y, that it was all expended
within two or three days after its discovery; and there appeared
no prospect of a supply. Sir Arthur, naturally impatient, now taxed
Dousterswivel anew with breach of those promises through which he had
hoped to convert all his lead into gold. But that worthy gentleman's
turn was now served; and as he had grace enough to wish to avoid
witnessing the fall of the house which he had undermined, he was at the
trouble of bestowing a few learned terms of art upon Sir Arthur, that at
least he might not be tormented before his time. He took leave of him,
with assurances that he would return to Knockwinnock the next morning,
with such information as would not fail to relieve Sir Arthur from all
his distresses.

"For, since I have consulted in such matters, I ave never," said Mr.
Herman Dousterswivel, "approached so near de arcanum, what you call de
great mystery,--de Panchresta--de Polychresta--I do know as much of it as
Pelaso de Taranta, or Basilius--and either I will bring you in two and
tree days de No. III. of Mr. Mishdigoat, or you shall call me one knave
myself, and never look me in de face again no more at all."

The adept departed with this assurance, in the firm resolution of making
good the latter part of the proposition, and never again appearing
before his injured patron. Sir Arthur remained in a doubtful and anxious
state of mind. The positive assurances of the philosopher, with the hard
words Panchresta, Basilius, and so forth, produced some effect on his
mind. But he had been too often deluded by such jargon, to be absolutely
relieved of his doubt, and he retired for the evening into his library,
in the fearful state of one who, hanging over a precipice, and without
the means of retreat, perceives the stone on which he rests gradually
parting from the rest of the crag, and about to give way with him.

The visions of hope decayed, and there increased in proportion that
feverish agony of anticipation with which a man, educated in a sense
of consequence, and possessed of opulence,--the supporter of an ancient
name, and the father of two promising children,--foresaw the hour
approaching which should deprive him of all the splendour which time had
made familiarly necessary to him, and send him forth into the world to
struggle with poverty, with rapacity, and with scorn. Under these dire
forebodings, his temper, exhausted by the sickness of delayed hope,
became peevish and fretful, and his