ledger open on the desk, while that grave functionary explained to me the duties I was expected to discharge. Lamps were lighted through the apartment, but even with the aid supplied by them, it was still gloomy and dingy, the lurid flame casting its dull light over the countenances of the clerks seated at the desks, and on those who kept continually making their entries and exits, as well as on the heaps of golden coin, which the cashier was serving out with a sort of shovel, to meet the demands of the several busy-looking men, who presented checks to him. Every one appeared intent on business; even Bingly seemed to forget the pleasures of half-price attendance at the theatre; Thomas and Wilson looked as if they never had devoted an evening to a novel; and Murdoch and Burton forgot the fascination of chess, while, with spectacles on nose, they looked over unwieldy books, and made entries in them.

At ten o'clock the partners, or the firm, as Mrs. Chatterton loved to designate them, took their station in an inner room, each seated before a desk, and deeply interested in the perusal of the morning papers. Into this sanctum only the privileged customers of the house were admitted; and a tolerably accurate guess of the state of his banking-book might be made, from the coldness or cordiality with which each visitor was greeted, as well as by the politeness, or brusquerie, of the individual himself. Though a novice, I was soon enabled to form a conclusion that the civilest, best dressed, and most gentlemanlike-looking men, were not those who received the most attention from the Messrs. Allison and Finsbury; and that these gentlemen, in turn, were treated with much less politeness by certain plainly dressed, stern-looking men, chiefly of the ages of from fifty to sixty, who walked unceremoniously into the sanctum, excluded the view of the fire from the partners, by standing with their backs turned to it and kept their hats on, according to English practice. The creaking of the ever-opening door, the hum of voices, the frequent coughs, and still more frequent half-suppressed yawns and sneezes, the rattling of money, and the sounds of a multiplicity of pens scratching the paper they were inditing, never ceased for a moment; while, from a distance, came the mingled noises peculiar to the eastern portion of the modern Babylon; all of which produced a sensation of dulness and drowsiness on my spirits, that I felt it difficult to repel.

At five o'clock came the accustomed reprieve, and gladly did I welcome it, though the society assembled in Mrs. Chatterton's room offered little to interest or amuse me. The dinner table presented precisely the same aspect as on the previous day, the only difference being, that a voluminous leg of boiled mutton usurped the place previously assigned to the beef.

Dinuer being concluded, I sought the privacy of my chamber, for the purpose of writing to my benefactor, Mr. Mortimer, and also to my father. So great and sudden had been the change in my mode of life within the last forty-eight hours, that I felt as if weeks, nay months, had elapsed since I had left the country. All was new and strange to me, while the habits of those among whom I found myself tlirown, seemed to be as little changed by my presence, as if a new piece of furniture, instead of a new companion had been introduced into the chamber.

There was something dispiriting in the consciousness of this indifference, -a consciousness experienced more or less by every individual on first entering a circle of strangers, but more especially a circle in which the politeness and good-breeding peculiar to polished society is not known, and the absence of which leaves the natural egotism of men more openly exposed. I gave a sigh to the recollection of my late happy home, and remembered, with a lively sense of gratitude, the cordial kindness ever extended towards me by Percy Mortimer. A summons to tea interrupted the pensive reverie in which, after having sealed my letters, I indulged.

The large, well ventilated, and comfortable apartment, surrounded with well filled bookcases, in which my friend Percy, his preceptor and myself, were wont to pursue our studies, was brought before my mind's eye. The pleasant conversation that followed our readings, and the observations that illustrated them, recurred vividly to my memory, and when the knock at my door recalled me to the actual present, the contrast it presented saddened me..

The evening meal being despatched, and the inmates of Mrs. Chatterton's apartment having resumed their usual occupations, I felt as wholly alone as if I were the sole occupant. But I was not long suffered to remain in the state of abstraction into which I had fallen; for, with the good-nature peculiar to women, and which even in the humble class to which Mrs. Chatterton appertained, is seldom lost sight of, that good person, looking up from her interminable knitting, beckoned me to draw nearer to her side.

"You seem mopish like, Mr. Richard," said she. “And no wonder. Ah! I can feel for you, that I can, at finding yourself among total strangers. Every one experiences this at first, but some how or other, one gets used to it at last; and then (though you will hardly believe this at present) one gets so accustomed to the place and people with whom one lives, that when one goes back to where one spent one's youthful days, it seems more strange than the place one left."

"He's in for it, I'll be blessed if he a'int !" said Wilson to Tho

mas, in a voice audible to every individual in the room, except the deaf Mrs. Chatterton.

"Yes, I give him joy of the long story," answered Thomas, and both tittered as they resumed their well-thumbed novels.

"Well, Mr. Richard, I wasn't always as you see me now," said Mrs. Chatterton, clearing her throat in a manner that indicated a preparation for a long story. "No, Mr. Richard; I was as brisk and lively a girl as you'd see in a day's walk, and in our village of Buttermuth-did you ever hear of Buttermuth, in Hertfordshire?"

A nod of dissent on my part supplied the place of words.

