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enough; for it was but the other day that he bought Clarke's bible from me, in Russia, folio, plates, and a most beautiful copy, perfect, without a soil, good as new, and yet cheap as waste paper. I bought it at the sale of the late primate's effects, and the Bishop of --, who was bidding against me, said, when the lot was knocked down, - it was lot 95 in the catalogue; -'Mr. congratulate, though I envy, you; you have

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But as I was very little interested in the sayings of the bishop, or the bargains of the bookseller, but very much so in the condition of the sick gentleman upstairs, I interrupted my loquacious friend, by inquiring the name of his lodger, and asking how long the unfortunate man had occupied the chambers he was then residing in.

"Why, I can't boast much of my memory," replied the bibliopole, "but as far as I can remember, he has been with us a twelve-month come Michaelmas, and this, sir, is the 10th of September. My last lodger was an over-bad gentleman; indeed, sir, he was no gentleman at all, for he used to bring all manner of company into my house, - he did; and when I told him that I kept neither a pot-house, nor a brothel, he called me an impertinent rascal, and kicked me, sir, in my own shop. I knew my place better than to retort,

shop; but the British lion was roused in my bosom,

and I -"

"Gave him notice to quit. Very good, Mr.---; indeed you were quite right; but I was not asking about your last lodger; my question related more immediately to the present one. Will it please you to tell me his name?"

"Oh! dear, sir, yes," replied the bookseller; "I beg your pardon for being so long, but my tongue runs away with me, at times. The gentleman who lodges upstairs, calls himself Mr. Delaval, but I think, sir, that be only the name under which he hangs out. Yet, for all that, he is the very moral of a gentleman."

Delaval! - the announcement of this name stimulated, to the highest degree, the curiosity which had already been awakened by the bookseller's account of his lodger. Could "the gentleman upstairs" be indeed that inscrutable being who had so mystified me, when, an inquisitive school-boy, I had attempted to fathom his chaCould this be indeed he, the usher of Dr. R-, the friend of Lord Leicester, now living, nay, perhaps dying, in obscurity, unknown, and unforgotten ? - I asked myself this question, and my answer was, "Yes, it may be;" but I determined, at once, to ascertain the truth or the fallaciousness of my suspicions.

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I proceeded to interrogate the bibliopole; but in order that he might conceal nothing from me, I thought that it would be prudent, in the first instance, to apply a little golden ointment to his tongue. "You will have the goodness, Mr. --, to send me that 'Beaumont and Fletcher;' you are already acquainted with my address."

The bookseller bowed his acquiescence.

"And I dare say," continued I, "that I shall have occasion before I leave the shop to make sundry other purchases," (the bookseller's countenance brightened up,) "I will look around your shelves presently. By the bye, what did you say was the name of the gentleman upstairs?"

"He calls himself Mr. Delaval," replied the obsequious shopkeeper; "but I think that he holds out under false colours, sir."

"And why do you think that, Mr. Have you got a copy of the Arcadia?"

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"Yes, sir, and a very fine copy too-first edition, with Lord Brooke's autograph. Shall I show it to you, Mr. --Jerningham? I believe, sir, you are the son of Mr. Jerningham, of - street? Your honourable father, Mr. Jerningham, is one of my best customers."

"Mr. Jerningham is my uncle, and I will look at the Arcadia presently. In the mean time you were about to tell me your reasons for suspecting the legitimate right of your lodger to the name ofDelaval, was it not?"

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Why, sir," replied the bibliopole, “the fact of the matter is this, and yet I hardly know that I ought to meddle with what does not concern me; the secrets of my lodger should be my own, but to you, Mr. Jerningham, who are such a good customer, I may venture to"

"Oh, certainly! I applaud the justness of your sentiments, Mr. -, but have the goodness to go on."

"Well, sir, I was about to remark, I have very strong grounds for my suspicions, for not very long after the gentleman had taken up his abode in my house, Mr. Jerningham, a smart cabriolet, with a foot-boy behind it, came dashing up to the house, and a handsome young gentleman got out of it, as I thought, to make a purchase; but guess what was my disappointment, when he asked me if a Mr. -, (on my life, I forget the name he inquired for,) was lodging in my house, and when I told him that a gentleman who called himself Delaval was upstairs, his lordship, for I found he was a lord, replied that it was all one, and begged to be shewn up to Mr. Delaval immediately."

My suspicions were so much corroborated by this intelligence, that I no longer doubted the identity of the Delaval in the bookseller's lodgings with the Delaval of Dr. R-'s school. The young lord, beyond all question, was no other than my friend Leicester. But I continued to interrogate Mr. "And who may this

stranger have been?"

Why that, sir, I could never discover; I heard the foot-boy address him as 'my lord,' and then, next day, I endeavoured to pump Mr. Delaval, but I made nothing out of him at all. I don't think, whoever he may have been, that his visit was very agreeable to my lodger, for he was up almost all that night, striding backward and forward in his chamber, and the next morning he was taken ill, sir, and Betsy, (that is, my maid, for my wife's name is Betsy also,) declared that the gentleman's bed had not been slept on at all that night."

"But did you see nothing," I asked, " of his lordship after this?"

"Oh, dear! no, sir,-nothing at all. I never saw him again, nor has Mr. Delaval had a single visitor since that day, barring a strange-looking gentleman in black, whom I take, sir, to be a clergyman, and who comes now and then, of an evening to spend a short time with my lodger. But he, sir, be gone away now, for I have not seen him this month past."

"And what aged man may he be?"

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