sweet and silent hour of eve, just as the sun in radiant smiles bids us a long and lingering farewell. My approach was not unobserved; the watchful doctor ran to meet and detain me, in the porch, while his amiable patient endeavoured to collect her powers of nerve into a state of composure.

At length she appeared!-Words are inadequate to express the various feelings her presence excited in my throbbing breast; but love-ardent, devoted love, predominated. As I pressed her cold and tremulous hand in mine, a thrill of agony. shot through my whole frame; while the sight of her sunken eye, her pallid cheek, and struggling effort to bestow on me the smile of welcome, almost struck me dumb with grief. I gazed in silence. Gracious Heaven! how altered! yet still how beautiful! But it was the beauty of an angel, not of a being of our earth!

Our first emotions having subsided into something like a calm, I endeavoured to draw her attention from the painful retrospection of her sorrows by amusing her and the doctor, with a sketch of my adventures since we last had met.

"She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.".

Time passed on, and it was already after ten (an hour beyond her usual time for retiring for the night) before I took my leave, after a kind intimation that I should use that house as my home during the hours of day..

It was twelve the next morning ere I was again blessed with a sight of the lovely recluse. The doctor informed me that the effort she had made to receive me was followed by a night of suffering; "so extreme," added he, "that I had some thoughts of sending to you, to request you would not repeat your visit until after one day's interval. However," continued my friend, (significantly)" you were desired to consider this as your home-but be discreet; you see that the hand of sickness, as well as that of sorrow, lies heavily on that angelic woman :-prove your attachment-restrain every selfish wish; let us, if possible, restore her, and all-all may yet be well!"

There was candour and kindness in the advice, and I expressed the gratitude of a warm and deeply affected heart for this fresh proof of friendly regard. When Maria at length appeared, refreshed by several hours' unbroken sleep, I thought she looked much better than on the preceding evening; but the insidious crimson spot which occasionally tinged her delicate cheek in hectic flashes, spoke daggers to my heart. Day by day, for a week, I watched her sweet and pensive countenance, and flattered myself that I saw a daily amendment in it. This raised my hopes; but as the hour for that parting arrived

—which I feared might be for ever!--they again sunk to the depth of despair: a declaration of my wishes, even though we might never again meet, became indispensable to my existence. The doctor's well-meant injunctions-my own delicacy and forbearance that feeling of self-denial which would have led me to sacrifice my life and happiness for her tranquillity-all gave way, and bent before the overwhelming passion of my heart; and on that night which was to tear me, as I thought, for ever from her loved presence, she heard with a silent tear the profession of my ardent love, and accepted the devotion of a heart wholly her own! There are some moments of our existence so sweet, as to repay the mind of sensibility for all its past sufferings, and that to me was the most blissful one, when the faint, yet dulcet "YES," fell in a gentle whisper from her burning lip:-to part from her became an impossibility!

I spared her the pain of explanation with the doctor, by taking on myself that delicate office. He heard me with a look "more of sorrow than of anger." I could perceive that my intelligence less surprised than afflicted him! Hé, however, made no remark but this" Deserve her!"

I retired for the night, and next morning we all met in the consciousness that each understood the other, and all was harmony and confidence. The doctor accompanied me to Worcester, where some important matters were to be arranged, the execution of which occupied us two days, which to me seemed as many centuries; after which, we returned to the cottage. Reflection had apparently reconciled my dear betrothed to the step she was about to take; her looks were improved-her air composed and cheerful; the doctor's hopes seemed to revive, and our hours and days passed on in the anticipations of future bliss. At the end of another fortnight, the nuptial benediction bestowed, I pressed to the fondest and most faithful of hearts→ THE VIRGIN WIDOW!

"Now, for the present, gentle reader, and

Still gentler purchaser, the scribe-that's I-
Must for the present shake you by the hand,
And so your humble servant, and good by."
We meet again, if we should understand
Each other; and, if not, I shall not try
Your patience farther, than by this light sample-
"Twere well if others followed my example."

THE END.

SEPTEMBER, 1833.

NEW WORKS

LATELY PUBLISHED,

AND

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, BY E. L. CAREY & A. HART,

PHILADELPHIA.

In Two Volumes, 12mo.

THE INVISIBLE GENTLEMAN.

By the Author of "CHARTLEY," "THE FATALIST," etc. etc. "It is a novel which may be termed the whimsically supernatural."Athenæum.

"The present narrative is one of the most entertaining fictions we have met with for a long time; the idea is very original, and brought into play with a lively air of truth, which gives a dramatic reality even to the supernatural."-Literary Gazette.

"The adventures follow each other with delightful rapidity and variety; occasionally there is a deep and thrilling touch of pathos, which we feel not a bit the less acutely, because the trouble and wo of the parties have originated in the familiar and somewhat laughable act of pulling an ear." -Court Magazine.

In Two Volumes, 12mo.

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS.

"The best novel of the season-a faithful, exact, and withal spirited picture of the aristocracy of this country-an admirable description of what is called high life, and full of a more enlarged knowledge of human nature."-Spectator.

"A very lively and amusing panorama of actual life."-Lit. Gazette.

"A very interesting work, full of well-described scenes and characters, and altogether deserving of being classed with the first-rate novels of the day."-Courier.

"It would be difficult to lay down such a book until every chapter has been perused. Elegance and force of style-highly but faithfully drawn pictures of society-are merits scarcely secondary to those we have enumerated: and they are equally displayed throughout. Mothers and Daughters' must find its way rapidly into every circle."-Bulwer's New Monthly Magazine.