NELLIE (smiling-utterly miserable). Poor Asa! He is a human creature, at any rate-not a machine!

NED (savage at this concession to his rival-his voice trembling). Do I understand you to insinuate that I am a machine, Miss Swansdowne ?

NELLIE (with hysteric laughter). Is it possible you didn't know that, Mr. Holland? You always reminded me of a clock, stuck up to be looked at,-wound up to go, and always doing over the same things-thinking yourself so clever, so accomplished, 8ɔ knowing, and everybody else so vulgar, so stupid, so commonplace. -Oh! you needn't speak; one can always tell what a clock is going to say by looking at its face. But really, now, Mr. Holland, if you wouldn't pretend to be a man, you might be quite interesting -as a machine!

NED (overwhelmed at this unprecedented outburst from gentle Nellie Swansdowne). Why, Nellie! what does all this mean? Are you angry? Have you forgotten that I must go away to-morrow? and is this to be our to be our parting? But you're in a passion now (a sensible observation to make at this juncture!) Wait a minute, and think what you are doing. (With a burst of tenderness.) Oh, Nellie, you know I love you!

NELLIE (not only very angry, but oppressed by a dread lest she should give in and cry). You love me! I'd às lief be loved by a

NED (losing his temper and his last chance). For the last time, Miss Swansdowne-do you mean to marry me?

OW

NELLIE (with passionate resentment-catch her marrying anyone who calls her Miss Swansdowne'). I'd sooner marry an -an-- -(not quite certain of the word) an owtomatom! NED (staggered, but still game). Very well! Thanks! Goodbye! I trust your wish may be gratified!

And with that they parted. Each hoped the other would relent; both hoped in vain. Ned went tragically home, packed his valise, settled his bills, and took the evening express to New York, praying that a collision might occur on the way. Nellie rushed to her chamber, locked herself in, and prepared to die before morning. But no collision occurred; and Nellie appeared alive at the breakfast table the next day. Such is the way of the world.

One word more in this connection. It is an ugly word to say, but it must be said. Asa Cooper, having satisfied himself of the actual and permanent disappearance of Mr. Ned Holland, began to

renew his attentions to the forlorn damsel. He walked home with her in the afternoons; he called on her in the evenings; he sent her bouquets and sugarplums; and Nellie-O Frailty! thy name still continues to be Woman!-Nellie did not repel his advances with disdain.

III.

By one of those odd coincidences which do sometimes occur, in spite of common sense, science, and the nineteenth century, it was on the forty-seventh day after the quarrel and parting between Nellie and Ned, that the famous Dutch Automaton visited Mullenville, and gave that single exhibition which will never be forgotten so long as Mullenville continues to hold her place among the villages of the world.

No one who has resided within a thousand miles of Mullenville, or has subscribed to that widely-circulated journal, the Mullenville Repository,' needs to be reminded of the extraordinary occurrences of the night of September 22, 1873. But, for the benefit of such as resided in Europe at that date, or were unborn, a somewhat detailed reference to the affair must be made.

About seven o'clock on the morning of September 15, Muilenville awoke to a sense of placards. Placards were posted up everywhere-on barns, on gate-posts, on board-fences, on the whitewashed exterior of the hotel stables, and one fiery old fellow on the very door of the meeting-house. Every placard bore the announcement, in letters of all sizes up to a foot in height, that an astounding curiosity would be exhibited in the Town Hall on the evening of September 22. This curiosity was neither more nor less than an automaton, made to represent a man, life-size, and constructed with such surpassing ingenuity by the distinguished professor of philosophical and practical mechanics at the University of Utrecht in Holland, that it was next to impossible to detect where life ended and mechanism began. In fact, a number of testimonials were quoted from eminent individuals living out West, professing to be well acquainted with mankind and profoundly versed in the arcana of human nature, who nevertheless had been completely mystified by the marvellous accuracy wherewith the automaton counterfeited real life. Some persons went so far as to declare in all seriousness that it was not an automaton at all, but the devil! And surely, were half the wonders ascribed to it true, one might be justified in suspecting necromancy. Not only could the thing walk, move its arms, turn and nod its head, roll its eyes and twiddle its thumbs: but it could talk, sing, whistle, laugh, and (if report

could be trusted) read and write into the bargain! There was really something appalling in the idea.

It will readily be understood that the anticipations aroused in the Mullenvillanous breast were vivid and anxious. Nothing was talked of, day and night, but the famous Dutch Automaton. As the appointed day drew near, people gathered together from miles around; the hotel was filled from cellar to ridgepole; three-fourths of the private dwellings in town were transformed into boardinghouses; while quite a little army of enthusiasts actually pitched tents and camped out in Cooper's meadows, on the other side of the milldam. Mr. Cooper, it may be mentioned, was chairman of the committee appointed to organise the entertainment, and so energetic was he as to leave no doubt as to its being a grand success. He even hired a couple of dozen carpenters from the nearest city (which was fifty miles distant) to come and work in relays on an enormous scaffolding constructed on opposite sides of the Town. Hall, and intended to afford those who could not find room inside an opportunity of looking in through the windows.

On September 21 Asa Cooper went to make his evening call on Nellie Swansdowne. Of course the first subject introduced was the Dutch Automaton. Nellie, however, seemed rather shy of the topic, and did not respond very readily to Asa's boisterous enthusiasm. To listen to that young gentleman's descriptions and eulogies, one would have supposed that the Automaton must have been his foster-brother at the least. Unmindful of Nellie's abstraction and restlessness, he dilated on its life-like attributes and mysterious construction at inexhaustible length, and finally produced an order for the two best seats in the hall, which, as being the son of the chairman, he had been able to secure for Nellie and himself. Would she go with him the next night?

