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to abandon his polluted name and station for ever, and to pass the remainder of his days in obscurity.

Suddenly roused to exertion, he never rested until, by the sales he had hurried on at a great sacrifice, and the loan he had obtained without hesitation or demur, he became possessed of the sum he required. He now posted up to London, without food or rest. He arrived much exhausted at the house of the too well-remembered Bankers in **** Stre, Alighting from his chaise and four, which the fevered energy of his mind, rather than any anxiety for speed, had suggested, he entered the office, and desired to speak with one of the partners. There was that in his appearance, and the style of his arrival, which claimed attention, and he was shewn into a back-room where three gentlemen were congregated.

"I request to speak in private with any acting partner of this house," he said, with a polite inclination of his head.

Two of the gentlemen instantly rose, and bowed and departed. "You are a partner in the house, I presume," said Mr. Oldmixon.

"Principally the acting one," replied Mr.

"I believe it is not usual to open an account with a banker without an introduction," observed Mr. Oldmixon.

"Certainly not, sir," replied Mr.

ceptions."

"but every rule has its ex

"Here is the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds which I wish to deposit in your hands."

"A capital recommendation, without any other introduction," observed the banker; "may I ask your name ?"

"Be pleased to receive, and enter it in your books in the name of 'Restitution!'" replied Oldmixon.

"Restitution ?" echoed the banker, fixing on him a gaze of curiosity and surprise. "An uncommon name, sir," he at length added, "we have none such on our books !"

"Well, sir, if the name surprises you, add, if you please, to the word 'restitution,' 'for a fraud committed on your house some few years since, and now returned with interest.'

"Good God! is it possible ?" exclaimed the banker; "you allude, of course, to the case of Oldmixon.”

"A name accursed, and blotted from the page of life for ever!" vehemently added Oldmixon. "Take the money, sir, and enter it how you please, or enter it not at all. It never will be called for."

"I know you not, sir," interrupted the banker, "but what you desire of me is to compound a felony, which I dare not do."

"I desire no such thing, sir," replied Oldmixon.

"I desire to deposit twenty-five thousand pounds in the hands of your house, and will not take even an acknowledgment for it! enter it on your books as deposited by Jones or Smith or Brown, or how you please. There is the amount, sir," placing a paper parcel before him, "and here our conference ends. I wish you a good morning."

So saying, without waiting a reply, he hastily left the room, passed rapidly through the office, threw himself into his chaise, and, as had been previously arranged, was shortly on the high road on his return to Devonshire.

He next arranged through his country bankers, the principal of whom was his intimate friend, the deposit of a sufficient sum in the funds, in

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the names of trustees, for the payment of his brother's annuity, and a power of attorney to receive the dividends was forwarded to the bankers whom he had named in his letter.

However soothing the tranquil satisfaction he felt when these objects were accomplished, it was not destined to last. The London bankers who had received so unexpected a benefit, acting no doubt under legal advice, advertised the transaction in the London Gazette, from which it was copied into every newspaper in the kingdom. Mr. Oldmixon read, and started in horror, as he read his name thus once more brought before the world; all the agonies of his first tortures returned, and he now precipitated his long cherished intention of retiring from his county and connections, and passing the remainder of his days in obscurity under an assumed name. This intention he confided only to his wife at first, who in this as in all other things sympathised in his views and feelings, and to his long tried and valued friend Sir John Mansell, the principal of the country bank, to which we have before alluded. To this gentleman he gave ample powers to receive his rents, to renew leases, and to manage entirely as his own the reduced property which he was now about to abandon for ever. His son had now entered his sixteenth year, and the anxious mother felt and urged that it was high time his destiny in after life should be prepared for, so far as related to such an education as befitted his station. But Mr. Oldmixon would not listen for a moment to the suggestion of sending him to any public school, or to either university; such had been the course adopted, and which had so signally failed in the education of his brother, and could he with that fearful example before his eyes expose his only son to similar temptations? The lad had shewn an early and rather remarkable taste for the fine arts. His drawings were admired even by artists, and the celebrated cup, which has been so particularly mentioned in the early part of this history, had been first copied by him in clay, and afterwards, with only a few lessons from an ingenious sculptor in a neighbouring town, had actually been carved by him in ivory with a sharpness of handling and delicacy of touch, which, his youth and want of practice considered, excited the real astonishment of all who saw it.

To this decided talent his father now addressed his thoughts. His object to renounce his own name for ever was fixed and unalterable. He had resolutely determined that the very day his son became of age (never for a moment doubting the ready assent of his heir when his powerful motives should be explained) to cut off the entail of the estate, and to sell it with as much privacy as possible.

His next thought was the nature of his retirement, and its locality. He knew the great secret, that there was no retirement on the whole globe like that of a populous city; and, above all other cities in the civilized world, like that of London. That emporium of the world, with a police, perhaps, comparatively lax, if it afforded a mask to the guilty, afforded also a mantle to the innocent. London, therefore, he resolved should be their destination.

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THE TWO MR. SMITHS; OR, THE DOUBLE MISTAKE.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

WITH AN

ILLUSTRATION

BY J. LEECH.

THE rector of a parish in one of our midland counties, after having, in conformity with established custom, called on Mr. Marsden, who, with his family, had taken a house in the vicinity, received an invitation to dinner, as the surest (and to the worthy divine the most pleasant) mode of cultivating his acquaintance, and making him known to Mrs. Marsden, who, with a son and daughter, of the respective ages of thirteen and fifteen, formed the circle of the dinner table of the new parishioners.

The doctor, for D.D. he was, was not the one to eschew honest port, and sound sherry, either with or without the antecedent exhilaration of champagne, and sparkling Moselle; it was, moreover, an invariable rule with him when dining where he was not acquainted with the general after-dinner habits of his host, to secure a sufficient number of glasses during dinner to perfectly qualify himself against any remissness that possibly might occur in the host, passing the bottle after the cloth was removed.

This he had done on the present occasion, so that when the port had performed its transit a few times, the doctor was just in that state which he recommended to his flock, namely, in kindly feeling with all mankind. We are not to infer from this that he was, in vulgar phrase, the worse for wine, on the contrary, he felt himself all the better; he was, however, just at that point when he was always disposed to be communicative, though, truth must allow, some little mistakes and discrepancies occasionally crept into communications that emanated from him under such circumstances and influences. This led to two somewhat singular contretemps, the result of the gentlemen's present conversation.

"As probably," said Mr. Marsden, "you are acquainted with the appearance of most persons in this neighbourhood, can you tell me who a person is that has excited my curiosity? But to enable you to do this I will describe him, man and horse, for it is when on horseback we have met. The first time I ever saw him was a few weeks since, when he joined the hounds for an hour or so; he then addressed me with considerable civility, I do not exactly say politeness, and a few days afterwards I met him on the road, when he again accosted me. There was nothing, apparently, intrusive in his address, for he is, in short, one of those persons who may or may not be a gentleman ;-a man of refined manners he certainly is not."

"Well,” said the doctor, "now for his person, dress, and horse, perhaps they are not as common as his manners."

"He is, then," said Mr. Marsden, "a middle-sized man, swarthy, with dark hair, and a somewhat turned-up nose, wears a black coat and waistcoat, leather breeches, and boots, neither made in the best possible taste, and rides an ordinary-looking brown horse; he told me

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