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254 ; although, alas! it is often attended with risk!"

"I hope, Sir," said the Doctor, "if you must leave us so soon, that your property will often bring you into our neighbourhood."

"You overpower me with so much unexpected goodness," answered the stranger. "To tell you the truth, nothing can give me greater pleasure, than to meet those again who have once obliged me."

"Whom you have obliged, rather!" cried Mrs. Slopperton, and then added, in a loud whisper to Lucy—"How modest! but it is always so with true courage!"

"I assure you, Madam," returned the benevolent stranger, "that I never think twice of the little favours I render my fellow men—my only hope is, that they may be as forgetful as myself."

Charmed with so much unaffected goodness of disposition, the Doctor and Mrs. Slopperton now set up a sort of duet in praise of their guest: after enduring their commendations and compliments for some minutes with much grimace of disavowal and diffidence, the stranger's modesty