er having learned
from his daughter the secret of her engagement, and having refused his
consent to it, not on the ground that he was too good a match for
Alice--which would be almost as vulgar a reason as if he had been too
poor--but on the ground that he was young, giddy, thoughtless, and the
wasting health and wan cheek of his daughter had told him that he was
fickle too. People in the country make so little allowance for young men
during their first season in town; and mother and daughter, in spite of
all his protestations, in spite of all the vows he made to Alice, which
she believed in her heart--were firm in breaking off the connexion, and
would see him no more. And this resolution seemed to be formed on the
maturest deliberation, and in spite of every inducement to the contrary
they kept it. He had not seen them for nearly a year. Their income, at
all times small, had been annihilated by the father's death; they left
the white-walled villa, and after bidding him farewell for ever in a
letter, and thanking him for his friendship to her father, and some few
tender recollections on her own account, Alice had begged him to forget
her! And Frank thought of her, of course, every hour of his life--tried
every means to find out where they had gone, that he might resume his
suit, and to offer them the fortune of which he had now come into full
possession--but all in vain. His friend, Mr Percy Marvale, had
undertaken to find them out within six months if they were still on the
habitable globe, and thought he had discovered that the scene of their
retirement was in our county; and with a knowledge of nature drawn from
melodramas, French and English, he had laid it down as a rule, that as
they were reduced in circumstances, Alice had gone out as a governess--
which accounted for his theories about squints and red hair. It was a
curious story; but there was perfect sincerity in all he said; and
instead of trying to dissuade him, I could not help offering my services
to discover the vanished pleiad--if she twinkled in any part of our
Worcestershire heavens.

During this long communication we had left the garden, and were lounging
slowly by the side of the river that runs through the park. We were both
engaged in the narrative, and I was no little surprised, on looking to
the other side, to see my magisterial friend, Old Smith, and his two
daughters, busy with fishing-rods. The girls were tastefully dressed--
but more to catch