nceding where unconvinced, never yielding where unvanquished,
that I loved her. What a stupid revery was that of mine when I fancied
her one of those strong-minded, determined women,--a thickly shod,
umbrella-carrying female, who can travel alone and pass her trunk
through a custom-house. No, she was delicate, timid, and gentle; there
was no over-confidence in her, nor the slightest pretension. Rule me?
Not a bit of it. Guide, direct, support, confirm, sustain me; elevate
my sentiments, cheer me on my road in life, making all evil odious in my
eyes, and the good to seem better!

I verily believe, with such a woman, an humble condition m life offers
more chances of happiness than a state of wealth and splendor. If
the best prizes of life are to be picked up around a man's fireside,
moderate means, conducing as they do to a home life, would point more
certainly to these than all the splendor of grand receptions. If I
were, say, a village doctor, a schoolmaster; if I were able to eke
out subsistence in some occupation, whose pursuit might place me
sufficiently favorably in her eyes. I don't like grocery, for instance,
or even "dry goods," but something--it's no fault of mine if the English
language be cramped and limited, and that I must employ the odious word
"genteel," but it conveys, in a fashion, all that I aim at.

I began to think how this was to be done. I might return to my own
country, go back to Dublin, and become Potts and Son,--at least son! A
very horrid thought and very hard to adopt.

I might take a German degree in physic, and become an English doctor,
say at Baden, Ems, Geneva, or some other resort of my countrymen on the
Continent. I might give lectures, I scarcely well knew on what,
still less to whom; or I could start as Professor Potts, and instruct
foreigners in Shakspeare. There were at least "three courses" open to
me; and to consider them the better, I filled my pipe, and strolled off
the high-road into a shady copse of fine beech-trees, at the foot of one
of which, and close to a clear little rivulet, I threw myself at full
length, and thus, like Tityrus, enjoyed the leafy shade, making my
meerschaum do duty for the shepherd's reed.

I had not been long thus, when I heard the footsteps of some persons on
the road, and shortly after, the sound discontinuing, I judged that
they must have crossed into the sward beneath the wood. As I listened I
detected voices, and the next moment two figures emer