ll scarcely be requisite
to describe more particularly the effect of this precious dinner party
upon _him_. As for the lady, she would not have been woman had she failed
to admire the generous sentiments--the witty repartees--the brilliant
passages with which the young man's taste and memory enabled him to
entertain and charm his lovely hostess. As for his handsome face and manly
bearing--but, as we have said already, these have their price and value
always. Allcraft senior had the remarkable faculty of observing every
thing either with or without the assistance of his eyes. During the whole
of dinner he did not once withdraw his devil's vision from his plate, and
yet he knew more of what was going on above it than both the individuals
together, whose eyes it seemed had nothing better to do than just to take
full notes of what was passing in the countenance of either. Against this
happy talent we must set off a serious failing in the character of Abraham.
He always had a nap, he said, the moment after dinner. Accordingly, though
he retired with the young people to the drawing-room, he placed himself
immediately in an easy-chair, and quickly passed into a deep and
long-enduring sleep. Margaret then played sacred airs on the piano, which
Michael listened to with most unsacred feelings. Fathers and mothers! put
out your children's eyes--remove their toes--cut off their fingers. Whilst
with a lightning look, a hair-breadth touch, they can declare, make known
the love, that, having grown too big for the young heart, is panting for a
vent--you do but lose your pains whilst you stand by to seal their
tremulous lips. Speech! Fond lovers did never need it yet--and never shall.
What Margaret thought when the impassioned youth turned her pages over one
by one, (and sometimes two and three together,) and with a hand quivering
as if it had committed murder--what she felt when his full liquid eye
gazed on her, thanking her for her sweet voice, and imploring one strain
more, I cannot tell, though Abraham Allcraft guessed exactly, bobbing and
nodding, though he was, in slumber most profound.

Your talking and susceptible men are either at summer heat or zero.
Michael, who had been all animation and garrulity from the moment he
beheld the widow until he looked his last unutterable adieus, became
silent and morose as soon as he turned his back upon the cottage, and lost
sight, as he believed, of the divinity for ever. He screwed himself in