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"Entretiens" to be printed in the order of their composition, either in 1650, the year when the "Carmina" appeared, or a little later. As then in Entretien iv. he passes from the epigram on roses to the epigram on Xerxes, and from this to the supposed Neronian fragment, Burmann concluded that all three were found in the same MS.,-the Codex Salmasianus. It is true that Burmann must have been a most superficial reader, if, acquainted as he professes to be with the Latin letters of Balzac, he did not discover in the very same volume the poem containing the forged fragment. I believe that, incredible as it may seem, this was the case; though from the loose style in which he speaks of that volume (ii. 645, and preface, p. xlvii.), it is possible that he speaks at second-hand. Possible, but barely; else why particularize the pages, as in both cases he has done? Perhaps he was misled as to the fragment by Balzac himself; for, in the sixth chapter of the same Entretien iv., Balzac mentions, d-propos of another epigram on a beauty losing a lock of her hair, one of his own Latin poems contained in the identical volume of "Carmina " which gives the first draft of the supposed fragment. This fact might be thought to prove that Balzac did not intend to deceive.

I

have come to a different conclusion; he meant to deceive, but to deceive with an appearance of honesty. His plan is sufficiently dexterous; very few readers in that age were likely to have both the "Entretiens" and the "Carmina," to test the truth of each by the other; and, without such a test, the natural inference from the mention of his own poems in the second case would be that they had nothing to do with the first, in which they were not mentioned. Moreover, there is a circumstantiality in Balzac's way of speaking, not only of the lines as a whole, but of particular expressions and à la Déesse Vénus, pour la donner au prophète Mahomet, et qui tiennent (c'est Busbequius qui le dit dans ses Rélations) que les premières Roses sont nées de la sueur de ce grand Prophète!” (p. 86.)

allusions in them, which must have been meant to deceive. M. Quicherat has called attention to the fact that some of these explanations differ from those of subsequent commentators, particularly Wernsdorf; and it had occurred to me that the occasional extravagance of the commentary was designed to react in favour of the genuineness of the text, as, for instance, when Titii is supposed by Balzac to allude to the "Tityon Terra omniparentis alumnum" of Virgil. But, be this as it may, the two pages of commentary devoted to the illustration of the poems are incompatible with a belief in Balzac's honesty. Men do not generally take the trouble to explain or quote passages to illustrate what they know to be a forgery; if they do take the trouble, it is because they wish the forgery to be thought true. M. Quicherat endeavours to defend his countryman on the plea that the chapter in the "Entretiens" is a mere jeu d'esprit. Unfortunately, it is a jeu d'esprit which deceived a century of scholars. Vanity may have had something something to do with this "assuredly reprehensible pleasantry." The "Entretiens" were published posthumously; and this piece, as put forth during his own lifetime in the "Carmina,' mina," is signed with his name, and could not impose upon anybody. But then the "Entretiens " is a work which he was known to be preparing some years before his death, and which he mentions in his letters as forthcoming. The way in which the fragment is there introduced, is deliberately calculated to deceive; there is nothing to show that he thought of suppressing the work; hehas imposed upon posterity.

The cleverness of the imposition is acknowledged; we will do our French neighbours the justice of confessing that the Latin verses of this Neronian of the seventeenth century would, in our judgment, have been no discredit to the period to which they profess to belong. They might have been written, we think, by many Englishmen; they arebetter than most Latin verses of German composition with which we are acquainted.

KHISMET.

ONE evening between five and six years ago I was engaged in that very unpalatable occupation called chewing the cud of bitter fancy, and had just come to the conclusion that, if I had not reached the nadir of human misery, I must at least have got pretty near it, when a circumstance occurred quite suddenly and unexpectedly, which not only at once infused a certain amount of sweetness into my unpleasant ruminations, but had the effect of tinging and altering the whole course of my after-life as well.

During the three months which immediately preceded the time of which I write, almost every conceivable species of misfortune had befallen me. My losses on the turf had been considerable; my beautiful yacht had been wrecked; my favourite mare had gone dead lame; the girl to whom I was engaged had jilted me, and eloped with that personage popularly known as Another; and, worse than all, I had just made the startling discovery that I was terribly involved, so deeply dipped in that mare profundum called debt, that I could see no chance, either proximate or remote, of ever being able to extricate myself from my difficulties. Under these circumstances it will occasion no surprise if I add that I was wont at this period to look at life somewhat darkly; but on the evening in question I felt so peculiarly wretched that I had just begun to think that if I could hit upon any easy, speedy way of making my exit from the stage of existence-I objected to shooting myself, because it made so much noise, and to prussic acid, because it was so painful-I should be a fool if I did not avail myself of the discovery, when the door opened, and my cousin Mrs. Wynne entered the room, and thus addressed me :

"Do you know, Charley, thinking of

you and your affairs deprived me of several hours of my natural rest last night, and considerably impaired my appetite for breakfast this morning; but to-day, thank goodness, I see my way to helping you out of your difficulties, and I've come down to impart the suggestion to you ;- you must marry an heiress!"

