the dwelling, presented an appearance very unlike that usually beheld in an English home. The rooms were large and lofty, and garnished with every effort at display. The gilded mouldings, fretted cornices, massive mantels, noble mirrors-the bronzes, the ormolus, and costly draperies, were no mean indices of the occupant's wealth. Cabinets of elaborately carved ivory ornaments, shining shells, and stuffed birds-earthenware urns, and foreign dishes, and drinking cups-plaited mats of fine straw work-feathers and valuably marked skins, were, with much negligée taste, exhibited on side tables and in convenient recesses. In the drawing-room were arranged a series of grotesque human figures, bearing in their hands implements or domestic utensils, illustrative of Hindoo occupationson some gaudily painted boxes, the car of the Juggernaut, and certain Brahminical symbols might be observed, most unlike any artistic efforts, with which the untravelled are more familiar. A tiger's hide, with its head and tale appended, served as a hearth rug, a monstrous elephant's tusk stood in one corner, and the table covering was the ingenious manufacture of foreign grasses interwoven into devices by longitudinal slips of porcupine quills. The impression made upon the mind were riches and foreign treasures, and all these articles silently spoke of lands far away. The occupant was a manly-looking fineformed personage; though somewhat sallow and emaciated, he was erect as a cedar, and notwithstanding the conjunctival membrane of his eye being yellowish and muddy, indicating more or less derangment of the "lazar-house and bile," he had tolerable health, and, from the springy nimbleness of his tread, age had not warred much with his frame. His mental energies were of that sleepless character, which have no greater irksomeness than to be condemned to restand in planting and riding, horticulture and shooting, diversified by frequent visits to the metropolis, he found some solace in the exercise of faculties once directed to more important concerns. A turbaned domestic, dark as Othello, waited with obsequious attention on his master, and the establishment boasted a complement of servants numerous enough for a castle and a prince. But this was one of his peculiarities, and he felt his social importance increased by the multitude of his retinue. The reader, perchance, might put the interrogative-did he live there alone-a recluse amid sybaritic splendour? Nohe did not live alone. A queenly form, generally arrayed in white, with dark, archly-pencilled eye brows, swan-like neck, and twinkling foot, might have been noticed, in an air of sadness, gliding beneath that luxuriant roof. The prodigal elegance, the profusion, the crowd of "gilded glittering things," by which she was surrounded, gave no happiness to her. Her desponding face and languid listlessness, seemed to say, that jewelled fingers and extravagant attire were at best but useless baubles-the mockeries of woe. If her features ever and anon lit up into a transitory smile-'twas the momentary sunbeam in a wintry day, the clouds closed o'er, and all was sombre as before. A boy of tender years who now could run and romp in mischievous fun-prate to his parrot, play with his spaniel, or float paper navies on the sedgy stream, was her constant companion, and on this child her large, flashing, maniac glance would often, in the veriest tenderness, be fixed. His features imaged not her own-other lineaments were there. A rumour prevailed in the neighbourhood that the strange resident of this strange place was rich to excess. He gave munificently to the poor, and no needy supplicant passed from his door unrelieved. But he and his were little known, and those who had the most intercourse with them could feebly judge of anything beyond common-place particulars. The neighbouring gentry had not called, they were suspicious and jealous, and like many of their rural descendants in these days nurtured illiberal prejudices, and formed too high an estimate of their own meagre, and self-inflated importance. The great gates to the main entrance of the new residence were seldom opened, mural barriers shut out the vulgar gaze, and even the nearest villagers could do little beyond the bare speculations of conjecture, or guessedat surmisings. It was, however, currently reported that the foreign gentleman was unhappy and restless as an untombed spirit. He retired late-rose early-knit his brows -assumed a gaiety which he felt not, and on the most trifling causes fell into fits of irascibility, which evinced the dire workings of a demon passion. The sombre lady he at times caressed, doted on the boy, addressed the former as his sister, the latter as his nephew, and the Othello scrvant was unquestionably a special favourite. * A few years wore away and the pagodal windows were suddenly draped with white -the winter wind whistled through the neighbouring trees—the dwelling within and without wore a melancholy air—a corpse lay within the owner was no more! The spirit which once vivified the now fading form became quickly forgotten! In progress of time the sombre lady gave orders that a |