the smiling countenances of the blacks, offered the service of her needle in fitting the admired calico to its future uses. The offer was humbly and gratefully accepted.

As Cæsar followed his wife and the pedler from the apartment, and was in the act of closing the door, he indulged himself in a grateful soliloquy, by saying aloud

"Good little lady-Miss Fanny - take care of he fader - love to make a gown for old Dinah, too." What else his feelings might have induced him to utter is unknown, but the sound of his voice was heard some time after the distance rendered his words indistinct.

Harper had dropped his book, and he sat an admiring witness of the scene; and Frances enjoyed a double satisfaction as she received an approving smile from a face which concealed, under the traces of deep thought and engrossing care, the benevolent expression which characterises all the best feelings of the human heart.

CHAPTER IV.

"It is the form, the eye, the word,
The bearing of that stranger Lord;
His stature, manly, bold, and tall,
Built like a castle's battled wall,
Yet moulded in such just degrees,
His giant strength seems lightsome ease.
Weather and war their rougher trace
Have left on that majestic face; ·
But 't is his dignity of eye!
There, if a suppliant, would I fly,
Secure, 'mid danger, wrongs, and grief,

Of sympathy, redress, relief

--

That glance, if guilty, would I dread

More than the doom that spoke me dead."
'Enough, enough!' the princess cried,

"T is Scotland's hope, her joy, her pride!""

Walter Scott.

THE party sat in silence for many minutes after the pedler had withdrawn. Mr. Wharton had heard enough to increase his uneasiness, without in the least removing his apprehensions on be

half of his son. The Captain was impatiently wishing Harper in any other place than the one he occupied with such apparent composure, while Miss Peyton completed the disposal of her breakfast equipage with the mild complacency of her nature, aided a little by an inward satisfaction at possessing so large' a portion of the trader's lace Sarah was busily occupied in arranging her purchases, and Frances was kindly assisting in the occupation, disregarding her own neglected bargains, when the stranger suddenly broke the silence by saying

"If any apprehensions of me induce Captain Wharton to maintain his disguise, I wish him to be undeceived: had I motives for betraying him, they could not operate under present circum

The younger sister sank into her seat colourless and astonished. Miss Peyton dropped the tea-tray she was lifting from the table, and Sarah sat with her purchases unheeded in her lap, in speechless surprise. Mr. Wharton was stupified; but the Captain, hesitating a moment from astonishment, sprang into the middle of the room, and exclaimed, as he tore off the instruments of his disguise

"I believe you from my soul, and this tiresome imposition shall continue no longer. Yet I am at a loss to conceive in what manner you should know me."

"You really look so much better in your proper person, Captain Wharton," said Harper, with a slight smile, "I would advise you never to conceal it in future. There is enough to betray you, if other sources of detection were wanting;" as he spoke, he pointed to a picture suspended over the mantel-piece, which exhibited the British officer in his regimentals.

"I had flattered myself," cried young Wharton, with a laugh, "that I looked better on the canvass than in a masquerade. You must be a close observer, Sir."

seat.

"Necessity has made me one," said Harper, rising from his

Frances met him as he was about to withdraw, and, taking his hand between both her own, said with earnestness, her cheeks

mantling with their richest vermilionnot betray my brother."

'You cannot

For an instant Harper paused in silent admiration of the lovely pleader, and then, folding her hands on his breast, he replied solemnly **I cannot, and I will not;" he released her hands, and laying his own on her head gently, continued - "If the blessing of a stranger can profit you, receive it." He turned, and bowing low, retired with a delicacy that was duly appreciated by those he quitted, to his own apartment.

The whole party were deeply impressed with the ingenuous and solemn manner of the traveller, and all but the father found immediate relief in his declaration. Some of the cast-off clothes of the Captain, which had been removed with the goods from the city, were produced; and young Wharton, released from the uneasiness of his disguise, began at last to enjoy a visit which had been undertaken at so much personal risk to himself. Mr. Wharton, retiring to his apartment, in pursuance of his regular engagements, the ladies with the young man were left to an uninterrupted communication on such subjects as were most agreeable. Even Miss Peyton was affected with the spirits of her young relatives; and they sat for an hour, enjoying, in heedless confidence, the pleasures of an unrestrained conversation, without reflecting on any danger which might be impending over them. The city and their acquaintances were not long neglected; for Miss Peyton, who had never forgotten the many agreeable hours of her residence within its boundaries, soon enquired among others, after their old acquaintance, Colonel Welmere.