"Thanks!" I replied; "the suggestion is good, but, I fear, purely chimerical. Unless I were to evolve an heiress out of my inner consciousness, as the Germans say, I really do not see where one is to come from."

"Not so fast, Charley," returned my cousin. "Leslie Foster has come to town; and I saw her to-day, and from what transpired during that interview I know that you can have her for the asking."

"Impossible!" I exclaimed, and true to the habits and instincts of my class, notwithstanding the golden vista opened before me, I shrank with a feeling very nearly akin to repugnance from the idea of linking myself to a woman who could thus suffer herself to be won unsought. "It is not to be done, Alice, not even for the money," I went on; "and even if it were, I am sure that either you are mistaken, or there must be a screw loose somewhere."

"Wrong in both surmises, Charley. I know what I have told you to be the case; and for the rest, Leslie, though not handsome, is one of the best and nicest girls possible. But you know her, do you not?"

"That is to say, I have met her in society, but I am bound to add I never noticed her, and no more did she me, I'll swear."

"There you err again. She admires you particularly, and thinks you so handsome; not as young as you might be, perhaps, and rather too apt to look

as though everything bored you, but all the same, a very nice-looking fellow, and she knows from me that you are a very good one.'

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"Well, it's the strangest thing I ever heard of," I was beginning, but my cousin interrupted me by saying, "Not so strange at all, if you knew the whole story. The fact is, she, like yourself, was going to be married, but at the eleventh hour the match was broken off, and I do believe it is a feeling of pique which makes her anxious to marry now. But as she is all I have represented her to be, and you will have full control over her fortune if you take her, I do not see what there is to prevent its being a very happy ménage, after all; for you know you were not touched in the other quarter, and have therefore a free and unoccupied heart to offer her."

"Yes," I replied, "that is quite true; but

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But at the sound of that disagreeable little conjunction my cousin lost patience, and as she rose to leave the room she said, "Well, Charley, if you choose to be a fool I can't help you. However, Leslie is coming here to-morrow to spend some weeks with me, so you can make up your mind between this and then; and as she is not to arrive until evening, you'll have plenty of time to think the matter over.'

Of course I did think the matter over; and as an inevitable logical sequence, I also of course came finally to the conclusion, that, though I had no vocation for marriage in the abstract, and an especial distaste for it in this particular instance, as beggars cannot be choosers, it would be utter madness for a poor devil in my position to throw away such a chance, and that it was therefore my bounden duty to go in for the heiress, and win her if I could. This was the decision I came to; and in the solitude of my own room, as I was a tolerably cool hand on most occasions, I fancied that I should be able not only to meet her, but also to carry out my intentions with a calm, unblushing front. But when the next

evening came, bringing her with it, and I actually found myself in her presence, I felt my heart beating vigorously against my waistcoat as I stood taking stock of her charms and countercharms, and trying to realize that the woman was before me with whom, as it appeared, I was destined to spend the rest of my natural life. Luckily, however, I was on the whole favourably impressed. She had that indispensable requisite in a nice woman, a very soft, sweet voice; besides which ber tongue was an organ which discoursed most excellent music ; and when upon dinner being announced she rose like Venus from the foamof a sea of white muslin-I was obliged to admit, that though not exactly pretty, she was certainly very pleasant to look at, as well as to listen to.

But

The dinner, during which she sat opposite me a grace before meatpassed off very well; partly because we were a partie carrée, a circumstance which generally makes everything pretty square, but more particularly because the conversation was general, and all contributed their quota to it. when we returned to the drawing-room, I had a different story to tell; for shortly after we got there, Mr. Wynne having fallen asleep behind his newspaper, and his wife having pointedly left the room, my position became such an awkward one, that I began to feel quite put out and embarrassed; and in my abortive efforts to appear the reverse, I felt painfully conscious that I was both looking and acting like a fool.

Now before I go further, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I was not a fool by any means. On the contrary, my advice was constantly and eagerly sought for-so was my money too, unfortunately-and at school and in college I was considered a regular sap. However, though I might be quite at home in tracing Cæsar through the mazes of an extinct topography-though the unknown quantities of algebra were by no means unknown to me-though I could get "Old Mother Hubbard" to hobble, or rather, I should say, to glide most gracefully into Greek iambics-and

though the "calculus" was mere sport to me, I was not at all equal to the emergency of making small talk as became an officer and a gentleman for this one little woman-because I knew that her bright eyes were fixed upon me scrutinizingly, as though she would fain read me through and through, and I felt that in her secret soul she was enjoying my confusion, and laughing at me all the time.

But indeed it was not surprising that she should have felt amused; for as soon as my cousin had taken her departure, this was how we comported ourselves :

After an oppressive silence of several minutes' duration, Miss Foster at length exclaimed, "Do please say something, Colonel Blayne !"

"Ahem!" said I.

"Oh, that is nothing!" said she.
I coughed nervously.

"Worse and worse!" she cried. "It's very hot!" was my next attempt.

"I know it is; but I have heard that said so often to-day that the remark seems now to have quite a weatherbeaten aspect. Cannot you think of something fresher and less meteorological to tell me?"

