3. Portia could not be prevailed upon to accept the money; but upon Bassanio still pressing her to accept of some reward, she said: 'Give me your gloves; I will wear them for your sake:' and then Bassanio taking off his gloves, she espied the ring which she had given him upon his finger: now it was the ring the wily lady wanted to get from him to make a merry jest when she saw her Bassanio again, that made her ask him for his gloves; and she said, when she saw the ring And for your love I will take this ring from you.' Bassanio was sadly distressed that the counsellor should ask him for the only thing he could not part with, and he replied in great confusion, that he could not give him that ring, because it was his wife's gift, and he had vowed never to part with it: but that he would give him the most valuable ring in Venice, and find it out by proclamation. On this Portia affected to be affronted, and left the court, saying: 'You teach me, sir, how a beggar should be answered.'

4. 'Dear Bassanio,' said Antonio, 'let him have the ring; let my love and the great service he has done for me be valued against your wife's displeasure.'

Bassanio, ashamed to appear so ungrateful, yielded, and sent Gratiano after Portia with the ring; and then the clerk Nerissa, who had also given Gratiano a ring, begged it of him, and Gratiano-not choosing to be outdone in generosity by his lord-gave it to her. And there was laughing among those ladies to think, when they got home, how they would tax their husbands with giving away their rings.

5. Portia, when she returned, was in that happy temper of mind which never fails to attend the consciousness of having performed a good action; her cheerful spirits enjoyed everything she saw: the moon

never seemed to shine so bright before. And when that pleasant moon was hid behind a cloud, then a light which she saw from her house at Belmont as well pleased her charmed fancy, and she said to Nerissa: 'That light we see is burning in my hall; how far that little candle throws its beams, so shines a good deed in a naughty world:' and hearing the sound of music from her house, she said: 'Methinks that music sounds much sweeter than by day.' And now Portia and Nerissa entered the house, and dressing themselves in their own apparel, they awaited the arrival of their husbands, who soon followed them with Antonio; and Bassanio presenting his dear friend to the Lady Portia, the welcomings of that lady were hardly over, when they perceived Nerissa and her husband quarrelling in a corner of the room.

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6. A quarrel already!' said Portia; 'what is the matter?'

Gratiano replied: 'Lady, it is about a paltry gilt ring that Nerissa gave me, with words upon it like the poetry on a cutler's knife-"Love me and leave me not."

'What does the poetry or the value of the ring signify?' said Nerissa; 'you swore to me, when I gave it to you, that you would keep it till the hour of death; and now you say you gave it to the lawyer's clerk.'

7. 'By this hand,' replied Gratiano, ‘I gave it to a youth, a kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy no higher than yourself; he was clerk to the young counsellor that by his wise pleading saved Antonio's life: this prating boy begged it for a fee, and I could not for my life deny him.'

Portia said: You were to blame, Gratiano, to part with your wife's first gift. I gave my Lord Bassanio a

ring, and I am sure he would not part with it for all the world.'

Gratiano, in excuse for his fault, now said: My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away to the counsellor, and then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in writing, begged my ring.'

8. Portia, hearing this, seemed very angry, and reproached Bassanio for giving away her ring. Bassanio was very unhappy to have so offended his dear lady, and he said with great earnestness: 'What could I do, sweet Portia? I was so beset with shame for my seeming ingratitude, that I was forced to send the ring after him. Pardon me, good lady; had you been there, I think you would have begged the ring of me to give the worthy doctor.'

9. Ah,' said Antonio, 'I am the unhappy cause of these quarrels !'

Portia bade Antonio not to grieve at that, for that he was welcome notwithstanding; and then Antonio said: 'I once did lend my body for Bassanio's sake; and but for him to whom your husband gave the ring, I should have now been dead. I dare be bound again, my soul upon the forfeit, your lord will never more break his faith with you.'

10. 'Then you shall be his surety,' said Portia; 'give him this ring, and bid him keep it better than the other.'

When Bassanio looked at this ring, he was strangely surprised to find that it was the same he gave away; and then Portia told him how she was the young counsellor, and Nerissa was her clerk; and Bassanio found, to his unspeakable wonder and delight, that it was by the noble courage and wisdom of his wife that Antonio's life was saved.

11. And Portia again welcomed Antonio, and gave him letters which by some chance had fallen into her hands, containing an account of Antonio's ships, that were supposed lost, being safely arrived in the harbour. So these tragical beginnings of this rich merchant's story were all forgotten in the unexpected good-fortune which ensued, and there was leisure to laugh at the comical adventure of the rings, and the husbands that did not know their own wives; Gratiano merrily declaring, in a sort of rhyming speech, that

While he lived, he'd fear no other thing
So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

EXERCISES.-1. The Greek prefix syn- (which has also the forms syl-, sym-) means together, with; as sympathy, a feeling with; synthesis, a placing together; syllable, letters pronounced together; synod (literally), in the way together, a meeting.

2. Analyse and parse the following: 'Portia, who meant to return to Belmont before her husband, replied: "I humbly thank your Grace, but I must away directly.'

3. Make sentences of your own, and use in each one or more of the following words: Release, ingratitude, acquit, ingenuity.

LINES WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY

CHURCHYARD-I.

[In this noble poem by Thomas Gray, we have a series of reflections suggested by a visit paid to a country churchyard. The churchyard the poet had in view is believed to be that of Stoke Poges, near Slough, Buckinghamshire.]

And all the air

a solemn stillness holds,

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower,

The moping owl does to the moon complain

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