In a certain town in Alsace, during the time of the seven years war, lived two misers of different sexes; the one was known by the name of Madame Barbara Alicia Kreutzer, the other by that of Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville.

The former had been the wife of a senator, but at this period had been many years a widow. Her lord survived his marriage but a very short time;-as to the cause of his death the town was much divided in opinion; some holding that he was wrangled out of the world by his fair partner, others, that he was starved by her; all agreed that it was to her he was indebted for being so early in life released from a world of cares. In short she was

"One of those very few women whose life

Is less spent in eating than wrangling aud strife,', Whether it was for her beauty or for the amiable qualities of her mind that the worthy senator made choice of her

as his help-mate, is not easily to be de termined. The only thing certain is, that at the time when the adventures now to be related took place, and she was considerably past the prime of life, her nose had acquired a remarkable resemblance to the beak of a falcon, and her chin turned upwards towards it with so graceful a curve, that they came nearly in contact with each other. Her figure had none' of the roundness and plumpness of the Medicean Venus; it might, indeed, be said, that if she had starved her loved lord, she had certainly not fattened herself; her form was the very abstract idea of famine, and by that appellation she was generally distinguished among her fellow-citizens. Her dress was in perfect unison with the appearance of her person: the gown she commonly wore had been in the family during three generations at least as the fashion of it and many a breach

in its texture indisputably attested. An anti-graceful figure of this description being well known as one of those in which our arch enemy often carries on his intrigues and cabals against mankind, she did not pass among the townspeople without suspicion, if not of being that very personage himself, at least of being one of those attendants about his person commonly known by the name of his imps.

The house in which she lived favoured this idea not a little. It was an old ruinous castle on the town-walls, and appeared much rather the abode of evil spirits than of any thing human. One evil spirit was undoubtedly her constant inmate the dæmon of avarice; and as he was her constant, he became at length nearly her sole, companion. She had once let the greater part of her house in lodgings; till in the end, as she would never be at the expense of repairs the wind and the rain had obtained such free ingress into every apartment that it was impossible for any body but herself to inhabit them. She then entered upon a nice calculation, whether the loss incurred by repairs would or would not be counterbalanced by the gain derived from letting the apartments; which question being deter mined in favour of suffering things to remain as they were, she descended from a garret where she had long dwelt, and which rather more resembled an owl's nest than a human habitation, into the first floor, where only was one room tolerably defended against the inroads of the elements.

Among many wise maxims and saws which she cherished as her great rules of life, a favourite one was that " Whoever will be well served must serve themselves." In pursuance of this maxim she kept no servant. Indeed another reason might be adduced for her not having one, that it was impossible to find a servant who would live with her; even the rats and mice forsook the house, after she ceased to have lodgers, for want of the means of sustaining their

existence any longer. The only corporeal being that now inhabited the mansion, besides herself and the spiders -who held their reign unmolested in every part of it-was a large black dog. This member of her establishment served at all times as a faithful guard against thieves, and in cold weather added to his other employments that of performing for her the office of a warming-pan.

Such a guard and protector was indeed a very necessary article in her household she had the reputation of possessing immense riches, and without some defender might have been extremely liable to the inroads of nocturnal depredators. If a heart like hers could be capable of attachment, she might be said to be strongly attached to this animal indeed, if similarity of disposition can create attachment, there was every reason for her regarding him with warm friendship, since he was as determined a wrangler as herself; and having twice inflicted severe discipline on persons who came to the house at a later hour than he thought proper to admit visitors, all who might otherwise have been similarly disposed were now kept at an awful distance.

The reputation for riches which she had not unjustly acquired, proved to her in some sort an actual source of wealth. The legacy-hunters, who always constitute a large description of persons in every town, were all assiduous in paying their court to her, sending her little objects of regale for the table, and other presents, so that she had never occasion to diminish her own stores in supplying the wants either of herself or her dog. Not that the tributes she received in this way were always consumed by her under the form in which they originally came to her hands; a fine capon for instance was a dainty which neither Black Tom, for that was the appellation given to her companion in compliment to her deceased husband, who bore the name of Thomas-neither herself nor Black Tom having any relish for dainties, whatever she received in

this way was carried to market and exchanged for food of a cheaper description; and she took great care not to be over-reached in her bargains, she commonly, besides supplying her table, contributed something towards the nouIrishment of her strong box.

