ter, with the utter hopelessness of
the passion which he nourished, tended to render his love yet more pure
and disinterested.

At length, the line of conduct which reason had long since recommended,
could no longer be the subject of procrastination. Mr. Bidmore was
destined to foreign travel for a twelvemonth, and Mr. Cargill received
from his patron the alternative of accompanying his pupil, or retiring
upon a suitable provision, the reward of his past instructions. It can
hardly be doubted which he preferred; for while he was with young
Bidmore, he did not seem entirely separated from his sister. He was sure
to hear of Augusta frequently, and to see some part, at least, of the
letters which she was to write to her brother; he might also hope to be
remembered in these letters as her "good friend and tutor;" and to these
consolations his quiet, contemplative, and yet enthusiastic disposition,
clung as to a secret source of pleasure, the only one which life seemed
to open to him.

But fate had a blow in store, which he had not anticipated. The chance
of Augusta's changing her maiden condition for that of a wife, probable
as her rank, beauty, and fortune rendered such an event, had never once
occurred to him; and although he had imposed upon himself the unwavering
belief that she could never be his, he was inexpressibly affected by the
intelligence that she had become the property of another.

The Honourable Mr. Bidmore's letters to his father soon after announced
that poor Mr. Cargill had been seized with a nervous fever, and again,
that his reconvalescence was attended with so much debility, it seemed
both of mind and body, as entirely to destroy his utility as a
travelling companion. Shortly after this the travellers separated, and
Cargill returned to his native country alone, indulging upon the road in
a melancholy abstraction of mind, which he had suffered to grow upon him
since the mental shock which he had sustained, and which in time became
the most characteristical feature of his demeanour. His meditations were
not even disturbed by any anxiety about his future subsistence, although
the cessation of his employment seemed to render that precarious. For
this, however, Lord Bidmore had made provision; for, though a coxcomb
where the fine arts were concerned, he was in other particulars a just
and honourable man, who felt a sincere pride in having drawn the talents
of Cargill from obscurity, and entertained due gr