bouche. Well, the roof leaked, and presto! when I
rose I found my watch swimming in water--your watch-paper all soaked
and torn--that is to say, my fingers tore it; and a dozen minuets I
had bought for you shared the same fate, not to mention my
jemmy-worked garters! My ill luck was complete--_me miserum_!"

"Was it at college?"

"Oh no," said Sir Asinus; "you know I am temporarily absent from the
_Alma Mater_."

"Indeed!"

"Yes. I have taken up my residence in town--in Gloucester street,
where I am always happy to see my friends. Just imagine a man
persecuted by the professors of the great University of William and
Mary for the reason I was."

"What was it?"

"Because I uttered some heresies. I said the Established Church was a
farce, and that women, contrary to the philosophy of antiquity, really
had souls. The great Doctor could pardon my fling at the church; but
being an old woman himself, could not pardon my even seeming to revive
the discussion of the heresy in relation to your sex. What was the
consequence? I had to flee--the enemy went about to destroy me; behold
me now the denizen of a second floor in old Mother Bobbery's house,
Gloucester street, city of Williamsburg."

"Rusticating you call it, I think," says Belle-bouche, smiling
languidly, and raising her brow to catch the faint May breeze which
moves her curls.

"Yes; rusticating is the very word--derived from _rus_, a Latin word
signifying _main street_, and _tike_, a Greek word meaning to _live in
bachelor freedom_. It applies to me exactly, you see. I live in
bachelor freedom on Gloucester street, and I only want a wife to make
my happiness complete."

Belle-bouche smiles.

"You are then dissatisfied?" she says.

"Yes," sighs Sir Asinus; "yes, in spite of my pipes and books and
pictures, and all appliances and means to boot for happiness, I am
lonely. Now suppose I had a charming little wife--a paragon of a wife,
with blue eyes and golden curls, and a sweet languishing air, to chat
with in the long days and gloomy evenings!"

Belle-bouche recognises her portrait, and smiles.

Sir Asinus continues:

"Not only would I be happier, but more at my ease. To tell you the
humiliating truth, my dear Miss Belle-bouche, I am in hourly fear of
being arrested."

"Would a wife prevent that?"

"Certainly. What base proctor would dare lay hands upon a married man?
But this all disappears like a vision--it is a dream: _fuit Ilium,
ingens gloria T