"What, are you going to convert my poems into common ballads ?" exclaimed Eugene, the flush of indignant pride crimsoning his cheek.

"Am I to be sure I am. What else could you think I meant to do with such trifles? not bring them out on foolscap, hot-pressed! Well, d-me, that's a good one, your being angry about them! what signifies to you, or to me, my good sir, how the mocuses be produced, so they be produced? You recollect, no doubt

8

but there is no occasion, I dare say, to recall to mind your classical recollections; besides, was not the king of poets of the same opinion? did he not even sing his own verses through the cities of Greece? Go to, go to,' as sir Pertinax Macsycophant says, d―me if ever you'll be a great man, if you don't cast off at least a hundred weight of the Irish pride you brought over with you!"

"Let me cast off what I will of it," said Eugene, with a scornful look, "I shall still always retain sufficient of it to make

me resent insolence and impertinence!" and he was quitting the shop, when

Cwho was accustomed to those hasty ebullitions of temper, from the intercourse he had with authors, and minded them no more than he did the effervescence of soda-water, stopped him."Come, come, we don't part in anger," he cried;" curse me if I meant to offend you! so come, let me have your address, and perhaps you may hear from me in a few days."

Eugene hesitated; but an unwillingness to do any thing that might raise up additional obstacles to his projects, at length overpowered his reluctance to give it, and he slowly drew forth his card.-"Yet what can I hope from hearing from this fellow ?" he demanded of himself, as he began to retrace his way in the lingering step of disappointment; "nothing, but some new mortification, or additional insult thus end my shortlived expectationsthose expectations that were but yester

and

day so vivid, so sanguine! but, as Wolsey

says

• This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost-a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,

And then he falls, as I do.'

But what is to be done? had I not better make up my mind to return at once to St. Doulagh's while I have the means, and sink into the sordid obscurity to which I seem destined? But no, I will not so hastily abandon the oar, to suffer myself to be turned adrift: after the expectations my letter must have raised there, how could I bear to return without a further effort to do something? All the booksellers may not exactly coincide in opinion or sentiments with C: I will try some more of them, nor relinquish my exertions till I see that longer perseve rance in them would be folly."

But how cruel to his feelings the delay which this resolution must necessarily oc

casion to his return to St. Doulagh's there, where love, honour, tenderness, all united to recall him-how bitter-how almost desolating to his heart, the disap pointment that rendered him unable to attend immediately to this call!

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He was ill at feigning what he did not feel; accordingly, the dejected state of his mind was soon betrayed to his companion that day at dinner. The discovery led to questions which shortly produced a dis closure of the cause of it. After a hearty laugh- Well, I could never have thought this," cried the other, "that a young fellow like you, with such bumps of destructiveness, amativeness, construc tiveness, and in short, of all necessary to make your fortune, should have given way to despair in this manner! There is an old saying-when one gate is shut up another is opened; so come, cheer up, my hearty, as we say on board ship, since this dd dog of a bookseller won't employ you, without your levelling your own principles, we'll go to the play; after

which, I'll introduce you to a house in Pall Mall, where you'll get as good drafts on the Bank as any he could give you, and in a much pleasanter and readier way."

They went to the play; but when, on leaving it, Eugene understood that the place to which it was intended he should be introduced was one of those gamblinghouses not inaptly termed h-lls, declined accompanying his friend thither; but not, if the truth is to be confessed, without doing some little violence to his inclination; but he had heard too much of the mischiefs, the horrors, resulting from an initiation into such scenes, not to see the wisdom of avoiding them, and determined to act accordingly.

His companion attempted, for some time, to laugh him out of what he called his quizzical notions; but finding the effort vain, he suddenly turned on his heel with a contemptuous smile, and, without the slightest intimation of a wish for another meeting, left him.