Ha! sayest thou! Hideous thought, I feel it twine
O'er my iced heart, as curls around his prey
The sure and deadly serpent!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
What! in the hush and in the solitude
Passed that dread soul away?
Love and Hatred.

The evening prior to that morning in which the above conversation
occurred, Brandon passed alone in his lodging at --------. He had felt
himself too unwell to attend the customary wassail, and he sat indolently
musing in the solitude of the old-fashioned chamber to which he was
consigned. There, two wax-candles on the smooth, quaint table dimly
struggled against the gloom of heavy panels, which were relieved at
unfrequent intervals by portraits in oaken frames, dingy, harsh, and
important with the pomp of laced garments and flowing wigs. The
predilection of the landlady for modern tastes had, indeed, on each side
of the huge fireplace suspended more novel masterpieces of the fine arts.
In emblematic gorgeousness hung the pictures of the four Seasons, buxom
wenches all, save Winter, who was deformedly bodied forth in the likeness
of an aged carle. These were interspersed by an engraving of Lord
Mauleverer, the lieutenant of the neighbouring county, looking extremely
majestical in his peer's robes; and by three typifications of Faith,
Hope, and Charity,--ladies with whom it may be doubted if the gay earl
ever before cultivated so close an intimacy. Curtains, of that antique
chintz in which fasces of stripes are alternated by rows of flowers,
filled the interstices of three windows; a heavy sideboard occupied the
greater portion of one side of the room; and on the opposite side, in the
rear of Brandon, a vast screen stretched its slow length along, and
relieved the unpopulated and as it were desolate comfort of the