d; and there was every reason to
believe, that it was reposing in the shaft from which its author had
been so providentially rescued, where no one would venture down to seek
it on account of the foul air that was known to prevail near the bottom.

"Well, never mind," said Vernon, who, when informed of his probable
loss, was reclining very comfortably on the drawing-room sofa, taking
tea with his kind entertainers,--"Well, never mind," he said, "I must be
thankful to Heaven for my own preservation, and, practising a little of
friend Frank's philosophy, try to believe that what has happened _is all
for the best_."

"And so I've no doubt it is," interposed Frank; "for you must either
have been doomed to disappointment by your failure, or, if you had
succeeded in being the fortunate competitor out of the hundred
candidates who are striving for the prize, you would, as a matter of
course, have incurred the everlasting enmity of the disappointed
ninety-nine, to say nothing of their numerous friends and allies; why,
you would be cut up to minced meat amongst them all; and nine-tenths of
the reviews and newspapers would be ringing their changes of abuse upon
your name, as one of the most blundering blockheads that ever spoilt
paper."

"Enough, Frank, enough--I give in," interrupted Mr Wycherley; "quite
enough said on the subject, and perhaps you may be right too in this
instance; but I verily believe, that if the direst misfortune were to
happen to one, you would strive to convince him, or at any rate set it
down in our own mind, that it was _all for the best_."

"And if he did so," said the squire, "he might be less distant from the
truth than you imagine. I myself indeed could mention an instance, where
a man at last happily discovered that a circumstance he had set down in
his own mind as the ruling cause of every subsequent misfortune,
eventually proved the instrument of producing him a greater degree of
happiness than often falls to the lot of the most fortunate of mankind."

Frank and Vernon both expressed a wish to hear the tale, which the
squire, who was a rare hand at telling a story, proceeded forthwith to
recount; but as, for reasons we forbear mentioning at present, he
glossed over some important parts, and touched but lightly on others
equally material, we purpose, instead of recording the tale in his own
words, to state the facts precisely as they occurred, the subject of
which will form the contents of the t