16 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



vince myself that it was not a black one. You are un- 

 well, my Lydia; and here am I, whose part it should 

 be to soothe and amuse you, separated from you by more 

 than 200 miles. Your temperament, my Lydia, is a 

 highly nervous one ; your delicate tenement is o'er- 

 informed by spirit ; 'tis a hard-working system, and the 

 slightest addition to the moving power deranges the 

 whole machine. But be under no apprehensions for your 

 mind. Would that I were beside you to tell you how 

 strangely I have sometimes felt when in a state of nervous 

 irritability. The night before I received your letter, for in- 

 stance, I had a world of foolish fancies about you ; and my 

 sense of hearing was so painfully acute, that I was dis- 

 turbed by the noise of the blood circulating in the larger 

 arteries. But all this was merely the effect of over-exertion. 

 I had copied and calculated all day in the office, and had 

 written for the printer till late at night ; in the morning 

 I was quite well. Try and get yourself amused, my 

 Lydia, and do not suffer your spirits to droop. I shall 

 tell you what my chief indeed only amusement is at 

 present : I have a little paper book, which I carry about 

 with me, and when I have a minute's leisure I take it 

 out, and with the aid of my pen converse with you. 

 This is the secret of my long letters ; and of all my pre- 

 sent pleasures this, with one exception, is the most plea- 

 sant. I need not tell you that the excepted one arises 

 from your letters ; but not such letters, my Lydia, as your 

 last. I must hear that you are well before I shall have 

 recovered the shock it has given me. 



' I have never yet been in any part of the country 

 where the surface is so broken into little hillocks ; one 

 might almost deem it an imitation, on a small scale, of 

 the Highlands. Its geological character is highly in- 

 teresting. Almost all the eminences are basaltic. In 



