which her acquaintance were ignorant; thus when this invaluable friend was hastened in her departure by the announcement of Mr. Hippsley, Catherine was prepared to receive an eccentric, but not alarmed at the probability of encountering a maniac.

"Don't let him come up till I go into another room, I beg. I can get from there to the staircase, can't I, my dear?" said Mrs. Martha ; and as one door closed on her hurried exit, the other opened on the unhappy invalid who gives a name to this sketch. How he had summoned sufficient nerve to attempt the present interview we are at a loss to imagine; but there he was, in the presence of the being he ardently loved, who would long since have become his wife, had not his eccentricities raised a barrier to their union.

"You have been a stranger of late, Mr. Hippsley; pray be seated."

"My unfortunate state of health has rendered me a stranger to most of my friends, Miss Thornton."

"But surely this is no reason why you should not visit your physician?"

"I should indeed find my best physician here," said the nervous man, with much satisfaction remarking that Catherine's dress and even her gloves were of silk, consequently non-conductors of elec. tricity. Thus assured, he ventured to take a seat near her, and with deep interest regarded the lovely girl. "This looks all very rational,” thought Miss Thornton; "how that Mrs. Martha Meddler has exagge rated, poor fellow !"

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Might I presume so far as to imagine that my absence has been a source of regret to you?"

"I always enjoy the society of old friends. I heard too that you had been unwell, and am now happy to be able to congratulate you on your convalescence."

"Convalescence, Catherine!" exclaimed Mr. Hippsley with a deep sigh. "Alas!" thought he," she suspects not the monstrous phenomenon beside her!"

"Yes, my dear sir; I never saw you looking better."

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"I am afraid you derive your information from Dr. Mansell, who treats my disease as imaginary; and yet I conceived that the unhappy climax of my misfortunes was not unknown to him."

"Well, well," said Miss Thornton smiling, "let us not talk on a subject which so evidently distresses you. If you are not quite well yet, no one will rejoice more in your perfect recovery than myself."

"If anything could restore me to the pale of society, it would be the kind interest you express in my welfare. Oh! that I dare ask if the feelings you entertain towards me are-' Mr. Hippsley paused, and Miss Thornton looked on the floor, as though counting the colours in the kaleidoscope-pattern carpet. "I may not-I am too miserable -too unfortunate," and the wretched man hid his face in his handkerchief. "If you assured me of your attachment, if you promised to make me the most blest of mortals by becoming mine, it would only add to misery."

"Then I have it no longer in my power to make you happy, Mr. Hippsley," said Catherine in a low faltering voice, as her extraordinary lover rose and paced the room in a state of excitement bordering on frenzy.

"To make me happy!" He turned and met a tell-tale glance

that needed no interpretation. "Would you then no longer refuse to become mine ?"

At that moment of ecstasy months of disease and suffering were for. gotten; he drew towards Catharine, who in compassion for this longattached admirer, her face covered with blushes, was about to confess that obedience to a mother's will had alone caused her former coldness. Already had his hand clasped hers, his arm passed around her waist, when, by a natural impulse, Hippsley's lips came in contact with the cheek of the fair girl-had a serpant stung him?-had the downy softness of that face changed on the instant to the leprosy of the lazar-house, the corruption of the grave? He flung the fond Catharine from him, exclaiming,

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"Never, never shalt thou be mine!"

Shaking in every limb, wildly he tore his hair, and stamped the ground in agony of spirit.

"Mr. Hippsley! I am electrified!" said the astounded object of his violence, who had with difficulty preserved herself from falling.

"I know it! I know it!" shouted the distracted phenomenon, and rushed from the room. "Wretch that I am!-wretch that I am!" murdered Mr. Hippsley, as he furiously drove his stanhope towards London, "had I even the privilege of a torpedo !-could I only restrain at will the unnatural power with which I am invested!-The electric eel, the ray, in their voltaic natures find the means of subsistence, of defence, and assimilating with their kind, fulfil the appointed purposes of creation; but I must for ever remain a solitary being, a man-monster !—the wonder of the learned and the curious, who will cautiously approach me, as though I were some dangerous animal, some human upas, while living; and when dead, even the grave will be made to resign my corse-again will they try to awake the dormant brain-again may that voltaic pile become instinct with its wonted mysterious energies-again may the subtle electric fluid, coursing through the muscles, give forth its power, and in some museums, amid all the abortions, the excresences, and the monstrous of the human race, may I be condemned to become in death as in life a show and a marvel as the electrical man!"

"Four pence, if you please, sir."

