self of a few moments to look into the dissecting room. There I saw enough, in the means and appliances about me, to revolt at the position in which I had placed myself, but from which I could not now withdraw without awkwardness. The disjecta membra of more than one subject were visible; and, notwithstanding the noisomeness of the apartment, several long-haired youths, who had their sleeves rolled up as if fresh from some task of scientific butchery, were munching peanuts, or ever and anon biting a mouthful from a but. tered biscuit, which was as coolly taken up and replaced upon the corner of the table as if it had never been appropriated to another use. To such a table we now advanced upon returning to the ana. tomical theatre, where a figure that lay in the midst of it was par. tially disclosed to view. A clean white sheet had been decently disposed so as to veil the face and a portion of the body; but the white and taper limbs, not less than the long yellow locks from which an uncouth country student was clipping a tress to tie up his braces with, indicated that the subject was a female, and probably one of those unfortunates with which the prisons used at that time to furnish the college. The presence of Dr. introduced a little more order into this assemblage, all of which, save those who were to assist him in the demonstration, retired from the table, and seating themselves upon the benches, listened in silence to his exordium. It was a noble appeal, setting forth the dignity of his science in eloquent though general terms, and claiming a philanthropic tendency for the particular investigation upon which he was about to enter. He glanced then at the bearing which the progress of physiology might have upon the researches of metaphysics, and threw in some religious allusions upon the mystic nature of that living principle which escaped beneath the knife of the anatomist just as he was tracing it to its seat. The expressive countenance of Brashleigh showed that he was absorbed in the speaker. He followed every gesture with his eyes, which seemed animated with enthusiasm for the scientific researches that claimed his attention. Suddenly, however, I observed a still brighter light shoot from them, followed instantly by a dull leaden gaze. His face became pale as death; his plaistic features, rigid and motionless; and within a minute after the professor had withdrawn the flimsy covering from the subject, my unhappy friend sank upon the floor as inanimate as the dead body before him. "Open that window," cried one; "he faints from the closeness of the room.' "Psha! he's only queasy, as all are at first," said another; "throw a glass of water in his face ;" and Brashleigh, rallying the moment that the last prescription was had recourse to, his weakness was ascribed to a very common cause, and the lecturer proceeded. 1 could not account, however, for the strong though suppressed agitation with which my philosophic friend watched his movements; some hidden torture seemed gnawing at his heart, and upon the first incision of the knife into the fair bosom before him, a deep moan escaped from his own, so deep and so unearthly that many started, deeming it had escaped from a spirit but now enfranchised, and that some spark of life yet remaining in the subject had been extinguished by the hand of the lecturer. Thrice thus did Brashleigh faint, and at each time he resumed his place in spite of all persuasions to leave the room; and though the muscles of his face actually twitched in agony, still did he fix a cold, unblenching eye upon the table; and only retired in haste from the assemblage when Dr. himself left the room. I dare not surmise the cause of this singular exhibition of strong feeling and wonderful self-control. That which was whispered by a few never went beyond the walls of the college, and is too awful now to dwell upon. When next I saw Brashleigh, the pallor aris. ing from a violent attack of brain fever was heightened by the deep mourning which he wore for a cherished young female relative, who had died quite unexpectedly at a village near New-York, a few days preceding his own illness! * * * * A Such was the singular and powerful character of the man whom I could boast as the closest and most intimate of my friends. relation which was now to be endangered by our standing toward each other in the most painful position that a man can occupy toward his friend. Brashleigh had been privy to the whole of my affair with the ill-fated Calanthé, and had exerted his influence over me to the utmost to cut short the entanglement at its commencement; he there. fore never dreamed of my having a more serious attachment, or rather, so perfect was the confidence existing between us, he could not conceive of my feelings being much interested upon any subject without his being made aware of it. He thus often visited with me at Mr. Ashley's, but had no suspicion of the complexion which my attentions in the family had taken. The guarded mien I observed before others had shut even my friend's eyes upon what was passing beneath them, while the frank and cordial manner of Gertrude toward the friend of her lover was misconstrued for a reciprocation of the partiality which he soon began to feel for her. For my own part, I have sometimes blamed myself for not sooner imparting my whole confidence to Brashleigh; but then I could not have exhibited the frankness of friendship toward him without violating the delicacy of true affection toward another. Had the tacit understanding which existed between me and Gertrude been an actual betrothal, my friend should certainly have shared my se. cret. But it would give unnecessary pain to both of us for me to communicate that I was his rival without at the same time showing him the relative ground upon which we stood; and that, so far from acting the base part of trying but now to supplant him, I had received proofs of affection from Gertrude before he had begun to address her. Such proofs, I have already said, I could not show. The gossamer threads by which I would fain believe the heart of that delicate girl was bound to mine, were so shadowy that I myself could scarce define them. The ties between us were such as I knew a soul upright as her's would feel ever to be binding; yet had I presumed to found upon them a distinct and acknowledged claim to her hand, and publish it to another as a reason for withdrawing his attentions, both the lady herself and my rival admirer would have had cause to set me down as a thorough coxcomb. Such I may aver was any thing but my true character. Heaven knows that it gave me rather a feeling of humiliation than of self-complacency, to find myself bearing off the prize from such a man