can give me, is a resolute mind, and determination to act for the best."

"Ask advice of your oracle."

I could not help laughing.

"Why do you laugh?" said she, "if I am not mistaken, the oracle must know
a remedy for your woes."

"I laughed, dearest, because I felt inclined to tell you to consult the
oracle this time. As for me I will have nothing to do with it, lest the
cure be worse than the disease."

"But you need not follow your advice unless you like it."

"No, one is free to act as one thinks fit; but not to follow the advice
of the oracle would be a contempt of the intelligence which directs it."

Esther could say no more, and stood silent for several minutes, and then
said that if I like she would stay with me for the rest of the day. The
joy which illumined my countenance was manifest, and I said that if she
would stay to dinner I would get up, and no doubt her presence would give
me an appetite. "Ah!" said she, "I will make you the dish you are so fond
of." She ordered the sedan-chairs to be sent back, and went to my
landlady to order an appetising repast, and to procure the chafing-dish
and the spirits of wine she required for her own cooking.

Esther was an angel, a treasure, who consented to become mine if I would
communicate to her a science which did not exist. I felt that I was
looking forward to spending a happy day; this shewed me that I could