178 MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 



eludes in its vast cincture but one created being with whom I would 

 associate my condition," 



" For my part/' he rejoined, (< I know very little of the matter 

 never had time, you know, to think of them but I should suppose 

 one woman to be much the same as another." 



" Ah, Doleman ! herein you speak indeed without instruction, 

 being of the City, civic." 



" Never mind that. I see plainly enough that you will never be 

 fit for any thing till you're matched. You're but a cipher now : put 

 a female unit before you, and you'll make a respectable figure, eh ?" 



te Psha ! you know I go into no society, supposing even that I could 

 for a moment tolerate an idea of conjugation, in which my Perdita 

 had no part. You know I don't." 



" Wheugh ! There's another way of arranging the business. It is 

 what / shall do, if ever my salary should allow me to think of a wife 

 and you know I am not fifty yet. It's merely this a regular, 

 accurate, matter-of-business, straight-forward plan Advertise in one 

 of the papers." 



f( Advertise ! Pooh ! I've had enough of advertising. Haven't I 

 signally failed to discover my lost enchantress through that very 

 channel, although the description I gave of her was as clear as a bill 

 of parcels?" 



" Nay, but don't be so unreasonably limited in your speech. See 

 if you can't find another as good or better than her that you're so un- 

 settled about. Try the " Morning Herald" 



The Morning Herald ! The words vibrated through my ears 

 with an impulse full of new significance. The spirit of my lost love, 

 when its thrilling and departing accents left with me those three 

 abiding words, perchance indicated by them the very means of ac- 

 cess to my living but latent treasure ! 'Twas the broad sheet dotted 

 o'er with the signs exponent of the morning's news, that was meant 

 by those precious syllables, and not the matin bird of the shrill clarion, 

 not the gallinaceous disturber of spirits and of men ! 'Twas the 

 newspaper and not the cock ! Yes, it might, could, should, and must 

 be so! 



I thanked my friend and hurried him off, being impatient to be 

 left to my own meditations on this new inlet to the tide of hope. 

 " Yes, thought I," as I fell into conversation with my pillow, " I 

 will try the Morning Herald, but only in the hope of finding a clue 

 to the ' whereabouts' of my Perdita!" In a happier mood of mind, 

 which somehow connected my amative thoughts with Goldsmith and 

 pastoral poetry, I sank into a slumber, and deliciously dreamed of 

 walking with my Perdita, amid the soft-breathed odours, and the 

 bowery recesses of 



" Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain !" 



Ere I despatched a hasty breakfast next morning, I imagined, 

 composed, rough-drafted, and fairly copied out the momentous an- 

 nouncement which was to serve (so my heart throbbingly suggested) 

 as the lamp to light me to long-desired felicity. In the description 

 it contained of my own moral and physical advantages, it were immo- 



