the search in person. But all came to the
same result as before, save that by the descriptions he heard of the
person--the dress--the tears, of the young female who had accompanied
the men supposed to be Darvil and Walters, he was satisfied that Alice
yet lived; he hoped she might yet escape and return. In that hope he
lingered for weeks--for months, in the neighbourhood; but time passed
and no tidings.... He was forced at length to quit a neighbourhood
at once so saddened and endeared. But he secured a friend in the
magistrate, who promised to communicate with him if Alice returned, or
her father was discovered. He enriched Mrs. Jones for life, in gratitude
for her vindication of his lost and early love; he promised the amplest
rewards for the smallest clue. And with a crushed and desponding spirit,
he obeyed at last the repeated and anxious summons of the guardian to
whose care, until his majority was attained, the young orphan was now
entrusted.

CHAPTER XII.

"Sure there are poets that did never dream
Upon Parnassus."--DENHAM.

"Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age
Come tittering on, and shove you from the stage."--POPE.

"Hence to repose your trust in me was wise."
DRYDEN'S _Absalom and Achitophel_.

MR. FREDERICK CLEVELAND, a younger son of the Earl of Byrneham, and
therefore entitled to the style and distinction of "Honourable," was the
guardian of Ernest Maltravers. He was now about the age of forty-three;
a man of letters and a man of fashion, if the last half-obsolete
expression be permitted to us, as being at least more classical and
definite than any other which modern euphuism has invented to convey the
same meaning. Highly educated, and with natural abilities considerably
above mediocrity, Mr. Cleveland early in life had glowed with the
ambition of an author.... He had written well and gracefully--but his
success, though respectable, did not satisfy his aspirations. The
fact is, that a new school of literature ruled the public, despite the
critics--a school very different from that in which Mr. Cleveland formed
his unimpassioned and polished periods. And as that old Earl, who in the
time of Charles the First was the reigning wit of the court, in the time
of Charles the Second was considered too dull even for a butt, so
every age has its own literary stamp and coinage, and consigns the
old circulation to its shelves and cabinets as neglected curiosities.
Cleveland could not become