Mr. Hippsley had come to the turnpike, and this demand of that taking personage the toll-gatherer awoke him from his reverie. He drew off his glove, and producing from his pocket a fourpenny piece, was about to give it to the man, who somewhat impatiently awaited to receive it, when the phenomenon's eye rested on the silver in actual contact with his fingers. A twinge seemed to run up his arm, and imagining that he might communicate an electric shock, he dashed the coin on the ground.

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The

"D-n your impudence!" said the pikemen. "I spose my hand isn't fit to be touched!" at the same time administering to Hippsley's horse a kick on the flank, which made the animal restive. master returned the blow which had been given to the beast with the butt-end of his whip over the man's head. In this act of vio lence the reins slipt from his grasp; attempting to recover them he leant forward, and lost his equilibrium, which was farther discom posed by a knock on the side of the head from his assailant. Fall. ing on the back of his horse, the animal plunged furiously, and in another moment Hippsley was on the ground, bruised and senseless.

Leaving the unfortunate gentleman to be conveyed to the nearest surgeon in a hackney-coach, and from thence to the residence indi. cated by the cards and letters found on his person, we will return to Miss Thornton, who was in deep conference with Dr. Mansell, her guardian.

"But is it not wretched to see one, who can be so agreeable and so gentlemanly, lost to society by these unhappy whims?" rejoined the young lady, to whom the doctor had been relating some of Hippsley's imaginary distresses.

"It is indeed, my fair ward; and as a medical man, thoroughly worn out by his perseverance in such fantasy, I had for some time given him up; but since your happiness is concerned, we must look a little more into the matter. You say he referred to his former proposals, and when you gave him to understand that they would no longer meet with refusal, threw himself into a state of violent excite. ment, said you should never be his, tore his hair, stamped on the floor, and on your expressing astonishment at his conduct, declared that he knew it, and rushed from the room. I can make nothing out of this, my dear girl; I should be loath to come to the conclusion that hypocondriasis has terminated in confirmed madness. We must wait a while. Whatever his present fancy may be, it will not last long. This peculiarity in his case has thrown great obstacles in the way of his return to a natural and healthy state of mind. If he continued possessed of one fantastic idea till we had time to prove that he was actually wrong in his supposition, I really believe that the folly which was made evident to him would be his last; but no time has been allowed me for experiment in any one of his afflictions, as he is pleased to call them. Suffering from hydrophobia to-day, to use his own phrase, he reads on the subject, and cures himself by eating rock-salt. Fairly recovered from his late symptoms, he has lock-jaw for a couple of days, and stumbling on the journal of some medical voyager, where it is asserted that cockroaches have been used with effect in such a strait, he sends for this novel remedy from the West India Docks, and what he calls conquers the disease by poulticing his face with these insects crushed into a paste. I can assure you he was only saved from taking a decoction of the same by his servant substituting a cup of India soy. This reminds me that the messenger whom I despatched for Patrick ought to have returned. If I can find out from the faithful fellow the whim which has just now taken possession of his master, we shall be better able to act."

"Dear doctor," said Miss Thornton, who had been a painfully atten. tive listener to her guardian's opinion of her lover's case, "is not hypochrondiasis very nearly allied to madness?"

"It certainly, my dear, often assumes the character of monoma. nia; but with our friend, so rapid are his changes from one folly to another, that his malady cannot be so designated. In great distress of mind, Mr. Hippsley found himself unwell, took to studying me. dical books, and confounded any superficial knowledge he might have acquired in his desultory reading, by entering with avidity into every new system he might hear of. His rooms are full of pamphlets on animal magnetism, metallic tractors, and homopathy, with a host of other schemes. Each complaint that particularly attracts his attention he imagines himself to have, and then gravely

sets to work secundum artem, till he is pleased to consider that he has effected a cure. I really believe he suffers acutely from his fancied disorders; but the wonder is to me that his remedies have not killed him. As to my attendance, it has long since been useless, I having been only required to mourn with him a while over his sufferings, and then expected to compliment him on his successful treatment; or when he has actually injured the tone of his health, render his frame equal to bear another experiment.'

At this moment a servant entered the room, and presented on a salver dirty, curious-looking letter.

"Mr. Hippsley has had an accident, sir," said the man, "and Patrick begs pardon for not coming, but has written you a letter about his master's state of mind: and Patrick begs me to say, with his respects, that Mr. Hippsley fancies himselfa-"

What portion of his written communication might have been sent in duplicate as a message, Dr. Mansell allowed not the footman to make known. Dismissing him, he turned to his ward, who was vainly attempting to hide her agitation.

