Confession

t before the court by the claimants, Messrs. Banks & Tressell; and a brief period only was left him for putting in his answer. When I thought of Julia, I resolved, in spite of

cendant-still deaf to reason, and utterly blind to the base position into which her meddlesome interference in the business threw her husband. She had her answer ready; and did not merely content herself with rejecting my overtures, but proceeded to speak in the language of one who really regarded me as busily seeking, by covert ways, to effect the ruin of her family. Her looks and language equally expressed the indignation of a mind perfectly convinced of the fraudulent and evil purposes of the person she addressed. Th

eriod, and now presented itself to my view in sundry very salient aspects. It was easy now to divert his attention from the business which he had in hand-a single casual remark of courtesy or observation would have this effect-and then his mind wandered from the subject with all the levity and caprice of a thoughtless damsel. He seemed to entertain now no sort of apprehension of his legal difficulties, and spoke of them as topics already adjusted. Nay, for that matter, he seemed to have no serious sense of any subject, whatever might be its personal or general interest; but, passing from point to point, exhibited that instability of mental vision which may not inaptly be compared to that wandering glance which is usually supposed to distinguish and denote, in the physical eye, the presence of insanity. It was not often now that he indulged, while speaking to me, in that manner of ho

onger the same man. Oh, Edward, I somet

en the judgment was given, as it was, against him, he was wholly unable to understand or fear its import. His own sense of guilt had anticipated its effects, and his intense vanity was saved from public shame only by the sub

the wretched old man, a grinning, gibbering idiot, half-dancing and half-shivering from the cold, over the remnants of a miserable and scant fire in the severest evening in November. It was when the affair was all over; when the property of the family was all in the hands of the sheriff; when the mischievous counsel of such a person as Jonathan Perkins, Esquire could d

itself at the expense of hers. I forgot, in the first glance of my uncle, all his folly and unkindness. He was now a shadow, and the mental wreck was one of the most deplorable, as it was one of the most rapid and complete, that could be imagined. In less than seven months, a strong man-strong in health-strong, as supposed, in intellect-singularly acute in his dealings among tradesmen-regarded by them as one of the most shrewd in the fraternity-vain of his parts, of his family,

ense of shame, the conviction of loss, and, possibly, other causes of conscience which lay yet deeper-for the progeny of crime is most frequently a litter as numerous as a whelp's puppies-helped to crush the mind which was neither strong enough to resist temptation at

bject of that nature which she had so frequently abused, and which, I well knew, she could never understand. But this hope I soon discovered to be unavailing. Her disaster had only soured, not subdued her; and, with the natural tendency of the vulgar mind, she seemed to regard me as the person to whom she should ascribe all her misfortunes. As, to her narrow intellect, it seemed natural that I should exult

e which she would have willingly bestowed upon myself, had she any tolerable occasion for doing so. A few weeks served still further to humble the conceit and insolence of the unfortunate woman. The affair turned out much more seriously than I expected. A sudden fall in the value of real and personal estate, just a

all tenement to which, in their reduced condition they found it prudent to reti

e sofa, ten feet in length, occupied an unreasonable share of an apartment twelve by sixteen. The dais of piled cushions, on which so many fashionable groups had lounged in better times, now seemed a mountain, which begot ideas of labor, difficulty, and up-hill employment, rather than ease, as the eye beheld it cumbering two third

nt tokens of her weakness of intellect, her own costume betrayed still more. She had made her person a sort of frame or rack upon which she hung every particle of that ostentatious drapery which she was in the habit of wearing at her fashionable evenings. A year's income was paraded upon her back, and the trumpery jew

s, what thing o

of sex

ecked, orna

sailing, like

bound for

an or

bravery on an

d, and stre

the winds that

ent of odor

arbin

oduce this effect, and increased the grave apprehensions which were already at my heart. The next consequence was to make the manner of my communication serious even to severity. A smile, which was of that doubtful sort which is always sinister and offensive, overspread her lips as she motioned me to resume the seat from which I had rise

my happiness, and which I trust may not diminish, if it does not actually promote, yours. Before I make this communication, however, I hope I may persu

't know what misunderstandings you mean

ech, but I availed myself of the equivoque which it invo

easy, Mrs. Clifford-my purp

assumed the attitude of a patient listener. There was something very repulsive in all this; but I saw that the only way to lessen the unplea

ffection as to make it no longer doubtful to me that I should best consult my own happiness by seeking to make her my wife. I had the pleasure

ut my husband and myself thought better of

" I said calmly; thus finishing

r, and wh

e gave as a reason that he ha

t all, sir; there's no more need to tell me of it, than there is to deny it. You put my daughter up to refusing young Roberts, who would have jumped at her, as hi

ith it as well as I could, and strove t

hich can do no good. My purpose now is to renew the offer to you which I originally made to Mr. Clifford. My attachment to your daughter remains unaltered, and I a

lifford's was. I am very much obliged to you for THE HONOR you intend my family, but we must decline it. As for the comfort and independence which you proffer to my daughter, I am happy to inform you that she can receive it at any moment from a source perhaps far more able than yourself to afford both, if her perversity does not stand in

rmitted in an interview with a lady-and such a lady!-but, as the reader may suppose, my toils were taken in vain: all that I could suggest, either in the shape of reason or expostulation, only served to make her more and more dogged, and to increase