The tempest which threatens to extinguish the quivering spark, may but kindle it to brighter flame. Never had Holdich felt his wife's heart to be so fully, so fondly his own; and never had its love been so precious to him. In that moment of mingled sorrow and sweetness, Robert and Rebekah were indeed one; one in feeling, in tribulation, one in Christ. The somewhat stern spirit of the husband was softened to deepest tenderness; the weaker nature of the wife was exalted into noble endurance. They would meet adversity hand in hand, strong in faith in God; and happy-yes, happy-in the sense of His love. "Rebekah has been twice given to me," thought Holdich; and truly the second gift had been more blessed than the first. No more was her spirit to be like the stream which, though coursing through verdant meads, chafes at every pebble, and from its own shallowness murmurs and frets as it flows. Adversity had deepened the channel; purer, calmer, clearer, it rolled on; if it had to plunge down into depths of sorrow, it had yet sunshine resting upon and even from tears was that rainbow formed, which, unshaken by tumult, undimmed and unbroken, like that spanning the cataract's verge, shines with all the soft tints of the skies!

it ;

vants' hall.

Flung off in disgrace-rolled in the dust-he'll never get up again!" exclaimed Ford that evening at the supper in the ser

""Twas Slimes' brazen horse as did it!" cried Parker, who, though not belonging to the household, was frequently a guest at the Castle. Jack Paton's trick was a good 'un; but it did not serve his turn: it galled, but it did not throw the rider. But when it came to a matter of conscience,❞—the speaker finished his sentence with a horse-laugh, in which he was joined by almost all who were present.

Here's success to Monsieur Slimes and de Walhalla!" cried the French cook, filling his glass with a wine certainly never intended to find its way to the hall.

"Each man his toast!" said Valance, stretching out a not very steady hand towards the bottle. "Here's to Ned Holdich, the bear's cub in the trap;

may he soon leave his country for his country's good!"-a very thread-bare joke, which, however, called forth a fresh roar of laughter.

"Here's his pretty, sanctified mother!" cried Parker; "may she soon brighten with her remarkably lively presence the prison of her old father!"

Why don't you drink?" said Ford to Marion, who sat beside him, and whose glass he had filled.

"I can't help being sorry for her," murmured the girl, ashamed, however, of showing even this slight mark of compassion.

I could never be sorry for any one belonging to him!" cried Ford; and raising his glass on high, he exclaimed, "Here's to Robert Holdich, the saint! As he's a deal too honest for this world, may he soon be promoted to another!"

Amidst the jingling of glasses and roar of voices, profane jests, and laughter, Marion in vain endeavoured to join in the unhallowed mirth. Mr. Eardley's deep, earnest voice sounded still in her ears these three awful words, Death, Judgment, Eternity! In fancy she saw an invisible hand tracing them now on the wall. He who had fearfully rebuked the profane revellers of Babylon, He was present here -He was listening here, when those who bore the name of Christians profaned His name, slandered His servants, trampled on His laws, tempted His vengeance! The unhappy girl, in the midst of her reckless companions, had a terrible consciousness of

being whirled, at rapid pace and almost against her will, along the broad path which leadeth to destruction. Each hour seemed to bear her farther away from that holy home whither her mother had gone, whither she had once hoped to go. She had turned her back on the heavenly Jerusalem; she had thrown in her lot with the sinners of Babylon; she was choosing her portion with the ungodly; and what would that portion be? Even in the midst of her pity for the ruined family of Holdich, Marion regarded them almost with envy. God was on their side; God would avenge them; every insult and wrong which they had to endure would be returned seven-fold into the bosoms of their persecutors. Marion knew this, felt this; she was sinning against light and conviction. She was aware that she was as a child bartering an inheritance for a gilded toy— as an idiot who flings away jewels to grasp at a swelling bubble. She knew that the pleasures of this world did not, could not satisfy the soul; and yet, like a moth fluttering round the bright flame, she listened to flattery and praise, tried to laugh at what conscience condemned, and strove hard to banish the fears which her pastor's words had awakened.

The tidings of Holdich's dismissal, which of course involved that of his wife, filled with bitter distress the heart of the little heiress. Edith's affections, like the tendrils of a vine, had already begun to cling closely to their stay. Rebekah's gentleness and

motherly kindness had endeared her to the poor little girl, and to part with her for ever was a sore trial to a sensitive heart. When, according to custom, Edith joined her father at dessert, she appeared with eyes so swollen with weeping, that Sir Digby rather anxiously inquired what had troubled his daughter.

66

Papa-I'm so sorry-Mrs. Holdich is going," murmured Edith, with a trembling lip and heaving bosom, scarcely able to prevent herself from bursting again into tears.

"I'm sorry too," said the baronet, as he raised his child to his knee, and tried in vain to divert her sorrow by heaping her plate with dainties. And Sir Digby spoke nothing but the truth. Valance had correctly expressed his master's opinion, that to give up Holdich was to surrender the sheep-dog to the wolves. A letter received from Sir Digby's banker in London had placed this fact before the baronet in a startling point of view. The unwelcome knowledge had been forced upon the spendthrift that he was living at a rate which his fortune could not stand; that he was preyed upon by his dependants; and he felt that he was thrusting from him the one honest man, upon whose integrity he could rely, whose fidelity to God was a warrant for his fidelity to his master. Sir Digby had never done an action in his life of which he so quickly repented, as that of dismissing his steward. Fain would he have recalled