nearly six feet high, and well proportioned. But the first glance of a casual observer would inevitably have been attracted to the expression of firmness and resolution which characterised the principal features of his countenance, and betrayed the existence in his soul of an indomitable will. You could not, in contemplating the large, hard features of his manly face, divest yourself of the idea, that you were looking upon one of nature's noblemen-one born to look well, to think well, and to act well, and who would perform his allotted part in the great drama of life thoroughly and judiciously, while health and freedom were propitious, and reason held her throne.

Mr. Neaton was a cotton manufacturer. Not one of the narrow-minded class, whose struggle is to accumulate for no one's good, and upon whose contracted souls the beautiful stars of science and humanity are never dawning; but an enlightened, educated man of trade. To his ear the clash and hum of machinery betoken, not only coming wealth and luxury, but they spoke to a human heart of regular employment for indigent men, of huge establishments where thousands would earn abundant bread for the hungry by their daily toil. He was descended from a renowned New England stock, possessed of all their virtues, and encumbered by as few of their peculiar faults and pedantries as one could ask, or hope for, from the lineal descendant of those early emigrants.

His hair was brushed back carefully from his brow, and was sprinkled with a few grey indications of the approach of his fiftieth birthday; and the same indications were in the small whiskers he wore. His keen, full, grey eye was ever restless, and denoted the earnest, interested, daring speculator that he was. His dress was well selected, of the best material, and well put on. He was above the ostentation of the fop and the affected slovenliness of the conceited artist. His only ornament was a single diamond stud. His walk and manners, and the fluent style of his address, tended to make him look neither more nor less than what he was-a polished," earnest, worthy cotton manufacturer.

Twenty-five years of careful and constant industry had accumulated for him affluence and influence. The world recognised his talents under the title of shrewdness; but his honour remained unimpeached. He was associated in business with one of the most successful manufacturers of the age, who, though having an immense interest at stake in trade, placed in Mr. Neaton implicit confidence. This was the gentleman to whom the sisters turned for counsel, as to the best means of Escape from a love-trap.

As Mr. Neaton entered the drawing-room, his wife arose quickly to send for ights, as the darkness had come suddenly upon them, and the grate, too, needed plenishing, for the October nights were growing colder, and the frost king had already once or twice laid his hand lightly upon the lawns and shrubbery about the dwelling. Drawing a chair towards the fire, Mr. Neaton said to his sisterin-law

"What are you speculating about, pet, all alone by yourself? Do you feel sentimental to-night?"

"No, brother," replied she; "I have been waiting for you to come, to ask your sage advice upon a delicate matter."

"Well, let's have it-make a clean breast of it."

"I can't marry William Broadhead."

"What!" said Neaton, with surprise, "not marry him? How are you going to avoid it? I had a long talk with him a few minutes ago, and he told me he thought himself the most fortunate man in existence to secure so beautiful a girl as Lou Brandon. He told me all his plans and expectations, and said, moreover, he was coming here to-night to see you about them. What has happened, Lou, to occasion such a change in your views?"

"My views are not changed, John; but the fact is, I never cared enough about him to marry him. He is well enough, I suppose; but I feel every day more and more opposed to marrying into that family; and then, I tell you candidly, I can't marry a man out of mere respect."

"You are, or ought to be, the best judge of that, Lou," replied Neaton, thoughtfully; and after gazing into the fire a miuute, he added, "but what is the advice you wished from me?"

"I want you to advise me how to break off this engagement," she answered, earnestly. "There will be a tremendous excitement about it, I know, and his mother will be revenged on me in some way."

"I can't, I'm sure, tell you how women manage such matters; Sarah can advise you better than I can. If I had such an affair on my hands,I'd take the shortest cut, and send him a note stating that my views had changed, or something to that effect, aud that I wished a release. No sensible man could fail to be thankful to escape in time from marrying a woman who cared nothing about him."

"I believe that you are right, John," replied his sister-in-law; " that plan suggested itself to me among others, but I had intended to go away soon, and pay no further attention to his letters or any communications from him. I know your plan is the only fair and honest one; but you see how we are sometimes influenced by one word from another to undertake what our own common sense should have indicated. The only proper way to discard him is to send this note-and I will do it at once."

