We are to make acquaintance with some serious damsels, as this English generation knows them, and at a season verging upon May.

The ladies of Brookfield, Arabella, Cornelia, and Adela Pole, daughters of a flourishing City-of-London merchant, had been told of a singular thing: that in the neighbouring fir-wood a voice was to be heard by night, so wonderfully sweet and richly toned, that it required their strong sense to correct strange imaginings concerning it.

Adela was herself the chief witness to its unearthly sweetness, and her testimony was confirmed by Edward Buxley, whose ear had likewise taken in the notes, though not on the same night, as the pair publicly proved by dates.

Both declared that the voice belonged to an opera-singer or a spirit.

The ladies of Brookfield, declining the alternative, perceived that this was a surprise furnished for their amusement by the latest celebrity of their circle, Mr.Pericles, their father's business ally and fellow-speculator; Mr.Pericles, the Greek, the man who held millions of money as dust compared to a human voice.