

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 177 



But I must not dwell, or I shall, perhaps, grow fatiguing ; and, 

 indeed, as the mighty Avonian bard has it, " why should calamity 

 be full of words ?" 



In my daily wanderings forth, and goings hither and thither, to 

 indulge my sad fancy with the ever-present image of my lost Perdi- 

 ta, and peradventure, by an anxious scrutiny of the passing thousands, 

 to find her, I could obtain no clue to discovery, although my efforts that 

 way led me into more than one little fracas in the kings highway. 

 After some time I bethought me of a chance of communication by the 

 newspapers. " If L. N. will kindly favour Q. Z. with the opportu- 

 nity of a single interview, &c." was a mode of refuge for the desti- 

 tute which, to judge from its repeated occurrence (in those or similar 

 terms) in the columns of the diurnals, might be expected to prove of 

 some efficacy. In my case I could not commence with initials ; but 

 I gave (in the Times) such a description of the dear desired as the 

 now unchecked current of my poetical predispositions impelled me 

 to, and ended with the promise that if the lady answering to the 

 particulars named would appoint a meeting with the advertiser, she 

 would "hear of something to her advantage*." The resource proved 

 abortive procuring me generally nothing but disappointment, and, 

 in particular, the pain of an interview, not easily terminated, with 

 five several ladies distinguished by red hair, that base counterfeit so 

 quickly detected by all connoiseurs in the genuine original, auburn. 

 Whether these young ladies thought that the colour employed in my 

 advertisement was a mere substitute, by complimentary custom, for 

 red, or whether they were really under the delusive, but by no 

 means uncommon impression, that their own flaming tresses might 

 bear an auburn interpretation, is a point beyond my power of de- 

 ciding. All I know is, that they answered my advertisement, how- 

 ever little they corresponded with it. I bowed them out with all my 

 disposable civility, but could scarcely afford, in my then condition*, 

 to pity them. 



Nothing now seemed capable of saving me from that cruel and 

 unusual fate death from love at first sight. I am not going to be 

 pathological about my symptoms and feelings, farther than to say 

 that I had become as melancholy as a watch light, and as thin as a 

 shotten herring. I had dropped nearly all my friends for I found 

 myself, in relation to them, very much in the predicament of Job 

 and was almost an isolated being. One rather elderly man, more 

 cheerful than the rest (although a junior clerk in a hide and tallow 

 house), used, however, to hunt me up of an evening, and try to di- 

 vert the busy sadness of my thoughts. 



" What is the use," said at length this good-natured pen-driver 

 " what is the use of you wasting yourself thus in pursuit of a shadow ? 

 You roam about the town like a figure of eight, going in and out and 

 coming back again to where you begin. You keep up a running ac- 

 count with the house of Hope (he spoke figuratively), but when you 

 come to strike a balance, you'll find the account is a Flemish one all 

 against you. I'll tell you what, now : since it seems you can't be a 

 man again and settle to the desk, you had better marry." 



" Doleman," replied I, with emphasis, ef this universal globe in- 



M.M. No. 98. 2 A 