After this reply, Mr. Neaton seemed for a few moments to be absorbed in intense thought; then, turning to his wife, who had returned while they were conversing, and taken a chair near him, after brushing up some specks of dirt which he had brought in on his boots, he said: "Sarah, this affair will certainly occasion a great deal of mischief. Lou has very properly decided to change her mind about William Broadhead; and, to tell the truth, I am not sorry. I am becoming more satisfied every day that our intercourse with that family and our business relations with their establishments are detrimental to us in more ways than one. The old fellow is meditating mischief against our firm, in regard to those patent spindles. I believe this family affair has somewhat prevented him precipitating matters, but this unfortunate affair of Lou's will be a glorious opportunity for him to launch out -and now look out for squalls."

"It's always my luck," exclaimed his sister-in-law, vehemently, "to be the occasion of trouble to my dearest friends! John, I'll postpone doing anything about this affair of mine - I'll procrastinate and make excuses, until you can ascertain how your business matters stand, and after you have settled everything securely, then I'll break this chain which galls me, for ever."

"Oh! no, no!" replied Neaton, "you go on and act according to your sense of right and propriety, Lou, and leave me to manage this old reprobate. He may occasion us considerable expense and litigation, but we have him fast on his agreement, and in the end we'll pay him off for all the trouble he has put us to. There's the door bell-that's William Broadhead. I told you he was coming to-night." "I can't see him to-night," said Lou Brandon, resolutely. "Mary, tell Mr. Broadhead I'm sorry that I'm engaged this evening."

When the disappointed lover had started homeward, his betrothed exclaimed"This is the first rebuff; thank heaven! I'll be free."

The next minute the tea-bell rang. And thus commenced the great war of the apidles, amid the ringing of door-bells and tea-bells.

Oh! woman! woman! how many of earth's contests may be traced to thes!

CHAPTER II.

THE CONSULTATION.

A Few weeks subsequent to the events just recorded, in the streets of a thronged city might have been seen an elderly man walking rapidly in the direction of the lower or business portion of the town. The night was dark and cold, and the wind whistled dismally along the deserted streets, for the hour was late, and no indications of human existence were abroad to cheer the solitary pedestrian, save an occasional sound of noisy mirth from the few taverns which still remained open. But the old man was apparently indifferent to the loneliness of the hour, and walked steadily on toward that part of the city which is usually entirely deserted by midnight. As he went briskly on his way, the occasional stream of light from a gas-lamp fell full upon his countenance, revealing an expression of intense anxiety and trouble. A passerby would have taken him for a person belonging to the upper circles of society, for his flowing cloak was apparently of fine cloth, as the flash of gaslight fell full upon it, and a gold-headed cane which he carried under his arm protruded several inches from its heavy folds. He soon paused before a row of four-story buildings, and, for a moment, seemed to be carefully reading the names upon the stone columns of the lower story. At length he discovered, by the aid of the street lamp, the words, S. Levins, Solicitor;" and pushing back a door, which admitted him into a narrow ball, he groped his way along it by the uncertain light which glimmered through the ventilator over a door at the extreme end. He knocked at this door, but without waiting for a reply, opened it, and walked in. A middle-sized man, who was ading at a long table covered with loose sheets of paper and writing materials, locked up quickly, and said, with a look of astonishment—

"What brought you here, Broadhead, at this time of night?"

The old man, throwing off his cloak and hat, and seating himself, with his goldheaded cane, beside the fire, and looking everywhere but in the lawyer's face, said, nervously, while his feet and hands and head performed every description of extraordinary evolutions, "I knew you worked late, Levins, and I expected--that is, I didn't know but you might have considered-I mean, suppose you had examined that paper sufficiently to advise me as to its effect. However, there's no particular

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hurry for a few days. How do you think I can get out of my engagement with the company?-that is, how far am I bound by the contract?"

how am I to answer How," exclaimed the lawyer, pushing his chair backwards and sidewise, until he had worked himself round to the fire, and facing Broadhead:

such a string of questions as that? Which suit are you talking about? The one the Vernon Company has commenced against you, or the one you wish to commence against Fornell, Horton, & Co. ?"

“Oh, I mean the contract, Mr. Levins,” replied the old man, holding up his right foot to the fire, and brushing back his thin hair with his large, coarse hand: “is there anything in it to deprive me of the exclusive use of my improvements in spindles? That is what I want to know, Mr. Levins," exclaimed Broadhead, emphatically, at the same time laying his cane on the chair behind him, and glancing hastily upon the scattered papers on the lawyer's table. "I want counsel, sir, as to my rights in my own patented invention. Is my horse my property, or the property of any man that chooses to claim him? No, sir! God knows, I wouldn't take a pin that belonged to my neighbour, without paying him for it. A man's invention, Levins, is his property; and no court of justice—of fair and equal justice—would allow any man to pirate my invention. Yes! pirate, that's the word the law uses, Yes, Levins, preposLevins-pirating an invention. Why, the idea of these people pirating my invention -my own patented invention-is simply preposterous. terous!" Saying which, Broadhead sprung up from his chair, and turned his back to the fire.

