HERBERT AND CECILIA--THE LITTLE ANGELS--A CATASTROPHE--THE DEPARTURE--MARRIAGE OF THE DOGE WITH THE ADRIATIC--SOVEREIGNS OF THE SEA--DANTE AND BEATRIX--ELEONORA AND TASSO--LAURA AND PETRARCH--THE RETURN--SURPRISES--WHAT ONE FINDS IN TURBOTS--A HORROR--THE PRICE OF CRIME--BALLOONING--PHILIPSON AND THE CHOLERA--A METAMORPHOSIS--ADVENTURE OF THE CHIMPANZEE--ARE YOU RICH?
Next day the sky was shrouded in dense masses of cloud, some grey as lead, some livid as copper, and some black as ink.

Towards evening the two families, as usual, resolved themselves into a talking party, and Wolston, requesting them to listen, began as follows:-- "There were two rich merchants in Bristol, between whom a very close intimacy had for a long time existed.

One of them, whom I shall call Henry Foster, had a daughter; and the other, Nicholas Philipson, had a son, and the two fathers had destined these children for one another.
The boy was a little older than the girl, and their tastes, habits, and dispositions seemed to fit them admirably for each other, and so to ratify the decision of the parents.

Little Herbert and Cecilia were almost constantly together.

They had a purse in common, into which they put all the pieces of bright gold they received as presents on birthdays and other festive occasions.