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Our unexpected presence was evidently anything but welcome. Before we made our appearance, I could overhear the hurried whisper and the confusion which the announcement had caused, and the young man had scarcely time to pull an open book before him, and throw himself into a position of deep study, before we entered. In his haste, he had opened the book at the wrong end: this little mistake was, however, observed, I believe, only by myself. But a pack of dirty cards which he had in his precipitation thrust behind the cushion of a still dirtier sofa, was too palpable to escape notice, as likewise was an empty bottle, a card upon the table inscribed Miss Belinda St. Clair, 21, Frith-street, Soho," and other signs of low debauchery.

Our youth, however, who was gifted with considerable powers of impudence, was perfectly composed in his own person; indeed, he affected to be so much absorbed by the topsy-turvy volume which was spread before him, that he was not, for a moment, conscious of our presence, when lifting his eyes with an expression of astonishment and delight, (under cover of which he snatched up a letter which lay upon the table, and dexterously conveyed it into his pocket,) ran to embrace his father, from whose eyes the tears fell fast as he clasped his darling to his breast, uttering only the affectionate epithets, "My dear, dear child!" It was a minute or two before the outpourings of affection were over, and the doting parent returned to a sense of the cause which had brought him to London. He then adverted to it, mildly diluting every strong term he used with some word of kindness, although he had promised, in conformity with my advice, to speak roundly on the subject. The cunning lad saw his father's weakness, and took diligent and dexterous advantage of it. He acknowledged, with a fair semblance of contrition, that he had been thoughtless and imprudent, and that he had spent more money than he ought, but this arose from his ignorance of London, and an erroneous estimate of his expenses, but he would in future be strictly frugal, for he could never forgive himself for distressing his father.

"Say no more about it, my boy," answered his father, "but let me know how much you are in debt, and I will pay it to the last shilling; you shall not want, Tom, if I sell the coat off my back. I knew," added he exultingly, "I should find you at home, and hard at study, though they would have persuaded me that you were deceiving your poor father; but I knew you could not deceive me,-could you, Tom ?"

Here Tom protested, and his father took up the book, with which his son had professed to have been engaged, when we so suddenly broke in upon his privacy.

"Why, what have we here, child?-this is no law book, surely?" cried Mr. Burgess with some surprise, after having put on his spectacles and examined the volume; "The Memoires of the Chevalier Faublas!"

"O no, Sir," answered the young man, with a face as red as fire, for though he might gull his father, he knew that he could not overreach me," it is a trumpery novel, I supposeI don't know what. They gave it to me at the circulating library where I occasionally get books, at a penny the volume, being advised to read something light now and then, by way of relaxation from my severer studies."

"Oh, very right, very proper, there can be no possible objection to that," returned the good vicar, laying down the book, with the infamous notoriety of which he was evidently unacquainted. But I took care to give the young gentleman a significant look, and his eye quailed beneath mine.

Burgess then asked his son to explain how it was that they had denied all knowledge of him at Mr. Price's the pleader's, where he had called. Mr. Thomas, who was always ready, answered that there were several Prices in the law, and that, from his description, it was evident that he had gone to the wrong person. The Price to whom he belonged, was just then in the country, having been summoned to the death-bed of his mother. Strange to say, this account was satisfactory. What passed farther at this interview, I cannot say, for finding myself de trop, I took my leave, Burgess having promised to call on me the following day, being obliged to leave London on Saturday, that he might be ready to attend to his professional duties, on the ensuing Sabbath.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE share of this life's care and disappointment which had fallen to the lot of poor Burgess, was one that came home keenly to his heart. He was destined to experience the acute misery of having a thankless and worthless child. He called upon me the following day, before he had been acquainted with the worst part of his misfortune. He had then ascertained that his son's business must necessarily detain him in London, and therefore with great reluctance, and for the first time since he had been entrusted with it, he was obliged to delegate his sacred duties, during his absence, to a stranger. The heartless and profligate youth had contracted debts to the amount of between three and four hundred pounds, which he knew that his father could not discharge without subjecting himself and his other children to long and cruel privations. Notwithstanding, the good man was determined to answer these demands, at whatever sacrifice. "He would not suffer a stigma to attach to his boy, just entering upon life; he would pay the money, and he owned that what grieved him more even than Tom's great improvidence was, his suggesting to him that there were no legal claims for the debts, he being a minor, when they were contracted. But this was a mere thoughtless expression; he knew that his son's sentiments were not of that description. He had been very

improvident certainly, but he was very young, and London was a very wicked place. He only humbly prayed God, that his boy's heart was not corrupted, and he was sure it was not; this lesson just setting out in life, might be an awful warning to, and the salvation of him, After all, no blame could attach to the boy; it was his fault for launching his youth and inexperience amid the dangerous shoals of London. It was his folly to expect impossibilities. But he would take him back to the country for a year or two, and then he would be older and wiser, and his principles would be confirmed. It always so turned out in every transaction of life from the highest to the lowest, he had remarked, the

more haste the worse speed. The boy was young enough; there would be no time lost."