"Well,--I'm sure I wonder it is not more generally known, -folk used to say that there was not many girls like Lucy Mildred. My name was Lucy Mildred before I married, for I was called after my grand-aunt, as good a woman as could be found in all Hertfordshire. I always loved Buttermuth, and every tree and hedge in it, as if they were living creatures. Ay, Mr. Richard! and I loved the people too, even old cross Dame Parsons, as she used to be called, who never allowed a single creature to come within reach of her, without giving him, or her, advice. Often and often used she to stop me to tell me what to do, and what to leave undone; and sure enough it was very tiresome, especially when I was in a hurry; and most of the young folk used to run away from her, and tell her to keep her lectures for the long days, but I never did so, but used to wait patiently and thank her, though I thought that she must have nothing to amuse her, or she would not pass all her time in giving advice, moreover when so few would listen, and still fewer would follow it. There couldn't be a merrier girl than I was, when just as I turned nineteen, my mother got a letter from a sister she had in London, saying that her husband having died, and she having no children, and being well to do in the world like, she wished to have one of her nieces sent up to keep her company. Betsy, my eldest sister, had been some time married, so she could not go, and Sarah was engaged to be married in a few months, so father and mother thought it best to send me, though the notion of parting with me, made them very sad. From the moment I heard I was to go I became fonder of my father, mother, and sisters, than ever I had been before, though, God knows, I always loved them dearly; and as for the place, I looked on every tree and flower with regret, for I thought I'd be far away when the leaves were falling, and that I couldn't be there to rejoice when they came out fresh and beautiful again in the spring. The very birds seemed like friends; and many a tear I shed when I bade good-bye to those I had known since I was born, but above all,

to my parents and sisters. When I took leave of Dame Parsons. she blessed me. You were always a good girl, Lucy Mildred,' said she, and were never in a hurry, like all the other foolish girls in the village, who never will wait to hear a word of advice, Take this guinea, and with it my counsel never to do any thing in haste???

"The old un has attended to the counsel," said Wilson.

Always listen to your elders, and never think you don't want advice.'

"I'd have filled the coach had I put into it all the presents that were made me by the neighbours-cakes, oranges, apples, pincushions, purses, and ribbons,-but I'm anticipating my departure.

"When I awoke the morning I was to leave home,-I had cried myself to sleep the night before, and heard the cock crowing, and thought that I should no more be awakened by the sound, I began to weep afresh; and when I looked on Sarah, who was asleep by my side, and saw the tears were still on her eye-lashes, I felt as if my heart would break. And the bright daylight was shining through the white dimity curtains, and the dew was sparkling on the honeysuckle and roses that grew against the casement, and the old walnut-tree chest of drawers, that I had so often rubbed, looked as polished as Mr. Bingly's boots-oh! I felt a love even to the poor old furniture, every article of which, even now though fifty-six years are passed since then, appeared to me as dear friends, from whom it was pain to part. The sobs I could not restrain, awoke Sarah. For a moment she looked surprised; but then came the recollection that we were to part, and she fell on my shoulder and wept.

"How I should like, dear sister,' said she, 'to see the chamber in which you are to sleep in your new home-the bed, the pattern of the paper, the curtains, and even the tables, chairs, and chest of drawers-for then I could fancy every thing about and around you. You will know at certain hours that I am in our old room, thinking of you, looking at all the objects familiar to our eyes since we were little children, all of which will remind me of you, and this is some comfort; but until you write me every particular about your room, I sha'n't know how to picture you to myself in your new abode,' and poor Sarah's tears broke out afresh. "But there is one way, dear sister,' said she, 'by which we can be together, in spirit at least, and that is by kneeling, down, night and morning, at the same hour to pray, as we have been used to do from our infancy. Promise me that you will never forget to do this, for it will be my greatest consolation when you are far away.'

"I promised, and we knelt down that moment and prayed; and, though the tears streamed down our cheeks, we felt consoled. Prayers are blessed things, Mr. Richard, for young and old. They often comforted me in my youth; and now, when age has laid its heavy hand on me, they lighten my spirits."

"What a spoony the fellow must be," whispered Wilson to Thomas, "to listen to old Mother Chatterton's twaddle." "Ay, ay, but he'll soon be too wise for that," answered Thomas.

"Yes, Mr. Richard," resumed the old woman, " prayers are indeed blessed things, for they lead our minds to the absent, to the dead; and those we have mourned for do not seem quite lost it is while we are praying for them that we have the liveliest hope of meeting them again."

:

CHAPTER IV.

"BUT to go back to my story," resumed Mrs. Chatterton, the next evening.-"At last the stage-coach stopped at the Black Bear, which was but a short distance from our cottage, and the horn sounded to tell us we must part, and we all arose, and embraced each other over and over again, and my mother and sisters accompanied me to the coach-office. How many times did my poor mother tell the coachman and the guard to take care of me; though sister Betsy expressed her wonder at such fears, and declared that she would be very glad to undertake a journey of twice the length, and by herself; for what could happen in a good stage-coach, and with a steady driver? Betsy was always a very different person from Sarah, and not half so much liked by the family; neither did she show much affection to any of us, being wholly taken up with her husband, and a slave to her love of good eating.

"How anxiously my dear mother looked at the three passengers who were already seated in the coach, and expressed her hopes that they would be kind to her poor child. Many of the neighbours came to see me off, and each brought some little token of regard. My mother and sisters clasped me in their arms by turns, until the guard hurried me into the coach, and in a minute more it rattled off, while I stretched forth my head from the window, and saw the dear ones I had left, standing on the same spot, weeping bitterly. Is it not strange, Mr. Richard, that I can remember that moment as well as if it happened an hour ago, though many things that only occurred a few years back have escaped my recollection?-Is it not strange?

"Don't take on so, young woman,' said an old man with a