in his breast. "How young you look by this light, Alice!" said he, tenderly looking down. if "Would you love me less if I were old?" asked Alice. 66 I suppose I should never have loved you in the same way, you had been old when I first saw you." "Yet I am sure I should have felt the same for you if you had been-oh! ever so old!" "What, with wrinkled cheeks, and palsied head, and a brown wig, and no teeth, like Mr. Simcox?" Oh, but you could never be like that! You would always look young-your heart would be always in your face. That dear smile-ah, you would be beautiful to the last!" "But Simcox, though not very lovely now, has been, I dare say, handsomer than I am, Alice, and I shall be contented to look as well when I am as old." "I should never know you were old, because I can see you just as I please. Sometimes, when you are thoughtful, your brows meet, and you look so stern that I tremble; but then I think of you when you last smiled, and look up again, and though you are frowning still, you seem to smile. I am sure you are different to other eyes than to mine.... and time must kill me before, in my sight, it could alter you." "Sweet Alice, you talk eloquently, for you talk love.” 66 My heart talks to you. Ah! I wish it could say all it felt. I wish I could make poetry like you, or that words were music— I would never speak to you in anything else. I was so delighted to learn music, because when I played I seemed to be talking to you. I am sure that whoever invented music did it because he loved dearly and wanted to say so. I said 'he,' but I think it was a woman. Was it?" "The Greeks I told you about, and whose life was music, thought it was a god." 66 Ah, but you say the Greeks made Love a god. Were they wicked for it?" "Our own God above is Love," said Ernest seriously, 66 as our own poets have said and sung. But it is a love of another nature― divine, not human. Come, we will go within, the air grows cold for you." They entered, his arm round her waist. The room smiled upon them its quiet welcome; and Alice, whose heart had not half vented its fulness, sat down to the instrument still to " talk love" in her own way. But it was Saturday evening. Now every Saturday, Maltravers received from the neighbouring town, the provincial newspaper—it was his only medium of communication with the great world. But it was not for that communication that he always seized it with avidity, and fed on it with interest. The county in which his father resided bordered the shire in which Ernest sojourned, and the paper included the news of that familiar district in its comprehensive columns. It therefore satisfied Ernest's conscience and soothed his filial anxieties to read, from time to time, that "Mr. Maltravers was entertaining a distinguished party of friends at his noble mansion of Lisle Court;" or that "Mr. Maltravers' fox-hounds had met on such a day at something copse;" or that "Mr. Maltravers, with his usual munificenee, had subscribed twenty guineas to the new county jail."... And as now Maltravers saw the expected paper laid beside the hissing urn, he seized it eagerly, tore the envelope, and hastened to the well-known corner appropriated to the paternal district. The very first words that struck his eyes were these: "We regret to state that this exemplary and distinguished gentleman was suddenly seized on Wednesday night with a severe spasmodic affection. Dr--was immediately sent for, who pronounced it to be gout in the stomach-the first medical assistance from London has been summoned. 66 Postscript. We have just learned, in answer to our inquiries at Lisle Court, that the respected owner is considerably worse; but slight hopes are entertained of his recovery. Captain Maltravers, his eldest son and heir, is at Lisle Court. An express has been despatched in search of Mr. Ernest Maltravers, (Mr. M.'s only other surviving child,) who, involved by his high English spirit in some dispute with the authorities of a despotic government, had suddenly disappeared from Gottingen, where his extraordinary talents had highly distinguished him. He is supposed to be staying at Paris." The paper dropped on the floor. Ernest threw himself back on the chair, and covered his face with his hands. 66 Alice was beside him in a moment. He looked up, and caught her wistful and terrified gaze. "Oh, Alice!" he cried, bitterly, and almost pushing her away, what remorse have you not occasioned me!" Then springing on his feet, he hurried from the room. Presently the whole house was in commotion. The gardener, who was always in the house about supper-time, flew to the town for posthorses. The old woman was in despair about the laundress, for her first and only thought was for "master's shirts." Ernest locked himself in his room. Alice! poor Alice! In little more than twenty minutes, the chaise was at the door; and Ernest, pale as death, came into the room where he had left Alice. She was seated on the floor, and the fatal paper was on her lap. She had been endeavouring, in vain, to learn what had so sensibly affected Maltravers, for, as I said before, she was unacquainted with his real name, and therefore the ominous paragraph did not even arrest her eye. He took the paper from her, for he wanted again and again to read it some little word of hope or encouragement must have escaped him. And then Alice flung herself on his breast. "Do not weep," said he," Heaven knows I have sorrow enough of my own! My father is dying! So kind, so generous, so indulgent! Oh, God forgive me! There, there, compose yourself. You will hear from me in a day or two." He kissed her; but the kiss was cold and