has the wery indulgent privilege of takin' a mornin' walk, and breathin' the fresh air within these 'ere railings."

He then drew back the screeching barrier of what was a kind of exaggerated iron cage, which covered in some eight or ten paces by three or four. This was termed a yard, to perambulate which was the distinguished privilege of the prisoner.

Keys, and bolts, and locks again jingled and clattered, and clashed, and a huge, oaken, iron-nailed door harshly grated on its hinges. And such was the present abode of the recent volatile and fashionable Inglis, alias Jemmy Jingles! This apartment could not be more than ten feet square. It was dimly lighted by two small iron-bound windows, and one of these could be opened by pulling a string at the inmate's pleasure, and thus admit the fresh air. There was no fireplace, and the only articles of furniture were a small deal table, one chair, and a narrow iron bedstead, which ranged along one side of the room. Had our friend Mr. Meek been there, he might, worthy man, in his

wonted language of biblical illustration, have made the passing observation, that the prisoner's couch was not quite so capacious as the iron bed of Og, King of Bashanultimus gigantium-which meted out nine cubits by four. Its present occupant did not stretch himself upon eider down, nor was there anything in the semblance of those snowy counterpanes which Letitia's housewife administration had provided at Elleringay. A pallet of clean and neatly arranged straw, with a couple of scanty coverings, were all the articles to woo Morpheus, and induce the brief and blissful moments of forgetfulness. On the table stood a pitcher of water, and by it lay three books-the Bible, Milton, and Shakspeare. When the surly bolts reluctantly slid back, the reader laid down the volume he had but a few moments before taken up. It was Milton, and strange enough he had just come to that passage Samson Agonistes, where the blind old man in the prison of Gaza is allowed on a feast day to retire into a secluded nook, and breathe the air of heaven, under the watchful

in

glance of a surveillante, and where he, in the bitterness of his soul, exclaims,

"Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
Of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone
But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times past, what once I was, and what am now."

When the door was thrown open and a better light admitted, the fretful feverishness of the immured, was in his facial mirror legibly reflected. A slight electric shiver ran through his frame, and his own sank beneath the gaze of Gideon's eye. Dressed in the course garb of prison attire, his once boasted locks closely shorn by the coiffeur in ordinary, and looking worn, pale, haggard; after being deprived of generous fare, and "potations strong and deep," what a spectacle he presented-he the recent elegant loiterer in Pall Mall-the distingué clubbistic lounger -the gay floater over the glassy rapids of pleasure the spirit that sailed over the surface of society with butterfly wings, sipping the nectar, and the sweets from

every blushing flower in the world's parterre as he fluttered over it!

"My dear fellow how fare you?" asked Gideon pathetically, and at the same time putting out his hand and cordially clutching James' clammy palm.

Cheer up James, cheer up-nothing so bad but it might have been worse," was the pithy apothegm of the large and generoushearted man-mountain.

The prisoner essayed to put on a smilealas! it was an abortive attempt. The forced play of his lips was not in unison with the hidden workings of his bosom.

"Have you been to the bank?" somewhat wildly asked Inglis.

do

"I've not been in London an hour, and you for an instant suppose that I should go on any business matters ere seeing you ?" "What of the markets? cochineal and tobacco up?"

"Your father-in-law is not very likely to have bothered himself with lists and prices. Poor man-so much trouble could not fail to dispel all mercantile associations," replied

Abel, who felt not a little astonished at these now irrelevant interrogatives.

The visitors for some time sat on the side of the bed, and Gideon answered a host of questions relative to the despondent Letitia, whom James had loved more since his disaster by a thousand fold, than he had ever done before. Love! he had never felt that tender and pure passion until now. In the long and silent watchings of his cell, his soul had put on sackcloth and ashes for the injustice, the infidelity of his previous conduct towards so worthy a woman. Adversity and trial, aye and shame in him, had evinced an affection in her which his own cold heart had never for an instant experienced. He now had become convinced that he possessed a treasure, more enviable than the gems of Golconda-that which millions-empires-could not purchase, the devotion of a human heart!