He had ridden in great haste, was flushed and heated, and taking me aside asked me to give him sixty sovereigns, as they were wanted to pay Williams for Aunt Saph and her children, in order that they might carry them out of Gibson's reach as soon as possible.

I went up stairs to get the gold, and looking from the window saw Max upon the grass before the house, talking eagerly and confidentially with Veronica. They had now a subject of common interest, and I paused a moment ere I called him away from her.

As I counted the money into his hand I said, remembering Veronica's advice, "Stop a minute Max-I have something that I want to say to you."

Max looked hurried and fussy, and said in rather an impatient

tone:

"Well!-but don't ask me any questions about this business, Molly!"

The human heart is like a pickle-jar-you will get nothing out of it if you shake it in a hurry.

"No," said I, "I believe I will not trouble you Max-only Veronica advised me to speak to you."

"Well! what is it?" said he coming into the room and growing more attentive when I mentioned Veronica.

from

"It is only something about myself. Only a letter I have had from Mr. Howard. Veronica seemed to think you were the proper person to advise me."

"Do you mean me to see it?"

"No-not quite. It is a very pleasant letter, and he says I am so very unkind; that he knows nothing about us since we left England. You know I promised papa I would not write to him."

"Write!-no," said Max. "Of course it is not your place to write. I wish with all my heart that that business were given up, Molly. I never had a very great opinion of your friend-though he was just the sort of man to captivate your fancy; but I should object very much to my sister's being looked down upon as she will be if she marries into that family. I should think you were Virginian enough, Molly, to have some pride of ancestry. Think of that black Begum barely tolerating my sister! I declare it makes me angry to think of it."

I began to cry, for this picture was not a pleasant one. It had often presented itself to my imagination, though I kept it out of sight by my attachment to Mr. Howard.

"If we care for one another, Max, that regard will out-weigh all paltry considerations."

"I do not believe it will with him, in the long run," said Max. "It is no joke being a poor baronet with a great unprofitable place like Howard Park, which must be shut up or let for want of ready money. Molly, don't you see that there are better men who show symptoms of giving you their attachment? Don't you know that there are families with better blood than any Howards of Howard Park, who would be honored by an alliance with Miss Mandeville? Don't you know that the deepest regret of our father's life would be dissipated by such a marriage as is open to you? I declare when I look upon the lands that our forefathers possessed it seems to me I would do anything to bring them back into the family."

"Max I won't hear you say such things. They are entirely untrue. I have received this letter and I thought it right to ask you whether, as Mr. Howard does not appear quite to understand about my promise, you would write him a few lines. Will you copy what I have written, Max, and tell him that I cannot carry on any correspondence until better times, because of my promise to my father?"

I gave him the paper and he carried it off, stopping as he passed along the porch to say a few words to Veronica. Aunt Edmonia thought a storm was coming up, and just as he was mounting in the wood, she called from her chamber window, "Oigh! Oliver!-oigh! Tom Tad! Where are those children? I want them to tell Max to take Mr. Morrisson's water-proof cape with him. Veronica, my dear, will you call to him and tell him he will get wet to a certainty."

Veronica took the cape from the table in the hall, and ran across the grass. He did not see her till he had mounted, and then his horse turning somewhat sharply had nearly thrown her down. I watched them from the window. Max sprang from Black Mike in great agitation; then having made sure she was unhurt, he put on the heavy cape, though it was as unseasonable as Uncle Israel's douillette of camlet and wadding, and she stood holding his bridle, patting the nose of his black horse, and passing her soft fingers through the heavy tresses of his mane as he stood pawing the ground.

The letter I asked Max to write for me ran thus:

"MY DEAR SIR,

"My sister has received from you several long letters, the last of which has reached her during her sojourn in Virginia. She begs me to say that she is bound, by a positive promise to her father, not to correspond with you till the dawn of happier times. She is well, and begs me to assure you of the great pleasure your letters have afforded her, and of her continual remembrance. And with the renewal of the assurance, that only a positive promise which she cannot break, prevents her answering your letters, believe me, my dear sir, to be,

"Yours very sincerely,

"MAX MANDEVILLE."

The letter that Max sent was as follows:

"DEAR SIR,

"I learn from my sister Miss Mandeville that she has received several letters from you-one of them within a day or two. I beg to say that her relations have exacted a positive promise that she will not continue to correspond with you. She is well, and passing an agreeable summer among her new friends in this country. She begs me to tell you this, and to unite her best remembrances with the compliments of

"Your obedient servant,

"T. L. MANDEVILLE."

And when I asked Max some months after if my letter had been sent as I had written it, he answered, with the full belief that he spoke the truth,

"Yes, I copied it, but with the omission of lots of feminine trash. That was a woman's letter, Molly, not a man's. I could not copy all that stuff. You all of you, say anything you have to say twice over in the shortest note, and are more diffuse about it the last time than you were the first; just as your only way of arguing is to say over again a little louder what has been answered before."

Old Mrs. Williams was buried the next day, and our gentlemen staid at Stonehenge till after the funeral. Veronica, who appeared to know more about their plans than I, was very restless and uneasy.

It was dull at Clairmont, and had been for a day or two, for the servants and horses were all ploughing corn; and as other horses and negroes were engaged in the same work, there was no visiting amongst the neighboring families at that season. I amused myself that day, for Veronica was too preoccupied to talk, by listening to cousin Virginia's endless anecdotes of queer originals who had flourished at various periods in the neighborhood, and by investigating the domestic arrangements of the family.

I penetrated into the kitchen-a dark cavern of a place detached from the main building, with a large chimney big enough to burn a cord of wood, and roast "a beef," as cousin Virginia told me. The principal light came from the fire, around which three or four of the little darkeys squatted, though I had been gasping in the coolest places in the house, with the thermometer at ninety-two in the shade. Marm Venus was skimming something in a pot, and rapped them over the head with the iron spoon as we came in, and then put the spoon back in the pot again. I felt that it did not do to examine into the mysteries of the delicious, savoury dishes which were there composed.

After an early dinner, I mounted Angelo, but it was only to ride into the corn-field with Mr. Morrisson, and sit by him whilst he discussed with George, or Joe, or Wash, or old Uncle Cudjoe, or Uncle Israel, the relativea dvantages of the old plough, or the Berkshire, or new manures, which he was never likely to apply, or magnificent improvements he had not money to undertake, or the relative merits of his own and neighboring cattle. Any quantity of the servants' time, as well as Mr. Morrisson's, was wasted in these talks, which had no practical advantage that I could perceive, except that they drew out kindly feelings between himself and his negroes. The former asserted their opinions with entire freedom of speech, and to my astonishment, offered to bet on some disputed point with their master!

Mr. Morrisson had no overseer, having too few negroes, and placing great dependence upon Uncle Israel, his head man. He