ill when we had proceeded only a few hours, and I was obliged to leave her in the care of a good lady whose house we were passing on the road to Leighbury. Now, there's no harm done; and I have since been thinking what an idiot I should have made of myself if I had formed any liaison at all with this barber's daughter."

Littlemore paused here, and look ed at Charles to ascertain the effect his remarks were producing. The latter wore a stern expression on his countenance, but there was also a soured, bitter look, which seemed to please Littlemore. He tinued

con

"I want, therefore, to break the whole matter off. I don't think it would be wise, or, at any rate, it isn't worth while for me to go toto see Elsie; and so I fancied you would be kind enough to undertake the task for me."

Charles stopped, and turning round so as to confront Littlemore, he said, with a cynical smile, but with a suppressed fire in his eye

"Tom, I should call you a villain if you were not a benefactor to mankind. "Tis an accursed sex. I'll carry your message."

The two gentlemen walked armin-arm in to breakfast.

THE house to which Elsie had been taken was the country seat of my friend Mr. Morton, and the housekeeper was none other than good Mrs. Bolster. It may therefore be easily conceived that nothing was wanting to promote the recovery, either in the shape of comforts and delicacies, or in that of careful nursing.

On the fourth morning after Elsie's arrival a carriage drew up to the door; and on Mrs. Bolster hastening to ascertain who the visitor might be, she was astonished to see Mr. Morton handing out a young lady, whose simple dress and graceful bearing were such that none could fail to be struck with them. Greater, however, was the worthy matron's astonishment when, on seeing the sweet expression and beauty of the young lady's face, she recognised it as that of Miss Lily Trevor, whom she remembered as having visited Rickerston the preceding Christmas.

It was, indeed, my lost love. Hardly had she descended from the stage coach outside Leighbury, and hardly had she found herself

alone in the vast world, separated alike from friend or foe, from lover or relation, and utterly ignorant of what was best to do, than aid arrived from a totally unexpected quarter. Mr. Morton, who had been forced to visit Leighbury to arrange some matters connected with his property, had determined to spend a day at Morton Manor, as his country seat was called. Accordingly, he started from Leighbury in his travelling carriage early in the morning, and when about a mile from the city, he met a young lady carrying a valise and perfectly unprotected. Mr. Morton immediately stopped the carriage to ascertain who the fair pedestrian might be, and there was something in his manner which Lily's good sense told her was genuine and kind hearted, and she at once explained her position. The excellent little gentleman finding that she came from Merringham, asked her if she knew me; and this naturally led to a full disclosure of everything, and resulted in Mr. Morton's insisting upon Lily's taking up her abode at his house until he could succeed in finding me, a task

to which he vowed he would devote himself.

The opportuneness of this rencounter became doubly intensified when Lily discovered that she had also fallen in with Mrs. Bolster ; and when, upon Lily going upstairs to see the heroine of the previous night's adventure, she recognised in the delirious girl, poor Elsie Dawes, the delight of Mr. Morton knew no bounds. Indeed, he was so pleased that nothing would satisfy him, after having given strict injunctions that nought should be wanting to ensure the comfort of Elsie and Lily, but to start off that very evening for London to prosecute his search for me. Under two such nurses as Lily and Mrs. Bolster, and with the advice of the first physician in Leighbury, Elsie could hardly fail to improve.. The attack of fever, however, from which she suffered was extremely severe, and the physician pronounced an opinion that something must have occurred to prey upon the mind of the patient, and so to retard the progress. This opinion Lily and Mrs. Bolster knew only too well was a correct one; for poor Elsie, in the transports of her delirium, gave many a clue to the circumstances that had happened, repeating many of the love passages between Littlemore and herself, explaining how they had eloped together, and faintly evincing a knowledge of his desertion. Still she strove even in her delirium to attach no blame to him; she repeated

constantly to herself that he would return, that she was sure he had been forced to go away, that it was only a temporary absence, and so forth; and at times it was pitiful to see the way in which she would lie for an hour together listening for the slightest noise, and imagining that every vehicle she heard on the distant high road was the welcome means of uniting once more her lover's heart to hers.

At length the violence of the disease abated, and one day, while Lily was watching by her bedside, Elsie opened her eyes, and from their lustrous depths shone forth her soul in all its undimmed beauty.

