it would soon return, and the mortification of disappointment was speedily succeeded by the somewhat questionable pleasures of expectation. After the lapse of an hour, Mr. Raymond and his son reentered. His wife and daughter were still sitting in the bow window, and their visages had very perceptibly elongated during his absence.

What!' said the 'Squire, with an incipient expression of triumph, 'hav' n't you seen Harriet yet?

It was some time before the reluctant truth could be elicited; but facts are stubborn things.

'There!' said the exulting prognosticator, 'did n't I tell you so?'

An elderly dame, who was assiduously knitting in one of the rocking chairs, looked at her sister sufferers with an expression of sympathy, and as her eye caught the glance of the old lady, their hearts warmed toward each other, and a conversation between them commenced. She said that she had come to Screamy Point to get sea food,' and this introduced a discussion concerning the merits and demerits of 'help.' Mr. Raymond took up a newspaper, and Edward a magazine. Poor Mary, being companionless, walked to a door, and inquired of a nurse maid who was standing there, how many teeth her baby had!

The accents of fashionable gayety broke in, ere long, upon this humdrum quiet, and a party of ladies and gentlemen were seen rapidly approaching through the piazza. They had apparently just returned from an airing, and were loaded with brilliant bouquets. A tall, stylishlooking girl was in advance, and coquetted audibly with an exquisite who followed her.

You gentlemen are such flatterers !' said she, taking a few steps into the drawing-room.

Edward Raymond looked up from his book, and his fine countenance became instantly suffused with a glow of animated pleasure.

Miss Ashcroft!' said he, eagerly advancing.

Harriet' cried Mary, bounding joyfully across the floor.

How do you do my dear?' shouted the old couple, simultaneously. This bonnet and shawl will suffocate me!' exclaimed Miss Ashcroft, as if unconscious that she was accosted. Saying this, she darted out of the room with the speed of an Atalanta, and ran up stairs, followed by her laughing companions.

When the Raymonds had in some measure recovered from the discomfiture consequent upon the young lady's precipitancy, it was unanimously resolved that the best mode of proceedure would be, for Mary to write her a note, without any further delay, announcing their arrival, and soliciting an interview. This was accordingly done, and the missive was despatched by an ebon Mercury. The messenger soon reappeared, with a broad grin upon his sable phiz, and Edward advanced to interrogate him.

Sambo seemed to be wonderfully amused.

'Please, Sir,' said he, Miss Ashcroft has laid down.'

Is she ill?' said Edward, haughtily.

No, Sir, she aint sick,' replied the black, instantly sobered by the demeanor of his questioner.

'What message did she direct you to deliver?' said Edward, in the same high tone of command, which he had previously assumed.

'She said that she was too tired to see company, Sir,' said Sambo, who had lost all his merriment, and seemed to be getting very uneasy.

You may go,' said Edward, with a satirical smile, and the words had hardly escaped his lips, before the duck legs of the negro were seen flying with all speed through the distant perspective of the hall. Edward now returned to inform his family of this affectionate message, and it was received with unmeasured indignation.

She might at least have sent Mary an invitation to go up to her room,' said the old lady, spitefully: 'I didn't think this of Harriet Ashcroft.'

Mary could scarcely refrain from tears, and the 'Squire stamped angrily about, with his arms folded a-kimbo behind him.

The first ebullition of wrath and sorrow passed gradually away; kind feelings obtained their accustomed predominance, and indulgent conjectures succeeded to harsh expressions. Harriet was so delicate!' 'She was probably tired out, poor child, and hardly knew what she said.' Besides, 'she was never over nice, and perhaps her room was in such disorder that she was ashamed to let Mary see it.' All would no doubt be explained when they met.'

Quieted by these and sundry other surmises, our party speedily regained their habitual cheerfulness. It was then proposed to take a walk among the woods and waterfalls of the neighboring hills, and the suggestion was accordingly acceded to. Mrs. Raymond's new friend was invited to join them, and after knitting into the middle of her seam-needle, rolling up the embryo stocking, and depositing it in her work-bag, she declared herself ready for the ramble.

The morning wore happily away in this rural expedition. The freshness of the sea breeze and the fineness of the weather afforded constant themes for gratulation to these simple and unsophisticated beings, while the varieties of insect life, and the brilliant hues of the tufted wild flowers, which sprung from the crevices of the rocks, exhausted all their epithets of admiring wonder. There is a sympathy between pure minds and the works of nature, which age cannot chill, nor ignorance diminish. Worldlings may rave in set phrases of ecstacy, when their attention is directed toward the beautiful or sublime; but it remains for the innocent and the good to feel what these pretenders may perhaps more happily express.

