To return poor KITTY was distressed at receiving such a letter from Mr. BLIMMER. If it had come from the younger and more elegant Mr. QUID, or even floated over ocean, in better-spelled words, from the old-time companion of the country-evenings, Mr. HARRY FLINT, I will not presume to say what would have been her emotions.

As it was, she felt indignant, hurt, alarmed, and entertained the unnecessary fear that she would become thenceforth the prey to unmeasured persecution-such as is spoken of in novels - with no novel-like lover to defend her. She wrote to her country mamma a dolorous letter, lamenting her unfortunate and unprotected position, very much to her mother's pride and gratification, who asked, in reply, about Mr. BLIMMER's age and prospects in life; and shocked Miss KITTY, by hinting at the necessity of caution in decisions of that sort, and assuring her that a good husband would, in many respects, be a very desirable acquisition.

I do not mean to imply by this any hard-heartedness on the part of Mrs. FLEMING; she loved her daughter as a good mother should, and who, after being thoroughly satisfied with any offering suitor for the hand of her KITTY, would very likely, before the actual separation came about, be hysterically opposed to it; and entertain very gloomy apprehensions about the affections of a daughter who could voluntarily desert her in her old age.

It will perhaps be observed, that Mrs. FLEMING, under the influence of the feelings supposed, would have entirely lost sight of her former association with Mr. FLEMING, and of the manner in which she deserted the FUDGE family on the eve of her own marriage. Marriage, however, is very much the same thing with one good woman as it is with another. It tears families apart, and it makes new ones. The old order, of love, and separation, and trust, and tears, and household, overtakes daughters, as it has overtaken mothers; and so it will hold on to be, as long as men are married, or women are given in marriage.

KITTY cried hard over her mother's letter; and told her that Mr. BLIMMER was an odious man, of twice her own age; that she could never think of loving him in the world, and that she had told him so, and how she hoped never to see or hear of him again.

All this was bitter to Mr. BLIMMER, who had founded considerable hope upon a sudden movement, and had entertained the pleasing fancy of carrying the young girl's heart by storm. Being thoroughly thwarted, and foreseeing no farther chances in that direction, he set about a reconsideration of Mr. BODGERS' will, and was induced, for security's sake, to make a careful copy of the same. The flat rejection of Mistress KITTY was not pleasant: such things are never so. I have hinted as much in my first chapter; giving very good ground for the opinion. I allude to MABEL.

Mr. BLIMMER was naturally disturbed, and thought he might take all allowable advantage of the circumstances in which he found himself placed. And it was precisely under this state of feeling that he was favored with a call from the elder Mr. QUID; the details of which, and the sequence, will be found in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD.

CHARMS AND LOST CHARMS.

'Quando non mancano denari, tutti rispettano.'

GOLDONI.

Ar the opening of this chapter, I find my aunt PHOEBE, Mrs. SOLOMON FUDGE, invested with that auroral charm which the society and waters of Saratoga are supposed to impart, and with ten pounds, avoirdupois, additional weight of body. Jealous ladies, of less Valenciennes to their cap-strings, said, 'How corpulent Mrs. FUDGE has grown!' The same ladies, being asked to accompany her on a drive to the lake, were glad to find her so improved in appearance.' Mrs. FUDGE had taken her horses to Saratoga, and found them good capital. She had also taken WILHELMINA, who was also good capital. Mr. SOLOMON FUDGE, remaining in Wall-street, except for occasional Sunday-visits, supplied the capital for both; and, in this manner, represented a larger capital than either.

My aunt, in the course of two winters' campaigns, with WILHELMINA under her command, had acquired considerable strategic experience. She had learned with commendable accuracy the proper breakfast-toilet for self and daughter, and the hours for the same. She had learned much of young men the Count SALLE (who was fifty) included. She had learned not to use French words in conversation; finding them, on repeated trials with the Count above-mentioned, unintelligible. She had learned to restrain, in some degree, the natural impetuosity of her character, by which her color was gradually subsiding into white. She had familiarized herself to some extent, under WILHE.'s tuition, with the range of fashionable topics; she had even learned to talk upon these with a measurable degree of correctness. In short, Mrs. PHŒBE was becoming one of the established ladies of the place; well known to the chief waiter, well known to the hackney-cabmen, and well known to the purveyors of the tri-weekly hops.

The Count SALLE was at the Springs; a fact duly chronicled in the little Sentinel of the place, in the same column with a flattering mention of the distinguished Baron BROBDIG NAG, an eminent foreign physician, whose time was necessarily limited, and who wore huge eye-glasses on the end of a very red nose.

The Count SALLE enjoyed repeated waltzes with Miss WILHELMINA; indeed, the Herald, in its entertaining correspondence, ventured to state that 'a distinguished Count, well known in New-York circles, was particularly attentive to the elegant and attractive Miss W- F-DGE, of

C

street, and it is hinted that a marriage is on the tapis.'

It is unnecessary to say that Mrs. FUDGE expressed herself very much scandalized with this public mention of her daughter, and yet read the announcement with praise-worthy frequency in her own chamber. The same thing might be said of most of the individuals who are the subject of fashionable mention in the above named journal.

Young QUID, on a visit to the Springs, drank wine (sour Jullien, labelled Margaux) with Mrs. FUDGE and daughter. Through the influence, however, of Mrs. SPINDLE, who was at the head of a Saratoga coterie that

rivalled the FUDGE coterie, he withdrew his attentions. My aunt SOLOMON, however, sustained her part nobly in the summer contest. True, the SPINDLES boasted blood; but the FUDGE carriage was the handsomer. The SPINDLE parlor was on the second floor; the FUDGE parlor was on the first floor. One gentleman of the FUDGE coterie sang ballads: no gentleman of the SPINDLE connection did sing ballads. The Count SALLE was cool to the SPINDLES: the Count SALLE was impressé with WIL

HELMINA.

