, and divided his thoughts between Lucy Brandon and the homard
au gratin with which he proposed to console him self immediately on
his return home. However, Fate, which mocks our most cherished hopes,
ordained that on arriving at Mauleverer Park the owner should be
suddenly afflicted with a loss of appetite, a coldness in the limbs, a
pain in the chest, and various other ungracious symptoms of portending
malady. Lord Mauleverer went straight to bed; he remained there for some
days, and when he recovered his physicians ordered him to Bath. The Whig
Methodists, who hated him, ascribed his illness to Providence; and his
lordship was firmly of opinion that it should be ascribed to the beef
and pudding. However this be, there was an end, for the present, to
the hopes of young ladies of forty, and to the intended festivities at
Mauleverer Park.

"Good heavens!" said the earl, as his carriage wheels turned from his
gates, "what a loss to country tradesmen may be occasioned by a piece of
underdone beef, especially if it be boiled!"

About a fortnight had elapsed since Mauleverer's meteoric visit to
Warlock House, when the squire received from his brother the following
epistle:--

MY DEAR JOSEPH,--You know my numerous avocations, and, amid the
press of business which surrounds me, will, I am sure, forgive me
for being a very negligent and remiss correspondent. Nevertheless,
I assure you, no one can more sincerely sympathize in that good
fortune which has befallen my charming niece, and of which your last
letter informed me, than I do. Pray give my best love to her, and
tell her how complacently I look forward to the brilliant sensation
she will create, when her beauty is enthroned upon that rank which,
I am quite sure, it will one day or other command.

You are not aware, perhaps, my dear Joseph, that I have for some
time been in a very weak and declining state of health. The old
nervous complaint in my face has of late attacked me grievously, and
the anguish is sometimes so great that I am scarcely able to bear
it. I believe the great demand which my profession makes upon a
frame of body never strong, and now beginning prematurely to feel
the infirmities of time, is the real cause of my maladies. At last,
however, I must absolutely punish my pocket, and indulge my
inclinations by a short respite from toil. The doctors--sworn