that a volume had been spoken in these few words, and that, however simple, nay, trite the sentiment, it had gone the whole length of his own case, in accounting for the little pleasure he had found in his garden, after his high expectations from it. He seized his hat, looked at his watch, and was preparing to take his leave, when Evelyn asked him how the business of the inclosure went on. He made a wry face, and observed, that there were so many jarring interests to reconcile, so much selfishness to contend with, that he despaired of surmounting the difficulties of his case.

"That illness has been unfortunate," said Evelyn, with a scrutinizing eye," in more ways than

one."

"Extremely so," returned Tremaine; "for in this instance, if it had not prevented me from attending to letters of business, I should not now have to get over the legal forms, upon which illiberal people hold me at arm's length. One man in particular, though only a yeoman, refuses all accommodation, for no reason, I believe, but that he may say he does not care for the 'Squire."

"A good, sturdy, English reason," observed Evelyn;" and yet, if you mean farmer Ryecroft, of Velvet Mead, he is, though rough, not without goodnature."

"You know him?" said Tremaine,

"He is one of the best of my parishioners," returned the doctor, "comes punctually to church, and pays every man his own."

"He did not pay me," rejoined Tremaine, “for being merely thrown out on a point of form, I looked upon what I wanted as my own."

"He, perhaps, thought otherwise," said Evelyn, "and, though he might be wrong, chose to exert his birth-right of thinking for himself. At any rate, you possibly claimed a due, instead of asking a favour."

"I know not how that was," said Tremaine; "I left it all to my lawyer."

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My good friend," answered Evelyn, kindly, "why did you leave it all to your lawyer? Forgive me when I ask, what could have prevented your doing it yourself?-Velvet Mead, is I know, within one of your nearest manors, and a pleasant ride to boot. Your health, as well as your purse, might have been served by it."

Tremaine very frankly confest that he had more than once thought of it, but being engaged in his library, he had put it off, and at length deputed his agent.

"Why, if indeed the business that engaged you was so pressing," said Evelyn, inquiringly.

"A pamphlet on the Catholic question," answered Tremaine.

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Very good; but which you had probably studied in town, when that question came on."

"I own," returned his friend, "it was because I had not studied it then, that I thought I would do so now."

"Now, that you have seceded from parliament? said Evelyn.

The observation did not please.

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Have you courage enough," continued the doctor, not seeming to mind his little embarrassment, "to go forthwith to Velvet Mead, and let me accompany you? And, if you will but unbend a little, I think we shall succeed."

"I am afraid I'm too angry with the man," said Tremaine," and at any rate cannot fawn."

"Fawning is out of the question," observed his friend; "and as you have slighted, perhaps you have no right to be angry with him."

"I will do what you please," said Tremaine, “but not now; to-morrow or next day will do; at present, I really have not time."

"Forgive me, my dear Sir, and set it not down to impertinence, if I ask what demands you have upon this same time, to prevent a thing so pressing?"

Tremaine recollecting himself, found that if he that instant returned home, he should not know what to do with himself. He felt confused, and shewed his confusion; till at length he said, "you

have a strange way with you; at my years still to assert your old ascendancy over me, is not what I expected. I am not used to be tutored, and have a great mind to resist, like farmer Ryecroft himself, if only to shew I can resist. However, I will do as you please."

A frank and gracious manner in saying this, so as peculiarly to strike Georgina, who had sat a silent listener till now, induced her to lighten up at this concession to her father's activity.

"It will do you both a great deal of good to ride," said she.

"And you, Miss Evelyn?"

"Oh! Papa seldom rides without me; but, perhaps, upon business like this I may be de trop."

"If yon are," said her father, "we'll send you to take a lesson from old Mrs. Ryecroft, on the best mode of rearing spring turkeys. You know how you failed there."

"Miss Evelyn rear turkeys!" exclaimed Tremaine."

"No! she does not rear them," answered the doctor," to the very great disappointment of my palate; and I do not like her to be inferior to Mrs. Ryecroft."

Tremaine could not help expressing something like surprise at this; which the doctor perceiving added,—“ She is a country girl, and therefore ought

to know country business. But if I were ever so rich, I know not a thing more amusing, I had almost said interesting, than a basse cour."

Tremaine hinted his opinion, that it was beneath the notice of the wise, the well-educated, and the elegant.

"I would rather say," replied Evelyn, "the fashionable, the fastidious, and the vacant. But even the Cardinal de Retz was amused with pigeons, when separated from the world; and I need not tell you all the fine things that Addison was able to say on a hen and chickens."

"I would read them in Addison," said Tremaine, "but not plague myself with what, after all, a higler's wife would understand better."

"I don't know that," said the doctor, "if we were not idle; but the study of nature, in whatever shape, must always please, if only as a study; and in this instance the utility is so palpable, that it adds to the interest."

"You would turn Miss Evelyn, then, into a poulterer," said Tremaine, laughing.

"No more than I would turn myself into a winecooper, because I keep the keys of my cellar."

"But what does Miss Evelyn say to it herself?"

"Why, that if I were to lose my poultry-yard, I should lose one of my greatest pleasures."