"Oh!" cried the Captain, gaily, "he yet continues there, as handsome and as gallant as ever."

Although a woman be not actually in love, she seldom hears without a blush the name of a man whom she might love, and who has been connected with herself by idle gossips in the amatory rumour of the day. Such had been the case with Sarah, and she dropped her eyes on the carpet with a smile that, aided by the blush which suffused her cheek, in no degree detracted from her native charms.

Captain Wharton, without heeding this display of interest in

his sister, immediately continued "At times he is melancholy

we tell him it must be love." Sarah raised her eyes to the face of her brother, and was consciously turning them on the rest of the party, when she met those of her sister, laughing with goodhumour and high spirits, as she cried, "Poor man, does he despair?"

"Why, no- one would think he could not; the eldest son of a man of wealth, so handsome, and a Colonel."

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Strong reasons, indeed, why he should prevail," said Sarah, endeavouring to laugh; "more particularly the latter."

"Let me tell you," replied the Captain, gravely, "a LieutenantColonelcy in the Guards is a very pretty thing."

"And Colonel Wellmere a very pretty man," added Frances. "Nay, Frances," returned her sister, "Colonel Wellmere was never a favourite of yours; he is too loyal to his king to be agreeable to your taste."

Frances quickly answered, “And is not Henry loyal to his king?"

"Come, come," said Miss Peyton, "no difference of opinion about the Colonel - he is a favourite of mine."

'Fanny likes Majors better," cried the brother, pulling her upon his knee.

'Nonsense," said the blushing girl, as she endeavoured to extricate herself from the grasp of her laughing brother.

"It surprises me," continued the Captain, "that Peyton, when he procured the release of my father, did not endeavour to detain my sister in the rebel camp.'

"That might have endangered his own liberty," said the smiling girl, resuming her seat: "you know it is liberty for which Major Dunwoodie is fighting."

"Liberty!" exclaimed Sarah; "very pretty liberty which exchanges one master for fifty."

"The privilege of changing masters at all is a liberty."

"And one you ladies would sometimes be glad to exercise," cried the Captain.

"We like, I believe, to have the liberty of choosing who they

shall be, in the first place,” said the laughing girl; "don't we aunt Jeanette?"

"Me!” cried Miss Peyton, starting; "what do I know of such things, child? you must ask some one else, if you wish to learn such matters."

"Ah! you would have us think you were never young; but what am I to believe of all the tales I have heard about the handsome Miss Jeanette Peyton?"

"Nonsense, my dear, nonsense," said the aunt, endeavouring to suppress a smile; "it is very silly to believe all you hear."

"Nonsense, do you call it?" cried the Captain, gaily; "to this hour General Montrose toasts Miss Peyton; I heard him within the week, at Sir Henry's table.'

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Why, Henry, you are as saucy as your sister; and to break in upon your folly, I must take you to see my new home-made manufactures, which I will be bold enough to put in contrast with the finery of Birch."

The young people rose to follow their aunt, in perfect good humour with each other and the world. On ascending the stairs to the place of deposit for Miss Peyton's articles of domestic economy, she availed herself, however, of an opportunity to enquire of her nephew, whether General Montrose suffered as much from the gout, as he had done when she knew him.

It is a painful discovery that we make, as we advance in life, that even those we most love are not exempt from its frailties. When the heart is fresh, and the view of the future unsullied by the blemishes which have been gathered from the experience of the past, our feelings are most holy; we love to identify with the persons of our natural friends all those qualities to which we ourselves aspire, and all those virtues we have been taught to revere. The confidence with which we esteem seems a part of our nature; and there is a purity thrown around the affections which tie us to our kindred, that after-life car seldom hope to see uninjured. The family of Mr. Wharton continued to enjoy, for the remainder of the day, a happiness to which they had long been strangers; and one that sprang, in its younger members, from the delights of