and the lone cemetery is as breathless and as still, as though its hallowed earth had not been opened to admit one sleeper more.

Mr. Vavasour found his wife still in the same place still hard at work as ever. She had not stirred since his departure.

"I am so glad you are come," said she, looking up lovingly, with somewhat weary eyes; "for I am tired of work, and we have just half an hour for pleasant chat before bedtime."

He sat down, and taking her hand in histhat little hand that had been stitching so busily, he said "There are not many like you-so gentle, so reasonable, so trusting!"

"Trusting! I must be unreasonable, indeed, if I did not trust you. When did you ever

deceive me?"

Never, indeed-and I never will. But it is not every little wife that would sit down so quietly under a secret-the first I believeand not make the slightest effort to discover it."

"I had no wish when once you told me that I ought not to know it."

"I told you truly-and it would but have

saddened you. Now, however, I will reward your loving trust, by telling you another secret that I think will interest you, and yet not sadden. You remember that old man who appeared so unexpectedly at Somerbank one morning; who brought your father money for old Gooch, and for the girl who lived next door ?"

"To be sure I do-that good old man, with the beautiful benevolent face. Never shall I forget him. I thought of him the other day, when Lord-Lord Henry something came. Charlotte announced him just in the same way that ugly Anne of ours did the other. But what of him ?”

"He is dead-he died soon after that visit. He was a very rich man- -a Mr. Somerset." shire? whose

"What! the member for

conduct was so much spoken of at the time of the great question?"

"The very same. Well! he left all his property to Lord Henry, I believe."

"Oh then, I suppose it runs in the familythat peculiar way of having themselves announced- A gentleman!-name's of no consequence wants to see master, partickler-' Alice mimicked the manner of the parlour

999

maid so exactly, that Mr. Vavasour could not help laughing.

"From what I have heard, I don't believe Lord Henry was any relation of his, nor do I know why he made him his heir. That does not concern us. But there is something that

does concern us. We have never ceased to wonder, and so has your father, who it was that befriended us in our sorrow and our needwho, under Providence, was the means of bestowing upon us all our infinite happinesswho, in short, procured for me this living-" "We have-we have! . . . . Well?"

"I know it now-I have learnt it within the last few days-it was that old man-that Mr. Somerset! Your father told him our story the day he was at Somerbank; and but for him, we should never have been here"

Alice clasped her hands, and the tears rose to her soft blue eyes

"That old man! that good old man! ah! is it possible? And we can never thank him! never tell him what happiness he has beYou say he is dead. . .

stowed ?

CHAPTER X.

O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear.'

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST.

'Preserve me from the thing I dread and hate,

A duel in the form of a debate ;

-the jar of words,

Worse than the mortal brunt of rival swords.'

COWPER.

'Like Alexander, I will reign,

And I will reign alone

And I must rule and govern still,
And always give the law.'

MONTROSE'S LOVE SONG.

BUT we must take a peep at our friends the Vernons, who are at present staying at Beauvale Manor, where Lord Henry, indeed, seldom remains long together, for he is more occupied, more fussy than ever; and, when at home, as Edith thinks, more irritable and diffi

cult to satisfy. She has almost given up attempting to please him; and, that being the case, it is easy to imagine he is not very often pleased.

Upon the subject of money, they disagree worse than ever. He is become more prudent, as he-(more stingy, as she)-would call it; and she takes a malicious pleasure in twitting him with his former generous projects, his magnificent castles in the air, when he had only a pittance to spend, and was liberal with that pittance. He has grown to hate these allusions so much, that they generally put him out of temper for the day, which would certainly deter a good wife from making them, but seems, alas! to have the contrary effect upon her; and he is growing more and more soured, by seeing, or thinking he sees, that she is indifferent to his feelings. In short, the breach between them is widening daily.

For awhile, indeed, after the fearful occurrence in which poor Marie was mixed up, the strong sympathy with her, which each felt as keenly as the other, had the effect of drawing them closer together, and they forgot their own grievances in their earnest desire to serve her, and mitigate her sorrows. But this soft