MELANCHOLY END. 189 



I thought it rather strange that the 

 Major should select for a confidant, in 

 so serious a matter as matrimony, one 

 of the fraternity to which I belonged. My 

 friend was, however, one of the most 

 respectable members of it, it has been my 

 chance to know; and if ever this meets 

 his eye, he will recognise the circumstance 

 I am relating, as well as identify the 

 narrator, and probably recall some happy 

 reminiscences of this period of his life. 



The most melancholy part of the tale 

 remains to be told. I did not see the 

 subject of it but once or twice after my 

 visit, but I heard from my friend that, 

 two or three months after, the whole 

 contents of the house were in the hands of 

 the sheriff's officer, and that the tenant had 

 left that neighbourhood, never to return. 

 A very few years after I read in the 

 papers that (as I suppose driven by ne- 

 cessity and pride) he had condescended 



