castle, promising to pick me up in the course of the next or following day, on his way up the road, should my health enable me to travel at this time. Never did visit appear so long or so tiresome to poor Anna, who had projected a little excursion for me on that day, which it was too late to undertake at the hour my brother sub took leave. She, however, for reasons of her own, seemed bent on this trip, and the morrow was named for putting her intentions into execution. What they were time will show. Having expressed a desire to visit the cathedral for evening service, it was only after great persuasion I was permitted to go, although the distance was nothing. Well secured against cold, I entered the sacred porch of this venerable building, and was instantly accommodated with one of those comfortably cushioned and curtained stalls, on which the well-fed prebendary may doze through the service without observation! It was the first place of worship I had entered for some months; and as I turned my thoughts from the world my heart smote me for the neglect. There is a time when every man is struck with a sense of his mortality, and feels the force of a truth to which he has assented merely from custom, without considering its certainty or importance. In the cheerful simplicity of infancy it is but faintly understood. In the first impatience of youth, when the world is all before us, and every object bears the force of novelty, it is but little regarded; yet that this awful idea was ever long absent from my mind, from my earliest recollection, I can with truth deny. My reflections during my late severe illness were such as 1 hoped were creditable to my heart as a Christian; and I availed myself of the first opportunity to pour out my humble thanks to the Giver of all good for his numberless mercies in his own temple of prayer. The magnificent cathedral service was performed with the most solemn and imposing effect; at the close of which I returned to my inn with a heart in peace with all mankind, and almost with itself! A small party with my host's friends were assembled in the evening; and I perceived with some degree of impatience that I became the object of particular scrutiny and attention with all the females of the company, in whose eyes I could not have appeared in the most amiable light, from my evident fretfulness, when all around me was kindness and good-humour; and I felt happy when, on the plea of my convalescent state, my farewell for the night was accepted. CHAPTER VIII. "I do know When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul RISING next morning with renewed strength, and scarcely a trace of my late illness on my countenance, I enjoyed with peculiar zest the comfortable breakfast which little Anna waited to partake of with me. That finished, and a quarter of an hour consumed in skimming over the London papers, waited her orders; a post-chaise drove up to the door, and the good father saw me hand his daughter into it with apparent satisfaction, after which he lent me his arm, and with a kind "Good morning, sir," bade the driver proceed, when off we set at the rate of ten miles an hour, on the high road to Scotland. Never did I pass so silent and stupid three quarters of an hour's drive with any female, as those which served to bring us in view of High Cliff Farm. My heart was overpowered. My sad reflections, and my silence, alarmed my kind little companion, to whose anxious inquiry, "Are you not well?" I could only reply, "Yes, dearest, better than you have ever seen me, thanks to your care, but sad and sorrowful at the thought that I must so soon part from one, to whose tender kindness I am indebted for life, and whom I never can forget." At this expression she nestled close to my bosom like a child, and thus remained until the stopping of the carriage roused her to selfpossession. She allowed me to hand her into the house without any reply to an observation which I observed with pain affected her deeply: rallying all her spirits as she was received by the housekeeper, she welcomed me to High Cliff with warm cordiality. It was a ferme ornee delightfully situated, and fitted up in the most comfortable, and at the same time, tasteful style. It had been occupied by Colonel and Lady Augusta Mordaunt for the year: there they were married, and there she had given birth to her first and only child; circumstances which little Anna did not fail more than once to advert to very pointedly. After showing me the entire house, and pointing out the various prospects, which were as boundless as they were occasion ally grand and beautiful, she left me for a quarter of an hour to my own reflections; and these were not the most happy. In the fulness of my gratitude for Anna's care of me during my illness, I certainly expressed my thanks with a warmth of words and action which could leave but one impression on the female mind-that of devoted love. She, with great impru dence, exposed herself day after day to a repetition of my acknowledgments for the past, whilst hourly laying me under fresh obligations for the present. Anna was upwards of twenty years of age, but so petite, that her head scarcely reached to my shoulder (and I was then but five feet nine!) Her figure was so perfectly proportioned to her height, that by its slightness, delicacy, and the peculiar way she dressed, (generally in a morning frock, with her dark hair slightly curled and hanging in careless ringlets over her delicate neck,) she might at first view have passed for a child of fourteen. To the character of beauty her face showed no pretensions: her features were regular; her complexion soft, yet pallid; but her eye so keen and penetrating, stamped her at once the woman? Unaccustomed from her infancy to contradiction or control, she was violently self-willed; yet there was a redeeming generosity in her nature which atoned for that error; and to which I was in the first instance indebted for those attentions bestowed on me, when I arrived under her parent's roof, in an almost fainting state; a kindness which never for one moment relaxed