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calculation, to answer in the numerals of your Indian currency. But if I tell you that he is possessed of about fifteen hundred a-year, you will be able to reduce the sum to its equivalent in rupees. Are you beginning to think already about the dowry, my dear boy? Remember one thing, however, that your brother has been at De Laurier's before you."

"My brother!-a thousand devils!" I exclaimed; for there was madness in the very thought.

"I don't think, however, that he has made much impression," said my uncle, as he lighted his taper." Mais nous verrons, mon fils. Good night, Claude."

CHAPTER V.

Sir, be comforted;

We have our manly virtues given us,
To exercise in such extremes as these.

SHIRLEY.

I HAD promised Mr. De Laurier that I would pay him a visit on the following day. Margaret had also expressed a wish to see me "before very long;" and, although I had not the vanity to look upon the request as any thing more than a manifestation of courtesy, I remembered the words that she had uttered with the pleasantest emotions in the world, and I determined to do all that I could to render myself agreeable in her sight.

I am not one of those who "take sound counsel of their pillow not to rise until they hear it ring noon;" and, at the season of which I am now writing, I was an earlier riser than I am at present, because I had not as yet shaken off the tenacity of my Indian habits. Before eleven o'clock, on the morning after my adventures at the theatre, I had wandered into the neighbourhood of the Temple, very diligently employed upon a book-hunt.

"Perhaps I may succeed here," said I, as I strolled into a shop, situated in a narrow street contiguous to Chancery-lane.

I had been looking for the first folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, the edition of 1647, which Shirley superintended and prefaced.

"I think, sir, that this is the book you are in search of," said the shopkeeper, with an air of satisfaction, as he brought down the work from a front shelf, and displayed it most ostentatiously upon the counter; "and I may say that I am fortunate, in being able to serve you, too, sir; for there is a great demand, just now, for these old plays, in the market. The copy, which you see now, sir, has passed more than once through my hands. It was the property of the late John Kemble, the tragedian." -And then he charged me a sum which far exceeded the value of the book.

I made some demur at what I considered a most flagitious demand, for a not very fine copy of a not very scarce book.

But the man was up to his profession, and replied, "Indeed, sir, I am offering you a bargain. The marginal annotations alone are worth double the money; and these, sir, are undoubted originals, autographs of great value in themselves, besides the fund of dramatic knowledge they contain, fit for a new edition, sir."

"You will allow me, perhaps," said I, "to form my own opinion upon this subject;" and, turning over the leaves of the book, I glanced at the notes in the margin, when, just as I had arrived at a conclusion that criticisms, such as I was then reading, would be dearly purchased at any price, they being, most assuredly, the work of some tasteless annotator, hired for the purpose, a maidservant came running in hastily, at the back door, and informed her master, that the gentleman who lodged up-stairs had been seized with a fit of convulsions, and appeared likely to take his departure for another world, if medical aid was not immediately brought to the assistance of the invalid.

"Run, Betsey, run! then," cried the bookseller, "to No. -, and tell Mr. R, either to come himself immediately, or to send somebody to see the gentleman;"-and then, turning to me, he continued, "I should be mighty sorry, sir, if any thing serious were to happen, because he is a most excellent lodger; so very kind and obliging to us in the shop below, and a wonderful learned gentleman,”

"Stop, Mr.-," I exclaimed, interrupting the voluble bookseller; for a sudden idea entered my brain that his lodger might be Everard Sinclair. - "Will you tell me the gentleman's name? I have an especial reason for inquiring."

"Why, sir," replied the bibliopole, with a sagacious expression of countenance, “I cannot exactly tell you the real name of the gentleman, for there be something about this which I do not know how to make out; but-"

"Stay," I cried, for my suspicions were confirmed by the uncertain announcement of the bibliopole; " is he a young married man, with a wife, and an infant daughter?"

"Lord, bless you, -no, sir!" replied the bookseller, " he be as old as other people, and either a bachelor or a widower, for he has no lady with him; - I hope that jade Betsy has not stopped to chatter by the way."

"But can we do nothing for the poor gentleman in the meantime? - can we render him no assistance before your servant returns with the doctor?" "Oh, dear! no, sir, - none whatever, I assure you; for Mr. R- says, that when the fits come upon him, he is best left to himself, because he fancies all manner of things, if he sees a strange face in the room. He seems to have a baddish conscience, and yet he is a pious gentleman

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