shrew—son-in-law to a pennyless scoundrel, and cheated out of my whole fortune! Compare this view of the question with that which had blazed on me when I contemplated being son-in-law to the rich Mr. Asgrave. I stormed at first. Mr. Asgrave took up 'Bacon on the Advancement of Learning,' and made no reply till I was cooled by explosion. You will perceive, that when passion subsided, I necessarily saw that nothing was left for me but adopting my father-in-law's proposal. Thus, by the fatality which attended me, at the very time I meant to reform I was forced into scoundrelism, and I was driven into defrauding a vast number of persons by the accident of being son-in-law to a great moralist. As Mr. Asgrave was an indolent man, who passed his mornings in speculations on virtue, I was made the active partner. I spent the day at the counting-house; and when I came home for recreation, my wife scratched my eyes out."
"But were you never recognized as 'the stranger,' or 'the adventurer,' in your new capacity?"
"No; for of course I assumed, in all my changes, both Aliases and Disguises. And, to tell you the
