, but not knowing that he would recover, she, out of despair, had chosen another.—The painter said it was not the first time Mr. Too-good had made himself ridiculous. The poor musician, getting up, laughed the matter off as well as he could. He said his known character was to accommodate himself, as much as possible, to the pleasure of the company; and as to the poet, he said he suspected it was a trick from the beginning, for he was the man at discoveries! He swore he would

have acted a dead man ten times better; and as for a ghost!
'Damme,' said he, 'if I had personated a ghost, I would have scared you all out of your wits!'

After a hearty laugh, Emma finished the business by a few serious words, saying, that they had both hung themselves up as marks of ingratitude, in return for Sir Sidney's hospitality; yet, if the ghost of remorse did but haunt them a little, for entertaining a wish to injure a poor girl, who had nothing to depend upon but her character, she should, for her own part, think them sufficiently punished.
A truce was struck, and good humour restored, or rather prolonged; for none of the parties entertained the least rancour: on the contrary, the musician was the first to confess he had been justly reproved for his error, and Ego said he was an admirer of poetical justice, which he flattered himself he had exemplified pretty strongly in his writings.
About this time a matter happened which had very nearly undone some of Sir Sidney's pious work at Little Hockley. One John Swash, a miller, who was at the head of a large family, and one of the first who repented of his former idle tricks, had been set up by Sir Sidney, and had lived for some

time in comfort and credit. This man, at the instigation of some litigious persons, who envied his present good fortune, had been taken up for sheep-stealing: a crime which he certainly had committed some years before. He was to be tried at Warwick, at the summer assizes, and Sir Sidney greatly feared the fact would be fully proved; in which case, it would be difficult to save the man.
But this was not the worst, for a number of the Hockleyites, having been guilty of crimes equally enormous, might, on his conviction, emigrate from the village, where they began to live peaceable and decent lives; and thus he should lose the fruits