, McElvina was
influenced by a religious, or even a moral feeling. It was rather by
interested motives that he was convinced; but convinced he was; and
whether he was proud of his return to comparative virtue, or found it
necessary to refresh his memory, his constant injunctions to others to
be honest (upon the same principle that a man who tells a story
repeatedly eventually believes it to be true) assisted to keep him
steadfast in his good resolutions.

Upon the other points of his character it will be unnecessary to dilate.
For his gentlemanly appearance and address he was indebted to nature,
who does not always choose to acknowledge the claims which aristocracy
thinks proper to assert, and occasionally mocks the idea, by bestowing
graces on a cottager which might be envied by the inhabitants of a
palace. Of McElvina it may with justice be asserted, that his faults
were those of education--his courage, generosity, and many good
qualities were his own.

McElvina, who knew exactly at what hour of the day his patron would be
abroad, took the precaution of not going to the house until the time at
which he would be certain to find Susan, as usual, in the little
parlour, alone, and occupied with her needle or her book. The
street-door had just been opened by the maid to receive some articles of
domestic use, which a tradesman had sent home; and McElvina, putting his
finger to his lips to ensure the silence of the girl, who would have run
to communicate the welcome intelligence of his arrival, stepped past her
into the passage, and found the door of the little parlour. Gently
admitting himself, he discovered Susan, whom he had not disturbed,
sitting opposite to the window, with her back towards him. He crept in
softly behind her chair. She was in deep thought; one hand rested on
her cheek, and the other held the pen with which she had been arranging
the accounts of the former week, to submit them, as usual, to her father
on the Monday evening. Of whom and what she was thinking was, however,
soon manifested to McElvina; for she commenced scribbling and drawing
with her pen on the blotting-paper before her, until she at last wrote
several times, as if she were practising to see how it would look as a
signature:

"Susan McElvina."

"Susan McElvina."

"Susan McElvina."

Although delighted at this proof that he was occupying her thoughts,
McElvina had the delicacy to retire unperceived, and Susan, as if
rec