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struck upon her ears. The certainty that she had caught a heart, or that she should catch it, if nothing intervened to break the present link of the snare, was suddenly marred by the dread of Bessy's appearance in the dinner-parlour, where the social board was spread. I saw that she felt something decisive must be done to prevent the possibility of the young beauty's intrusion to the probable demolition of all she had done during the course of the evening in the siege upon Captain Cavendish Lorimer's admiration and affection. She was ready for action in a moment, and, jumping up, said to her mother in an audible whisper"Hadn't I better go and see if dear Bessy would like to come and take some wine and water ?"

Mamma was going in a straightforward way to desire her to sit down, for that Bessy would not come in; but Wells, apprehending the real cause of Fan's solicitation to be the desire of " making assurance doubly sure," and unequivocally preventing the irruption, nodded his head somewhat significantly at his better half, and said, "No, no, let her go and see," which accordingly she did.

And then did I not hear the pattering of feet over head along the passages to the bed-rooms, and did it not remind me of the deciding night of my life; and did not Captain Cavendish Lorimer look surprised at the mimic thunder which rolled over his head? "Ah!" thought I, "little do you fancy the effect which that, to you mysterious noise, has upon me.' Wells saw that the Captain's attention had been roused by the sound, and forthwith enlightened him on the subject, by remarking that in houses of that age and construction it was scarcely possible to stir without being heard, adding, that the present move was occasioned by the return home of one of his little girls from her sister's.

In the pause which Fanny's departure seemed to have caused in the conversation, and which Sniggs, whatever he did with his glass, did not seem at all inclined to fill up, Mrs. Wells, by way of making talk, expressed a hope that Captain Cavendish Lorimer found the rooms at Hickson's tolerably convenient.

"Why, pretty well," said the Captain, smiling; "I cannot say much for them; but it does not signify, for the short time I shall Occupy them. "Short time?" said Wells, in a tone of surprise, and I thought of disappointment, "I thought you were fixed here for some time."

"So I am," said the Captain, "but not there. I want more space, and my father's exceeding liberality enables me to do as I like; for, although he insists on my following up my profession, and being a soldier for good and all, to the end of the chapter, his allowances are on a scale calculated to soften down all the little rubs and désagrémens incidental to a military life when they are to be overcome. No; I was looking at a very nice place about a quarter of a mile further down the river which I saw was to be let-a white house-with remarkably good stabling, which is a great point with me. I forget what they call it." "Slatfords ?" said Mr. Wells, hesitatingly.

"That is the name," said the Captain." There is one room, a bowwindowed room, the view from which, in the summer, must be beautiful."

"But, surely," said Wells, "that will be more of a house than you want, Captain Lorimer ?"

"No," said the Captain, "I don't think so.

I expect Mrs. Lorimer

and the children here in a week or ten days, and I must get some place for them ready for their arrival."

The effect which these words produced upon the assembled party was something marvellous; it seemed as if sudden paralysis had seized the Rector and his wife-they sat, for the moment, transfixed. Sniggs looked at me-the Captain did not seem to notice the scene, and Wells was too much a man of the world to retain his fixed position more than an instant.

"Oh!" said the Rector, playfully, "I did not know you were a Benedick, Captain; this is delightful-a family like yours will be indeed an acquisition in our quiet neighbourhood-umph-only think."

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Yes," said Captain Cavendish Lorimer, "I have been married four years, and am the venerable parent of two daughters and a son."

"Well, to be sure!" said Mrs. Wells, recollecting the useless display of dinner, dessert, the pompous pillar, and all the rest of it, not to speak of her husband's cordial greetings, and her daughter's winning smiles. In the midst of this embarras, Fanny returned, having evidently been re-touching her curls, re-smoothing her eyebrows, and rebiting her lips, and, resuming her seat, informed me that Bessy declined our offer of wine and water, and was gone to bed.

"She might just as well have come in here," said Mamma. "She's tired, Ma," said Fan.

"Poor girl," said Wells.

"Pray, Captain Lorimer," said Fanny, "may I ask a great favour ?" "It is granted already, Miss Wells," said the Captain.

66 Will you let me keep your beautiful drawings for an hour or two to-morrow to show them to my sister? I have been talking of them to her, and she is so anxious

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"Oh! pray keep them as long as you like," said the Captain. "I must, however, leave my talisman in your custody too ;" saying which the Captain once more drew from his finger the mystic ring, and handed it to his fair friend.

Wells saw the game poor Fanny was playing, and felt very anxious to put a stop to it, since it could be played to no end.

