"you and B. have often
asked me to do so. I beg you to do so no more. I have private reasons
for declining to follow your advice." His voice slightly faltered. His
"private reasons" have already been adverted to--they were, his tender
love for one whom he would not shock by showing himself to her in the
rapid progress of decay! From that day I never saw the semblance of a
smile upon his face, nor any appearance of emotion, but only of solemn
thoughtfulness. A few days afterwards I said to him, "Well, if it be the
will of God that you should never return to your profession, it is
certainly consolatory for you to reflect how great a reputation you
justly enjoy at the bar, and in how short a time you have gained it.
Your name will live." He made no answer for some minutes, but shook his
head, and then said, "I have done nothing worthy of being remembered
for; but you are very kind for saying so." Even after this, the mail
every now and then brought him fresh "papers" from town; and Miss ----,
the daughter of the landlady, and who attended him with the utmost
solicitude, one evening burst into tears, as she showed me a fresh
packet; adding, "It is really heart-breaking to have to take them in to
him: he is so weak that he feels a difficulty in even opening them!" It
was so, indeed! The two old friends whom he had named as executors, came
down to St. Leonards two or three times, and spent several days with
him. As the time for our family's return to town approached, he
evidently regarded it with uneasiness, and almost daily said, "Must you
_really_ go by the 15th?... And ---- is also going before that: then I
shall be left quite alone, and shall certainly feel dull." A friend of
mine, a lady, who resides near St. Leonards, having requested me to
introduce her to him, in order that when we were gone she might come
and see him, I asked him if he would allow me to do so? "Indeed," said
he, faintly, and with a slight flush, "I should not only feel it a
compliment, but extremely kind." The lady in question accordingly drove
down very kindly almost daily, bringing him grapes and flowers, which he
said he felt to be a very delicate attention: and so anxious was he to
evince his sense of her courtesy, that he insisted on driving, when very
feeble, on a bleak day, to leave a card at the lady's residence, nearly
three miles off, with his own hand. When I took my leave of him, he
seemed, I thought, a little moved; but said calmly, "If th