Alas! when shall man consciously plumb those lustrous depths whose very brilliancy becomes a measure of their profundity. I who narrate this simple history am now well stricken in years, have seen much, and have reflected much, but all to no avail in philosophy of the soul. I see in minerals and in flowers the marvellous forms of grace, the wonderful combinations of all that is beautiful in shape, in structure, in colour; but whence comes the magic of a glance, the fire of anger, the sweetness of pity, the ineffable tenderness of the lovelight? Have they existed, and shall they exist, from eternity to eternity?

Elsie opened her eyes, and was greeted with the smile of an angel. "Miss Trevor !" she said faintly.

SAN FRANCISCO has come to be the dividing-ridge between the Old World and the New-the point which separates the Past from the Present-the pivot upon which the world's trade and exchanges now turn; and yet this remarkable city is but twenty years old-a child; but what a child!

Already over a hundred thouasnd live people call themselves Franciscans, and are proud of it; already her foreign commerce is next to that of New York and Boston; already her exports of gold and silver reach nigh a hundred millions a-year; and now (1871) she has stretched her hand across and grasped the commerce of the whole continent of Asia. She dares any thing, and she attempts every thing-the most audacious city in the world!

For an extent of two thousand miles the blue waters of the broad Pacific washes the shores of the continent, and in that whole distance there is but one safe harbour for ships to shelter. There, in latitude 37° 48' north, the ocean breaks through the white hills of sand, and within the Golden Gate spreads out the spacious and beautiful Bay of San Francisco-eight miles in average width, and fifty in length.

How much of the history of this world is accident, or what seems such!

For thousands of years this fine harbour has waited with open gates for the commerce of man-it did not come; but in January, of the year 1848, the race-diggers at Captain Sutter's mill, in Comola Valley, threw out, with the earth, golden grains; then, thousands of strong men poured into California, and spread themselves over the barren sand-hills of San Francisco; then,

ships of all nations came flocking in with their white sales; then, houses rose out of the sand by magic, and churches and palaces, until now we see there a great city, the third in its foreign commerce in America.

Whence the name, and why a Spanish and a Catholic name for an American and a Protestant city? Because, in the year of the nation's birth (1776), two of those wonderful, self-sacrificing, earnest souls which the Roman Catholic Church has sent out over the world, came to this barren coast and established a "Mission;" built monasteries and schools, and planted vineyards, and raised sheep and cattle, and did what they might to civilise and Christianise the Indians who then occupied the country. These two

men were Spaniards and Franciscan monks, and they called their Mission, San Francisco de Assisi. Less than three miles south of the present City Hall, the old "Mission," built of adobe bricks, still stands; but the good monks have departed, and, with their virtues, have gone to heaven.

What has come in their place? Six miles from the blue Pacific, which flows in through the Golden Gate, an adventurous settler built a house in the year 1835. On that spot now stands the St. Francis Hotel, in the vicinity of the spacious and elegant City Hall; in front of the latter spreads out Portsmouth Square, the Plaza of the city; not far from this are the Mint, the United States Hospital, and the Custom House-which last has cost 800,000 dols. Montgomery-street, with its superb shops, invites and tempts every mortal man, and fascinates every mortal woman. Front-street and its vicinity contain in great ware

houses the products of every nation and clime; Stockton, Powell, Taylor, and their companion streets, are lined with comfortable -some costly-houses, surrounded with gardens, in which bloom throughout the year the most luxuriant fuchsias, geraniums. salvias, &c., &c.; thousands of Chinese congregate in and about Dupont and Sacramento streets, and with patient, tireless industry, add to the wealth of the region, and refuse to be made into Americans and Christians. In fine, a city covering nine square miles now lies within and upon the white sand-hills, called Telegraph, Rincon, and Russian; a city with decent streets, excellent churches, ample schoolhouses, plenty of water, and one of the finest of harbours. Behind her are the richest gold and silver mines of the world, and a breadth of two and a half million acres of improved farming lands, which in 1860 produced six million bushels of wheat, potatoes which weighed six pounds, beets that measured eight inches in diameter, and cattle and horses innumerable; and besides all, as has been said, she now reaches out to take tribute from the continent of Asia. How long will it be before the commerce of that world finds its markets through San Francisco ?how long before the belles of the Flowery Kingdom make their way to the halls of Saratogo and Newport? -before the daughters of the Begum of Oude and the Tycoon of Japan sport their finery in Montgomery-street and Broadway?-how long before fascinating Daimios seek brides in the careful houses of Boston, or rich Buddhists among the lovely Quakeresses of Philadelphia? Who can, who dare predict the coming time? Let us deal with the present and leave the future. What has converted these desolate sandhills into this great city?