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Pray," said the Rector, "what do they ask for Slatfords?"

"Two hundred a-year furnished," said the Captain, "if taken by the year, and five guineas a week by the week, and for the spring or summer. I don't think it dear."

"What!" said Fanny, who, in the true spirit of castle-building, saw the great comfort and convenience of a residence so near the Rectory, also mixed up in her mind with a vision of something she could scarcely tell what."Are you going to take Slatfords, Captain Lorimer?"

"I think so," said the Captain. "I was very much pleased with it." "But, I suppose," said Wells, "you would hardly venture without Mrs. Lorimer's concurrence ?"

"Oh! I assure you," said the Captain, "I have no great fears of Fanny's difference of opinion.

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This observation of her father's, and the Captain's answer, and the name of Fanny, puzzled my poor sister-in-law more than anything that had preceded it. She knew, by experience, how rapidly he made up marriages, and the time and place which he generally selected for the performance, and as the dénouement had occurred during a very short absence on her part, she was perfectly bewildered.

"What do you mean by Mrs. Lorimer?" said Fanny, looking very archly at the Captain.

"Why, my dear," said Wells, "Captain Lorimer is married, and expects his lady and family here next week; and, naturally enough, wants to find a house fit to receive them."

Fanny was not so good an actress as her father. There could be no doubt, whatever, as to what was passing in her mind at that moment; indeed, I was rejoiced to find that she kept her place and position at table, for I was very apprehensive of a scene, in order to avoid which, as much as possible, I announced the necessity of my getting home-it was growing late and cold for the horses, and so on; upon which the Captain looking at his watch, started from his seat, and declared that he did not think it had been eleven o'clock, instead of nearly one; and then began the ceremony of leave-taking, and cloak hunting, and all the rest of it, which ended, the Captain and Sniggs walked off to their separate destinations, and I remained for a few minutes behind the scenes after the performance was over, and when the actors appeared in their natural character.

"Well," said my mother-in-law, "who would have thought that that young man was married, and had a family?"

"Odd enough," said Wells. "It never occurred to me to ask the question."

"The Captain enjoyed himself," said I.

"I don't believe he is a Captain," said Fanny. "Being a LightBob, he wears wings, so one can't tell.

I admired my sister-in-law's military knowledge.

"He is very handsome," said Mrs. Wells.

"La, Ma," said Fanny; "what, with that long nose!"

"His nose is not longer," said Wells, "than it was before dinner, Fanny, and then you thought him remarkably handsome; but you must mind and send back the drawings after Bessy has seen them."

"Oh! hang his drawings!" said Fanny. 'Bessy don't want to see them; besides, she can draw better herself-they are odious things." "And his singing ?" said I.

"His voice is well enough," said Fanny; "but that is not what I call singing."

"In short," said Wells, "he is a very odious fellow."

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No, I don't mean that, Pa," said Fanny. "What I mean is-he

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Married," said I. Come, Fanny, that's the truth."

"Well, I know it is the truth," said Fanny; "he is married, and who cares?"

"Never mind," said Wells, "let us get to bed: we have had a very pleasant day, and have made a very pleasant acquaintance, and so good night to all."

"Good night, Gilbert," said Fanny. “All I think is, that it is very foolish for officers in the army to marry so young.-Good night!— love to Harriet."

And so brake we up this sederunt. I honestly confess that I was not altogether sorry to find my worthy father-in-law caught in his own trap, after having baited it so sumptuously for Captain Cavendish Lorimer.

ALGIERS IN THE SPRING OF 1837.

RELIGION is perpetually performing its mysterious wonders. The most obstinate sceptic would be obliged to admit its yet operative magic power, if he had occasion to observe the votaries of Islam, among whom wonders have not ceased, because among them still prevails a living faith. What other earthly power would else be capable of controlling these barbarian hordes, who acknowledge no ruler and no laws, and who are free as the lion in their deserts? The marabout speaks to them of the commandments of the Koran, and the yell of battle ceases; the Arab, panting for revenge, reconciles himself with his mortal enemy professing the same creed, restores the property of which he had plundered him, and presents to the mosque the silver coins which he loves as his very eyes. He, the rude, wild barbarian, becomes melancholy, poetic, when the discourse of the priest leads him to the prophet, and to the world promised by him beyond the grave.

