u to believe that he felt as you or I might or ought to feel the
tender passion. I do not seek to persuade you that the object of his
affection, mingled with all his thoughts, swayed them and etherealized
them; that she was the theme of many a heart-woven story, the heroine
of many an ecstatic dream: still she was one who could elicit from
that nature, in all its selfishness, little traits of generous feeling,
little bursts of honest sentiment, that made him appear better to his
own heart. And so far has the adage truth with it, virtue is its own
reward, in the conscious sense of well doing, in the peaceful calm of an
unrepining spirit, and, not least of all, in that sympathy which good
men so readily bestow upon even faint efforts to win their suffrage.

And so he sobbed out something that meant grief and gratitude; hope,
fear, and uncertainty--worse than fear--all agitating and distracting
him by turns.

Very little time did Grog give himself for calmer reflection; away he
went at full speed to sketch out their future life. They were to make
the tour of Europe, winning all before them. All the joyous part,
all the splendor of equipage, retinue, mode of life, and outlay being
dictated by Beecher; all the more business detail, the play and the
money-getting, devolving upon Davis. Baden, Ems, Wiesbaden, Hamburg, and
Aix,--all glowed in the descriptions like fields of foretold glory. How
they were to outshine Princes in magnificence and Royal Highnesses in
display; the envy of Beecher, of his unvarying luck; the splendor of all
his belongings; Lizzy's beauty, tool What a page would he fill in the
great gossip calendar of Europe!

Well Davis knew how to feed the craving vanity of that weak nature,
whose most ardent desire was to be deemed cunning and sharp, the
cautious reserve of prudent men in his company being a tribute to
his acuteness, the dearest his heart could covet Oh, if he longed for
anything as success, it was for a time when his coming would spread a
degree of terror at a play-table, and men would rise rather than risk
their fortune against _his!_ Should such a moment ever be his? Was that
great triumph ever to befall him? And all this as the husband of Lizzy
Davis!

"Ay!" said Grog, as he read and traced each succeeding emotion in that
transparent nature,--"ay! that's what may be called life; and when we
've done Europe, smashed every bank on the Continent, we 'll cross the
Atlantic, and give Jonathan a '