140 THE MISERIES 01< A TENDER-EARED MAN. 



by uncomfortable visions, and phantoms which appeared to be 

 shouting through a speaking-trumpet, firing off carronades close to 

 my ear, and exploding bomb-shells under the sofa-pillow. On 

 waking, I discovered tlie cause of these hideous manifestations, a 

 fiddle was going in the room above, and some heavy fellow was 

 perpetrating a hornpipe, after which, apparently, thirty couple 

 commenced a reel. Gracious heavens ! 1 was beneath a dancing 

 school ! Could mortal bear this. I thought my brain would 

 have turned; I found that this rebellious assembly would not 

 be dissolved till 11 o'clock; I could walk out of doors no more, 

 I paced the room, I paused, I sat, I walked again, despair had 

 seized me with an iron grasp; each moment increased ray irri- 

 tation, and in a moment of rage, I fell, fortunately, on the sofa. 

 I suppose I must have slept, for, when I recovered my scattered 

 senses, all around me was still ; the fire had ceased to burn, and 

 an unpleasant savour of tallow told me that the candle had been 

 burnt out in the socket ; my limbs were benumbed with tiie cold ; 

 and the grey haze of morning, which then began to peer in at the 

 window, discovered to me the savoury viands of an untasted 

 supper, cold and cheerless. What was to be done? I felt no 

 inclination to retire to bed, and had I, the dawn ofdciy would 

 have forbidden it. The lapse of time, -between day-break and 

 breakfast-time, gave me ample opportunity to perceive the mis- 

 cries of my present situation, and the dreams of delight, which I 

 had fondly cherished, vd the prospects of a termination of my 

 woes, disappeared like a mountain mist, and disclosed the piti- 

 able, the unbearable reality. 



Tuesday morning: — A heavy gloom hung over my forehead 

 this morning, insomuch that my loquacious landlady, with her 

 usual pertinacity, was more than usually anxious in her in- 

 quiries as to the cause, which, however, must have been but too 

 apparent. I answered all her interrogatories with a simple nod, 

 which, instead of answering the desired end, only increased the 

 torrent of her garrulity ; and at length compelled me as a last 

 resource to adjourn to my sanctum. Here, with an agitated 

 mind, and empty stomach, 1 ruminated on the past, and resolved 

 on the future; which resolve was, to leave the house instanter, 

 and take up my abode elsewhere ; and, in spite of the intreaties 

 of my landlady, and the aceming commons of the situation, the 

 lapse of an hour found me in a snug cabriolet, steering for a 

 retired village, about 4 miles from town ; consisting of, at most, 

 half a-dozen house?;, and icithout a school. 



