"She has said every thing," he continued, "that, coming from a person of honour, would be deemed satisfactory, even to the pointing out of the property that she intends to devise in the names of several of my children. It is perhaps, however," he added, "this very circumstance that has made me unable to endure her for a long time past; for I cannot bear the suspicion of my own heart, of countenancing ways like her's, for the sake of expectations of this nature, while in the meantime, for the want of a little present aid, in a matter I am now engaged in, I am suffering intense anxiety, being threatened at this moment with absolute ruin. This extraordinary person has seen this anxiety painted in my face, and heard it in the sighs of my drooping wife; and yet, she thinks proper to take no notice, except in the shape of boasting of the extent of her own wealth, while delicacy prevents us from speaking to her as perhaps we ought to speak." Having said this, both now entered into some further details, which determined me at once to the course I should take. When the following day came, having commenced my inquiries, I at length fished out full information regarding the extent and nature of her property. I next went to her lawyer, with whom I chanced to have some acquaintance, and put to him some questions respecting her character and proceedings. The answers he gave me shocked me exceedingly. Still I would not believe in the full extent of my surmises; besides, a strange mystery regarding this extraordinary being and her friends, prolonged my inquiries, and increased my perplexity with my very convictions. In three weeks after the first, I again paid Mr. Weir's family a Sunday visit.

He was not at home, and the grave face of the servant girl who opened the door, told me that something was wrong. "Has any thing happened?" I said, observing the woman look hesitatingly behind her. "Come in, sir," she said, "I think I may tell you, for I am sure you are mymaster's real friend." "My mistress is ill, sir," she went on taking me aside, "very ill in her bed, and -and-you'll excuse me, sir, for I must tell you,” added she in a whisper-" there are keepers in the house!"

"Heavens!" I exclaimed," and where is Mr. Weir?"

"I know not, sir, but there will be no dinner dressed here to-day, excepting the single chicken that I am just going to set before my poor mistress, if that hardhearted old creature, Miss Simpson, does not come in and snap it up. Aye, sir, you may look! but she must be a wretch, else she never would see my dear master come to

this, and he forced to sell the very gold watch out of his pocket, after he had parted with the silver tankards and carved cups off the sideboard, that have been a decency in the family since ever my mistress was married, and long before that; and many is the hearty draught that vile old woman has drank out of them, first and last; and yet she would steal the very salt and pepper out of my kitchen, and see my master and mistress sold to the door, before she would put her hand in her great purse to the value of one farthing for them. Mercy on me, it is now four o'clock! for there she is this moment!" exclaimed the girl, looking from the window, "hirpling down the avenue in her old black pelisse!"

"What is the amount of the debt, my girl, for which this misfortune has come upon your family?"

"Two and forty pounds, sir; but oh, be cautious what you say to my mistress, for she is weak, weak; and ah, sir, try to rid us of this horrid, miserly old woman."

Scarcely had I time to inquire concerning the health of the sick lady, when the tall figure of Miss Simpson limped into the bedchamber.

The sight now before her and myself, the anxious and desponding look of the sick lady, and the tears she shed over her crowding children, as she informed us of the state of her husband's affairs, would have melted a heart of flint. Miss Simpson received the news with evident embarrassment, and shot a glance round the apartment and at me, as if collecting her thoughts to suit the emergency. Recovering after a moment her usual coolness, the fawning tone she now assumed to the sick lady, and the dry accents of hypocritical condolence, with which she affected to comfort her, filled me with astonishment. "Do not let down your spirits, my dear Mrs. Weir," she said, "it is all for the best, every thing is for the best, and here is a nice little chicken that Peggy has cooked for you. Peggy, you are a good lass for fetching us so pretty a bird; now just pick a bit of it, and I will help you; here, Peggy, let me have a knife and fork." I was so dumbfounded with amazement that I could not speak, but when I saw the napkin spread, and the melancholy smile of the sick woman, who could taste nothing, as morsel after morsel of every thing near was swept into the beldame's lap, my blood so boiled with indignation, that, fearing to hurt the nerves of the sick, I hurried out of the room. Resolved to bring the old woman to a point, I drew up a short paper; and Peggy, the servant, with joy received my message requesting to see Miss Simpson immediately.

