Monfieur Deffein had diabled the key above fifty times before he found out he had come with a wrong one in his hand: we were as impatient as himself to have it opened; and fo attentive to the obstacle, that I continued holding her hand almost without knowing it; fo that Monfieur Deffein left us toge} ther with her hand in mine, and with our faces turned towards the door of the Remife, and said he would be back in five minutes.

:

Now a colloquy of five minutes, in fuch a fituation, is worth one of as many ages, with your faces turned towards the ftreet in the latter cafe, 'tis drawn from the objects and occurrences without-when your eyes are fixed upon a dead blank -you draw purely from yourfelves. A filence of a fingle moment upon Monfieur Dessein's leaving us, had been fatal to the fituation-the had infal libly turned about-fo I begun the converfation inftantly.

-But what were the temptations, (as I write not to apologize for the weakneffes of my heart in this tour, but to give an account of them) -fhall be defcribed with the fame fimplicity, with which I felt them.

WB

THE REMISE DOOR.

CALAIS.

'HEN I told the reader that I did not care to get out of the Defobligeant, because I saw the monk in close conference with a lady just arrived at the inn-I told him the truth; but I did not tell him the whole truth; for I was full as much reftrained by the appearance and figure of

the

the lady he was talking to. Sufpicion eroffed my brain, and faid, he was telling her what had paffed: fomething jarred upon it within mewifhed him at his convent.

When the heart flies out before the underftanding, it faves the judgment a world of painswas certain fhe was of a better order of beingshowever, I thought no more of her, but went on and wrote my preface.

The impreffion returned, upon my encounter with her in the ftreet; a guarded franknefs with which she gave me her hand, fhewed, I thought, her good education and her good fenfe; and as I led her on, I felt a pleasurable ductility about her, which spread a calmness over all my spirits

-Good God! how a man might lead fuch a creature as this round the world with him !—

I had not yet feen her face-'twas not material; for the drawing was inftantly fet about, and long before we had got to the door of the Remife, Fancy had finish'd the whole head, and pleafed herself as much with its fitting her goddefs, as if fhe had dived into the TIBER for it- but thou art a feduced, and a feducing flut; and albeit thou cheatest us seven times a day with thy pictures and images, yet with fo many charms doft thou do it, and thou deckeft out thy pictures in the shapes of fo many angels of light, 'tis a fháme to break with

thee.

When we had got to the door of the Remife, fhe withdrew her hand from across her forehead, and let me fee the original-it was a face of about fix and twenty-of a clear tranfparent brown, fimply fet off without rouge or powder-it was not critically handfome, but there was that in it, which in

the

the frame of mind I was in, which attached me much more to it-it was interefting; I fancied it wore the characters of a widow'd look, and in that ftate of its declenfion, which had paffed the two firft paroxyfms of forrow, and was quietly beginning to reconcile itfelf to its fofs-but a thoufand other diftreffes might have traced the fame lines; I wifh'd to know what they had been-and was ready to inquire (had the fame bon ton of converfation permitted, as in the days of Efdras-— "What aileth thee? and why art thou difquieted? "and why is thy understanding troubled?". -In

a word, I felt benevolence for her; and resolved fome way or other to throw in my mite of courtesy -if not of fervice.

Such were my temptations-and in this difpofition to give way to them, was I left alone with the. lady, with her hand in mine, and with our faces both turned clofer to the door of the Remife than what was abfolutely neceffary.

THIS

THE REMISE DOOR.

CALAIS.

HIS certainly, fair lady! faid I, raising her hand up a little lightly as I began, must be one of Fortune's whimfical doings to take two utter ftrangers by their hands-of different fexes, and perhaps from different corners of the globe, and in one moment place them together in fuch a cordial fituation, as Friendship herself could fcarce have achieved for them, had the projected it for a month..

-And

मे

-And your reflection upon it, fhews how much, Monfieur, she has embarraffed you by the adven

ture..

When the fituation is, what we would wish, nothing is fo ill-timed as to hint at the circumstances which make it so you thank Fortune, continued the-you had reafon-the heart knew it, and was fatisfied; and who but an English philofopher would have fent notices of it to the brain to reverse the judgment?

In faying this, the difengaged her hand with a look which I thought a fufficient commentary upon the text.

It is a miferable picture which I am going to give of the weakness of my heart, by owning, that it fuffered a pain, which worthier occafions could not have inflicted.I was mortified with the lofs of her hand, and the manner in which I had loft it carried neither oil nor wine to the wound : I never felt the pain of a sheepish inferiority fo miferably in my life.

The triumphs of a true feminine heart are short upon these discomfitures. In a very few feconds the laid her hand upon the cuff of my coat, in order to finish her reply; fo fome way or other, God knows how, I regained my fituation..

-She had nothing to add.

I forthwith began to model a different converfation for the lady, thinking, from the fpirit as well as moral of this, that I had been mistaken in her character; but upon turning her face towards me, the fpirit which had animated the reply was fledthe muscles relaxed, and I beheld the fame unprotected look of diftrefs which first won me to her interest

intereft melancholy to fee fuch fprightlinefs the prey of forrow.I pitied her from my foul; and though it may feem ridiculous enough to a torpid heart,-I could have taken her into my arms and cherished her, though it was in the open street, without blufhing.

The pulfations of the arteries along my fingers preffing acrofs hers, told her what was paffing within me he looked down-a filence of fome moments followed.

I fear, in this interval, I must have made fome flight efforts towards a clofer compreffion of her hand, from a fubtle fenfation I felt in the palm of my own-not as if he was going to withdraw hers-but, as if he thought about it and I had infallibly loft it a fecond time, had not inftinct more than reafon directed me to the last resource in thefe dangers-to hold it loofely, and in a manner as if I was going every moment to release it, of myfelf; fo the let it continue, till Monfieur Deffein returned with the key; and in the mean time I fet myself to confider how I fhould undo the ill impreffions which the poor monk's ftory, in cafe he had told it her, must have planted in her breast against me.

THE

HE good old monk was within fix paces of us, as the idea of him crofs'd my mind; and was advancing towards us a little out of the line, as if uncertain whether he fhould break in upon us or no.He ftoop'd, however, as foon as he

came