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"Well!" said Levins, slightly entertained at the old man's method of stating his case; your first point covers the whole ground of the matter upon which you desire my advice, which is briefly this: does that contract, executed by you and Fornell, Horton, & Co., give them a legal authority to use your patented improvements in spindles? I was examining the matter when you came in. Now, if you will sit down for a few minutes, and not interrupt me, I think I shall be soon able to answer that question for you."

"I'm glad of that, Mr. Levins," said the old man, with evident satisfaction; “I shan't interfere with you ;" and he resumed his seat, while his lawyer turned again to the table, and continued the investigation which had been so unexpectedly interrupted.

While Levins and his client are occupied in their respective meditations, we will take the opportunity to scan the features and peculiarities of the two men, and detail some of the peculiar causes or motives which led to this midnight interview.

Alexander Broadhead had commenced life as a poor mechanic, destitute of friends, and with a very limited fund of information on matters not connected with his work-bench. But by industry, frugality, courtesy, and attention, coupled with a determination to improve every opportunity to acquire information on useful subjects, he had acquired affluence, and had been entrusted with the agency of a cotton manufacturing establishment, in which men of wealth had invested largely. His friends claimed for him inventive talent of a high order in all that related to the development and improvement in machinery; while those who had been associated business with him, or had otherwise become prejudiced against him, denied atically these pretensions to originality, and asserted that his only ability in

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matters of improvement consisted in the peculiar tact with which he appropriated the principles evolved by other minds, and made them appear as his own discoveries in machinery.

For several years he had been involved in litigation with various cotton manufacturing associations (and particularly with the firm of Fornell, Horton, & Co.), arising out of conflicting claims as to the invention of machines, which yielded immense profits to the manufacturers of cotton. He had, several years previous to the events recorded in our last chapter, commenced a suit against the last-mentioned firm for the infringement of a patent right to make the improved form of spindles. In their defence to this suit, the firm of Fornell, Horton, & Co. denied that the other party was the inventor, and claimed that the discovery of the improvement in spindles was made by a member of their own firm. After a protracted legal controversy between them, both parties arrived at the sensible conclusion that the Law Courts were poor places for cotton merchants to coin money in. They accordingly agreed to bury the hatchet, and in future to live on good terms with each other, and occa sionally to give one another a slight lift in the way of sharing the execution of a good contract. After they had talked over and considered the preliminaries of peace, they both executed an instrument, in which the use of the patented spindles was left open to both parties. And then they all shook hands, and smiled upon each other, and complimented each other; and all their ladies smiled too, and their children smiled, and all their clerks and employees smiled, and everybody around smiled, and even the lawyers, whose pockets their long litigation had stuffed, smiled -a little sadly.

And then, with lightened hearts and confident expectations of coming wealth, they turned their attention to speculation, and devoted their energies to business. Years rolled on, and the firm of Fornell, Horton and Company, and the firm of Broadhead and Company, were rapidly gathering in golden harvests from the monopoly of the patented spindles. Their names became famous among the cotton men of all the cities of the United States, and their credit was established even scross the Atlantic. But one day the spirit of surprise glided into the countinghouse of Broadhead and tapped him quickly upon the shoulder. Broadhead looked up with a start, and was at once informed that he had been sued for a breach of ntract by the Vernon Company, which claimed to recover damages of him for conveying away to Fornell, Horton and Co., under the last contract, the use of the patented spindles. Under a former conveyance to them, the Vernon Company claimed an exclusive right within the state to the use of Broadhead's patented machinery. Then trouble came into the counting-house of the manufacturer, and at down beside him, and whispered disagreeable suggestions in his ear of coming loss and probable disgrace. And when trouble had exhausted all her unpleasant ideas, deceit stepped in and made a long call, and seemed to be a welcome visitor. While Broadhead was entertaining deceit, another spirit, not sufficiently known to cotton dealers, denominated conscience, walked boldly in, but received very decided evidences of being unwelcome, and was not even invited to take a chair.

Hour after hour the manufacturer sat in his counting-house, devising plans to avoid the impending misfortune of a defeat in this untimely suit, which like a spectre stretched out its bony hand to him for gold, gold. The darling pet, aye!