his? thought he, a demon vile.
With wicked meaning and a vulgar style;
Hammond they call him--they can give the name
Of man to devils. Why am I so tame?
Why crush I not the viper? Fear replied,
Watch him a while, and let his strength be tried."
CRABBE.

THE next morning, after breakfast, the banker took his horse--a
crop-eared, fast-trotting hackney--and merely leaving word that he was
going upon business into the country, and should not return to dinner,
turned his back on the spires of C------.

He rode slowly, for the day was hot. The face of the country, which was
fair and smiling, might have tempted others to linger by the way; but
our hard and practical man of the world was more influenced by the
weather than the loveliness of the scenery. He did not look upon Nature
with the eye of imagination; perhaps a railroad, had it then and there
existed, would have pleased him better than the hanging woods, the
shadowy valleys, and the changeful river that from time to time
beautified the landscape on either side the road. But, after all, there
is a vast deal of hypocrisy in the affected admiration for Nature;--and
I don't think one person in a hundred cares for what lies by the side
of a road, so long as the road itself is good, hills levelled, and
turnpikes cheap.

It was midnoon, and many miles had been passed, when the banker
turned down a green lane and quickened his pace. At the end of about
three-quarters of an hour, he arrived at a little solitary inn,
called "The Angler,"--put up his horse, ordered his dinner at six
o'clock--begged to borrow a basket to hold his fish--and it was then
apparent that a longish cane he had carried with him was capable of
being extended into a fishing-rod. He fitted in the various joints with
care, as if to be sure no accident had happened to the implement by the
journey--pried anxiously into the contents of a black case of lines and
flies--slung the basket behind his back, and while his horse was putting
down his nose and whisking about his tail, in the course of those
nameless coquetries that horses carry on with hostlers--our worthy
brother of the rod strode rapidly through some green fields, gained the
riverside, and began fishing with much semblance of earnest interest
in the sport. He had caught one trout, seemingly by accident--for the
astonished fish was hooked up on the outside of its jaw--probably while
in the act, not of biting, but of gazing at, the bait,