ARABELLA SPINDLE was barely mentioned in the Herald correspondence: WILHELMINA was praised. The SPINDLES bowled the FUDGES said it was vulgar to bowl, and WILHELMINA played at billiards with the Count. The FUDGES walked upon the porch after dinner: the SPINDLES said it was vulgar, and ARABELLA walked in a flat, after breakfast.

WILHELMINA had the reputation of being heiress; not only in virtue of the father's wealth, but just now there were hints bruited of a certain BODGERS' estate, to which she laid large claim. This matter was spoken of mysteriously by the mother; indeed, she hardly suffered it to modify her conduct except in shopping.

Under all the circumstances, with a daughter reputed heiress, being herself of commanding presence, having risen to the dignity of chief of a Saratoga coterie, honored with a Count in her train, I think that my aunt might safely be considered a lady in the best society. It is certain that she held herself in that estimation. For this she was indebted, in nearly equal proportions, to the piquancy of WILHELMINA, (the SPINDLES said she was fast;) a few daring speculations of uncle SOLOMON; the manifest admiration of the Count SALLE; last winter's party, (costing, by Mr. BROWN's estimate, four thousand, seven hundred and sixty-three dollars:) the antagonism of the SPINDLES; and the rumor of the BODGERS wind-fall.

If these combined do not offer as stable ground for fashionable elevation in New-York as can exist, I should be pleased to be informed what the other grounds might be. I revere my aunt SOLOMON for her attainments; I admire her coach; I relish her filets au sauce piquante; I watch with interest the Dauphin speculation; I try to comprehend WILHELMINA'S French; I am amused with the Count; I keep up my intimacy with the family; I am esteemed, I may say that I am courted, by young men; and enjoy frequent juleps at their expense.

It is unpleasant to mar this festive and agreeable description; but constant sun-shine does not belong even to the supremest fashion; and it happens not unlikely, that the golden hinge on which revolves every door to fashionable pleasure, wears thin with the using.

On a certain Sunday-visit, my uncle SOLOMON wore a long face; longer than his Sunday wont. The hot days of mid-summer are not favorable to fancy-stocks; and the Dauphin had very likely drooped. Money was not easy to be found; and certain heavy bills, dated Paris, had come to hand, with an awkward beginning, to wit: 'at sight.'

The old gentleman had already found it necessary to mortgage, in a quiet manner, his house upon the Avenue, in furtherance of his coal-speculations; and a new demand for money, in a way so little likely to make speedy return as that indicated in the sight-drafts of young WASH., dis

turbed my uncle SOLOMON seriously. Mrs. FUDGE, too, had her own sources of disquiet, not only in the advised curtailment of the summer's visit, but in certain distressing hints thrown out in the somewhat rambling epistle of her Parisian son. She feared he might have fallen into low

company.

In the midst of these distresses, which were somewhat relieved by reflections upon the BODGERS estate, my worthy aunt and uncle were considerably startled by the receipt of a short note, very politely worded, from Mr. QUID, senior, bearing this interpretation, viz.:.

Mr. QUID begged to inform Mr. FUDGE, as one of the parties most nearly concerned, that he, Mr. QUID, had entered upon the proper legal steps for securing to his son, ADOLPHUS QUID, heir-at-law, the estate of the late TRUMAN BODGERS, Esq.

It might not be uninteresting (Mr. QUID thought) to Mr. FUDGE, to know, that ADOLPHUS QUID entered claims to the property alluded to, as only son of Mrs. QUID, who was only child of former Mrs. BODgers, widow to elder brother of TRUMAN BODGERS, Esq.

He, Mr. QUID, did hope that an affair connected with so painful an event would be arranged pleasantly, and to the satisfaction of all parties; this, at any rate, was eminently prayed for, by his obt. servt., QUID, etc.

It will presently be seen how Mr. QUID, senior, ventured upon such action; an action which diminished in no small degree the auroral charm which I have spoken of, as playing about the countenance of Mrs. SOLOMON FUDGE.

As fresh as in the gray

Antiquity which first beheld it rise
Complete toward the skies.

IV.

He muses on the far-off generations

Whose labor slowly reared it, stone by stone;
The myriads of men, the creeds, the nations,
That have risen up and gone

Like bubbles into nothingness, while still
That pile remains, and will:

v.

When he, and all the thronging hosts that move
And sport, light-hearted, in the eye of day,
Have vanished, and stern Silence broods above
Their unremembered clay;

And how others will come in coming days,
Like him to muse and gaze.

VI.

So, as I glance o'er these immortal pages,

Come thoughts of those whose eyes have gone before,
Come thoughts of those who will in after-ages

Delightedly explore

This wild of sweets, where, in unfading bowers,
Bloom Poesy's fairest flowers.

VII.

How many an eye, whose lustre now is fled,

Has wept o'er the sad page which tells the story

Of gentlest DESDEMONA's wrongs, or shed

A tear for that poor hoary

And outcast king, who invoked the heavens cold,
Since they like him were 'old!'

VIII.

Here mighty poets have caught inspiration;
Here minds sick, weary with the stir and din
Of human life, have turned for consolation,
And here have sought to win

Forgetfulness of sorrow, care, and pain,
Dead hopes, aspirings vain.

IX.

A prisoner* in a far despotic land,

In dungeons damp immured, here found those words

Of burning eloquence, which his command

Called forth like fiery swords

To pierce men's hearts, and sway the multitude
As tempests sway a wood.

* THE reader will recollect Kossuтn's eloquent account of his study of the English language in an Austrian dungeon, which he recently gave on the occasion of the presentation of a copy of SHAKSPEARE to him by ten thousand English laborers.