, and laid up They might be helped the second time to against her wedding-day. Death had given anything that was plenty, and had a limited him no time for the fulfilment of these good license to use the poker in cold weather. intentions, but he laid on his wife a strin- Still higher stood Mrs. Captain Brownę. gent obligation, in return for his making her She rejoiced in the second-floor front, made his sole heiress, that she would take care of her demands boldly at dinner, and turned up and provide for Bessy. My respected aunt the coals without fear. But the archbishop, always declared that the legacy consisted of the cardinal, the pope of our establishment, nothing but old furniture and cracked china. in short, the principal boarder, was Mr. She kept fast hold of it, however, and made Simington, the East India merchant. great efforts to roll the annexed responsibility off her own shoulders, and on those of the doctor's relations; but having tried his brothers, his sisters, his uncles, his aunts, his first and second cousins, without success (by the way, she and the whole tribe were sworn enemies ever after), Mrs. Somers took the advice of her friends, removed to Barnsbury with her encumbered estate, leased a house in Mountford Place, and took under her boarding wings a select constituency, who were to form one family, and enjoy the comforts of a happy home.

They consisted, first, of myself-one likes to begin with the person highest in one's esteem. I was an apprentice then with a certain city optician; and my father and mother, honest people, thought my morals and manners would be safe in my aunt's house. Secondly, there were the Misses Singleton; thirdly, the widow of a coast-guard lieutenant, who called herself Mrs. Captain Browne; and fourthly, Mr. Simington, an East India merchant, who was believed to have made his fortune long ago, and to keep a business

He was a stout, rosy man, about forty-five, good-humored, and well-disposed to make himself comfortable and keep friends with everybody. Mr. Simington was a bachelor, too; his two married sisters in Pimlico, his three brothers in the city, his nieces in Worcestershire, and his nephews in Kent all agreed-it was said to be the only point of agreement among them-that Mr. Simington never would marry. Mrs. Somers and her maiden sisters declared themselves of the same opinion, whenever occasion served. He was too fond of his comforts, too confirmed in his bachelor ways, ever to change them. And why should Mr. Simington think of marrying at all? It was not a pretty face that would beguile him—he was a great deal too sensible for that; it was not fortune nor family-he had money enough, and did not care for high connections; it was not to have a comfortable home-where could he be better cared for, and more studied, than in Mountford Place? Such was the published confession of the fair trio. To it Mrs. Captain Browne gave her adhesion now and

finishing school. The good lady was to do wonders for her protégée, when the proper period of womanhood arrived; but she considered it decidedly sinful to put notions of dress and vanity in children's heads. Bessy was never allowed in the drawing-room except in the capacity of duster; and as she got nothing but old dresses shortened, the orphan niece went out only with messages to the greengrocer on week-days, and to evening church on Sundays with the maid.

then; but, like many manifestoes, its true when Bessy was old enough to be sent to a reading was to be made out by contraries, for, to my certain knowledge, the four ladies had, every one, private and deeply laid designs on Mr. Simington. He was one of those gentlemen given to pay attentions-I think most men between forty and fifty get into that line. As a principal boarder, with four ladies studying him, the East India merchant could scarcely do otherwise; so he paid attentions to each of the four according to her standing in the house, giving the largest share to my respected aunt, the next to Mrs. Captain Browne, and the third to the maiden sisters, whose claims he balanced with such even-handed justice, that both were equally sure of his heart. It is candor and not spite which compels me to declare there was not a pretty face in the quartette. My youthful judgment may have been biased, for I was the nephew-of-all-work, blamed for everything that went wrong out of doors, lectured on my own misdoings as well as those of my acquaintances; and I maintain that no man knows what snubbing is, who has not had an aunt with two maiden sisters and a coast-guard lieutenant's widow to hold command over him in his youth.

There was one comfort, however, I had an inferior in the shape of Bessy, the orphan niece. Bessy was sixteen; but it would have been high treason against my aunt's crown and dignity, and brought down lightnings and thunders from the three next in command, to have called Bessy anything but a child. In fact, she did double duty in our establishment, filling at once the offices of drudge and little girl. Bessy had to help in all her domestic difficulties our one female servant, Sally Stubbs, whom my aunt called her cook or her housemaid as exigencies required. She had also to wear short frocks, take bread and milk for breakfast, and go to bed punctually at eight. A small slender figure, a face that might have served as a model to the workers in wax, but for the light of its laughing blue eyes, which no doll could borrow, and the soft fair hair that would go into wavy ringlets however clipped and combed-all helped the illusion, which her seniors did their best to promulgate, by | always speaking of Bessy as that poor child. My aunt was accustomed to lament over the years which must pass before she would grow up, and the expense her education would be

