s of his temper. But in this instance he had other motives
than those on the surface for unusual perseverance.

A man like Jasper Losely never reposes implicit confidence in any one.
He is garrulous, indiscreet; lets out much that Machiavel would have
advised him not to disclose: but he invariably has nooks and corners
in his mind which he keeps to himself. Jasper did not confide to his
adopted mother his designs upon his intended bride. But she knew them
through Poole, to whom he was more frank; and when she saw him looking
over her select and severe library, taking therefrom the "Polite
Letter-Writer" and the "Elegant Extracts," Mrs. Crane divined at once
that Jasper Losely was meditating the effect of epistolary seduction
upon the widow of Gloucester Place.

Jasper did not write a bad love-letter in the florid style. He had at
his command, in especial, certain poetical quotations, the effect of
which repeated experience had assured him to be as potent upon the
female breast as the incantations or carmina of the ancient sorcery. The
following in particular,

"Had I a heart for falsehood framed,
I neer could injure you."

Another, generally to be applied when confessing that his career
had been interestingly wild, and would, if pity were denied him, be
pathetically short,

"When he who adores thee has left but the name
Of his faults and his follies behind."

Armed with these quotations, many a sentence from the "Polite
Letter-Writer" or the "Elegant Extracts," and a quire of rose-edged
paper, Losely sat down to Ovidian composition.

But as he approached the close of epistle the first, it occurred to
him that a signature and address were necessary. The address was
not difficult. He could give Poole's (hence his confidence to that
gentleman): Poole had a lodging in Bury Street, St. James's, a
fashionable locality for single men. But the name required more
consideration. There were insuperable objections against signing his own
to any person who might be in communication with Mr. Darrell; a pity,
for there was a good old family of the name of Losely. A name of
aristocratic sound might indeed be readily borrowed from any lordly
proprietor thereof without asking a formal consent. But this loan was
exposed to danger. Mrs. Haughton might very naturally mention such name,
as borne by her husband's friend, to Colonel Morley; and Colonel Morley
would most probably know enough of the co