as Walter Brashleigh, who, with some slight obliquities of judgment, possessed a mind so highly strung, a character of so lofty a tone, that the proudest man I have known might do homage to them without abasing himself. But woman's love, noble, self-sacrificing, and enduring as it is, is strange and unaccountable in its origin; it is a thing of faith and not of reason. He who can trace back the meteor to its birth, may alone define the grounds of her choice. I have already said that I could see that Gertrude had conceived an attachment for me, unworthy and unfitting as I thought myself to inspire it. I could see, too, that she was wholly unconscious of the nature of her own feelings toward me; and often did I wonder that so lovely and peerless a flower had shot up in my path, maturing in bloom and beauty for me alone, while months and even years went by without my having dreamed that it was within my reach. Shall I tell the reader the mode in which I brought that knowledge to her heart? Shall I dwell upon the gentle assiduities with which I fostered that blessed germ of affection-fearing almost that it should bud too rapidly, and wither from its own precocious growth? Shall I analyze the love that was born of childhood's purest feeling-nurtured by the long intermingling of youthful sympathies, and matured by the full affections of ripened womanhood reposing upon reciprocal tenderness? Or shall I speak of doubts and fears, of scenes of estrangement and reconciliation ? and then tell how once I took a pliant hour, and revealed to my Gertrude-But no; in all my course of wooing I can hardly sin VOL. X. 22 gle one such hour more eventful than the rest; for the bonds which were woven between us were knit so noiselessly, that only in the final clasp was there a sound of grating. Brashleigh's own act was the cause of our first exchanging our vows together. I had been dining out with him one day, some months after his recovery from the brain fever, which left his nerves in rather an excited state, and made him very easily affected by wine, when, stopping at the rooms of an acquaintance during our walk home, we were, much to our annoyance, involved in some new symposia, which were protracted to a late hour. Brashleigh endeavored to observe his usual moderation at the table; but, notwithstanding he plead the being a valetudinarian as an excuse for not drinking, yet, according to the compulsory hospitality of that day, bumper after bumper was pressed upon him by our host, who was backed by several vociferous revellers in enforcing compliance. A late importation of very fine hock had then just come into fashion; and Brashleigh, wholly unused to the wine, and unconscious of its slow effect upon the senses, must have been thoroughly under its influ. ence before he became aware that its fumes had seized upon his brain. He then broke abruptly from the company, while, notwithstanding the outcry and halloo that was raised after us, I also made my escape; and, following him into the street, we made for the Battery, to cool ourselves in the sea air before retiring for the night. Here I soon discovered that my friend was in a state of high excitement. His exuberant fancy, generally under the most perfect training, took the wildest flights. He apostrophized the image of the moon in the water, improvised verses to the stars, and poured forth a torrent of quotations from Ford, Massinger, and others of the elder dramatists, in whose works he delighted, with the most whimsical application to objects around him. Then again he would make excursions into the misty region of metaphysics, and speculate upon mind and matter with a vigor and boldness that would have been sufficiently impressive if it were not the next moment alternated with the most puerile drivelling of maudlin sentiment. At last, in a fit of half-mad theatricals, he laid his hand upon my collar, and addressed me in the language of some obsolete play, with words which had the most singular bearing upon our relative situation in regard to Gertrude. Conscience, perhaps, alone determined their application on my part; but so much like earnest did seem the acting of my friend, that when I heard him apostrophise me as one who by deep perfidy had wrought him wrong, When I heard him, I say, thus inferring charges, and heaping epi. thets which in the clouded state of my own brain seemed fraught with meaning, though pronounced in the language of another, and by one who was himself not in a condition to be responsible for what he said, I too was seized with the frenzy which actuated my unhappy friend; and while indignantly disowning what I thought an intended and personal implication, pronounced the words which could never be recalled. "Supplanter of you!" I cried; "Brashleigh, you are mad, or I never would reply to such language. So help me heaven, I had her heart before you knew her." "Her? who? What mean you, Vanderlyn?" screamed Brashleigh, almost sobered on the instant. "Why, that if I have injured you, you yourself will exculpate me from every thing like perfidy when I tell you all." “In the name of C-st!" said he, staggering against a tree, while his features became as pale as death, and his knees actually knocked together with the agitation that shook his frame; "in the name -of her-of Gertrude, speak out what you would say, man, before I suffocate;" and, tearing off his neckcloth, he rubbed his brow with his hand like one struggling to free himself from approaching delirium. Were worlds mine, I would have given them all at that moment to recall the passages which had brought on that scene. But the crisis had come upon us when my judgment was besotted, and I felt that there was now but one use to make of the reason it had brought It was due equally to my friend and myself, that there should be an explanation upon the spot. back to me. "Brashleigh," said I, slowly, and mournfully--for now that I had discovered he had never meant to wound my feelings, I could not but shrink from the searching pang I was about to inflict upon those of my friend" Brashleigh, I am the lover of Gertrude Ashley.” "The He answered with a withering laugh, which rung wide on the nightbreeze, and must have startled the sleeping watchman near. lover! is that all? why, so am I the lover of Miss Ashley. If you mean your wooing to date from this, I thank you for so frankly avowing yourself my rival. But if, as from something you but now betrayed, you mean▬▬▬ "Hold, sir; one unlucky word on your part may now prevent the full explanation which old friendship prompts me to give without any asking." "Friendship!" "Rail not, sneer not, I beseech ye, Brashleigh; every word that I utter to-night, I will be answerable for to-morrow. Only-only |