MODERN CONSTANCY. 81 



not disappear before his return, they usually subsided in violence 

 very soon after. 



On a very sultry day in August, a stranger arrived at the 

 Millville Tavern, and after making sundry enquiries respecting 

 stage-routes, etc., declared his intention of remaining some 

 weeks in so beautiful a spot. He accordingly hired the best 

 room in the inn, and it was not long before it was generally 

 rumored that " the foreign gentleman with black whiskers" was 

 a stranger of distinction, travelling incog, to view the country. 

 Of course this was enough to rouse the lionizing spirit, which 

 prevails so generally in our country, and in less than a week 

 every man, woman, and child in the place had peeped at " the 

 Count." He was invited to visit the churches, (Millville had a 

 church for every hundred inhabitants,) he was honored with a 

 free ticket to the Lyceum lectures, he was requested to allow 

 a cast of his head to be taken by an itinerant Phrenolgist, and 

 he was waited upon in person by every male in the village, from 

 the parson down to the fisherman's boy, who proffered all 

 needful assistance in the way of boating and baiting. 



There was nothing very remarkable about " the Count," 

 except his huge whiskers and moustache, which completely con- 

 cealed the lower half of his face. He wore a damask silk 

 dressing gown when in his own apartment, sat much at the open 

 window, played a little on a cracked flute belonging to his host, 

 and spent part of every day on the river bank, in the society of 

 the fisherman's boy, who seemed to be his favorite among all 

 those who had honored him with a call. He declined all the 