A shovelful of clay, in which were seen a few grains of glittering gold!

It went from tongue to tongue, from soul to soul, quick as the lightning's flash, and spread itself far and wide-along the waters of the Mississippi, up the Ohio, along the great lakes, and over the whole extent of the Atlantic slope; and its powerful fascination infected every heart, excited every hope. Wealth-gold-could be got by every man who would work for it, in this New California. Gold was discovered in the month of January, 1848; and by the year 1849 thirty thousand people had left the old States, had crossed arid deserts, scaled two ranges of snowy mountains, and had left more than four thousand of their number dead on the way-such fearful sacrifices they made to reach the land of gold.1

At this period San Francisco was a strange place. A large portion of the population lived in tents and slept on the ground. Men of ele gant cultivation wore red shirts and did their own cooking. "Every man was his own porter," and no man was ashamed to do the most menial work. Washing cost 8 dols. the dozen. A bowling alley rented.

for 5000 dols. per month in gold. The Parker House rented for 110,000 dols. a year, 60,000 dols. of which was derived from the gambling houses. The wages of servants was 100 dols. to 200 dols. per month; and a good dray horse could earn roodols. per day. Gambling, drinking, and reckless adventure were then the rule, not the exception.

But no Anglo-Saxon race continues a gambling, drinking, and reckless people; gambling is now illegal : and to-day every woman in the city shapes herself after the Parisian fashion plates, and every man arrays himself in "store clothes" and "boiled shirts," and goes about his

1

business as circumspectly as if he were anxious for a discount at the Bank of England. The best people decided, and the whole body quickly determined, that San Francisco should be no scorn and by-word among men; they determined that the metropolis of the western coast should be the peer of older cities, and have taken matters in hand boldly and vigorously. A few details will best express what they have attempted, what they have done.

Merchants, of course, are the leadng profession; but while they are bold, often reckless, they are not as a class mean or dishonourable. Yet mean and deeply dishonourable things are perpetrated among them, and the secrets of the stock-brokers and the forestallers will not bear the light of day; they are shrewd enough to keep them in the dark. These merchants, by projecting and daring, have produced surprising results. Besides the great business houses, are some striking business organisations. The California Steam Navigation Company plies its boats into all waters of the State that can be cut by keel, and thus it centres all the productions and all the trade at this city. The Wells-Fargo Express Company has its agents at every village, every mine, and every ranch; it carries all letters and all money, all gold dust and all postages, faithfully and swiftly, and makes enormous profits for its stockholders. In the year 1864 it purchased some two and a quarter millions of United States stamped envelopes, which in some degree shows the extent of its business. It acts as a private postoffice, a banker, and a carrier, throughout the mining districts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and Washoe, and by this time, no doubt, it has an office under one of the 'big trees" of the Yosemite Valley. The Pacific Mail Company owns one of the grandest of steam navies, and controls the passenger and

Its

freight carriage of two oceans. new line to Asia is a success from the start, and it is impossible to estimate its effect upon the trade, the manners, and even the religions of the East. The exports to China in 1870 reached nearly 8,000,000 dols.

Manufactures are starting, and we have a premonition that the same energy, daring, and success, will mark their inception and development, that have characterised the brief history of this city. Already Mr. Donald McClellan, who combines Scotch blood and Massachusetts training, has established an extensive woollen mill, where he consumes yearly over a million pounds of California-grown wool, and produces blankets, &c., second to none. Machine shops and other branches of industry are already extensive, and are growing, and cotton mills are started. It will not be long before San Francisco presents the same great variety of occupation as marks other cities.

A journal of this city says:

"We have ten grist mills, one salt mill, twenty-one breweries, two sugar refineries. We grind 1500 tons of salt a year; 130 men brew 61,825 barrels of beer; 180 men manufacture 25,000,000 pounds of refined sugar. We have a match factory, two glass factories, a wire rope factory, and a hemp rope factory employing fifty men. We have thirteen soap factories employing thirty-nine men, consuming 750,000 pounds of tallow in making 1,000,000 pounds of soap annually. We have five saw mills, cutting 6,250,000 feet of lumber a year; and thirtyeight machine shops and foundries, employing 1200 men."

"The San Francisco Bulletin states that the catch of codfish on the banks on the north-west coast this season has not only demonstrated that we can supply our own market, but that we can become exporters of the article to less favoured localities.' The amount already