I have passed a singular time in this singular country-I mean the thirty days of Ramadan, that religious solemnity, during which the orthodox Mussulman prays more fervently than ever, and abstains from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset. Ramadan, at Algiers, exhibited to me a series of scenes such as I had never before witnessed. The commencement of it is announced here by the firing of one hundred and one guns. A great number of lamps are immediately lighted up on the minarets of the mosque, and the marabout screams forth in prayer the praise of the Creator. Hereupon all is still in the city; Moors and Arabs softly mutter their praise; while the French, not comprehending a sentiment to which they have long been strangers, gaze at the devout groups with curiosity and astonishment. For thirty successive days the same spectacle was renewed every evening. As soon as the sun had sunk behind the Atlas, a gun was fired, upon which the Moors fell greedily upon their victuals, which had long stood ready for them, but which not a creature durst touch before this signal. I witnessed a remarkable instance of the conscientious observance of this religious ceremony. In my excursions into the interior of the country, I had once taken a Biskari into my service for some days. By an unlucky accident we lost our provisions, and had to pass twenty-four hours without any food whatever, in the eastern district of the plain of Metidschad. When we reached Algiers again, it was early in the morning. I paid my Biskari, and hastened to breakfast. An hour afterwards, I saw him again cowering in a corner of the harbour. I asked him if he had had anything to eat he gravely shook his head, saying, Allah amehrṣalm— "God commands me to fast!" He waited with empty stomach, and bread in the hood of his bernoose till evening. No doubt he was suffering severely from hunger; but nothing could have induced him to satisfy the cravings of his appetite. The moment the gun fired, he snatched the bread from his hood, and devoured it with the greediness of a ravenous beast.

When the Moors have eaten their frugal meal, and swallowed a cup of coffee, they repair in crowds to the mosques, the minarets and interiors of which are lighted up all night. I like the Moors for not denying Christians admittance to their mosques; they merely require them

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to conform to the general custom of putting off their shoes at the entrance, and treading barefoot on the consecrated carpets. On the occasion of the visit of the Duke of Nemours, the Mufti reminded the young prince of this irremissible ceremony, which the Dey himself never presumed to violate; but, whether the Prince did not understand the Mufti, or deemed himself as the King's son too high to submit to such a custom, he and his military tail, disregarding the black looks of the Moors, paced booted and spurred through the Mohammedan temple.

The interior of the great mosque is imposing from its magnitude and simplicity. Its only decoration consists in the red velvet carpets which cover the floor near the holy of holies. The prodigious colonnade is lighted up, during the Ramadan, with innumerable lamps. The height of the edifice is insignificant, but one might lose one's-self in the extensive interior. It encloses two spacious courts, where handsome marble fountains spout forth holy water, and pomegranate trees and gigantic weeping willows spread over them the shade of their thick branches. The holy of holies is a recess, covered by a semicircular cupola: the Moors call it marabout, because the priest stands there and repeats his prayers. Texts from the Koran are inscribed on the walls above the holy of holies; and near it are to be seen some mosaics, said to have been brought from the ruins of the Roman town Rusgenia.

I frequently spent whole evenings in the mosques during the prayers of the Ramadan. It was a peculiar pleasure to me to witness the mysterious worship of these interesting people. In general, three rows of the devout, with their faces turned towards the marabout, sat crosslegged in the colonnades. Among these I observed Moors, Turks, Kuloglis, Arabs, Kabyles, Mosabites, Biskaris, and Negroes; each of these races had sent its representatives. The Turk, in magnificent apparel, squatted beside the squalid, half-naked Biskari; the pale Moor, with noble mien, by the hideous Negro with ouran-outang face; all turned with the same feelings of pious devotion towards that Being who knows no distinction of colour or of shape.

Presently, the Mufti, or, in his absence, one of the marabouts, commences prayers with a sort of scream that stunned and surprised me. It was the usual exclamations in praise of God from the Surates of the Koran. The voice of the marabout was sometimes shrill and piercing, and fell at other times to a low murmur. The tones were so doleful, so piteously humble, so heart-rending, that you might fancy them the moans of the damned in their place of torment. On me this service produced a strangely awful impression, especially when I surveyed the rows of singular praying figures in their various costumes. These men fell into the most extraordinary convulsions, threw themselves down all at the same moment, with their faces to the floor, remained for a while motionless, and then sprang up again convulsively, writhing like worms. is a remarkable sight to see the proud Mussulman prostrate himself thus before his Allah, with the trembling humility of an offending slave. When he has prayed till he is tired, he rises, fingers his rosary for the last time, bows his head upon his bosom, and mutters the farewell phrase to the holy place. In the court he washes his hands and feet in the holy water, then puts on his sandals, and leaves the mosque with his usual gravity. Each individual of the different races returns from this general meeting-place where the difference of conditions ceases, to his ordinary

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