Life ebbed fast away; the instinctive love of it prompted one more effort for deliverance, and I cried aloud for help; but my voice died within the compass of my narrow prison, and sunk with a deaf and leaden sound among the piles of gold. I felt that all was about to close for ever; I still grasped in my hand the gold that seemed the only link connecting me with the world; in its touch were recollections of keen enjoyment, and I felt it to be an aggravation of my miserable fate, that I was not permitted once more to feast my eyes with its glories. That enjoyment had for ever passed from me; even the grasp that now linked me with my gold would soon relax, and tears gushed from my eyes-tears offered to the memory of that which had been the charm of life.

Again, death knocked at my heart, I would have cried once more for deliverance, but the sound died in my throat: I ceased to breathe ; but life still fluttered at my heart, a rushing like the noise of many waters was around and within me, and I had no longer a consciousness of a fleshly existence.

Here the curtain must fall.

NOTE.

The reader will have observed that historical accuracy is not rigidly preserved in the foregoing story; but as it has no pretensions to being an historical tale, the deviation may perhaps be pardoned.

I have supposed a regularity in the Jewish observances in this country, as early as the year 1661; but as the first mention of Jews in England, after their expulsion in 1291, is when a certain Rabbi Menasse obtained from Oliver Cromwell, in 1656, protection for his brethren, it is probable that for some time subsequent to this, or even until the passing of the statute 26 Geo. II., there was nothing like regularity in their customs as a body.

When Solomons is made to say " Knowest thou that no Jew can intermarry with a Christian," this is meant, with reference to the usage of the Jewish body, not as the communication of an inviolable law, for there were none but the posterity of Canaan with whom it was not lawful to marry,-these God had commanded the Jews to root out.

I need scarcely say, that it is quite in accordance with the Jewish system, that a Christian or any alien to the Jewish faith may become a proselyte.

PHINEAS QUIDDY; OR, SHEER INDUSTRY.

BY JOHN POOLE, ESQ.

66

AUTHOR OF 'PAUL PRY," &c.

CHAP. XXIX.

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST-A DIGRESSION TOUCHING FOOLS' CAPS-OUR HERO'S PLEASURE NOT UNALLOYED-MISS ST. EGREMONT'S IMPORTANT INTERVIEW WITH MR. HARRY SCOTT-A MODEL FOR CITY JUNIOR PARTNERS.

In a dramatic composition it will not unfrequently occur that a point upon which the author has bestowed his utmost care, and to which, consequently, he trusts for an equivalent effect upon his audience, will pass (in theatrical phrase) "without a hand;" or, which is still more mortifying, without silently extorting a tear or exciting a smile, according to its intention. So did it happen in the instance of our hero's note to Mrs. Fleecer. The body of that composition had cost him comparatively but little pains; and although the result of only two sketches previously made on the dirty back of a letter, yet was its success perfect. Not so, however, in either respect, with its highlyelaborated postscript. That had not been struck off at a white heat: on the contrary; it was the work of many successive efforts, passing through a variety of forms, from the dry, tame, and spiritless

"P.S. Mr. Quiddy comps to Miss St. Eggermunt,"

till it became, at length, what we find it-the elegant, the refined, the touching, the poetical

"P.S. P. Q. present most respec' comps to the fare moaner," —yet did this after all prove to be a total failure.

And why had this postscript, this mere tail to the body, been so disproportionably laboured? For the best conceivable reason: that this seeming tail was, in fact, the body, nay, the very soul of the missive : it was the purpose for which the rest was little more than a pretext. True, his self-invitation (was adroitly addressed to Mrs. Fleecer; but his pointed yet delicately-turned message to the young lady could not fail, as he thought, to render it apparent that the latter was uppermost in his mind, and to bring some complimentary notice in return.

But man is born to disappointment, nor are his best-concerted schemes invariably successful. This we assert with indomitable confidence, yet thereby shall our modesty suffer no impeachment; for, claiming not the merit of originality for the observation, with singular candour we admit that it has been uttered in our hearing, much oftener than once, by many more than one person. Not so was it with him from whom we first heard it. With grave look and uplifted finger, he prefaced it with, “Now mark what I say: Man is born, &c." At once we looked up to him as a profound thinker, a philosopher, a man who had seen much of the world and carefully treasured the fruits of his experience;

nor was it till we had been assured that he had heard the saying from somebody else, who, in his turn, had heard it from another, and so on back to the days of Noah, that our reverence for his wisdom suffered the smallest diminution.

