unlawful lover, and she felt all the poignancy of anguish which a woman may be conceived to experience under the weight of such a position. The devoted love which she bore to the one; which she could not help bearing to him, in spite of its direct opposition to the laws of man and God, contrasted fearfully with her deep detestation of the other, whom she was bound by the ties of heaven and of earth to love, cherish, and obey. Love and duty were arrayed in the most contradictory opposition one against the other. She felt as if she had never truly loved our hero, or known his value until now. She almost went distracted. The uncertainty she felt, harrowed

up her heart a hundred times more fearfully than the most agonizing conviction of the truth could have done. The certainty of the worst is better, far better, than the unconfirmed, unrefuted suspicion and fear of evil. She knew not what she did. On recovering from her fainting fit, she found herself surrounded by all the sedulous attentions and sympathizing care of the good old lady of the house, and of her own maid Victoire. The usual means resorted to in such cases had been applied, and so far as the renewed circulation of the blood, and the restoration of her bodily faculties availed, they had been success

ful; but her mind was diseased;-horror seemed to have taken possession of her, and there was a wildness in her manner and in her aspect, which terrified the mild and quiet old lady who was tending her. Victoire, thinking to appease and tranquillize her agitated feelings, brought her infant Florence, and placed her on her mother's knees.

"Away! away, that child!" she almost screamed aloud-" it has its father's eyes; it has his horrid leer; its lowering brow is his; its nauseous, puling, caterwauling lips are drivelled with the slaver of his poisonous kisses-pah! He is coming! he is coming! -save me from him, dearest!"-and then pressing back the wavy ringlets from her scorching temples, she again seemed to recognize her infant;-the full gushing tide of maternal tenderness flowed over her again, and she burst into hysterical tears.

"Calm yourself; compose yourself; endeavour to repose, and thus restore yourself gradually to tranquillity," said the kind voice of the old lady of the house, who was entirely ignorant of the cause of this attack of frenzy, and who was herself accustomed to seek in religion a never-failing consolation under all afflictions-and she too had had her share. "We are not tempted beyond what we can bear. God will

be merciful unto you, and dispose, in his wisdom and goodness, all events for the best: but we must be submissive to his will, and bow with resignation to the trials to which we are subjected in this mortal state."

Our heroine hung down her head in silent abstraction, and answered not, except by sighs and tears, the consoling address of her amiable companion. The gray hairs of that old lady, neatly banded beneath her quiet cap, seemed to give her an additional title to respect, and as she proceeded with those themes of comfort, which never fail to fall like balm upon the believing ear, she kindled gradually into that eloquence in her exhortations, which only the fervour of true devotion can bestow.

"Blessed are the meek and lowly in spirit, for Blessed are ye,

theirs is the kingdom of heaven! when men revile you and persecute you, for through tribulation and tears is the path to everlasting glory. Put your trust in higher things than those of this world, for they are vain and transitory; their splendour abideth not, and their beauty is soon gone. God giveth to them that are good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city."

“Alas!” replied Isabelle, when the voice ceased which had been endeavouring so kindly to kindle in her bosom a religious spirit, similar to that by which itself was dictated, "alas! I am not ignorant of the source from whence your beautiful words are borrowed. Night and day I have made my study in that book, but the more I have sought to fortify myself with learning, and reading, and the accumulated intelligence of all great thinking minds, since the world began, the more surely have I been obliged to revert to the conclusion of the same inspired writer whom you have so happily cited :—' and I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit; for in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.""

The old lady took the hand of our heroine and continued.

"It gives me pleasure indeed to find that my young friend is so well acquainted with the words of Holy Writ, more especially that she has made the peculiar study of her own choice one of my most favourite books :-I mean that preacher, who bids thee to

rejoice in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of

thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know

thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.""

"And yet,” said Isabelle, thoughtfully and sadly, "is it not written in the same book, that the sons of men themselves are as the beasts; for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts-even one thing befalleth them :-as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a maņ hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man which goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast which goeth downward to the earth?' It is true, as we are told by the poet, that every yesterday has lighted fools the way to dusty death.' Alas! has the wise man in his generation any exemption from the destination of the fool?"

My friend," said the old lady, "there is an expression, if I mistake not, of doubt in the manner in which you have repeated these words. If I read your face aright, there is a questioning there of the ways of Providence, and a challenging of his wise purposes, which it is not for mortal minds to dare.