soon after midnight, and I had desisted for a moment from my writing, and was watching his face as it lay pale and cold in the light of my reading-lamp. A variety of thoughts were rapidly chasing each other through my mind, when suddenly I thought I saw his eyelids quiver. I rose in an instant to my feet, and stood over him, trembling with suspense. Gradually he opened his eyes, and turned his face round to me. His features slowly relaxed into a wan smile.

Oh,” said he, in a difficult whisper, "are you there, George?" He coughed. "Bless me, how weak I am! Have I been ill? what has been the matter, pray?"

“You have been ill, my dear Johns, very, very ill, indeed," said I, my heart was so full.

"I have, have I? no recollection of it. Theatre to-morrow! he comes."

What was it, eh?
How unfortunate!
Has Q-called?

A fit, I suppose, for I have

I must be up to X-'s Send him here the moment

"I think," he continued again, "I must have been dreaming latterly. Could you guess what it was about?"

I expressed my inability.

"I dreamt there was a God, George."

I was thunderstruck, and continued silent; he went on

"I have some singular doubts now about that point. It looks not so 'mpossible to me now as it did. Will you oblige me by going to my laboratory, and bringing me a glass of solution of permuriate of mercury, and another of the volatile alkali ?"

I did so.

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Now,” said he, “would not one, from the analogy of every other experiment man has made, expect that on pouring these together, the red oxyde of mercury would be separated and thrown down, and yet you see, when you come actually to perform the experiment," (I did so,) "you find, that in direct contravention of every known chemical law, a white substance is formed, of which no man has yet explained the nature. Now, suppose I believe myself, and teach others, that, according to every known fact in science, there can be no such thing as a Supreme Being, but, upon coming to the last and only conclusive experiment, death, we find, when too late, that there is a white, unexplainable precipitate, in place of a regular scientific red one-that there is an avenging God, in place of a system of Nature."

I was much struck by this singular and most original sort of argument, so much in accordance with the usual strain of all he thought, said and did. I knew not rightly what to think. Was this but what is vulgarly styled "a lighting up before death," or was it the first symptom of a return to health and vigor of mind and body?

He lay for a while still and silent.

“I say," said he to me, “there is a breath of cold air blowing upon my left foot, will you just cover it rightly with the clothes?"

66

Why, man, your feet are both quite covered and warm.”

"Are they?—why then," he shuddered slightly, "it is-it must be-I

He

am going to have another fit-it's the aura, George, the aura."* trembled very much. "How strange! it is moving up my leg-give me your hand, dear George." He clasped it violentiy. It is on my thigh now, rising over my body, my breast, my neck, my

Here a strong convulsion passed over his features, wrenching them into an expression of unendurable agony, presenting a most striking resemblance to the face of his father's corpse on that frightful day in the Anatomical Theatre. The next instant the grasp on my hand was relaxed, and he was gone to his account. The last experiment was made,

but he could never return to tell its result.

I closed his eyes and composed his features as well as I could, ard then went down stairs to the landlady's parlor, where I sat till morning. I was sitting musing by the fire when the bell rang from the deathchamber. I started, though it was broad daylight, and as I ascended the stair, almost expected to find him sitting up and speaking-so different was he in every respect from ordinary men. On entering, I perceived Miss Johns standing by the bed. She looked at me with the same stony gaze, as I stood with the handle of the door in my hand.

"He is changed," said she.

"He is dead, Miss Johns."

"Then God be merciful to him!"

"Amen."

"Leave me, Mr. leave me." I hastily withdrew, as the poor, bereaved girl seated herself beside her brother's body, with the look of one on whose brow the thunderbolt had descended, to whom fate had done its worst, who had no more to fear or wish for now.

I went home to my own rooms.

Next day I received a note stating her wish that I should attend her brother's funeral on a particular day. I flew to the house, but the worthy landlady informed me she had shut herself up along with the body, and could see no one I retired.