Thus did the good man extract consolation from his misfortunes. I strongly applauded his intention of withdrawing his son immediately from London, and compelled him to accept a draft upon my banker for the amount of his son's debts. I do not mention this out of ostentation, for every favour is to be estimated according to the value you place upon it; and I never regarded money, in any other point of view, than a means. At the same time, my habits though liberal were not extravagant, and as my expenses had always fallen considerably short of my income, I had a good deal of ready money, which enabled me occasionally to do things like the present, somewhat, I must own, to my inward satisfaction, although, as my incomparable Alice said, there is no unbecoming self-praise in assuming freedom from any vice, which want of benevolence is to be considered. Therefore, when I had money for which I had not even any personal use, however small might be the merit of appropriating it to the need of a fellow-creature, great would have been the baseness of withholding it. Burgess, who had no worldly pride, after hesitating a little from a sense of delicacy, gladly and gratefully accepted my reiterated offer, and I had the gratification of dismissing the worthy soul with a cheerful countenance, and a light heart.

This feeling, however, as the reader, from what has already been disclosed respecting young Burgess, must expect me to add, was of short duration. He soon discovered that his son had been practising a system of duplicity, and a series of knaveries, which could be suggested only by a naturally bad, and utterly depraved disposition. Among various other deceptions and villanies, he found to his deep dismay, that the money, which in his fondness and single-minded confidence he had entrusted to the young man to gain him admittance to the pleader's office, in which he was to learn his profession, had been otherwise appropriated! Thus was the mystery of Mr. Price's ignorance explained. But worse remains behind. The old man called to pay his respects to the Paulets; and Lady Jane, who was the only one in the family he saw, told him of my intended marriage with her sister-in-law; and the whole history of that business, not omitting the anonymous letters which were in her possession, and which she showed him. What was his horror, when in these documents he recognized the handwriting of his son! He examined them

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minutely, over and over again, with agonized attention, but every particular confirmed his sense of the dreadful truth. Lady Jane, shocked at what she had unwittingly done, and overpowered by the spectacle of the misery, which the astounding discovery had produced, could only weep bitterly. It was long before this relief was afforded the unhappy old man. He laid down the dreadful letters, she said, and covering his face with his hands, groaned as if his spirit was about to quit his body, and after a long interval, the tears rolled slowly down his cheeks. The dear, kind-hearted Jane described with glistening eyes, the old man's grief as the most affecting sight she had ever witnessed; and it was with difficulty, that I could persuade her out of the remorse which she felt for having been the innocent means of making him acquainted with his misfortune.

The last mentioned fact I first learned from Lady Jane, some days after Burgess had communicated to me the pecuniary embarrassments of his son. Not having seen him in the interval, I had concluded that he had returned to the country, but, having understood that he was still in London, I lost no time in finding him out, and offering him any farther consolation or assistance that might remain in my power. I could understand what were his reasons for not calling upon me; grief and shame had, no doubt, kept him away.

Accordingly I made out his lodging, which was in the neighbourhood of Holborn. He was at home when I called; and assuredly, I must have possessed that callous heart, for which I was reputed, could I have looked unmoved upon the spectacle of misery which this worthy man presented. The sorrows of grey hairs are, of all others, the most affecting. Poets and romancers may charm us with highly seasoned pictures of the cares and distresses which appertain to youth and luxury, but the spectacle of old age suffering under the weight of substantial misfortune, engages my interest more sensibly, than the finest love-story in any of its thousand variations. The change which had taken place in Burgess's appearance, since his arrival in London, was powerfully striking. From his peaceful and contented life in the country, from which he had not been absent so much, I believe, as a week during the last thirty years, he had been hurried up to London, and from the moment of his arrival there, had enjoyed scarcely an hour's rest of mind or body, but every day had harassed him with an additional care, worse than the evil of its predecessor. When I found him at his humble

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