THE YOUNG HUSBAND. CHAPTER I. I AM one of the race yclept "old maids;" in other words, I have passed the age of forty, and am unmarried. Being possessed of independence, I have settled in a pleasant abode close to this lovely village. The rector and his wife are old and valued friends, which was my inducement, in the first instance, to make Woodleigh (for so I shall call the village) my home. Now the interests I have formed within the place have given me ties to it inde VOL. I. B pendent of those which first drew me hither. My whole time is devoted to visiting the poor; and I feel a proud pleasure in reflecting of what real use I am to my friend the rector. The duties of a Scripture reader I in part fulfil, as well as that of visiting sister. I am, in fact, a regular Sœur de la charité-and much I love the occupation. So wedded indeed am I to these labours of love, that I would not relinquish them for husband, or child, or any other earthly possession. In short, I feel that they are my vocation-my calling, as securely as that of the nun who immolates at the shrine of devotion her every hope of worldly happiness and advancement. There was, however, ever a mingling of romance in my nature. In the marvellous and out of the usual course of dull every-day existence I always delighted; and still the feeling clings to me now in later life, although in the monotonous scenes in which I move I had little food to foster the predisposition, until a new acquaintance accidentally, formed again renewed my vein of romance. This is a particularly primitive locality, beautifully rural and retired; possessing an air of primeval simplicity, not to be found in villages or their inhabitants situated near railroads. There is but one large house in the immediate vicinity, and that had been uninhabited ever since the first few weeks after my arrival at Woodleigh, when, from the retired situation of the mansion, and the singularly reclusive habits of its principal inmates, I might have remained still ignorant of any such occupation, but from an adventure I met with during the abovementioned period. I came to Woodleigh in the spring. But partly recovered from an illness, the result greatly of mental distress, I was neither in strength of spirits to enter immediately on the career of active duty in which I subsequently engaged, and found so effectual a cordial for the enervated powers both of mind and body. I luxuriated in the perfect solitude of my situation-one so congenial to my state of feeling at the time. Even my friends at the vicarage were away at this moment. I spent B 2 a great part of the day in the open air, exploring the beauties of this unknown country. my "I wandered lonely as the cloud That floats on high o'er hill and dale;" mind often filled with melancholy musing on past memories, such as there is nothing like the season of spring to revive; that season which to the thousand happy souls which walk this earth, may breathe of hope, and joy, and gladness-but must to the still greater portion prove the sad awakener of yearning longings- sorrowful regrets. "And when I stood beneath the fresh green tree, To all she could not bring." Thus, on the particular occasion which I mention, I had roamed I knew not whither, except that it was over meadows and meads enamelled with flowers and blossoms of every |