"Read the note, my dear sir-mind not me--I shall be better directly. What has happened to Mr. Hippsley ?"

"Nothing, my sweet girl, which I trust need alarm you," replied her guardian, who in a few words communicated the contents of Patrick's epistle.

At a less grave moment it might have afforded amusement, being after this fashion :

"DEAR SIR,—I let you know that master is just now a lectrical machine according to command, and has had a great shock in tumbling out of his gig, or I should have come to tell you as much, if it hadn't happened; but now I write by master's sofa, where he has been bled, and had a composing draught: so hoping to see you as one of master's old friends I remain

"Your honour's servant to command,

"PATRICK O'TOOLE.'

"This is a

"An electrical machine!" said the doctor musing. wilder fancy than ever. I wish he had broken his leg or his arm." "Good heaven, sir! you are certainly not serious," exclaimed Miss Thornton. "Is it not enough that he is confined to his bed, and obliged to be bled? Perhaps he is severely injured already."

And here the poor girl wept bitterly, nor could the doctor for a long time console her sufficiently to make her acquainted with a plan which had just occurred to him for the restoration of her lover. It was this-that Dr. Mansell should proceed with all despatch to Jermyn-street, ard with the concurrence of Mr. Hippsley's surgeon, place the hypochondriac's arm in splints, as though it were really broken, if possible before he awoke. This effected, Miss Thornton with her guardian would await his waking; the former to convince him by actual experiment, in the kind pressure of his hand, that the fancied electric power had departed; the latter to account for the same in the derangement of his frame consequent on the fracture of a limb. In a few minutes the doctor and Catherine were driving with all speed to put their scheme into effect. They found Mr. Hippsley on his sofa, still in a profound slumber, a circumstance which was the more fortunate, as Mrs. Martha Meddler met them at the door of the invalid's lodgings: she having heard of his accident,

382 had hastened to be of service; and it is doubtful but she might have disturbed their patient to inquire what she could do for him. All worked according to their most sanguine wishes. The hypochon. driac was splinted and bandaged ere he awoke; and when he opened his eyes, the welcome sight of a gathering of friends round his sick couch awaited him.

MR. HIPPSLEY, THE ELECTRICAL GENTLEMAN.

"You feel better, my dear Mr. Hippsley," said Catherine, pressing the hand she tremblingly held.

"Allow me to put your cap straight, my dear," kindly suggested Mrs. Martha, who, anxious to play her part in the affair, pulled his reading-cap over his eyes, which obliged the doctor to remove it.

you,

"Are you not electrified ?" exclaimed the invalid, turning from one to the other as their hands came in contact with him. "Do I not shock dear Catherine, by your hand being in mine?" "No, Charles; only by looking so ill and so strangely at me." The invalid's eyes then rested on the splints which bound the limb.

"What means this, Dr. Mansell? I do not remember having broken my arm."

"You have been insensible, Hippsley, but your arm is nevertheless broken; on which I sincerely congratulate you, as the fracture in your frame has destroyed that unity of parts, that wonderful sympathetic combination which had rendered you an electrical phenomenon."

The doctor knew he was talking nonsense, but looked wondrously grave to conceal this fact; an art well known to some of his medical brethren.

"Then I am a broken philosophical instrument," said Hippsley, sighing heavily, as with the assistance of his friends he rose from his couch.

"Exactly so," responded Dr. Mansell, now with difficulty restraining a smile. Mrs. Martha Meddler laughed outright; and as Catharine's eyes met his, they were so bright with merriment, that the hypochondriac could not resist their influence; something very like a smile stole over his features.

"Is my arm really broken ?" inquired he.

"As really broken as you were this morning a walking electrical machine," replied the doctor, cutting the bandages, and allowing the splints to fall.

"I am afraid I have been very foolish in all this. Will you forgive me, my good friends, and you especially, dear Catherine ?—have you not been shocked at my conduct?"

"Yes, a little, I must confess; but never electrified, as I believe I once added to your distress by telling you."

"I have been in the wrong throughout."

"Master's right now for once," remarked Patrick to Mrs. Martha, a suggestion which that lady graciously answered by an assent; for all parties were so happy at the restoration of the invalid to a natural state of mind, that the distinctions of rank were for the moment laid aside. A compromise with the turnpike man was followed by Hippsley making a compromise with his friends. His past follies were to be buried in oblivion if he eschewed new ones. In due course of time he married the fair Catherine, and in the enjoyments of wedded life for got the sorrows of his wooing.

RICHARD JOHNS.