"I have heard with pleasure that you take a particular interest in their welfare, as all must do who know them, and as is naturally to be expected from your long intimacy. I think you will admit that they are deserving of your friendship."

"None that I ever knew are more. I love Mrs. Weir like my own daughter, and I have often told her so. I love her even for her parents' sakes, for they were true parents to me. I am sure none will doubt my warm friendship for Mrs. Weir and her family, or my regret at her present misfortune. But misfortunes must be borne with patience. Mr. Weir is a man of talents, and he will get over it, one way or other: she must not let her spirits down, that would be mere folly. As I have often told her, Nil desperandum has been fitly chosen, as it is worthy, to be the motto to a coronet."

"Excellent reasoning! and wise heads who wear coronets! but, madam, there are keepers in the house!"

"I am very sorry to hear it, I fear there has been some imprudence."

"Surely, madam, you, who have such kind intentions to this family, to be manifested upon the melancholy event of your own death, will not allow it to go to utter rain during your life, for the sake of a little anticipation of your friendship. In short, madam, you and I surely cannot see a sick lady driven out houseless with her children; so, if you will be security for one half of this small debt, I will take upon me the payment of the other, and the present misfortune will be averted. Here, madam, will you please to join me in signing this paper."

"I never allow strangers to interfere in my business matters," she said, “and I am surprised, sir, at your indelicacy in alluding to any intentions of mine at my decease; or to my private communications to Mrs. Weir. I will have nothing to do with signing papers."

"Will you, madam, in any way agreeable to yourself, save these interesting people from this present trouble? I will take part in it, or I will not, just as you please; I have spoken to the man outside; he is instructed to take your undertaking for it, with interest, payable even after your

decease, rather than distress, at present, this worthy couple. By this mode, there is no anticipation of your intentions, if they be sincere, and you will have the credit of saving this family."

"Did not you say you would do the half of it yourself? Do you mean to draw back, and put the whole of it on me?"

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Certainly not. If you are unwilling to take the sum upon you, even not requiring you to part with your money until you are in your grave, and cannot hold it longer, I will pay the half of it now, and then the extent of your sacrifice will be twenty-one pounds. Is it possible, madam, that you can hesitate? Is it possible that you, who have neither child nor parent to inherit your vast wealth, can see the scene that we have witnessed within, without your avarice being moved?"

"Let me look at your paper," she said, reaching out her long scraggy hand, and taking it up, she bit her thin lip as she read it; the sinister expression on her countenance grew absolutely horrible as she seemed making up her mind for an effort of firmness-she threw down the paper with a bold refusal.

"Do I see before me," said I, looking upon her with calm scorn, a human being? Do I really see a woman whom men delight in, or is it a demon in the human form? Can this be the same being whom I looked upon almost as an angel, in the ball-room at Carborough, five and thirty years ago?"

I saw the eye of the wretch twinkle with quailing agitation as I uttered this. She was evidently unprepared for such a recollection. We stood gazing on each other, like the dumb images of guilt and judgment. She grasped her old umbrella, and giving a shrill "hem!" prepared to speak.

"I will not be forced into this," she said. "I will not be hurried into signing papers, and parting with my money. Besides, what I intend for those people, I have already remembered in my will; is not that sufficient?"

A

"Wretch! Impostor!" exclaimed I, now roused to fury. "You have made no will, as your lawyer informs me, nor ever will have the heart to do so. Your money is rotting in your obscure garret, as your name and character will do hereafter. miser of the most inhuman description, you have been deceiving this worthy family, and living upon them, and several others, until you have filched their last morsel to uphold your insane avarice, and to support you to your grave, the curse of your species. Did you not seek out this amiable lady, when she sought not you? Have you

WHEN Mr. Monk Mason took upon his shoulders the enormous weight of the King's Theatre, we were rather apprehensive that he would sink under the overwhelming burthen; and, indeed, our fears were heightened by the formidable manifesto which, under the title of prospectus, he thought proper to issue forth. In that curious document the most astonishing wonders were promised to the public. A new epoch in music was to commence; even the charming associations of a Pasta and a Malibran were to be effaced from our minds by the spell of fresher and more musical phenomena. Paganini himself was to hide his diminished head, and break his bow in despair. The whole town was thrown into a fit of wondering speculation. A rolling fire of puffs of all sizes and denominations were kept up by the press with the most assiduous perti

nacity. You could not take up a paper, or any other publication, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, without meeting with Mr. Monk Mason and his eternal Opera House. Monsieur Morbleu was never, possibly, more bored and perplexed by Monsieur Tonson.

