ll go to Pheneas Cophagus and acquaint him of
your waking, for such were his directions."

The man then quitted the room, leaving me quite astonished with the
information he had imparted. Cophagus turned Quaker! and attending me
in the town of Reading. In a short time Mr Cophagus himself entered in
his dressing-gown.

"Japhet!" said he, seizing my hand with eagerness, and then, as if
recollecting, he checked himself, and commenced in a slow tone, "Japhet
Newland--truly glad am I--hum--verily do I rejoice--you, Ephraim--get
out of the room--and so on."

"Yea, I will depart, since it is thy bidding," replied the man, quitting
the room.

Mr Cophagus then greeted me in his usual way--told me that he had found
me insensible at the door of a house a little way off, and had
immediately recognised me. He had brought me to his own home, but
without much hope of my recovery. He then begged to know by what
strange chance I had been found in such a desolate condition. I
replied, "that although I was able to listen, I did not feel myself
equal to the exertion of telling so long a story, and that I should
infinitely prefer that he should narrate to me what had passed since we
had parted at Dublin, and how it was that I now found that he had joined
the sect of Quakers."

"Peradventure--long word that--um--queer people--very good--and so on,"
commenced Mr Cophagus, but as the reader will not understand his
phraseology quite so well as I did, I shall give Mr Cophagus's history
in my own version.

Mr Cophagus had returned to the small town at which he resided, and, on
his arrival, he had been called upon by a gentleman who was of the
Society of Friends, requesting that he would prescribe for a niece of
his, who was on a visit at his house, and had been taken dangerously
ill. Cophagus with his usual kindness of heart, immediately consented,
and found that Mr Temple's report was true. For six weeks he attended
the young Quakeress, and recovered her from an imminent and painful
disease, in which she showed such fortitude and resignation, and such
unconquerable good temper, that when Mr Cophagus returned to his
bachelor's establishment, he could not help reflecting upon what an
invaluable wife she would make, and how much more cheerful his house
would be with such a domestic partner.

In short, Mr Cophagus fell in love, and like all elderly gentlemen who
have so long bottled up their affections, he became most desperately
en