contrasted favourably, rather than the reverse, with the dull insipidity
of those she ordinarily saw. Nor are we sure that the mystery thrown
about him, irksome as it was to her, and discreditable as it appeared to
others, was altogether ineffectual in increasing her love for the
adventurer; and thus Fate, which transmutes in her magic crucible all
opposing metals into that one which she is desirous to produce, swelled
the wealth of an ill-placed and ominous passion by the very circumstances
which should have counteracted and destroyed it.

We are willing, by what we have said, not to defend Clifford, but to
redeem Lucy in the opinion of our readers for loving so unwisely; and
when they remember her youth, her education, her privation of a mother,
of all female friendship, even of the vigilant and unrelaxing care of
some protector of the opposite sex, we do not think that what was so
natural will be considered by any inexcusable.

Mauleverer woke the morning after the ball in better health than usual,
and consequently more in love than ever. According to his resolution the
night before, he sat down to write a long letter to William Brandon: it
was amusing and witty as usual; but the wily nobleman succeeded, under
the cover of wit, in conveying to Brandon's mind a serious apprehension
lest his cherished matrimonial project should altogether fail. The
account of Lucy and of Captain Clifford contained in the epistle
instilled, indeed, a double portion of sourness into the professionally
acrid mind of the lawyer; and as it so happened that he read the letter
just before attending the court upon a case in which he was counsel to
the crown, the witnesses on the opposite side of the question felt the
full effects of the barrister's ill humour. The case was one in which
the defendant had been engaged in swindling transactions to a very large
amount; and among his agents and assistants was a person of the very