The funeral, which was nearly the most humble and private one I was ever concerned in, was hardly over, when I sought her once more. Oh, now I loved that poor distracted girl! How I longed to take her to my neart, and hide all her disgraces and afflictions in my bosom-her, the

*The Aura Epileptica, vulgarly called "The Warning," a peculiar feeling, which indicates to those afflicted with epilepsy and other nervous disorders, when a fit is about to come on. Every different patient has one of a different kind; sometimes it appears like an insect creeping along the skin towards the head; sometimes a breath of cold air, as in the tale; sometimes a wave of water; and in such instances, it generally begins from a finger or toe, and moves up the limb, rapidly or slowly, as the case may be. When the latter, it is often stopped and the fit actually prevented, by binding a ligature tightly round the limb, so as to catch it, as the patients say. But these are not the only forms it puts on. Some have it of a startling, or even terrific description, as a flash of lightning or the appearance of a rock falling on their heads; or of an abyss suddenly yawning in the pavement. I knew one gentleman to whom it appeared as a dark, indistinct, armed figure, which moved rapidly before his eyes, launching a javelin at him as it passed, when immediately the fit caught him.

fair and spotless child of the robber and murderer-the gem taken from the hilt of the dagger!

That interview shall never pass from my memory. I was deeply affected; she preserved the same cold, soulless manner she had shown from the first. Alas, my heart! How different from the light feminine grace, the gentle simplicity, and innocent warmth and cheerfulness, with which she shed light and love around her, as she moved, a happy and most bewitching woman, among the flowers and singing-birds of her father's garden, herself a blind to divert suspicion, a hundred times more effectual than his active cunning could have ever expected even them to be. Her beauty still remained, but it was become like that of a marble Niobe, cold, heartless and blasted!

We talked together for a considerable time. At length, in a frenzy of passion I fell before her, as she sat, and confessed to her the absorbing love that had shut out from my mind every other affection. I would do or suffer anything-go with her anywhere-labor for her bread, if I were but made happy in the heaven of her presence. What was it to me that her father was a felon? What did that detract from her bright, mental and bodily beauty? I would have taken her from the foot of the gibbet, and made her the wife of my bosom in the eyes of all men.

She answered me with the same stoical tone and expression, "It can never be, Mr. ; your wife can never be Severn's daughter. I believe all you say is truth, for I feel it myself. Yes, if it be any satisfaction to you to know it, I have loved you fervently and truly, and never mortal, out of my own family, but yourself; and that with a love, growing from the first day I saw you led into my presence, blushing and distant by my noble brother, who is in his grave. He loved you much, but never as I did-as I do, George, even now, while I sit here a seared and brokenhearted being. It is not womanlike to tell you so; but I have been tried as never woman was, and everything about me is changed now, nothing of old is left but my love for you."

As she talked, she sat, calm, and devoid of all apparent emotion. A mother giving advice to a young boy, is the only thing that, to my mind, comes near to her manner. She gave me a long tress of her fair hair, and another of Elias's-then severed a lock from my temple, and, stooping forward, kissed my lips. I actually recoiled as she did this, so unmoved and statue-like she seemed. She rose and slowly withdrew. I never saw her face in life again.

On going to the house next day, I found she had left it; not even the landlady was aware of her silent departure, but could hardly be convinced she was really gone. Everything of Mr. Johns's effects she had left untouched, and of these his creditors forthwith took possession.

I made every inquiry regarding the life of Severn that I could, without unduly attracting notice. I found that the robbery for which he was taken, was the very one by which he had supplied his son with the money necessary to complete his Galvanic apparatus. It had been committed upon a naval officer, a very active, determined man, who trusting to his speed of foot, for which he was celebrated, had, after delivering up his money and valuables, suddenly drawn his sword, and hamstrung the gray

horse, to the strength and speed of which, and its facility of disguise, its owner had so often owed escape from pursuit and from detection. After this he had managed to keep always about fifty yards distance between him and the robber, as he was a very slight person, and a very child compared to his powerful adversary,-following when he went on, stopping when he stopped, and running when he chased. In this way he never lost sight of him till he had him secured in the streets of London, next morning, twenty miles distant from the spot where the crime was committed.

