for ye hae the heart of a dummont, an' had a' your life. I tell ye a' it's impossible she can be dead.-See, nurse; I gar mysel' trow I see a smile forming on her face even now."

"Your fond hope makes you believe so, sir. But it is too certain that it is all over with her. There is no more reanimation for this body below the sun."

"Weel, but deal gently wi' her. Ye dinna ken. Him that made her at first, an' made her sae good, can bring her round yet if he sees meet. An she be really gane, ye may do a' as ye like for me! Had the poor bit lamb died at its mither's side, I could hae borne the loss. But for us to pu' it into an unco pasture, an haud a' its bits o' yearnings and longings at nought, is what I'll ne'er win aboon as lang as I'm a man. Oh, wae's ine! wae's me! The like o' you disna ken. But it's sae natural for a motherless lamb to take up wi' ony creature that's kind to it, that it gaes to my heart to think how she has been guidit! An' I wish her dear heart hasna been broken at the last."

As he said these last words, he cast an indignant and reproving look at his better half; who, fearing the turn that his lament was like to take, deemed it high time to interpose. "Mr. Bell, have you no sense of propriety or decorum?" said she. "Why will you stand palavering there, and deterring us from laying out the body? I assure you it is more than time that it were done already. I therefore beseech the gentlemen to withdraw."

M'lon departed, taking his lady with him; but Daniel still lingered, looking wistfully at the bed. Mrs. Johnson sympathizing with him, uncovered the face of the deceased once more. Daniel stooped down and looked at it earnestly; and, perceiving that all earthly hope was lost, the big tears began to drop amain. He then kissed the pale lips and both the cheeks; and as he turned away, he wiped his eyes hard with the sleeve of his coat, and said these impressive words, "Fareweel, dear lamb! We'll maybe never meet again."

The funeral, by M'Ion's desire, was conducted with

great pomp and splendour, as became that of the sister of a Highland Chief; and it was not till after the performance of that last duty, that he informed his friends how he had seen that catastrophe approaching from the third or fourth day after their arrival at Bellsburnfoot: That she was then seized with a hectic fever, which brought on a rapid consumption, of a nature that no anodyne could counteract: That he had pretended illness himself, in order to have the advice of the first medical person of the nation; for her disease was of that complexion that the least serious alarm, or agitation of spirits had a tendency to prove fatal: And that he was not thoroughly satisfied in his own mind, that something of that nature had not occurred, hastening her latter end. Daniel looked at his dame, Gatty at her mother; but an expressive shake of her head kept both silent, which was a great mercy for their brokenhearted kinsman's peace of mind.

CIRCLE SEVENTH.

A GLOOMY despondency now brooded over the family at Bellsburnfoot, and no prospect appeared that the cloud was soon going to disperse. Daniel sauntered about from morning till night, but he never once looked into the tup-park. He would not so much as look out at the window that faced the enclosure, nor whistle a tune above his breath; but as he jogged along, his breath was for the most part inadvertently modu lated into one or other of his favourite old pastoral airs. M'Ion's attention, now that he had no other care to divide it, at least no care that attention could alleviate, was wholly devoted to his lady. There was no endearment that man could bestow, of which this affectionate young Chief fell short; and there was none so much delighted with this as Mrs. Bell, who seemed to feel the loss of Cherry as one feels an enlargement in their capacity, or sphere of motion; and dear as her release from a certain check on her grandeur and felicity was bought, she really seemed to enjoy it for a time.

"Alas! how insufficient are all human efforts in the attainment of felicity, if these be not founded on virtue and goodness! Providence so willed it, that this cold-hearted woman's triumph should be but of short and clouded duration. Her daughter was, indeed, soothed by her husband's delicate attentions, but still, on her part, there seemed something wanting. She was never delighted. She would at one time fix on her husband a look of the most indescribable fondness and affection, but in a very short time she never failed to take her eyes away, as if her mind were irresistibly drawn to something else; while every abstracted look that settled on M'lon's face, told expressly what the

feelings were within, "that he was born to be unhappy, and to render others so.

The reader is now sufficiently acquainted with the characters of this family group, to conceive in some degree, the different sensations of the two parents, when M'Ion one morning informed them, in a flood of tears, that his adored lady was in a most perilous state of health, that he accounted it undutiful in him to withhold the secret longer from their knowledge, but that she was fast following her cousin to the grave, if the goodness of her constitution did not facilitate some extraordinary and immediate change.

If there is a pang beyond all redress, it is the assurance that a beloved object is about to be taken from us, which no human aid can save or restore. Once the blow is struck, hope springs away with the parting breath to another state of existence, indulging in dreams of future communion till sorrow often expands to a twilight of joy,-but here the sorrow is inexpres sible. Daniel received the information in profound silence, it seemed a long time ere his mind could measure the extent of the calamity,-it could only take it in by small degrees at a time, but these still expanded as it advanced, until at last he came in idea to a new-made grave, and himself at the head of it! and all beyond that appearing to Daniel an unexplored blank, he lifted up his eyes as if to look what could be seen farther away. That was the first motion he made after his son-in-law communicated to him the woful intelligence; and it being the genuine emotion of a feeling heart, there was a sublimity in it. He was about to speak, but was interrupted by his experienced and infallible dame.

"I am highly amused at your rueful looks, Mr. M'Ion," said she," and at the melancholy tone in which you have made us acquainted with this profound secrct. How little you know about new-married ladies of her age! I assure you I should not be much satisfied to see my daughter look otherwise than she does."

.

"Ooh ?" cried Daniel, fixing bis bent eyes on his son-in-law for an answer. "Ooh? Lord send her bodings to be true! What do ye say to that, sir? The inistress is gayan auld farrant about women focks?"

M'lon shook his head. Daniel leaned his head down

on his open hand, and, with a deep groan, said, "Oh dear me! I'm feared I'll never can stand this storm! When ane comes on early i' the winter of life, it may be borne, but when they fa' late i' the year, after the Candlesmas o' ane's age, they're unco ill to bide. I find my fleece o' wardly hope is growing unco thin now,-the win' an' the drift blaw cauld round my peeled head, an' the snaw's already heart-deep around me."

M'Ion was affected. Mrs. Bell again began to treat the thing with levity, but her son-in-law checked her by assuring her, that, to his sorrow, he was too well assured of the imminence of his dear lady's danger, and no stranger to the nature of her disease; and he recommended, above all things, that the family should join their efforts to prevent her from falling into lowness of spirits; and never once in her presence to drop a hint of her danger, or the illness by which she was affected.

Their caution proved of no avail, for Gatty was quite aware of her danger herself; but the family were playing at cross-purposes: Gatty was endeavouring to keep her illness a secret from her husband and parents, for fear of giving them distress, and they were keeping it from her, lest its effect on her spirits might prove fatal. But with Mrs. Johnson she passed no leisure hour without conversing about her approaching end ; and it was then that the character of that estimable young lady began to be fully developed. From the time that she felt her heart shackled in the bonds of love, her character may have appeared capricious; for it did so to herself. But when once she perceived, or deemed she perceived, her dissolution advancing on her apace, she gave up, without repining, all the vanities of this life; all her hopes of rank, honour, and estimations, as well as conjugal love, the dearest of all. VOL, I,

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