CIRCLE FIFTH.

"How do you affect this young gentleman, now that you have been long acquainted with him, daughter?" said Mrs. Bell: "for I perceive that you are likely to have both him and these immense properties in your offer."

"Nay, how do you affect him, dear mother? You know I wont be either courted or married without your consent, and I cannot have it here. For, tell me, have you not already given your consent to my wedding with your gallant nephew-nay, proffered me on him? And how can you, in conscience, propose another match, while that understanding remains in force ?"

"I will take the responsibility of that on myself, daughter. He is a man to be used by us, not we by him. In the mean time, I want to know seriously how matters stand between you and this Squire M'Ion; for during your fit, you raved of him without intermission, and in a strain of vehemence that almost frightened me."

"Oh me! did I speak of him when I was ill? But I did not know what I said then, so you need not mind that."

"But you were going to show me a letter from him, which you have forgot."

"Oh no, indeed!-Not from him!-I never had a letter from him.”

"I know, Gatty, that Jaggs brought you two letters, and that one of these had agitated you so much that it

threw you into a swoon. And, moreover, you were going to show me that letter, when the unopened one from Mrs. Johnson popped into your hand."

"Surely I had a letter," said Gatty, trembling, and fumbling about her pocket and clothes. "Surely I

had a letter; but the contents of it are like a dream to me. No, the thing is impossible !-Did Jaggs say that he gave me two letters ?"

"He did, he did. Where is the letter that made you scream out, and faint in the reading?"

"Surely I had a letter; but it is gone if I had," said Gatty. "If I had another letter, it was from cousin Cherry, and I am the most unfortunate and miserable being that has life. But I cannot believe it. I have no other letter; and must have had a strange dream about one when I was in a trance. She had a singular dream about a precipice of glass, the name of which was Love; but it was not that that was in my head ; for, I think, I dreamed that Cherry Elliot was a bride, and that I was to be bride-maid, and pull her glove, and walk with her to church.-Are you sure I received another letter by the post to-day ?""

"Quite certain, child. Call the boy, he will inform you as he did me."

"No, I dare not ask him.-What time of the day

is it ?""

"It is dinner time. We shall have a walk in the afternoon."

"The letters will not yet be put into the post-office at Edinburgh. Oh, what a dreary time must elapse before they reach this!-Bring me my Bible, and suffer me to lie down; I am not very well. Could I but turn my mind to any thing but that!-Good Heavens! if the thing be possible, what a proud, precipitate, and wretched fool I have been! But I shall be the sufferer, and it is but justice that I should. I will go and lie down. I have often taken to my bed of late."

"Child, your behaviour, and the cause of your distress, are mysteries to me; and, between a mother and only daughter, such things should not be."

"It will all come to light time enough, dearest mother; all time enough, both for thee and me. I am a merchant, whose venture is all in one ship; and, when the gallant vessel is come within sight of the bay, the

richest freight that eye ever greeted, I know of one shoal that must prove fatal to all my splendid hopes.Can a promise of marriage be broken on the part of a gentleman?"

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No, no; on the part of a real gentleman it cannot. Have no fears about that."

"Then farewell, mother! I am going to sleep, and would to heaven that I never lifted my eyes again!"

Gatty threw herself on the bed, and turned her face to the wall; and, unmoved and unmoving as Mrs. Bell's temper was, which was like a frozen sea, that suns cannot thaw nor storms ruffle, she was for a time rendered motionless. It was while trying to guess at the true circumstances of her daughter's case; but she could not, and went on in her usual way.

Old Daniel came in from the tup-park to a late dinner, still in high glee, pleased that in such hard times there had no addition been made to his family in the course of the day; but the parlour table stood uncovered, and the ladies were not there.

"Grizzy, ye muckle unfarrant besom; what for hae ye no set down the dinner?”

