"The battered tenement," was the significant answer, "defies repair." The Leech, true to his creed, then babbled something about "partial relief to be obtained by the local application of cupping!"

What, for an old man whose beverage for twenty years has been water, and his principal food fruit and vegetables? Balderdash!" and Mr. Drummond re-arranged his pillow.

On his visitor's departure he called for Haddow, who latterly had acted as his valet as well as landlord, thanked him for his uniform attention, and then put into his hands a Bank-note for 201. for himself and his wife jointly. "Legacy duty, I thus save you."

The man thanked him but coldly; and Drummond, understanding the expression of his eye, remarked, " Haddow, you are disappointed or displeased: be candid, and say at once what disturbs you?

"

The man coloured, and hesitated, and shuffled about, first on one foot and then the other, and at last blurted forth,

"Sir, this is kind, and the gift is truly acceptable, and you've been for years a friend to me, and I shall sorely miss you; but if I must speak, I would say that I hoped for something more from a gentleman so rich as you."

"More! Haddow, my worthy fellow, surely," said the dying man with mournful earnestness, "you do not share the common delusion respecting me?"

"All the world counts you a rich man, a very rich man, sir; and I believed you to be such,-I can't say that I don't do so even now,"

"Did I live like a rich man, dress like a rich man, give like a rich man? was I housed like a rich man? What evidence of wealth did you ever see about me?"

"Why no, sir,-no, you was always sparing, remarkably sparing, -but that might be your fancy. And then, sir, the sale the sale where you bid so largely."

"I acted for others: I bid for them, not myself." Haddow still kept his ground.

"And the Consols, sir, the thousands upon thousands of Consols which Mr. Spinkle with his own eyes saw in the Bank-books standing in your name, -the name of Mr. Henry Hugh Drummond."

"Others are so called besides myself. I have no Bank-Stocknone, none, never had."

Haddow's countenance fell.

'Did you ever know me deceive you? increasing feebleness.

" cried the sufferer, with

"Never, sir, never; but the folks about your money was so very positive, so strangely and remarkably positive, and Mr. Spinkle, who's always keen, was-odious man! so uncommon attentive, obedient, and persevering. That he should be so deceived after all!” And Haddow was lost in the contemplation of so astounding a contingency.

"And I appeared to you in the light of a miser, eh? You who knew my daily habits, and were conversant almost with my inmost thoughts. You whom I never ceased to befriend. A miser, eh?" Haddow's silence gave assent.

"This is a trial," murmured the old man, in a voice fast losing its volume and firmness; "but His mercy be praised! it is the last."

Great was the commotion in Middlehambury when it was understood that the rich Mr. Drummond had expired; that Mr. Spinkle and Haddow, his landlord, were joint executors, but that for some reason the latter had refused to act; and that the former, was left residuary legatee. The will, it was reported, had been drawn up by no lawyer, but was in the deceased's handwriting throughout, and in Haddow's custody. One of the instructions left by the old gentleman in the form of a written memorandum enjoined, that on no pretext whatever were the funeral expenses to exceed ten pounds. He desired to be interred as he had lived-in plain and humble fashion.

This injunction Spinkle disregarded. He would not hear of such a solecism. "Of course there must be a handsome and appropriate funeral. He, as residuary legatee, should appear as chief mourner. The deceased must and should be interred as befitted the wealthy Mr. Drummond."

Haddow humbly begged leave to "have nothing to do with it. He must decline giving any orders, or being held responsible for any part of the expense.'

He

Spinkle bravely responded, that he neither required Haddow's concurrence or non-concurrence. He should give the orders. should arrange the procession. He would take good care that every thing was handsome; and this should be done on his (Spinkle's) private and personal responsibility. He would bury his departed friend like a prince.

Haddow observed, sotto voce, that "he was quite content."

That funeral, for various reasons, was long remembered in Middlehambury. It was planned and carried out on the most expensive scale. There were mourning coaches, and feathers, and mutes, and attendants on horseback, and attendants on foot, and all the aimless pageantry with which the ostentatious are often borne to their last home. Spinkle was en magnifique. He arranged all, directed all, discussed all. But still had an eye to business. Before the procession started, he called Haddow aside, and said to him, with peculiar gusto

"Our departed friend having left us too prematurely, you will probably receive another lodger?"

Haddow carelessly observed-" he should-all things suiting." "Remember, I attend the house."

Nothing further, meriting specific mention, took place, except a frightful solecism perpetrated by that heaving mass of stolidity, Mr. Purr. Obeying the invitation of his partner, Purr was present; but being unused to sit with his hands before him, and of a truly lethargic temperament, he suddenly dozed off as fast as a church. From this state of somnolence he was roughly roused by a greatly scandalized spectator, who hit him hard in the midriff. Purr was on his legs in a moment, and fit for business.

"Come! come!" cried he-" be lively, girls,-be lively. More bottles, I say-more bottles!"

"A remark," which Miss Duggan contended, "ought,-uttered

as it was at such an hour, and upon such an occasion-to have brought that hardened muckworm under the pains and penalties of the Spiritual Court! She only wished he had been in the Diocese of Exeter."

The dreary pageant went on: Spinkle flourished his cambric kerchief with marvellous assiduity, and seemed overwhelmed with grief. But it was remarked,-and deemed a matter of atrocious and unparalleled hardheartedness,-that whenever Spinkle sighed, and wept, and sobbed, the sides of that goodfornothing Haddow, shook with visible and irrepressible merriment.

A full hour was devoted to refreshment, after their return from church, and then the miser's will was opened and read to the expectant assemblage-Mrs. Pizey and Miss Duggan foremost amongst the number. Spinkle ensconced himself in a capacious easy chair, whence he prepared himself to listen to the enumeration of the riches about to be poured upon him.

The will was by no means short, and appeared to have been purposely amplified.

It bequeathed the books of the deceased, or as many of them as she pleased to select, to Selah; his watch, his furniture, and the little plate he had, to Haddow, who was named joint executor; to Mr. Catcham, of whom, as he promised, he "thought 'specially' when making his testamentary dispositions,"-Mr. Catcham made an ear-trumpet of his hand, he had become rather deaf, and was in an instant all attention,-to Mr. Catcham he left the large sum of two guineas and a little tract, "On the folly and sin of hasting to become rich."

Mr. Catcham, on hearing this, turned so pale, and became so unexpectedly hysterical, that it was necessary to withdraw him speedily into another apartment.

Mr. Spinkle's name followed, and its expectant owner burst into a terrific outcry of unappeasable grief. Haddow proceeded. Mr. Spinkle was appointed "joint executor and residuary legatee.' Mr. Spinkle wiped his eyes, and looked up cheerfully. Haddow

read on.

"For his trouble, I beg him to accept the sum of five guineas for a mourning ring, and a little volume I have long prized, On the danger of indulging unreasonable expectations." I die without debts, and I leave in Haddow's hands ten pounds, quite sufficient to put me into the bosom of my mother earth."

"This was all!" And such a funeral for a man who had not left behind him thirty guineas! Mr. Spinkle turned white and red for many seconds with wonderful rapidity and regularity. No one seemed to know precisely what manner of disease ailed him, but everybody saw that he was alarmingly indisposed. Speak he could not. What was to be done? suggested from one of the back seats-the rascal was never discovered, but he ought to have been-"Try the effect of the cupping glasses; they will be sure to restore him."

Some wicked wag