distinctly to hear. As I approached nearer to him which I did with
no very pleasant sensations, a large black dog, which, till then, had
remained couchant, sprung towards me with a loud growl,

"'Sonat hic de nare canina Litera,'

as Persius has it. I was too terrified to move--

"'Obstupui--steteruntque comae--'

and I should most infallibly have been converted into dog's meat, if our
mutual acquaintance had not started from his reverie, called his dog by
the very appropriate name of Terror, and then slouching his hat over his
face, passed rapidly by me, dog and all. I did not recover the fright
for an hour and a quarter. I walked--ye gods, how I did walk--no wonder,
by the by, that I mended my pace, for as Pliny says truly: 'Timor est
emendator asperrimus.'"

Mr. Wormwood had been very impatient during this recital, preparing an
attack upon Lord Vincent, when Mr. Davison entering suddenly, diverted
the assault.

"Good God!" said Wormwood, dropping his roll, "how very ill you look
to-day, Mr. Davison; face flushed--veins swelled--oh, those horrid
truffles! Miss Trafford, I'll trouble you for the salt."

CHAPTER V.

Be she fairer than the day, Or the flowery meads in May; If she be not
so to me, What care I how fair she be?--George Withers.

It was a great pity, so it was, That villainous saltpetre should be
digged Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, Which many a good tall
fellow had destroyed.--First Part of King Henry IV.

Several days passed. I had taken particular pains to ingratiate myself
with Lady Roseville, and so far as common acquaintance went, I had
no reason to be dissatisfied with my success. Any thing else, I soon
discovered, notwithstanding my vanity, (which made no inconsiderable
part in the composition of Henry Pelham) was quite out of the question.
Her mind was wholly of a different mould from my own. She was like a
being, not perhaps of a better, but of another world than myself; we
had not one thought or opinion in common; we looked upon things with a
totally different vision; I was soon convinced that she was of a nature
exactly contrary to what was generally believed--she was any thing but
the mere mechanical woman of the world. She possessed great sensibility,
and even romance of temper, strong passions, and still stronger
imagination; but over all these deeper recesses of her character, the
extreme softness and languor of her manners, threw a veil which no
superficial obs