In the midst of these pleasurable emotions, the hearts of the worthy Raymonds were called upon for a tribute of painful sympathy. The old lady who accompanied them, in passing through a fissure of rock which was rather too narrow to admit her burly person, tore the black silk dress which had probably served her as a holiday suit for a long series of eventful years! Who can tell the associations which were connected with that glossy fabric! In seasons of wo-in times of joy on fast-days and thanksgiving-days-at burials and christenings, it had been donned with scrupulous precision, and refolded with careful hands, until it had become, as it were, identified with the very destinies of its wearer.

While Mrs. Raymond was comforting the unfortunate dame, and pinning up the rent, Edward and Mary having run through with their vocabulary of condolence, ascended an adjacent precipice and looked down into a deep ravine which lay on the opposite side. What was their surprise, when, seated on a mossy bank, by the side of a rippling brook that glided peacefully past, they beheld the fatigued, the somno

lent Harriet! The same finical-looking gentleman stood beside her with whom she had appeared so engrossed when they saw her in the drawing-room, and another group of ladies and gentlemen were chatting gaily at a little distance.

Who were those odd-looking people that you cut so capitally this morning?' said the cavalier, in a drawling, indolent tone.

O do n't mention it!' said Miss Ashcroft, laughing. Would you believe it, the fools did n't take! I had barely time to congratulate myself upon my escape, when there came a note from them, begging to see me!'

That's too good, 'pon honor!' said the gentleman, his whole frame apparently agitated with convulsions of mirth. But who are they?' continued he, when the paroxysm had a little gone by.

Who are they?' said Miss Ashcroft: that would be difficult to say! They grow in an out-of-the-way place called Pendleton; but as I am not much of a botanist, I can merely tell you that they are of the genus Rustic, and the class Gawky.

Ha ha ha! - very good, 'pon honor!' said the gentleman.

Miss Ashcroft was encouraged by the approbation which her witticisms received, and went on with her agreeable remarks. She however made no allusions to her grandma or Cherry Harbor, and led her auditor to suppose that her acquaintance with the Raymonds was of a very recent and accidental growth.

The summer of the cholera,' said she, 'we penetrated into Pendleton, and spent three whole months there! I only wonder how I survived! These people are quite magnates in that little village, and they completely smothered me with their attentions. It helped to pass away the time, so I endured them. I had a regular flirtation with the son, and I really believe I made the conceited bumpkin think I was in love with him!'

Capital! capital!' said the gentleman, bending back almost double in his exceeding delight.

Edward and Mary had heard quite enough, and turned to descend from the bad eminence' they stood upon. The effort detached a pebble from the height, and it fell at the feet of Miss Ashcroft and her companion. They looked up, and beheld the objects of their poignant satire.

On rejoining her parents, poor Mary's emotions were utterly uncontrollable; and as she burst into a flood of tears, an explanation became necessary. It is much less difficult to forgive our own private injuries, than an affront offered to those we love; and Miss Ashcroft's allusions to Edward steeled the hearts of the old people against her more effectually than if she had reviled them with the utmost malice of personal invective. Confidence abused, and affection slighted, rendered the walk back to the Mansion House a very sad one.

At dinner, Mary's swollen eyes and pale cheeks betrayed how deeply she had grieved. The frowns of the 'Squire and Mrs. Raymond made apparent every furrow in their wrinkled visages; but the calm, proud bearing of their son, showed that although the arrow might rankle deeply in his heart, he was resolved to conceal it with Spartan firmness. How little does the world know the secret sorrows of those who mingle in its scenes! Meats were carved, 55

VOL. VIII.

vegetables praised, the topics of the day discussed all went on as usual and not a glance of sympathy, not an accent of kindness, lent its balm to these lacerated souls. The greater part of the guests at the table were as much absorbed with the contents of their plates, as if eating was the sole object of life, and dinner the final cause of existence. Nor was the mere absence of fellow feeling the only trouble consequent upon this harrassing meal. It is so trying, when one's heart is almost breaking, to be compelled to lend attention to the petty frivolities of others! A lady sat opposite Mary, who was surrounded by a sandy-haired progeny, and whenever either of the little masters gave utterance to a remark which, in the opinion of the doating mother, savored of intellectual precocity, she looked across at her unfortunate vis à vis, to enjoy her tribute of admiration.

เ

Ma, I don't want so much gravy!' said one of the urchins, pushing away his plate, with a toss of petulant disgust.

