have shrunk in, even
within the last five years? Hear me, Neal; and venerate my words as
if they proceeded from the lips of a prophet. If you wish to taste the
luxury of being subdued--if you are, as you say, blue-moulded for want
of a beating, and sick at heart of a peaceful existence--why, marry a
wife. Neal, send my breeches home with all haste, for they are wanted,
you understand. Farewell!"

Mr. O'Connor, having thus expressed himself, departed, and Neal stood,
with the cudgel in his hand, looking at the door out of which he passed,
with an expression of fierceness, contempt, and reflection, strongly
blended on the ruins of his once heroic visage.

Many a man has happiness within his reach if he but knew it. The tailor
had been, hitherto, miserable because he pursued a wrong object. The
schoolmaster, however, suggested a train of thought upon which Neal
now fastened with all the ardor of a chivalrous temperament. Nay, he
wondered that the family spirit should have so completely seized
upon the fighting side of his heart, as to preclude all thoughts of
matrimony; for he could not but remember that his relations were as
ready for marriage as for fighting. To doubt this, would have been to
throw a blot upon his own escutcheon. He, therefore, very prudently
asked himself, to whom, if he did not marry, should he transmit his
courage. He was a single man, and, dying as such, he would be the sole
depository of his own valor, which, like Junius's secret, must perish
with, him. If he could have left it, as a legacy, to such of his friends
as were most remarkable for cowardice, why, the case would be altered;
but this was impossible--and he had now no other means of preserving it
to posterity than by creating a posterity to inherit it. He saw, too,
that the world was likely to become convulsed. Wars, as everybody
knew, were certainly to break out; and would it not be an excellent
opportunity for being father to a colonel, or, perhaps, a general, that
might astonish the world.

The change visible in Neal, after the schoolmaster's last visit,
absolutely thunder-struck all who knew him. The clothes, which he had
rashly taken in to fit his shrivelled limbs, were once more let out. The
tailor expanded with a new spirit; his joints ceased to be supple, as
in the days of his valor; his eye became less fiery, but more brilliant.
From being martial, he got desperately gallant; but, somehow, he could
not afford to act the hero and