"Aw thought it was endless to clap down a dinner, till aw saw somebody to eat it. Aw never saw naebody at sic a speed as awm; for it's aye Grizzy this, an' Grizzy that, an' Grizzy every thing. Aw wuss somebody had Grizzy pinned up atween their een."

"What! for a pair o' spectacles, ye jaud? I think them that see through you will hae clear een."

"Aw kens some that wad see nocht o' their's there, the mair sheame to them."

66 'Come now, Grizzy, my sonsy woman, ye ken I darena encounter your wit, it is sae biting. But, in the first place, tell me what ye hae for dinner; in the second place, how lang we'll be o' getting it; and, in the third place, where your auld and young mistresses are gane 299

"In the first pleace, than, ye sall get a haggis an' a hworn spoon; an' in the second pleace, gin ye dinna blaw it will burn ye; an' in the third pleace, the mis

tress an' the miss are at the auld trade o' basketsmeakin'. Now, aw thinks aw hae gien ye as good as ye gae."

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My certy, woman, but ye hae done that! Why, Grizzy, thou's a perfect razor, an' cuts through bane an' gristle. But what do you mean, ye collup, about baskets-making?"

"Whoy, what does aw mean? Ye ken that afore ane meakes baskets, he maun cut wands to be them ?" "Weel?"

"Weel; an' in cutting the wands, ane whiles cuts a finger."

"Weel, an' what then?"

"Whoy then the blood comes, an' it maun be rowed up wi' a clout. Ha, ha, ha! aw thinks aw'll learn grit focks to snap wi' me!"

"You will sae; for siccan wit I never heard flee frae a pair o' lips. Pray drop it, lovely maid, and let us mind the ae thing needfu'. Is Gat quite better ?""

"Ona, na! Ower again; siching and sabbing as sair as ever. Some focks leykes the bed unco weel. But aw needsna tell you that; ower him an' ower him meakes a gude shear, an' focks maun fail some time."

"That wit o' yours has carried you quite up among the mist the day, Grizzy; I dinna understand a word o' your meaning."

"O, unco leykely! An the cat rin away wi' the haggis-bag i' the time o' the grace, where wull ye be than?-Are ye settled yet, measter? How's the pain i' your midriff? Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"That's what we get for joking wi' our servants," said Daniel, grumbling, as he went ben the house; naething but impertinence. An I took mair o' the mistresses's advice, I wad get mair honour."

His wife joined him at table, and they had a long consultation about their daughter's case, of which Daniel could not comprehend one item: for he still asserted, that "as long as she was free maid an' leal,

he wad laugh at a' ither stuff, about love, an' promises, an' siccan flirry-flarry; for an ane wadna anither wad, an' that made farms sae dear, an' toops sae cheap."

Gatty spent a restless and unhappy night and morning. To use. a homely expression, she lay among nettles all the time; and her mother perceiving that a letter of some importance was expected, had got it settled with her daughter that she was to be made acquainted with the contents. She saw nought in Mrs. Johnson's former letter that tended to aught but good; and, resolved to find out the source of her daughter's mental distress, she took care to be present both when the boy was despatched to the post-office, and when he returned.

Two letters actually arrived; and one of them being directed to Miss Bell, her mother carried it up, and presented it to her in her little bed-chamber for Gatty had been two or three times up and down that morning, and at that instant reclined on her bed dressed in her wearing apparel.

She took the letter with a smiling countenance, but it was almost the smile of vacancy that dilated the lovely and glowing features. With a trembling and hurried hand she opened the seal, cast her eyes rapidly from the head to the bottom of every page, and then, flinging it to her mother, she hid her head in the counterpane to listen. The old lady read as follows:

"MY DEAREST CHILD,

"Did I not say to you, that my happiness was too transcendent to be enjoyed without alloy? Alas! how shall I express to you my grief and disappointment! The union of my two children, that on which, of all #earthly things, my heart was the most set, is strangely and fatally obstructed; so strangely, that it seems to have been the will of the Almighty to counteract it, and that is all the plea of reconciliation to the disappointment which I have to offer either to my own