s not know the sort of sensation which falls upon a
man when he feels that even the elements have turned against him,--how he
buttons up his coat and bids the clouds open themselves upon his devoted
bosom?

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage, blow,
You cataracts and hurricanes!"

It is thus that a man is apt to address the soft rains of heaven when he
is becoming wet through in such a frame of mind; and on the present
occasion Harry likened himself to Leer. It was to him as though the
steeples were to be drenched and the cocks drowned when he found himself
wet through. In this condition he went back to the house, and so bitter
to him were the misfortunes of the world that he would hardly condescend
to speak while enduring them. But when he had entered the drawing-room
his mother greeted him with a letter. It had come by the day mail, and
his mother looked into his face piteously as she gave it to him. The
letter was from Brussels, and she could guess from whom it had come. It
might be a sweetly soft love-letter; but then it might be neither sweet
nor soft, in the condition of things in which Harry was now placed. He
took it and looked at it, but did not dare to open it on the spur of the
moment. Without a word he went up to his room, and then tore it asunder.
No doubt, he said to himself, it would allude to his miserable stipend
and penniless condition. The letter ran as follows:

"DEAREST HARRY,--I think it right to write to you, though mamma does not
approve of it. I have told her, however, that in the present
circumstances I am bound to do so, and that I should implore you not to
answer. Though I must write, there must be no correspondence between us.
Rumors have been received here very detrimental to your character."
Harry gnashed his teeth as he read this. "Stories are told about your
meeting with Captain Scarborough in London, which I know to be only in
part true. Mamma says that because of them I ought to give up my
engagement, and my uncle, Sir Magnus, has taken upon himself to advise
me to do so. I have told them both that that which is said of you is in
part untrue; but whether it be true or whether it be false, I will never
give up my engagement unless you ask me to do so. They tell me that as
regards your pecuniary prospects you are ruined. I say that you cannot
be ruined as long as you have my income. It will not be much, but it
will, I should think, be enough.

"And now you can do as you ple