The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 305: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

232 THE STEAM PACKET, assist her in decyphering the mystery. ‘The document served to curl Miss Belinda’s hair that night; and not another thought was wasted upon the subject, until, precisely at two o'clock on the ensuing day, the following epistle was confidentially delivered to Miss Belinda Pifpaf by one of the chamber-maids of the hotel :— ‘*Mapam, ** Not faune received any reply to my letter of venice s date, I shall now commence my szé¢ instanter, and not commit a trespass upon your time by any further preamble. InShakspeare’s reports of ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ (Act I. Scene I., Benedict versus Bea- trice) I find the following opinion in relation to feudal service to a feme sole :—‘All women shall pardon me, because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any—I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is (for the which I may go the fives) I will live a bachelor.’ Now as he was not a puisne judge of human happiness, he reserved _the decision, being a bachelor oyer, and a husband ¢erminer. I, hike him, despised the statute in such cases made and provided, until I Saw you; and now, like him, am willing to put a similar construction upon the words which he afterwards defines thus:—‘ When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.’ Cupid is my witness—and few are prepared to deny his competency, that he has made a seizure of my heart—that he is a fenant in pos-— session—and holds it at a rack-rent. He has produced that attach- ment, which sticks to my vital interests like a leech, and preys upon them like a hawk, and is properly grantable in all cases of contempt. A specification of charges against him would be as large as Coke, and as long as‘a chancery suit; but I cannot find it in my conscience to serve him with @ notice of ejectment. I now tender this written — evidence and avowing after distress, and hereby aver that in process of time your faithful lawyer (over I should say,) will suffer pams and penalties to that extent, that much wasfe will be committed in the | body. The case will be Docket versus Dyspepsia—a species of action not enumerated in any digest, and the damage has been already awarded, Before I saw you, the public seports of Fame, the com-— mon informer, were ji/ed in the office of Memory, but no nrocendinee were taken thereupon, till personal appearance produced complete con- viction at the time the court of Cupid held its prepos-sesszon. A\l- though my 7e-venue is ample, yet I would not wish the consideration of that circumstance to influence your verdict ; for the acquirement of such beautiful property by purchase would be proeeeding upon a mean process, and ought not to appear upon record; although I par- ~~ Gomicbooks (E(0)