"She is a managing good kind of a woman," would Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville, with others of like thrifty dispositions, say of her, pulling off their hats and saluting her respectfully whenever they met her in the streets. The rest of the inhabitants of the town were divided in their opinions concerning her. Black Tom was by many considered as neither more nor less than the arch-fiend himself under the form of a spaniel! and a very general article of belief was that the old lady was possessed of a magic dollar, presented by Satan, as a love-token when he first became her suitor, through the influence of which she could increase her wealth to any sum she chose. To these opinions at least four-fifths of the inhabitants of the town subscribed: the only difference among them was, that some believed both articles firmly, and talked of them freely; while others, as firmly believing, yet did not venture to talk upon the subject, always recollecting the old saying, "Talk of the devil and he's soon at your elbow." Some again rejected that part of the creed which taught that Black Tom was the archfiend in disguise, but believed firmly in the magic dollar; others again believed in the dog, but rejected the dollar. A few only, scarcely a fifth part, perhaps not above a tenth or twentieth -persons who could actually venture through a church-yard without fear at the solemn hour of midnight-did not believe either in the dollar or the dog; they believed in nothing but the covetous, querulous, and in every way untractable disposition or the avaricious old woman.

Such was Madame Barbara Alicia Kreutzer. Her counterpart, Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville, as he called him

self in all his bonds, usurious contracts, dunning letters, &c. had from his earliest youth conceived a high idea of the delights of living in noble penury. He had not more of the sleek plumpness of the Apollo of Belvidere in his figure, than his prototype had of the Medicean Venus; it would have been indeed a difficult matter for the nicest anatomist to determine which had the greater or less portion of flesh upon their bones. The skin of his forehead was drawn very tight up over the ossified part of it by a scanty-haired wig which sat very close to his head, and his small round eyes were by this means rendered exceedingly prominent, while they, standing on each side of a very crooked nose and having in them much of the acuteness of a hawk, looking after his prey, his countenance altogether bore a strong resemblance to that animal. Nor was this resemblance lessened by his mouth being constantly open, as if ready to snap at any thing which came in his

way.

While yet quite a child, some hard dollars had been given him by his godfather as playthings; and of these he soon became passionately fond-all other objects were as nothing to his childish fancy in comparison with them. At a somewhat more advanced period of life, no other play could delight him but being merchants and bankers, and getting a great deal of money. By the time he was seven years old, he could repeat his tables of interest by heart very readily, without making the most trifling mistake, though in all other respects he was backward in his reading and writing; and when only in his tenth year he had the address to frame a lottery, by which nearly all the pocketmoney of his schoolfellows was transferred from their purses into his strong box-for a strong box he kept even at this early age. Another mode adopted by him to get possession of the little stores of his companions was to borrow money of them under an engagement to pay it at a fixed time with so much

interest; but when that time arrived neither principal nor interest was forthcoming; and if pressed for payment by his youthful creditors, he very coolly declared himself a bankrupt. On the occasion of his first declaration of bankruptcy, an appeal was made by the sufferers to the justice of his father, who was a fat, portly brewer in the town. Having listened attentively to the story, he turned it off with a laugh at the ingenuity of this only fruit of his marriage, paying to the full both the principal and the interest promised. Thus was laid the foundation of a thousand evil habits in the boy, which did not fail to shoot up with the most luxuriant growth.

It was the father's earnest wish to see his son a scholar; but the only studies to which the young man could ever settle his mind were the arts of gaining and of saving money; so that when he arrived at the age to be removed to the university, the masters were obliged to acknowledge him unfit for it." Yet during this time he had pursued his favourite studies with so much effect that he had scraped together a very pretty capital, and this he kept constantly increasing, by lending it out on pledges at usurious interest. Not long after he attained to manhood, his father was found dead one morning in his cellar, and thus was Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville at an early age left sole master of a very large property.

lodging in an obscure part of the town, and there shut himself up with his hoards, never stirring but when some business of saving or of gain called him forth;-since to walk out for any other purpose was a waste of shoe-leather.

