trouble it will give me to take a journey to London, where I have never been, and shall probably make a very awkward figure, yet if you will encourage me so far as to say you will take a corner in my coach thither, and Mr. Abrahams does not object to the scheme, I will even pluck up a good courage and set out to-morrow.'

Be it so!' answered I, · if Mr. Abrahams approves of it, I have no objection to the party.'

On the morrow we set off; Abrahams and myself with Ned, and his old servant in his coach for London, and in the evening of the second day our postboys delivered us safe at Blossom's-inn in Lawrence-lane. Abrahams procured us lodgings at the house of his apothecary in the Poultry, where he first sheltered Mrs. Goodison and Constantia; and having settled this affair, the good man hastened home to present himself to his family, and prepare for our supping at his house that night.

My friend Ned had been in a broad stare of amazement ever since his entry into London; he seemed anxious to know what all the people were about, and why they posted up and down in such a hurry; he frequently asked me when they would go home and be quiet; for his own part he doubted if he should get a wink of sleep till he was fairly out of this noisy town.

As he was feasting his curiosity from the window of our lodgings, the Lord Mayor passed by in his state coach towards the Mansion-house-' God bless his Majesty' cried Ned, he is a portly man.' He was rather disappointed when I set him right in his mistake; but nevertheless the spectacle pleased him, and he commented very gravely upon the commodious size of the coach, and the slow pace of the procession, which he said shewed the good sense and discretion of the city magistrate, and observing

him to be a very corpulent man, added with an ais of some consequence, that he would venture to pronounce my Lord Mayor of London was a wise man, and consulted his own ease.

We now were to set ourselves in order for our visit to honest Abrahams, and Ned began to shew some anxiety about certain articles of his dress and appearance, which did not exactly tally with the spruce air of the city sparks, whom he had reconnoitred in the streets; the whole was confessedly of the rustic order, but I encouraged him to put his trust in broad-cloth and country bloom, and seriously exhorted him not to trust his head to the shears of a London hair-dresser. I now ordered a coach to be called, which was no sooner announced, than Ned observed it was speedily got ready; but they do every thing in a hurry in this place,' added he, and I wish to my heart the fat gentleman in the fine coach may order all the people to bed before our return, that I may stand some chance of getting a little rest and quiet amongst them.'

We now stepped into our hack, but not without a caution from Ned to the coachman to drive gently over the stones, which, to give him his due, he faithfully performed. We were received at the door of our friendly Israelite with a smiling welcome, and conducted by him up stairs to a plain but neat apartment, in which was the mistress of the house, an elderly decent matron, who presented us to Mrs. Goodison, the mother of Constantia, in whose countenance, though pale and overcast with melancholy, beauty and modest dignity still kept their native post.

Honest Ned made his first approaches with a bow, which Vestris perhaps could have mended, though it was of nature's workmanship; and this he stoutly followed up with a kiss to each lady, after the custom of the country, that loudly spoke its own good report.

Whilst these ancient and exploded ceremonies were in operation, the door opened, and presented to our eyes-a wonder! It was a combination of grace and beauty to have extorted raptures from old age itself; it was a form of modesty to have awed the passions of licentious youth; it was, in one word, Constantia herself, and till our reigning beauties shall to equal charms add equal humility, and present themselves like her to the beholder's eye without one conscious glance of exultation at their triumphs, she must remain no otherwise described than as that name bespeaks the unrivalled model of her sex.

As for my friend Ned, who had acquitted himself so dexterously with the elder ladies, his lips had done their office; neither voice nor motion remained with them, and astonishment would not even suffer them to close

Obstupuit, steteruntque comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit.

And what after all were the mighty instruments, by which these effects were produced? Hearken, O Tavistock-street, and believe it if you can! The simplest dress, which modesty could clothe itself with, was all the armour which this conqueror had put on; a plain white cotton vest with a close headdress (such as your very windows would have blushed to have exhibited), filletted with a black silk riband, were all the aids that Nature borrowed to attire her matchless piece of work.

Thus she stood before us, and there she might have stood for us till now, if the compassionate Israelite had not again stepped in to her rescue: he led her to a chair, and, taking his seat, set the conversation afloat by telling her of his visit to the worthy gentleman then present (as his body indeed might witness, but for his senses they were elsewhere)

XXXVIII.

2 B

spoke handsomely of his kind reception, of the natural beauties of the place and the country about it, and concluded with saying he had now the honour to introduce the owner of that hospitable mansion to her acquaintance, and he flattered himself he could not do a more acceptable office to both parties.

The answer which Constantia made to this elaborate harangue, would in vain be sought for in the 'academy of compliments,' for it consisted simply in the eloquence of two expressive eyes, which she directed upon the speechless trunk of poor Ned, somewhere as I should guess about the region of his heart, for I am persuaded her emissaries never stopped till they made their way to the citadel and had audience there.

Ned now began to stammer out a few sentences, by which, if Constantia did not understand more than was expressed, she could not be much the wiser for the information he gave her; he was glad and sorry twice or thrice in a breath, and not always in the right place; he hoped and believed and presumed to say just nothing at all; when in a moment the word supper! announced through the nose of a snuffling Hebrew servant, came as if it had been conjured up by the wand of an enchanter, to deliver him out of his distress the manna in the wilderness was hardly more welcome to the famished Jews, than were now the bloodless viands that awaited us on the friendly board of Abrahams, to the ears I should have said rather than to the appetite of Drowsy.

Love I know can do more in the way of metamorphosis, than Ovid ever heard of; and to say the truth, what he had done to Ned was no trifling test of his art; for it was in fact no less a change, than if he had transformed Morpheus into Mercury. Good fellowship however can do something in the same way, and the hospitable festivity of the honest Is

raelite now brought Ned's heart to his lips, and set it to work: youth soon catches the social sympathy, but even age and sorrow now threw aside their gloom, and paid their subscription to the board with a good grace. Ned, whose countenance was lighted up with a genuine glow of benevolence, that had entirely dispelled that air of lassitude, which had so long disarmed an interesting set of features of their natural vivacity and spirit, now exhibited a character of as much manly beauty and even mental expression, as I had ever contemplated

Quid non possit amor?

'Madam,' says he, directing his discourse to Mrs. Goodison, it is not for the honour of human nature that I should wholly credit what our worthy host has told me: I won't believe there are half so many hard hearts in the world as we hear of; it is not talking reason to a man that will always argue him out of his obstinacy; it is not such a fellow as myself, no, nor even so good a pleader as my friend here (pointing to Abrahams) who can turn a tough heart to pity; but let me once come across a certain father, that shall be nameless, and let me be properly prepared to encounter him, and I'll wager all I am worth, I will bring him round in a twinkling: only let me have the proper credentials in my hand, do you see, and I'll do it.'-' I know whom you point at,' replied Mrs. Goodison, 'but I don't comprehend all your meaning; what credentials do you allude to?-To the most powerful,' said Ned, that nature ever set her hand to;, the irresistible eyes of this young lady; might I only say-This angel is a supplicant to you, the heart that would not melt must be of marble.' Constantia blushed, every body seemed delighted with the unexpected turn of Ned's reply, whilst Mrs. Goodison answered, that she feared