d.

Three days later, towards sunset, a substantial-looking clergyman,
attended by two servants, rode up to the door; and was immediately
appropriated by Jumbo, disappearing into the mysterious apartments;
Aurelia expected no summons that night, but at the usual hour, the negro
brought a special request for the honour of her society; and as she
entered the dark room, Mr. Belamour said, "My fair and charitable
visitor will permit me to present to her my old and valued friend, Dr.
Godfrey." He laid the hand he had taken on one that returned a little
gentlemanly acknowledgment, while a kind fatherly voice said, "The lady
must pardon me if I do not venture to hand her to her chair."

"Thank you, sir, I am close to my seat."

"Your visitors acquire blind eyes, Belamour," said Dr. Godfrey,
cheerfully.

"More truly they become eyes to the blind," was the answer. "I feel
myself a man of the world again, since this amiable young lady has
conned the papers on my behalf, and given herself the trouble of
learning the choicest passages of the poets to repeat to me."

"You are very good, sir," returned Aurelia; "it is my great pleasure."

"That I can well believe," said Dr. Godfrey. "Have these agreeable
recitations made you acquainted with the new poem on the _Seasons_ by
Mr. James Thomson?"

"No," replied Mr. Belamour, "my acquaintance with the _belles letters_
ceased nine years ago."

"The descriptions have been thought extremely effective. Those of autumn
were recalled to my mind on my way."

Dr. Godfrey proceeded to recite some twenty lines of blank verse, for in
those days people had more patience and fewer books, and exercised their
memories much more than their descendants do. Listening was far from
being thought tedious.

"'But see the fading many-coloured roads,
Shade deepening over shade, the country round
Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dim,
Of every hue, from wan, declining green,
To sooty dark.'"

The lines had a strange charm to one who had lived in darkness through
so many revolving years. Mr. Belamour eagerly thanked his friend, and on
the offer to lend him the book, begged that it might be ordered for him,
and that any other new and interesting work might be sent to him that
was suitable to the fair lips on which he was dependent.

"You are secure with Mr. Thomson," said the Doctor. "Hear the conclusion
of his final hymn."