My Aunt Somers always allowed that I was a young man of well-regulated mind-and she was right. Whatsoever orthodoxy was established in the territory, house, or workshop where I chanced to sojourn, became my confession of faith for the time. Whatsoever greatness was set up, to it was I prepared to do homage. I would have worshipped Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, independently of the fiery furnace; and there was one ready for all recusants in Mountford Place. On that prudent principle, I did my best to think Bessy a child, though it sometimes struck me that going to bed in broad daylight on a summer evening, when there was a little dancing-party in the drawing-room, could not be to her taste; and I could not help fancying how well she would look in a long muslin frock and ringlets among the young ladies. The same judicious inclination to what was ordered and expected, made me bow down before Mr. Simington, and consider him the greatest man within my knowing. Was he not my aunt's principal boarder? Did he not occupy the best bedroom? Were not his tastes consulted in spite of market-prices? Did not the entire household wait upon his nod, as the Olympian gods were said to do on Jupiter's? More than all, was he not the aim and object of the four ladies who employed, commanded, and snubbed me ? Oh, the warming of slippers, the peeling of walnuts, the mulling of wine, that went on for that old gentleman in cold winter evenings! Oh, the falling on his neck, when he came home from his summer rambles, as though the East India merchant had been three prodigais rolled into one! What well-governed youth would not have prostrated himself in spirit before such manifest superiority; so I bowed down to Mr. Simington, and served him. Yet, notwithstanding my

the adieus and good wishes he got might have served all the travellers that ever crossed the Tweed; but at length the ceremony came to a close, and the cab drove away with him and his carpet-bag.

awe and worship, it sometimes occurred to fair hands were matters to be remembered; me that he went out very regularly on Sunday evenings, just after Bessy and the maid set forth to church; that he must have taken a particular fancy to the greengrocer my aunt patronized, as I often noticed him lingering near the shop; and probably sent intimations of his good-will by Bessy, for more than once I espied him speaking to the child on the stairs, and evidently not intending to be seen.

The optician had given me a fortnight's holiday; it commenced that same morning ; and instead of going to business, as usual, I also was packing up and getting ready for a small excursion. But nobody took trouble with my travelling-gear. My undarned socks and buttonless shirts had to do duty abroad as well as at home. I was not an East India merchant with my fortune made, and where was the use of envy and grumbling? A ring at the door-bell, loud enough to reach my back attic, made me pause and listen. Mr. Simington was not more than two hours

my aunt utter in a kind of a shriek. I had left the ladies talking in the breakfast-parlor, and there I found them on my rapid descent, gathered round Mrs. Somers, who clutched convulsively a pair of wedding-cards, while she questioned the waiter of the Barnsbury Hotel.

66

I had heard that great men were often eccentric, and doubtless these were the eccentricities of Mr. Simington; but as his peculiarities were too sacred to be observed by an optician's apprentice, I made no report on the subject, and nobody else appeared to have taken notes. Thus things went on, I cannot precisely say how long. The ladies were every day getting stronger in their pub-gone, yet that was his name which I heard lic convictions of Mr. Simington's perpetual celibacy, and more resolute in carrying on their private sieges. I could have taken ten to one on my aunt's chance; it was the best in everybody's eyes but those of the other three. The summer was drawing to a close, and Mr. Simington preparing for a tour in Scotland, which he had talked about since the season began. The day of his departure on that journey was one of extraordinary bustle in our establishment. The four had been up most of the preceding night packing his carpet-bag, preparing delicacies for his refection in steamer and train, and giving him good advices against catching cold and rheumatism. No wonder he looked jovial over the abundant breakfast devoted to his service so should any man if half so well taken care of. Mr. Simington was mighty in jokes and great in compliments that morning; the ladies, one and all, declared they must go somewhere, the house would be so dull till he came back; and I saw Bessy in the decentest frock she had-by the by, it was also the shortest-steal past the window with her basket; she was doubtless bound for the greengrocer's. Nobody thought of her at the leave-taking, which was extra-impressive. Mr. Simington's squeezes of eight

"It took place, ma'am about one hour ago," said that messenger of fate, making great efforts to preserve his gravity. 'Miss Somers dressed at our house, and I must say looked uncommon well in her white silks and fine bonnet. My missus went to church with them. It was done by special license, you see. Mr. Ross, the gentleman as always stops with us, and knowed Mr. Simington from a boy, gave the bride away; and, indeed, ma'am, she got through it wonderfully. I went to see it myself, havin' a great likin' for marriages. The 'appy pair, as I may say, waited no time after; they're off to Scotland, ma'am, by the Great Northern. But Mr. Ross is to do the sendin' out of the cards; and says he, tippin' me half a crown, like a gentleman, as he is: Waiter,' says he, 'run with these to Mrs. Somers; she has the best right to the earliest intelligence, for Mr. Simington was her principa boarder.'"