acquirements. Though Lucy was untaught, her mother's conversation and

manners gave her a taste for refinements superior to her present situation.

She loved the youth even without knowing it, except that in any difficulty

she naturally turned to him for aid, and awoke with a lighter heart every

Sunday, because she knew that she would be met and accompanied by him in

her evening walk with her sisters. She had another admirer, one of the

head-waiters at the inn at Salt Hill. He also was not without pretensions

to urbane superiority, such as he learnt from gentlemen's servants and

waiting-maids, who initiating him in all the slang of high life below

stairs, rendered his arrogant temper ten times more intrusive. Lucy did not

disclaim him--she was incapable of that feeling; but she was sorry when

she saw him approach, and quietly resisted all his endeavours to establish

an intimacy. The fellow soon discovered that his rival was preferred to

him; and this changed what was at first a chance admiration into a passion,

whose main springs were envy, and a base desire to deprive his competitor

of the advantage he enjoyed over himself.

Poor Lucy's sad story was but a common one. Her lover's father died; and he

was left destitute. He accepted the offer of a gentleman to go to India

with him, feeling secure that he should soon acquire an independence, and

return to claim the hand of his beloved. He became involved in the war

carried on there, was taken prisoner, and years elapsed before tidings of

his existence were received in his native land. In the meantime disastrous

poverty came on Lucy. Her little cottage, which stood looking from its

trellice, covered with woodbine and jessamine, was burnt down; and the

whole of their little property was included in the destruction. Whither

457

The Last Man