Nellie hesitated over the proposal for some time, and suggested all manner of objections, which Asa combated with all a lover's earnestness. The real cause of her reluctance she omitted to state; it seems to have been an indisposition, amounting almost to a superstitious dread, to trust herself within the sphere of the mysterious piece of mechanism which had so singularly entered into the last conversation which she and Ned had had together. As she sat in the evening light by the window, and gazed out upon the darkening vista of the road along which he and she had walked together, and where they had said farewell for ever, there was a sad and distant expression in her eyes, as though the vision of some one loved and lost yet lingered before them. At length, however, she roused herself from her gloomy reverie, forced a flow of spirits, laughed and chatted with artificial gaiety, and finally made Asa

happy by consenting to accompany him to the exhibition. He went home with an exulting heart, as well he might; but Nellie had a fearful dream that night: she thought she was standing up to be married to a tall figure, draped from head to foot in a dark mantle. Just as she was wondering whether it were Asa Cooper or Ned Holland, the mantle fell off, and behold! there stood the old family clock with its cracked face and antique mahogany case. As she stared at it in dismay it struck the hour of seven, but the strokes sounded in her ears like hard metallic words, whose purport was, 'I— trust—your-wish-may-be-gratified!' With that it toppled over upon her, as if to crush her; but then she awoke, all in a tremble, and became aware that it was seven in the morning and breakfast time.

IV.

EVENING had come. An expectant crowd at the railway station had witnessed the arrival of the train containing the famous Dutch Automaton. The train came in with a long-drawn shriek, as of a soul in despair; and after its wondrous freight had been disembarked, it rattled away again with an infernal cachinnation as though some unholy joke were in the wind. Meanwhile, under direction of the manager (a remarkable personage, with long black hair falling over his shoulders, and a copious black beard), a large box or case, resembling in appearance a cross between a coffin and a meat-safe, was carefully lifted into the express-waggon. The onlookers whispered to one another that it held the wondrous mechanism of the Automaton. The sensation created was profound, and not unmixed with fear. Men gathered in little groups as if for mutual protection, whispering apprehensively to one another, and casting strange glances over their shoulders into those dark recesses of the station which were unillumined by the lurid gleam of the lanterns. But when the rattle of the express-waggon had died away in the distance, a fresher air seemed to blow around; the whispers became voices, and at last some of the bolder spirits went so far as to laugh and crack jokes-almost scaring themselves again by their own audacity.

Eight o'clock. Every seat was filled; all the standing room was jammed to suffocation; the staircase and the outside flight of steps were packed; the scaffolding which the enterprise of Mr. Cooper had caused to be erected groaned beneath the swarms of human beings, at a dollar a head, which clustered over it. Every tree which grew within a hundred yards of the hall had been hired by speculators, who charged half a dollar for the upper branches,

a quarter of a dollar for the lower ones, and ten cents for a cling to the trunk; and every one of those speculators made a fortune. In short, no such 'house' had ever been seen or heard of either in Mullenville or elsewhere; and if the manager of the Automaton received, as it was affirmed he did, ten per cent. on the proceeds, it was enough to have paid poor Mr. Swansdowne's debts to Mr. Cooper five times over.

Within the hall, a black curtain was stretched across the stage, which was raised about five feet above the level of the floor. In front of this curtain, by way of orchestra, sat David Clank, the village gaol-keeper, with his violin under his chin. In a private stall, nearly opposite him, was Asa Cooper, with Nellie Swansdowne beside him; the former loquacious, smiling, and pomaded; the latter pale, silent, and nervous.

A bell sounded. The manager stepped before the curtain, and made a dignified obeisance to the assembly. He stroked his beard, passed his fingers through his long hair, and said that this was the proudest moment of his life. He affirmed that this was the first American audience before which the Automaton had been exhibited; and he would even go so far as to say that the eminent professor in the University of Utrecht in Holland had manufactured it specially with an eye to its appearance here to-night. He would venture to add that the expectations aroused by the placards would be more than satisfied. The Automaton was certain to outdo itself in the presence of so much worth and wisdom, so much youth and beauty, as were gathered together in that hall-and outside of it. At the words youth and beauty' his eye fell upon the upturned and bewildered face of Nellie Swansdowne. He smiled, bowed again, stroked his beard, and vanished.

An interval elapsed, and then the bell sounded once more. David Clank laid down his violin, walked to the corner of the stage, aud pulled a string. The curtain flew back and revealed a large box, standing on end, in shape something between a coffin and a meat-safe. Amidst a death-like stillness a narrow door in the front of this box opened, and out stepped, with an air of jaunty assurance, with light flaxen hair and whiskers, with a suit of clothes in the latest fashion, with an eye-glass, a switch-cane, and patent leather boots-out stepped, with a bow and a smirk, just as any human being might have done, only with infinitely more grace and ease-out stepped the miraculous, the mysterious, the supernatural, the incomparable Automaton! And the whole vast audience in the hall, as well as the innumerable multitude without, having held their breath uninterruptedly for a week, now let it out in one prolonged, simultaneous, and mighty Ah-h-h-h-h!' Their sus