"Are you fond of gardening?" I asked in despair-for at that moment my unlucky eye chanced to light on some flowers, which suggested the question.

"Uncommonly. But let me remind you that the responsibility of entertaining me has been laid upon you, so I expect you to be very brilliant. Please say something witty or funny; or if you haven't anything of your own, you can tell me some nice little historiette or clever anecdote. I'm so fond of good stories of all kinds."

I saw she was chaffing me to the top of her bent; and I was just about to tell her so; but before I had time to carry out my intention, our host, having burst the chain of slumber by which he had been bound, suddenly roused up. and petitioned for some music, adding, that he hoped she would give him a

great di as it was a long time since he had heard her sing. Of course she was obliged to comply with his request; and once he got her to the piano, not being in league with his wife, he kept her there asking for song after song, until it was time to retire. So the evening ended sweetly, if not harmoniously, after all; and while listening to the music, which was really exquisite of its kind, my temporary irritation passed away, and I almost forgot that, instead of being amusing, I must have appeared to her a very heavy dragoon indeed.

The next afternoon we went out to ride, and for many succeeding days we did the same thing. But my cousin always accompanied us, and never again absented herself in the evening either, which was a much better arrangement, seeing that we had not a word to say to each other which the whole world might not hear, and her presence prevented the awkwardness of a tête-à-tête. This state of things lasted for ten days, but at the expiration of that time Miss Foster got a telegram one morning, to say that an aunt of hers, to whom she was very much attached, was dangerously ill; and as she had consequently to hasten off at once, any chance that might have existed of my getting smitten with her was thus nipped in the bud. But the worst feature in the case was, that she did not come back. Days pas ed away and У merged into weeks, bu still she said nothing about returning. And, meanwhile, the state of my affairs was becoming more desperate each day; so desperate indeed that I was at last obliged to speak seriously to my cousin, and beg of her to try and discover at once whether the heiress would honour me with her hand or not. To my no small relief, however, the young lady wrote by return of post to accept my proposal, and furthermore signified her willingness to be married the following month! But she added that she did not like lovemaking; and as her aunt still required her care, she would not return until the day before the wedding,

which she wished should tak the Wynnes.

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Now I will not deny that this strange mode of procedure astonished me so much, that my fears about the loose screw returned in full force; and had my position been less critical, I do believe I should have been inclined to draw back, even at the eleventh hour. As it was, however, I was obliged to let matters take their course. But when the day drew near on which I was to sign the death-warrant of my freedom, my spirits were by no means exuberant, and I was filled with that sort of pity for myself which all men feel-except, of course, those who are desperately in love-at the thought of bidding adieu to their bachelor days for ever, and making that terrible promise to forsake all others and keep only unto one as long as they shall live. All I can say of my marriage is that it duly came off on the day appointed, and that immediately after the ceremony we started for Foster Hall, where I found Leslie's invalid aunt installed, and was informed that she was not only to spend the honeymoon with us just fancy a honeymoon with a third party!—but was to live with us altogether. was startling, and not particularly agreeable; but what struck me as more strange than anything else was the change which had taken place in my bride. The mocking light had left her eyes, she no longer chaffed me, and the gaiety and brightness of her manner had given place to a sort of grave earnestness for which I was quite at a loss to account. I fancied, too, several times during the day, that she was anxious to speak to me on some important subject, but could not pluck up courage to do so; and that my surmise was correct events abundantly proved, for about an hour after we reached our destination I was sitting alone in the drawing-room, gazing out on the fair domain now all my own, when she entered the room very softly, and coming up quite close to where I was seated, she said, "I have been wishing so much to speak to you all

This

day, and now I must do so. I know, of course, that you married me merely to extricate yourself from your embarrassments; but as you broke no troth, and did not deceive me, and as you knew I was not an objectionable person in any way, I think you were perfectly justifiable in doing so. I had my own reasons for marrying you too; but, as you are aware, affection had nothing to do with my motives any more than it had with yours. However, we will let that pass; what I want to say to you now is that my fortune, being for the most part at your disposal, I hope you will at once pay all your debts with it, and make yourself as happy as possible in every respect. But under the circumstances, though we can be the best of friends, we must both go our separate ways in life. I have my own pursuits -you have yours; and we can follow them without interfering with each other in any way, and that is what I wish should be the case."

She held down her head as she ceased speaking, and I did not answer at first, because, for some moments, I did not exactly know what she meant. But when her meaning did dawn upon me, it was in the very coldest of tones that I replied, "Of course it shall be just as you please!" And before I had time to add another word, she had quitted the room. Well, time passed on, and I am bound to say the chariot-wheels did not drive heavily either. Once my debts were all paid, I felt as light as a bird; and having always believed that if wealth does not bring happiness, it at least brings an exceedingly good imitation of it, I had no reason to change my opinion then, when I found myself the possessor of a charming house in town, ditto in the country, with as many horses as I liked to keep, and, above all, the power of having my friends with me whenever and wherever I wished. Meanwhile my little wife remained just the same as she had been at the commencement of our married life, and was ever kind, but ever cold. She seemed anxious to please me in all things, and not only consulted my wishes, but on

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