With respect to the unacknowledged adoption of another person's

But here let us stop, lest Mr. Any-letter-of-the-alphabet, or Mrs. Any-number-of-asterisks, should charge us with a personal allusion to one or other of them.

Ha! ha! ha! the mere thought of it makes one laugh outright. A fool's cap is sportively thrown up into the air. Amongst the thousand heads which are accidentally passing at the time, the odds are about nine-hundred-ninety-and-nine against its falling upon a head which it shall fit to a nicety. One picks it up and tries it on; then another; but it does not accommodate itself exactly to either. By a little cutting and contriving, to be sure, it might be made to serve tolerably well. But they are a couple of sensible fellows, much too knowing to take trouble to adjust to their own heads a fool's cap never intended for them, but thrown at random; so they'll none on't; and away they go, nor ever intimate even by a whisper, that any fool's cap had fallen within a hundred leagues of them.

A third, less discreet, rushes forward

"Hold there, my masters," cries he to the crowd; "give me that fool's cap; I'll swear 'twas made for me, so wear it I will."

He tries it on; 'twill scarcely hold upon the crown of his head; 'tis evident to every body the cap was never meant for him. But, by dint of pulling and tugging at it, assisted by some goodnatured friend, who (bent on a little innocent mischief, and laughing in his sleeve all the while) encourages him in his delusion, he forces it first over one ear, then over the other, and fuming and fretting, and vowing vengeance against the wicked wight that made it, exhibits himself to the town in a fool's cap of his own choosing.

""Tis none of yours, man," cries the maker," 'twas never intended for you; I should be ashamed to turn out of hand so miserable a misfit; nevertheless, if you are resolved upon wearing it, why, in Heaven's name, wear it. But, prithee, don't say I took measure of you for it 'twould lose me my reputation as a tolerable workman."

But the remonstrance is in vain. The volunteer-wearer has managed to squeeze his own head into a chance fool's cap, nor rests he satisfied till he himself has persuaded the town to believe that the cap fits him.

Now is it not strange that a man should

But, contrary to

our custom, we are digressing; so return we to our hero. Man, as we have said, is born to disappointment, nor was Quiddy altogether an exception from the rule.

"Ha! from Mrs. Fleecer," exclaimed he, when next morning he opened that lady's note.

But his satisfaction at finding his self-invitation so readily accepted was considerably abated by the neglect of his P.S.

How! nothing pretty in return for his exquisite prettiness! Nay, worse than nothing "N.B. Muffins!" What could be the meaning of

this? Had he offended the lady of ten thousand, and was this word applied in anger, in derision, in contempt? He referred to the copy of his note, and read the postscript forty times over, but therein nothing offensive could he find. On the contrary; his "comps" were "most respec1;" and as to the "fare moaner," he could have written twenty business-letters in the time which had engaged his imaginative powers in the inventing of that one elegant little phrase.

"Yes, that must be it after all," thought he: "a new-fashioned, or genteeler word for 'fudge,' or 'blarney;' yes, that's it : ' Fare moaner' -Muffins!' I wish I had not wrote it!"

A wish-ah! unavailing!-that occurs frequently and to many who have without due consideration put black upon white.

Another reflection crossed his mind, one which we earnestly recommend to the careful attention of all whom it may concern:

"Now this comes of trying to write fine, instead of being plain and simple."

Having sufficiently worried himself by twisting and turning Mrs. Fleecer's one-worded N.B. into all manner of offensive meanings, he at length deliberately read her note through, beginning at the beginning. A flood of light burst upon his mind.

"Ho, ho, ho! I see: ho, ho, ho! how uncommon stupid of me! Tea and muffins. That's it.'

