he stopped short--'may I hope to be
permitted to offer the humble tribute of--'

'Really, Mr. Sparkins,' returned the enraptured Teresa, blushing in the
sweetest confusion, 'I must refer you to papa. I never can, without his
consent, venture to--'

'Surely he cannot object--'

'Oh, yes. Indeed, indeed, you know him not!' interrupted Miss Teresa,
well knowing there was nothing to fear, but wishing to make the interview
resemble a scene in some romantic novel.

'He cannot object to my offering you a glass of negus,' returned the
adorable Sparkins, with some surprise.

'Is that all?' thought the disappointed Teresa. 'What a fuss about
nothing!'

'It will give me the greatest pleasure, sir, to see you to dinner at Oak
Lodge, Camberwell, on Sunday next at five o'clock, if you have no better
engagement,' said Mr. Malderton, at the conclusion of the evening, as he
and his sons were standing in conversation with Mr. Horatio Sparkins.

Horatio bowed his acknowledgments, and accepted the flattering
invitation.

'I must confess,' continued the father, offering his snuff-box to his new
acquaintance, 'that I don't enjoy these assemblies half so much as the
comfort--I had almost said the luxury--of Oak Lodge. They have no great
charms for an elderly man.'

'And after all, sir, what is man?' said the metaphysical Sparkins. 'I
say, what is man?'

'Ah! very true,' said Mr. Malderton; 'very true.'

'We know that we live and breathe,' continued Horatio; 'that we have
wants and wishes, desires and appetites--'

'Certainly,' said Mr. Frederick Malderton, looking profound.

'I say, we know that we exist,' repeated Horatio, raising his voice, 'but
there we stop; there, is an end to our knowledge; there, is the summit of
our attainments; there, is the termination of our ends. What more do we
know?'

'Nothing,' replied Mr. Frederick--than whom no one was more capable of
answering for himself in that particular. Tom was about to hazard
something, but, fortunately for his reputation, he caught his father's
angry eye, and slunk off like a puppy convicted of petty larceny.

'Upon my word,' said Mr. Malderton the elder, as they were returning home
in the fly, 'that Mr. Sparkins is a wonderful young man. Such surprising
knowledge! such extraordinary information! and such a splendid mode of
expressing himself!'

'I think he must be somebody in disguise,' said Miss Marianne. 'How
charmingly romantic!'

'He talks very lou