"You shall not do so, madam," said Janet ; "who shall answer that this fellow vends what is wholesome ?".

"I will myself warrant my good faith," said Wayland; and, taking a part of the medicine, he swallowed it before them. The Countess now bought what remained, a step to which Janet, by farther objections, only determined her the more obstinately. She even took the first dose upon the instant, and professed to feel her heart lightened and her spirits augmented,-a consequence which, in all probability, existed only in her own imagination. The lady then piled the purchases she had made together, flung her purse to Janet, and desired her to compute the amount and to pay the pedlar; while she herself, as if tired of the amusement she at first found in conversing with him, wished him good evening, and walked carelessly into the house, thus depriving Wayland of every opportunity to speak with her in private. He hastened, however, to attempt an explanation with Janet.

"Maiden," he said, "thou hast the face of one who should love her mistress. She hath much need of faithful service."

"And well deserves it at my hands," replied Janet; but what of that ?"

"Maiden, I am not altogether what I seem," said the pedlar, lowering his voice.

"The less like to be an honest man," said Janet.

"The more so,” answered Wayland, “since I am no pedlar."

"Get thee gone then instantly, or I will call for assistance," said Janet; "my father must ere this be returned."

“Do not be so rash," said Wayland; "you will do what you may repent of. I am one of your mistress's friends; and she had need of more, not that thou should'st ruin those she hath."

"How shall I know that ?" said Janet. "Look me in the face," said Wayland Smith, "and see if thou dost not read honesty in my looks."

And in truth, though by no means handsome, there was in his physiognomy the sharp, keen expression of inventive genius and prompt intellect, which, joined to quick and brilliant eyes, a well-formed mouth, and an intelligent smile,

plied, "

often gives grace and interest to features which are both homely and irregular. Janet looked at him with the sly simplicity of her sect, and reNotwithstanding thy boasted honesty, friend, and although I am not accustomed to read and pass judgment on such volumes as thou hast submitted to my perusal, I think I see in thy countenance something of the pedlar--something of the picaroon.”

"On a small scale, perhaps," said Wayland Smith, laughing." But this evening, or to-morwill an old man come hither with thy father, who has the stealthy step of the cat, the shrewd and vindictive eye of the rat, the fawning wile, of the spaniel, the determined grasp of the mastiffof him beware, for your own sake and that of your mistress. See you, fair Janet, he brings the venom of the aspic under the assumed innocence of the dove. What precise mischief he meditates towards you I cannot guess, but death and disease have ever dogged his footsteps.-Say nought of this to thy mistress-my art suggests to me that in her state, the fear of evil may be as dangerous

༦ན་

VOL. II.

as its operation-But see that she take my specie i fic, for(he lowered his voice and spoke dow but impressively in her ear,) it is an antidote against poison-Hark, they enter the garden!” noo of

"

In effect, a sound of noisy mirth and loud talks ing approached the garden door, alarmed by which Wayland Smith sprung into the midst of a thicket of overgrown shrubs, while Janet withdrew to the garden-house that she might not incur observast tion, and that she might at the same time conceal, at least for the present, the purchases made from the supposed pedlar, which lay scattered on the floor of the summer-house. Illob

f

Janet, however, had no occasion for anxiety Her father, his old attendant, Lord Leicester's domestic, and the astrologer, entered the garden in tumult and in extreme perplexity, endeavour ing to quiet Lambourne, whose brain had now become completely fired with liquor, and who was one of those unfortunate persons, who, being once stirred with the vinous stimulus, do not fall asleep like other drunkards, but remain long par tially influenced by it, for many hours, until at length, by successive draughts, they are elevated

into a state of uncontroulable frenzy. Like many men in this state also, Lambourne neither lost the power of motion, speech, or expression; but, on the contrary, spoke with unwonted emphasis and readiness, and told all that at another time he would have been most desirous to have kept secretul plot babe prve tre

* What!" ejaculated Michael, at the full extent of his voice," am I to have no welcome no carouse, when I have brought fortune to your old ruinous dog-house in the shape of a devil's ally, that can change slate-shivers into Spanish dollars? Here, you Tony Fire-the-Faggot, pa pist, puritan, hypocrite, miser, profligate, devil, compounded of all men's sins, bow down and rè verence him who has brought into thy house the very mammon thou worshippest."

"For God's sake," said Foster, "speak lowcome into the house-thou shalt have wine, or whatever thou wilt." .... ཎ ིི ིི(, a་

“No, old puckfist, I will have it here," thun dered the inebriated ruffian here al fresco, as the Italian hath it.No, no, I will not drink with that poisoning devil within doors, to be choked