. Jack had
a snug estate of three thousand a-year; Miss Dora had twenty thousand
pounds from her mother. She had passed two seasons in London; and if she
was not already married, it was because not one of the fifty aspirants
to her hand had found favour in her bright eyes. Lively and
high-spirited, with a slight turn for the satirical, she loved her
independence, and was difficult to please.

I had been absent from England for nearly two years, on a continental
tour; and although I had heard much of Miss M'Dermot, I had never seen
her till her brother introduced me to her at St Sauveur. I had not known
her an hour, before I found myself in a fair way to add another to the
list of the poor moths who had singed their wings at the perilous light
of her beauty. When M'Dermot, learning that, like themselves, I was on a
desultory sort of ramble, and had not marked out any particular route,
offered me a seat in their carriage, and urged me to accompany them,
instead of prudently flying from the danger, I foolishly exposed myself
to it, and lo! what might have been anticipated came to pass. Before I
had been two days in Dora's society, my doom was sealed; I had ceased to
belong to myself; I was her slave, the slave of her sunny smile and
bright eyes--talisman more potent than any lamp or ring that djinn or
fairy ever obeyed.

A fortnight had passed, and we were at B----. During that time, the
spell that bound me had been each day gaining strength. As an intimate
friend of her brother, I was already, with Dora, on the footing of an
old acquaintance; she seemed well enough pleased with my society, and
chatted with me willingly and familiarly; but in vain did I watch for
some slight indication, a glance or an intonation, whence to derive
hope. None such were perceptible; nor could the most egregious coxcomb
have fancied that they were. We once or twice fell in with other
acquaintances of her's and her brother's, and with them she had just the
same frank friendly manner, as with me. I had not sufficient vanity,
however, to expect a woman, especially one so much admired as Miss
M'Dermot, to fall in love at first sight with my humble personality, and
I patiently waited, trusting to time and assiduity to advance my cause.

Things were in this state, when one morning, whilst taking an early walk
to the springs, I ran up against an English friend, by name Walter
Ashley. He was the son of a country gentleman of moderate fortune, at
wh