at last, why should we farther distress each other on earth? Yours is the remorse for guilty rashness, and mine is the sore bereavement."

"Will you give me a pledge of your forgiveness?" asked he eagerly.

"Name it," said the woman, evidently surprised.

"I have no mother," proceeded the unhappy gentleman, "and never knew a true mother's care, I have no relatives, I am a desolate man; and would have you become a mother even to me. And if I might be something like a son to you, it would give me a taste of happiness; and I owe you the duty a thousand times. I have wealth enough, and I think I could fulfil some offices of kind attention. Now, if you judge me aright, if you care not over much for the opinion of the world, if your heart can bear the sad memorial which my presence must ever be, will you become a mother to me? Will you give me a chance for a little joy, by allowing me to redress somewhat the wrongs I have done you, in cutting off the natural stay of your age?"

"You are strangely generous," said Mrs Bonnington, after a pause; "yet I believe not the less truly so. Your proposal, however, is so striking, that I confess myself afraid to take it."

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"I dare not urge you farther at this time," said the young man ; but will you permit me to see you again ere long, and renew my request?"

"God's best peace be with you, Sir!" said the old woman, in a kind voice, yet not answering his question directly.

"Amen!" said the unhappy gentleman, and added nothing farther, beyond taking a simple leave of his hostess, who followed us to the door, and assisted me in helping him to his horse.

"And now," said he turning to me with a kind smile, "what must be done with you? whither shall we dismiss

you?"

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“I believe I must see you safely home," was my reply;

"or, in other words, I must tax your hospitality for a night. My name is Calvert, and, if you please, Doctor is a good travelling addition."

"My name is Bremner," said my companion, "and we are brothers, it seems, in the profession. But I trust you will never need my services as you have kindly given me yours to-night. As for your proposal to accompany me home, it is exactly what I wished; and I trust we shall not part so soon.

I made it my farther duty, as we proceeded, to keep my hand upon his horse's bridle, lest any of the occasional flashes which were yet visible far off might provoke the spirited animal to any sudden plunge, which his rider, in his present exhausted state, was less able to guard against ; and in this way we went on till we reached Mountcoin, the place of Bremner's residence.

On the morrow, instead of taking leave of my new friend, I agreed to stay with him a month; before the expiry of which term, I had the pleasure of seeing Mrs Bonnington's first scruples yield to his generous solicitations, and her rest set up for life at his house. It was a heart-touching sight to see him act towards her in all respects like a good son; and his attentions were specially valuable, as her health was very feeble.

On the evening previous to the proposed day of my departure from Mountcoin, Dr Bremner voluntarily opened up to me the following particulars of his life.

PART II.

Of my parentage I can say nothing: a mystery overhangs my childhood, which I have sought in vain to clear up. There is nothing more common than to hear it remarked, "How short seems our bypast life!" but to me, Sir, the days of my boyhood appear so far remote, that they seem to belong to some other earlier existence. Such are my farthest recollections of a sunny world of yore, and of my being led out into the pleasant fields by some kind playmate, of whom I remember only the little feet that went before me. Would I could forget these early passages

altogether, or knew them more distinctly! Sometimes my spirit is so earnest, and, as I think, so near falling into the proper train of pursuing them, that in my anxiety-I may call it my agony-the perspiration stands upon my brow. I see the dim something before me, yet never can overtake or unmask it:

"You might as well

Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream."

The first point in my childhood which I clearly remember is, that I was sitting alone plucking the blossoms from a fine bush of budding broom, when a crow alighted near my feet, and carried off a large worm. Then came a

woman, whose face I cannot recall, with a small red shoe in her hand, which she put upon one of my feet; and then she took me up. Probably it had fallen off by the way, and I had been set down on the grass till she went back to seek it.