In the mean time I made a vow of batchelorhood: but when we make vows in early life, we little know what it is we are doing. I kept it, however, for twenty years, when I married my present lady, your old mistress, Charles; but, alas! it is not years, hor an eternity, that shall efface the bitter love which a former period of my life had burnt into my heart.

•Southern, the Atheist.

IN one of the great manufacturing cities of our country, a firm does business by the name of the "Westwater Spinning Company." This name is derived from a beautiful stream more than twenty miles distant, on the banks of which stand a very extensive factory. About two thousand persons depend upon this factory for their bread, and as its site has been selected with a view to water-power for machinery, it and the hamlet attached are most picturesquely placed, and far from other towns or villages of any magnitude. The inhabitants of Westwater form a class by themselves, disliked by the country people, and not over fond of them in return, and are divided into lesser sets, according to the nature of their labor, and the parts of the buildings in which they are employed.

The benevolent proprietors of the works have taken every measure to secure the well-being of their work-people. Their houses are comfortable, are kept in constant repair, and have each a small garden attached; while a couple of large fields have been thrown together in a park for their recreation. On this, of a summer evening, after work is done, you may see a hundred or so of the male population merrily engaged at cricket and football, sports for excellence in which they are famous, while among the trees, at the sides and angles, bands of young girls lie chatting and laughing upon the grass, or run about chasing each other in frolic. Others again walk about, either on the park or on the banks of the clear Westwater, along whose winding and very beautiful margin, footpaths extend for miles. But while their bodily health has been thus attended

to, their mental profit has not been forgotten. A church and a library, which is also a reading-room, form part of the buildings, and, from the opened windows of an edifice, apart from the rest, you may hear issuing a hum of little voices, telling that the work of instruction is busily going on. The greatest man in the place is, of course, the manager, whose large white house you see just before entering the little town. This situation was held for many years by my father-and here I was born, and received the first rudiments of my education.

When I attended the school-decidedly the prettiest little lass in it was a small creature called Jane Granton, pronounced in the dialect of the place Jeeny, or more often Cheeny. She was a yellow-haired, rosycheeked little thing, exceedingly healthy, good-humored and merry, and was the only child of a widow who kept a kind of small green-grocery shop in the village. This widow was a very good-looking woman,-indeed, it was a common saying to the little girl, from the grown-up people, that, pretty as she was, she would never be like her mother. She had the reputation of being a very religious person, and was the only one in the place that, from scruples of conscience, refused to attend the services at the church. Indeed, her whole conduct appeared dashed with a strong and very remarkable tincture of superstitious fanaticism; though under what particular sect or denomination it might be classed I have not been able to determine. This peculiarity, as well as her general clean, tidy habits, sobriety of demeanor, good looks, and obstinate persistance in the state of widowhood, attracted to her much respect, and to her little child, the attention and kindness of every one in the place. Among the boys at the school, again, little Cheeny was a regular toast: many bloody battles were fought and won, upon various pretences and provocations, all of which, however, were privately known to every one, to be merely in her honor and glory. For a long while I believed myself to be the prime favorite; but whether this was owing to my own particular personal charms, or to the superior dress and equipment of the manager's boy, I am not prepared to say. But the time came round when I should leave the factory and its beautiful environs, to be transported to a large boarding-school, where the place of the widow's child in my mind was speedily usurped by other charmers. From that school I was removed, four years after, and apprenticed to a medical gentleman for three years more. Upon the completion of my time I returned, a grown and serious young man, for a month or two's residence with my father; and if I was changed myself, I certainly found Cheeny more so.

She was now about seventeen years of age, and just passing from the slender reedlike grace of girlhood, to the full voluptuous development of face and form, of eye and gait, of smile and attitude, characteristic of perfect and beautiful woman. I saw her walking lightly along from work, ainong a group of other girls, as I was riding into the town, and was struck in a moment by her exceeding beauty; and not till I saw her turn into the little shop, did the thought ever enter into my mind that to this perfection could have sprung my former pretty schoolmate, little Cheeny Granton. I dismounted and entered just behind her, and addressing the widow, whose staid, yet comely and cheerful countenance now