444 THE UNFORTUNATE LOVER. 



" It is now twelve years since I came here," replied the vestry 

 keeper, " and in all that time M. Desplein has never failed to come 

 four times a year to hear this mass. It is a foundation made by 

 himself." 



" A foundation made by himself!" said Bianchon, as he walked 

 away. " This is worth the mystery of all others calculated to render 

 a medical man sceptical." 



(To be concluded in our next.) 



THE UNFORTUNATE LOVER. 



I NEVER was in love but twice. I have no wish to be in it a third 

 time. I lost my first inamorata by a blunder of my own. The fault 

 of my losing the second was none of mine ; it rested with the young 

 lady herself. 



I will not weary the reader with a long story touching the ways 

 and means whereby I got acquainted with my first Dulcinea. Nei- 

 ther will I attempt to be minutely eloquent in praise of her charms. 

 I am fond of a nervous condensed style of writing, particularly 

 when speaking of either of the two girls I loved. I say then at once, 

 that Jemima was a perfect angel, both personally and intellectually. 

 What more could I say in her praise though I were to write till 

 doomsday ? 



I never take things, particularly in matters relating to love, in mo- 

 deration. I like to be either hot or cold. I have no conception of 

 what is called an intermediate state of feeling. Nature has endowed 

 rne with unusually strong feelings and passions. I was desperately 

 in love with Jemima ; but the best of it was that I had every reason 

 to believe that she loved me in return, if not so violently, at least to 

 such a decree as oup'ht to have made me satisfied. 



Those whom we love we like to speak of. So says the proverb, 

 and so say I. Nothing in the world afforded me greater pleasure 

 than to hear other people speak of Jemima — always excepting the 

 hearing- herself speak — because I knew it was not in human nature 

 to utter a word anent her save what was in her praise. When my 

 acquaintances showed no propensity to speak of her charms of their 

 own accord, I generally contrived to decoy them into the subject by 

 some means or other. 



Two of my acquaintances had a particularly good taste as regarded 

 the ladies. I knew full well from an indirect source how highly 

 they thought of Jemima; but somehow or other they provokingly 

 eschewed, notwithstanding all my attempts to lead them into it, the 

 subject of her charms when conversing with me. 



I determined one day to fall on some scheme or other to call them 

 out, not to fight — fiir from it — but to call them out in the way of say • 

 ing what they thought cf the attractions of Jemima. I spent an en- 



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