Between this period and the completion of his thirtieth year he was twice attacked in a way that threatened to be very fatal to him, that is to say, he twice fell in love. His prudence, however rose superior even to the attacks of this all-powerful passion, and calculations of interest did what reflections of reason were scarcely ever known to do, -deterred him from rushing headlong into matrimony. He found that the expenses of such an establishment as he must have in the character of a husband, and probably of a father, would be far greater than the fortune of either of the ladies would pay, though each had what is considered by the world as a pretty fortune; and that consequently depredations such as he could not bear to think of would be made upon his own means:-avarice therefore triumphed over love. To console himself, he calculated what his annual expenses must have amounted to, had he yielded to his inclinations, which sum he put by every year in a separate bag, calling it lovehoard; and the pleasure he derived from seeing the accumulation of this stock, proved to him a source of greater joy than the joys of wedlock themselves.

Yet, since it is hopeless for a man wholly to resist his fate, and since it was written in the book of fate that Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville was not to pass through life without making one sacrifice at the altar of Hymen; he did at length find a woman whom, on running over his darling calculations, and turn

thought he might venture to make his wife without fear of injuring his fortune. She was a virgin in the forty-second year of her age, with a revenue amounting to nearly double the sum he had been accustomed to lay by in his lovehoard; so that he here saw a prospect

of adding to his savings, notwithstanding the increase of his expenses. Satisfied therefore as to the prudence of his plan, he began his siege in due form; nor was the town long ere it surrendered at discretion. The lady was always considered by her neighbours as having continued in a state of virginity to this advanced period of life, very much against her inclination; though she seldom failed of entertaining every company wherein she mingled, with an account of some one or the many cruelties she had exercised towards mankind. It is not our business to enter into an investigation how much or how little foundation there might be for these details; we have no concern with any other of her lovers than Mr. Philip Ambrose Netterville, and towards him she certainly never evinced any disposition to cruelty. At the very first hint of his passion, she tenderly sighed and blushed a soft consent; and in three weeks from the date of this hint became Madame Netterville..

So far was well; but in another respect the matter was not quite so well. On the blessings of the marriage-bed, on the olive-branches round about his table, the happy husband had made no calculation; he thought that his vine being forty-two years of age would be would be exempt from the production of olivebranches, and he never was very anxious to see his table surrounded by such productions. Alas! he found to his cost, that though seldom baffled in his calculations, he had here fallen into an error; for exactly a year and a day after their marriage he was presented by his fair helpmate with a very fine little girl. The lady, however, to make some atonement for having misled him thus cruelly, in a few days after her delivery released him from any further expenses on her account, except her funereal ones.

Netterville was not yet fully satisfied; -though released from the burthen of maintaining a wife, that of providing for his new charge would be scarcely less onerous. Since it was impossible

of

for him, in her infant state, to attend upon her wholly himself; he must, for a few years at least, be at the expense of a nurse. Indeed, the expenses educating a girl till she should be fourteen or fifteen, an age at which he expected she would be able to maintain herself,-that is, to marry,-absolutely made his hair stand-an-end. His only comfort was that he should look out a rich son-in-law, and make him reimburse if not the whole, certainly a great part of the sums expended in his daughter's education.

Mother Nature, who had most truly and literally been the means of giving existence to the little Philippina, exerted herself all in her power to make amends for the untoward circumstances under which she had ushered her into the world. She endowed her abundantly with personal charms, and bestowed on her a most amiable disposition and a very sufficient portion of talents; aided by these she grew up-not withstanding all the disadvantages of parental avarice, which refused her every thing but the most ordinary education-a gem of no common value. From the moment that her awakening reason made her sensible of her situation, she occupied herself in various kinds of needle-work, by the sale of which she gained the means of purchasing such articles of dress as her situation demanded, but which her father's sordid habits denied; to these she added the procuring instruction in some of the elegant accomplishments. She always took care, however, to give him some part of her gains, as a security against his ever raising any opposition to the prosecution of her plans. It was only thus, through her own industry, that she was enabled to appear with credit in society, and to frequent balls and concerts, for she was passionately fond both of music and dancing.

That a young woman of this description should early attract the attention of the young men was to be expectdd ; and from the moment she began to