during my troublesome illness. With a heart full of gratitude to Heaven and lovely woman for his delivery from peril or sickness, a young man of eighteen is not apt to weigh his expressions in the scale of prudence. That I had said more than I ought, yet not a syllable more than my heart dictated, I was but too sensible, and how to extricate myself was now the cause of many a painful thought. My reveries were broken by the entrance of my fairy queen, who came to invite me to her own garden. It was impossible not to praise all its arrangements as being hers; yet she had the modesty to disclaim the merit of the superior taste and elegance with which they were made, bestowing it on Lady Augusta, who remained here after her husband had joined his regiment on the continent, and whom she described as a model of beauty and affection. We walked, and talked; and after I had exhausted every term of praise which I could bestow on all I saw, enjoyed, and felt, it became necessary for both our sakes to renew the subject of my departure. "And yet, my dearest friend," I said, "a few short days shall see me a sad wanderer from this Eden-a few weeks or months behold me wafted to some distant regions, where no such angel as she I now enfold in my arms shall cheer my exile! Yet such, dear girl, is the soldier's fate. Would you be happy, Anna, fix not your heart's affections on one!" With a look that for the moment made her appear beautiful in my eyes, she answered, "You should have taught me that hard lesson before! Why should you go? All you behold here will be mine;-and-and" (as she hid her face on my bosom, added,) "will you have the unkindness to force me to say more?"-" No, dearest Anna! I will not affect to misunderstand you: I was before grateful; I now love you for your generous feeling towards me. I am but a poor 'SOLDIER OF FORTUNE,' with no estate but my sword; and little else in prospect. Your worthy father has other projects." "O! no, no!" quickly interrupted the ardent girl; "he lives but for my happiness."- "Well, granted, my love, that he does, you deserve all his affections; but would your happiness be ensured by bestowing your heart and hand on a stranger, of whom you know no more than that his misfortune excited your gentle pity, whose gratitude won your esteem! Let us embrace in friendship, the fondest, tenderest friendship, and trust to time to render me more your equal in worldly wealth; and if possible in that generosity of heart, to which alone, and not my own merits, I owe your preference: then I may claim that hand, which it would be mean and criminal in me now to accept. This very evening I will converse with your father, and shall be guided by his discretion: and now, dear, dear Anna, let me once more press you to my grateful heart, and let us yield to the advice of the kindest of fathers." The little creature, who had almost fainted at the first part of my cold and formal lecture, now accepted the proffered embrace, with a warmth she had never before evinced; and, in allusion to the conference with her father, exclaimed, "Now I AM happy!" During the remainder of the day all was confidence and cheerfulness on both sides. Her little heart fluttered with pleasing anticipations; and mine experienced that relief, which the reflection of having performed an honourable though painful duty is ever sure to bestow. When the carriage was drawn up to receive us, after a hasty dinner, I relinquished her hand for a moment, while she exchanged a few words in a low tone of voice with the housekeeper, whose whispering remark, as she kissed her at the door, threw a flush of pale crimson over the face and bosom of little Anna, which their double glance at me sufficiently explained. On taking our seat, the whip of the postboy once more set the horses off in a canter; and as we passed the outer gate I involuntarily exclaimed, “Farewell, White Cliff! may Heaven bless my dear, my generous Anna!" This expression, uttered in a melancholy tone, broke from my lips before I could weigh their probable effect on my companion; the next moment I would have given worlds to recall them; but it was too late; the shaft had sped on its course; the barb had already lodged in the sensitive bosom of its victim, A look of tender reproach and a flood of tears were the only upbraidings my inconsiderate exclamation called forth. I pressed the little sufferer to my heart, and kissed from her cold and pallid cheek the fast falling tear. CHAPTER IX. "Tell her my love, more noble than the world, The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her, On our return to Durham, the first object that struck our view was the ill-omened face of Chapman, who stood grinning, with mouth as open and almost as wide as the pillard porch, to receive us. His keen observation on his preceding visit convinced' him that I had got into comfortable quarters; and with more haste than delicacy he transferred his from Newcastle to this city. I felt all the embarrassment of his presence, but as sumed as much composure as my state of mind could allow. He had ordered dinner for two in the grand room at five; and, punctual to the moment, it was served up to his solitary excellency; my previous early dinner furnishing an excuse for my non-appearance, until I could make my entree with the wine and walnuts. There was a superior kind of young man in the house as clerk and head-waiter, who, for distinction's sake was called Mr. Charles, a distant relation of the landlord's, whom Chap, man had talked into a kind of respectable intimacy, and from whom he learned something of the nature of my footing in the family, which was more that of a friendly visiter or guest than a casual traveller; and his sagacity speedily gave me credit for a very prudent speculation. He only waited for my ap pearance to drink " Success to the match!" It was in vain I looked grave, and remonstrated against levity on such a subject: the more serious I became, the more he chuckled, expanding his immense mouth, and exhibiting his tomb-stone teeth, "few and far between." In my turn, as I viewed his extraor¬ |