The next point, and that to which I can follow back my continuous recollections, is my being in a room with an elderly lady, who took great pains to amuse me by giving me little books of pictures, and explaining them to me. The appearance of this patroness of my early youth I have from that day clearly remembered, and it seems to have been impressed upon me in rather a whimsical way: On the lady's cheek was a small spot streaked with those wavy threads of red, to which immoderate sorrow, or indulgence, or natural decay, often attenuates the tints of a florid beauty: A leaf had fallen from one of my little books, and I remember my asking a scarlet thread from her cheek to sew it into its proper place.

I omit farther record of my boyhood as common and uninteresting, and advance to deeper and more perilous details.

One evening, in the eighteenth summer of my age, was crossing on horseback a river about twenty miles from home, when the animal on which I rode was mastered by the force of the current, which was heavily flooded from previous rains; and horse and rider were rolled down in the strong stream.

From the first rush and thunder of waters in my soul, a dim blank was over me till I awoke to a confused sense of what had befallen me, and of my now being kindly ministered to. To this succeeded a heavy sleep, which must have lasted during the night, for when I next distinctly awoke, the light of the sun through a green curtain fell with a fine haze upon my face as I lay upon an unknown bed. "It is morning," said I to myself, as I lay still, trying to remember how I had come thither. I was interrupted in my calculation by the entrance of a goodlooking man, apparently a farmer, who, after satisfying himself that I was fairly awake, began to congratulate me on my escape from drowning in the river, and then told me, in answer to my enquiry, that I had been saved by a young niece of his own, who having seen the failure of my horse, watched me as I was rolled down the river, till, on my being borne near the bank where she was, she rushed in and drew me out at the peril of her own life. "Your horse perished," he added, "but this is nothing since you yourself are safe. I must now go for our young surgeon, for, do you know, you have got an ugly gash on your head against some rock in the water, and it is needful now to have it dressed." My host retired for a few minutes, and then returned, followed by a fair young creature, with salve and bandages for my head. He introduced her to me as his niece, Emily Bonnington, who had saved my life. After I had fervently thanked my young preserver, I submitted to her farther kindness, and she bound up my head with the tenderest care. I was then left alone, under the recommendation of my kind host that I should try, if possible, to sleep again, as I felt a violent throbbing in my head; and accordingly I lay back upon my bed, trying to compose myself anew to slumber. What was it that invested my lovely preserver with such an interest to me as I lay for hours, sleeping none, but thinking only of her? Love, sudden love, it could not be; for my heart was inalienably devoted to another. Nor yet could the strongest gratitude exhaust my mysterious regard for that young woman, Emily Bonnington. Had I seen that face

of hers before? I could not say that I had; yet it haunted me less in reference to late things, than to a cloud of early remembrances which came over me. About noon I arose, and joined my host in a short walk through his fields. In the afternoon I had an opportunity of questioning Emily Bonnington a little farther as to my preservation; and the graceful modesty with which she recounted the particulars, bettered the sweet impressions which her beauty was calculated to make. In accordance with my host's kind entreaties, I agreed to stay with him till the morrow, resolved then to take a seat homeward in the Mail, which passed by near his house at an early hour.

This night, after I had slept, as I thought, for several hours, I awoke from confused dreams with an over-laboured spirit. My ears had not yet got quite rid of yesterday's watery visitation, and I felt my head heavy and aching. To relieve myself a little, I arose and went to the window, and opened it to taste the pure breath of the night. The moon was shining clearly down from the zenith, and no cloud stained her blue noon. The stars were aloof and fainting from her glorious presence. My attention was, however, soon drawn from the beautiful face of heaven by a low whispering beneath me, and looking down, I saw Emily Bonnington come round in front of the house with a young man.

"Fear not, Emily," I heard him say, "I'll rejoice in you before the whole world.”

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Enough for me," was her low sweet reply, 66 that I have staked my all on your own good opinion-honour the trust."

The youth now bade her passionately adieu. She returned it evidently with the most confiding affection; and, after she had watched him for some time as he hasted away through the green dewy parks, she turned with a low murmuring exclamation, and retired behind the house. Had I not known that young man, an interview like this, which I had undesignedly witnessed, so common betwixt lovers, might not have given me a thought beyond the moment; but I had at once recognised the youth, and