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"Allow me, Miss Macalpine, to conduct you," said Colonel Pennington, who was one of the last, with the exception of the domestics, to leave the scene of confusion:-" allow me to see you safe to the door of your apartment-I hope you will take no cold. These insolent intruders who have been at work to-night shall rue the hour, and pay dearly for their temerity, if we can but lay hold of them, or my name is not Pennington. Ay, Miss Marian,

I was talking over old times to the young Lord, when these curious, ill-mannered vagabonds, whoever they were, climbed the window to overhear what was saying. I know them to have been eaves-droppers, and nothing else; though the crafty knaves, Skinner and Aldget, (I wish Montgomery read their characters as I do,) would magnify the thing into burglary, and heaven knows what, because such things are harvests to them: be assured, however, the parties were mere idle listeners, which is bad enough, certainly: I wish the chairs and tables had fallen on their heads, instead of on the windows; I trust their sconces will yet be broken; and, by the Lord!"

"Dear Colonel, dinna speak so loud, you'll waken the General; and don't swear.

Good

night—we'll talk the matter over to-morrowgood night !"

"Good night! I am sorry I have been the means of disturbing your rest, Miss Macalpine," said the Colonel, as he kissed the withered hand he held, with something of the gallantry of former times, and left her at her chamber door.

The servants still lingered in the apartment; for servants, even when roused from their warm beds, and but half awake, still love to gossip. Margery, one of the house-maids, stood lamenting over the ruin of the damask curtains, or rather over her labour of the morrow, which she foresaw would be endless in removing the shower of wax that had fallen from the Colonel's projectile candle and candlestick; while Mrs. Fenton, the housekeeper, angrily observed, that Colonel Pennington's boisterous ways were enough to alarm a regular family out of their wits.

"But never mind," said little Mr. Aldget, who, with his partner, remained to learn all he

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could from all parties" never mind, Mrs. Fenton; it is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Your friend Humphreys the glazier, and Squab the upholsterer, will be the better for this; and your friend Sampson Skinner there, and your humble servant, none the worse and it is of no consequence to the General—what 's a few guineas to him, eh! Mrs. Fenton ?-we must all, you know, have an eye to the main chance, or we shall lay by nothing for old age."

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Very true, Sir; I, for one, always thinks of laying by-that's a fav'rite rule of mine, you know, Mr. Aldget: well, Sir, good night, Sir." "Good night, ma'am-but where's my light?" "Here's a candle, Sir."

"Oh! thank you-good night. Come, Skinner:" and so saying, the sprightly lawyer laid hold of his partner, and at last all the disturbed inhabitants were once more safe and quiet within their apartments.

CHAPTER VI.

"A lawyer art thou! come not nigh;
Go, carry to some other place
The hardness of thy coward eye-

The falsehood of thy sallow face!"

WORDSWORTH.

MR. ABRAHAM ALDGET was a country solicitor, who acted as the General's-law-agent; he was not, it is hoped, a fair specimen of his tribe -but afforded rather an instance of anomaly in the profession to which he belonged. By early dawn, he was mounted on the General's piebald pony Surefoot, and set off, as he expressed it, to take cognizance of the affairs of the preceding evening;-he might have said of the affairs of the neighbourhood in general, for his attention was seldom confined in any of his morning circuits to one single object.

The ruling maxim, indeed, of the indefatigable Abraham, was to make a journey in behalf

of one client, furnish opportunities by which he turned to account the affairs of half a dozen others; a word here, and a word there, given in due season, in his perambulations, would, he found, often transform petty feuds and trifling jealousies into serious disputes, and thus lay the foundation of a profitable suit; while friendly offers of assistance and accommodation to his more peaceable neighbours, in regard to their purchases, contracts, bargains, &c. served his purpose equally well in another way. It is true this latter concern in their interests ended, like the more hostile proceedings of the law, in long bills with the items: "Letters read, attendance given, interviews with A. and counter-interviews with B.; detained a long time. Journey to C., and expenses the whole day, &c. &c." But though the catastrophe removed the veil and left the astonished clients, in both instances, without ground to dispute the accuracy of such a diary, and probably, with no substantial benefit derived to them beyond their dearbought experience, still they were invariably glad to pay, to escape the last and great

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