We were puzzled. First-rate musical abilities are very scarce commodities, and, simply, because they are first-rate. Now, to judge from Mr. Mason's manifesto, the said abilities grew as plentiful as blackberries in foreign lands, the peculiar soil of which was, no doubt, favourable to their growth. Again we repeat that we were puzzled. The English public had already heard Pasta, Malibran, Sontag, Pisaroni, &c. &c. Donzelli, Lablache, Zuchelli, Garcia, Gali, &c. &c. To find substitutes for such artists we considered no trifling task.

We shall cast a rapid retrospective glance on the affairs of the King's Theatre, and see how Mr. M. Mason has contrived to fight through the intricate labyrinth into which he, perhaps rather rashly, though gallantly, plunged himself.

The system pursued by the director has been that of quantity. If he could not get a whole Pasta, why he would try to give an equivalent in four-fourths of a Pasta. In an arithmetical point of view the calculation would have been strictly correct. But, unfortunately, there does not always exist agreeable harmony between numerical computations and musical.

You cannot dole out the gratification arising from the charms of music by fractions, as you might any other article of consumption; and although it is easy enough to turn four crowns into a sovereign, we consider it rather impossible to convert four Lazises, or four Puzzis-four Grandolfis, or four Angelinis, into one whole bona-fide Pasta. Not that we mean any disrespect to the above ladies by the statement-they are certainly very amiable persons in their way, but, unfortunately, that way is not precisely the one to make the English public forego past recollections. But we must not anticipate-all in good time-mais continuons!

Mr. Monk Mason was inflamed with the zeal of a fervent devotee in the cause of music. After publishing his manifesto, he, as Don Pedro has done after him, immediately set out on his expedition. With no less activity than industry, he ran at full canter through the most approved musical cities and towns in Europe, beating up for recruits to form that formidable corps which was necessary to carry on the campaign at the King's Theatre. The director had firmly made up his mind to find out musical prodigies. He was determined to form a collection of rarities bon gré mal grè, and really, when a man resolves so desperately on a thing-But now observe what followed.

No sooner was the tremendous blast

or call it note of preparationsounded, than the whole tribe of mu sical mediocrités pricked up their ears with agreeable surprize, and standing on the tiptop of expectation, exclaimed in full chorus, from one point of the musical antipodes to the other-Now is our time! A most ingenious system was organized, the result of which was, that Mr. Mason was persuaded into the belief that brass was real gold. This, indeed, is the most charitable conclusion to which we can arrive with regard to the director, for he is too much of a gentleman to attempt imposing on the public. Let us, therefore, hope that he has been the first dupe-the public the second; and, indeed, that the director has merited that rather disagreeable title will be evident to all those who have seen some of the agreements made between him and the tribe of musical mediocrités above mentioned. The hungry and greedy sons of Italian song considered Mr. Mason fair play. He ought, certainly, to pay full price for the honour of ruling the most unruly class of the community, as well as the pleasure of hearing himself called the director.

Recruits, therefore, came in clusters the service promised such delicious booty. Only think-a gentleman manager, instead of a regular, well experienced disciplinarian brought up to the business. Mr. Mason was quite a god-send to the sons of song tenori, bassi, barituoni, buffi, cariccatti, soprani, mezzo-soprani, contralti. They all flocked like hungry geese round the devoted musical Amphytrion. Thus we find an indifferent third-rate singer, who had been playing with no success at all in the Italian theatres, suddenly transformed into a prima donna, and her praises chaunted forth in the most clamorous style previous to her début. We have seen several of the engagements entered into by Mr. Mason, and we have been astonished at the ridiculous pretensions of the singers, no less than at the exceeding bon homie of the director in acceding to their preposterous terms.