friended, has not degraded
me, and avow myself to her! Yet how much better to dignify the name
I have assumed than to owe respect only to that which I have not been
deemed worthy to inherit! Well, well, these are bitter thoughts; let me
turn to others. How beautiful Flora looked last night! and, he--he--but
enough of this: I must dress, and then to Talbot."

Muttering these wayward fancies, Clarence rose, completed his toilet,
sent for his horses, and repaired to a village about seven miles
from London, where Talbot, having yielded to Clarence's fears and
solicitations, and left his former insecure tenement, now resided under
the guard and care of an especial and private watchman.

It was a pretty, quiet villa, surrounded by a plantation and
pleasure-ground of some extent for a suburban residence, in which the
old philosopher (for though in some respects still frail and prejudiced,
Talbot deserved that name) held his home. The ancient servant, on
whom four years had passed lightly and favouringly, opened the door to
Clarence, with his usual smile of greeting and familiar yet respectful
salutation, and ushered our hero into a room, furnished with the usual
fastidious and rather feminine luxury which characterized Talbot's
tastes. Sitting with his back turned to the light, in a large
easy-chair, Clarence found the wreck of the once gallant, gay Lothario.

There was not much alteration in his countenance since we last saw him;
the lines, it is true, were a little more decided, and the cheeks
a little more sunken; but the dark eye beamed with all its wonted
vivacity, and the delicate contour of the mouth preserved all its
physiognomical characteristics of the inward man. He rose with somewhat
more difficulty than he was formerly wont to do, and his limbs had lost
much of their symmetrical proportions; yet the kind clasp of his hand
was as firm and warm as when it had pressed that of the boyish attache
four years since; and the voice which expressed his salutation yet
breathed its unconquered suavity and distinctness of modulation. After
the customary greetings and inquiries were given and returned, the young
man drew his chair near to Talbot's, and said,--

"You sent for me, dear sir; have you anything more important than usual
to impart to me?--or--and I hope this is the case--have you at last
thought of any commission, however trifling, in the execution of which I
can be of use?"

"Yes, Clarence, I wish your judgment