wn heart_--a man quite after
my own heart!" The other said with rather doubtful and hesitating
confirmation, "Ye-s." "You don't seem to think so highly of him as I
do," said the first speaker. "Why," replied the doubter, "I can't say I
do; you remember some time ago he _failed_, and certainly upon that
occasion he behaved _very ill_ to, not to say _cheated_, his creditors."
"Ah!" said the first commendator again, "that is very likely--I should
have expected _that_ of him."--Henceforth, Eusebius, whenever I hear
such a commendation, I shall look out for a map of the gentleman's heart
who ventures upon this mode of expressing his admiration. Oh! what a
world we live in! This is a fact which would have been immortal, because
true and from nature, in the hands of Le Sage; and is worthy of a place
in a page of a modern "Gil Blas."

And so all this digression has arisen from a laugh of the Curate's, to
whom it is time to turn; or you will think we have been but bad company
to each other. I will, however, end this passage with the remark, that a
man may do a worse thing than laugh, and happy is he that can do a
better.

The Curate and I, then, for the rest of the night conversed upon the
affair of his, which so unaccountably was making no little stir in the
place. The Curate told me, he was quite sure that his movements had been
watched; for that only yesterday, as he was entering the gate of his
friends, the family at Ashford, he saw Miffins's boy not far behind him
on a poney; and he thinks he came out for the purpose of watching him,
for he had scarcely reached the door, when he saw the lad ride hastily
back. The Curate likewise confessed to me, that he did entertain some
tender sentiments towards one of the inmates, Miss Lydia ----, that the
family had lived much abroad, and that they had a French lady's-maid,
whom on one or two occasions he had certainly seen in this township. You
see the thread, Eusebius, which will draw out innumerable proofs for
such a mind as Miffins's. Taking a paper out of his pocket, he said it
was put into his hands as he was coming away, and he had not opened it.
"Perhaps," said he, "it may throw some light on the affair, as it was
given me by one who is, I know, on the all-important committee." He
broke the seal, read, laughed immoderately for five minutes, and put it
into my hands:--

"REV. SIR,--Wishing to do the handsome to you, and straightforward and
downright honest part, the committee