It is not such nice gravy as you get at home, is it love?' said the sapient mama, smiling with undisguised pleasure at this brilliant sally of her offspring, and directing a glance at poor Mary, to see if it was observed and appreciated.

Mary felt herself called upon to smile in return; but the effort produced merely a contortion.

All earthly distresses have their commencement and their close, and dinner was at last concluded. Screamy Point had now lost all its attraction for the Raymonds, and they resolved to return immediately to Pendleton. The ladies went to their rooms to collect their wardrobe and put on their travelling accoutrements; the old gentleman repaired to the bar to pay his bill, and Edward, having no preparatory arrangements to employ him, whiled away the time by walking out on the piazza. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sky was cloudless, and the placid waters flashed brilliantly in the sunshine. Edward leaned his head upon his hand, and visions of the past flitted rapidly before him. He had loved Harriet Ashcroft! Yes he had loved her with all the warmth and ardor of a first, enthralling love! With the ambitious aspirings of day, and the gorgeous fantasies of night, he had unconsciously associated her image, and his high wrought hopes of future distinction had been principally cherished as reflecting their yet unattained glories upon her. The summer of the cholera was not the first time that he had seen her. Her father was a native of the most sterile parish in Pendleton, but had early in life entered a countinghouse in New-York, and being clear-headed and prudent, had gradu. ally amassed a fortune, which was great, even in that city of millions. The mother and a maiden sister of this successful accumulator were still living in the old homestead at Cherry Harbor, and would have deemed themselves highly honored by a connexion with the Raymonds. From her childhood, Harriet had been an occasional visiter at her grandmother's, and becoming very intimate with Mary, had been frequently induced to exchange the somewhat sordid economy of the arrangements at Cherry Harbor for the comforts and amusements which invited her acceptance at Mr. Raymond's. While in Pendleton, she had seen fit to throw aside her meritricious graces, and assuming the semblance of a better nature, had won a heart which she could neither

understand nor appreciate. She was now with a party of exclusives who prided themselves upon their aristocratic lineage, and fearing that the humble genealogies of her ancestors would be discovered, should she acknowledge her ci devant friends, she hesitated not one moment to sacrifice them to her contemptible vanity. When reason removes the film from the eyes of love, the light is so painful to the wilful little deity, that he sometimes closes them again in a voluntary blindness. Not so in the present instance. Edward Raymond had learned to know the heartless creature upon whom he had lavished the treasure of his affections, and his was not one of those weak minds which continue to love, after the object of adoration is discovered to be unworthy. He had awoke from a long and blissful dream; but the narcotic which had steeped his senses had lost its influence forever. O world! world! - how bitter are thy lessons!

While he indulged these passionate musings, sounds of merriment resounded through the house; the bowling of nine-pins was heard from an adjacent alley; passing strangers eyed him indifferently as they sauntered forth, and he felt as if he longed to be once more in the verdant groves and sequestered haunts of his innocent, his peaceful home! He arose from his recumbent posture, and as he turned to reenter the mansion, he saw Miss Ashcroft and her party issuing from a private door. They appeared to be in high glee, and laughed loudly, as they wended their way down to the beach. Soon after, a white sail was hoisted, and a small boat shot from the strand. It was the last he has ever seen of Harriet Ashcroft. Before the sun had set, the Raymonds were far away from the glare and din of Screamy Point, and safely rëestablished in their own happy Pendleton.

Mrs.

A FEW days after the occurrences we have narrated, Miss Ashcroft, her chaperon Mrs. Franks, and her admirer Mr. Russell Colt, were standing together at the window of their private parlor, and amusing themselves by their remarks upon the people without. Franks was a tall, faded-looking woman, whose physiognomy bore traces of the wear and tear of fashionable dissipation. We shall not attempt a description of Mr. Colt, for he belonged to that exquisite species of our race, which are so very fragile, that we have never dared to catch a specimen to examine.

What a desert Screamy Point is becoming!' said Mrs. Franks. 'Since the Bakers have gone, there is not a soul here that one ever meets with in society.'

'How the creatures stare at me!' said Mr. Russell Colt, drawing back indignantly from the window.

'Such lots of common people!' continued Mrs. Franks. Harriet, it's really insufferable! What shall we do?'

'Suppose we go to the Springs?' said Miss Ashcroft. Mama writes me word, Mr Colt, that your friend, Col. Harcourt, is there, and I am dying to see him.'

Harcourt's immensely droll,' said Mr. Russell Colt. I do n't believe he's there now. He likes change, as well as the Chinese. Take my advice, Miss Ashcroft, and don't go to the Springs. They 're a confounded bore.'