ce as a warning of Providence that marriage will
not suit you.' I began to be of the same opinion;--but then there was
the jointure. To be sure, I was to give up tobacco; and perhaps I should
not be as free to ramble about as when en garcon. So taking all things
into consideration, I ordered in another bottle of burgundy, to drink
Mrs. Ram's health--got my passport vised for Barege--and set out for the
Pyrenees the same evening."

"And have you never heard any thing more of the lady?" said Mrs. Bingham.

"Oh, yes. She was faithful to the last; for I found out when at Rome
last winter that she had offered a reward for me in the newspapers, and
indeed had commenced a regular pursuit of me through the whole continent.
And to tell the real fact, I should not now fancy turning my steps
towards Paris, if I had not very tolerable information that she is in
full cry after me through the Wengen Alps, I having contrived a paragraph
in Galignani, to seduce her thither, and where, with the blessing of
Providence, if the snow set in early, she must pass the winter."

CHAPTER XXVII.

PARIS.

Nothing more worthy of recording occurred before our arrival at Meurice
on the third day of our journey. My friend O'Leary had, with his usual
good fortune, become indispensable to his new acquaintance, and it was
not altogether without some little lurking discontent that I perceived
how much less often my services were called in request since his having
joined our party; his information, notwithstanding its very scanty
extent, was continually relied upon, and his very imperfect French
everlastingly called into requisition to interpret a question for the
ladies. Yes, thought I, "Othello's occupation's gone;" one of two things
has certainly happened, either Mrs. Bingham and her daughter have noticed
my continued abstraction of mind, and have attributed it to the real
cause, the pre-occupation of my affections; or thinking, on the other
hand, that I am desperately in love with one or other of them, have
thought that a little show of preference to Mr. O'Leary may stimulate me
to a proposal at once. In either case I resolved to lose no time in
taking my leave, which there could be no difficulty in doing now, as the
ladies had reached their intended destination, and had numerous friends
in Paris to advise and assist them; besides that I had too long neglected
the real object of my trip, and should lose no time in finding out the
Call