Malice, slander, libel, blasphemy, treason, have ere now been wrung out of a few words, the worst no worse than "muffins," by simply detaching them from their context, but which, when in connexion with it, were as innocent as lambs, or doves, or water-gruel-or any thing else that may serve as a powerfully weak simile. So think not, Mr. Phineas Quiddy, that you are the first who have so erred.

But still, relative to the important point, the lady's note was unsatisfactory. The heiress had not deigned to notice his gallant message to her. How was this to be accounted for? Perhaps Mrs. Fleecer had failed to communicate it to her: if so, that lady would have shown herself to be "so uncommon ungrateful" for his elegant present to her, that such a case was hardly in human nature. Perhaps Miss St. Egremont had already fulfilled her intention of quitting London: that would be "so uncommon awkward," as an impediment to his proceedings, that he could not bear to dwell upon the suggestion. Perhaps she did not intend to be of the party, and thence her silence: for this, however, there was consolation, for if left alone with her friend he would enjoy a better opportunity for "pumping" her, touching Honoria's fortune and sundry minor matters concerning her, besides establishing himself more firmly in Mrs. Fleecer's good graces. Perhaps (and in his mind most reasonable of all) it was owing to the young lady's "uncommon pride," which was perfectly natural considering she was rich.

At length after much uneasiness and worry, he mentally exclaimed, "I think I'll not think any more about it: six o'clock will soon be here and then I shall know the rights of it."

So, opening a book-it was a book of accounts, almost the only species of literature he indulged in-he diverted his mind with that.

Meanwhile, the object of his affections was considerably nearer to him than the voice of Love (which, like the voice of Nature, is unerring on the Stage) condescended to whisper to him. Miss St. Egre

mont, in fact, was closeted with Mr. Scott, of the firm of Whobble and Scott, in his private counting-house, in Birchin-lane, Cornhill.

*

*

*

*

Now these six stars are intended to represent a quarter of an hour's (-worth of) conversation, of nearly two hours' duration, between Mr. Scott and the lady. From its concluding portion, which is all we shall report of it, the whole sum and substance of the precedent part may be readily inferred.

"As I said before, Mr. Scott, I consider your conduct as that of a brother."

"Candidly and honestly, as I just now told you, Miss St. Egremont, I know no person but yourself for whom I would undertake such a trust; for, to be honest and candid, such as I before observed-was my regard for poor Slymore, such is my respect for you-"

"And, as I have already said, I cannot be too grateful to you for your kindness, sir."

"But honestly and candidly I must again remind you, miss, that I will not undertake to ensure you a larger return than eight per cent. for your little capital: that must be perfectly well understood between

us.

Why, sir, as we were saying, that will produce me nearly a hundred a-year, and I shall be well satisfied with that."

But to be candid and honest with you, madam, let me again repeat, that if you find any means-any means whatever of doing better with your money, I shall feel much hurt-honestly and candidly speaking -vastly exceedingly hurt, if, from any false delicacy, you hesitate for a single moment to withdraw it from me at a minute's notice. And that is being candid and honest with you-which, as a man of business (as I have so often repeated to you) I always think to be best."

"With regard to the widow lady's advertisement in the Times, Mr. Scott, I think you said-"

"Yes; I like the appearance of it amazingly; and honestly and candidly, as I have already assured you, it will give me the greatest possible pleasure if you will refer her to me that is to say, refer to Whobble and Scott, and I'll reply to the letter. That will be much more respectable than a reference to your lodging-house keeper."

"And you are still of opinion, sir, that I ought to write to that lady in the name of -"

"Oh, Mrs. Slymore, Mrs. Slymore, by all manner of means, my dear madam that is my candid and honest opinion."

:

"And I think we settled it that the day after to-morrow at three o'clock, sir-"

"Yes, at three; and that, as I said, will allow time for me, as poor Slymore's executor, to sell the stock, and for our solicitor to draw up some paper or other for your security. For, as I before impressed it upon you, honestly and candidly, never trust your best friend in these matters without receiving from him some written document for your protection, and I once more repeat it, candidly and honestly."

"How much am I obliged to you for your friendly assistance, sir. Many thanks-many thanks, Mr. Scott. Good morning, good morning.'

"Good morning, good morning, dear madam; but pray not a word