forced. He hurried away. She heard the wheels grate on the pebbles. She rushed to the window; but that beloved face was not visible. Maltravers had drawn the blinds, and thrown himself back to indulge his grief. A moment more, and even the vehicle that bore him away was gone. And before her were the flowers, and the starlit lawn, and the playful fountain, and the bench where they had sat in such heartfelt and serene delight. He was gone; and often! Oh, how often, did Alice remember, that his last words had been uttered in estranged tones-that his last embrace had been without love! CHAPTER IX. "Thy due from me Is tears; and heavy sorrows of the blood, IT was late at night when the chaise that bore Maltravers stopped at the gates of a park lodge. It seemed an age to Maltravers before the peasant within was aroused from the deep sleep of labour-loving health. "My father," he cried, while the gate creaked on its hinges; "my father-is he better? Is he alive?" "Oh, bless your heart, master Ernest, the 'squire was a little better this evening." 66 Thank God! On-on!" The horses smoked and galloped along a road that wound through venerable and ancient groves. The moonlight slept soft upon the sward, and the cattle, disturbed from their sleep, rose lazily up, and gazed upon the unseasonable intruder. It is a wild and weird scene, one of those noble English parcks at midnight, with its rough forest-ground broken into dell and valley, its never-innovated and mossy grass, overrun with fern, and its immemorial trees, that have looked upon the birth, and look yet upon the graves, of a hundred generations. Such spots are the last proud and melancholy trace of Norman knighthood and old romance, left to the laughing landscapes of cultivated England. They always throw something of shadow and solemn gloom upon minds that feel their associations, like that which belongs to some ancient and holy edifice. They are the cathedral aisles of Nature, with their darkened vistas, and columned trunks and arches of mighty foliage. But in ordinary times the gloom is pleasing, and more delightful than all the cheerful lawns and sunny slopes of the modern taste. Now to Maltravers it was ominous and oppressive: the darkness of death seemed brooding in every shadow, and its warning voice moaning in every breeze. The wheels stopped again. Lights flitted across the basement story; and one above, more dim than the rest, shone palely from the room in which the sick man slept. The bell rang shrilly out from amidst the dark ivy that clung around the porch. The heavy door swung back-Maltravers was on the threshold. His father lived- was better-was awake. His son was in his arms. CHAPTER X. "The guardian oak Mourned o'er the roof it sheltered: the thick air Elliott of Sheffield. MANY days had passed, and Alice was still alone; but she had heard twice from Maltravers. The letters were short and hurried. One time his father was better, and there were hopes; another time, and it was not expected that he should survive the week. They were the first letters Alice had ever received from him. Those first letters are an event in a girl's life -in Alice's life they were a very melancholy one. Ernest did not ask her to write to him; in fact, he felt, at such an hour, a repugnance to disclose his real name, and receive the letters of clandestine love in the house in which a father lay in death. He might have given the feigned address he had previously assumed, at some distant posttown where his person was not known. But then to obtain such letters, he must quit his father's side for hours. The thing was impossible. These difficulties Maltravers dit not explain to Alice - there "dearest She thought it singular he did not wish to hear from her; but Alice was humble. What could she say worth troubling him with, and at such an hour? But how kind in him to write! how precious those letters! and yet they disappointed her, and cost floods of tears they were so short- so full of sorrow was so little of love in them; and "dear," or even Alice," that, uttered by the voice, was so tender, looked cold upon the lifeless paper. If she but knew the exact spot where he was, it would be some comfort; but she only knew that he was away, and in grief; and though he was little more than thirty miles distant, she felt as if immeasurable space divided them. However, she consoled herself as she could; and strove to shorten the long, miserable day, by playing over all the airs he liked, and reading all the passages he had commended. She should be so improved when he returned—and how lovely the garden would look! - for every day its trees and bosquets caught a new smile from the deepening spring. Oh, they would be so happy once more! Alice now learned the life that lies in the future ; and her young heart had not as yet been taught that of that future there is any prophet but Hope! Maltravers, on quitting the cottage, had forgotten that Alice was without money; and now that he found his stay would be indefinitely prolonged, he sent a remittance. Several bills were unpaid some portion of the rent was due; and Alice, as she was desired, entrusted the old servant with a bank note, with which she was to discharge these petty debts. One evening, as she brought Alice the surplus, the good dame seemed greatly discomposed. She was pale and agitated, or, as she expressed it, "had a terrible fit of the shakes." my "What is the matter, Mrs. Jones? no news of him of-of of your master?" "Dear heart, miss-no," answered Mrs. Jones; "how should I? But I'm sure I don't wish to frighten you; there has been two sitch robberies in the neighbourhood." "O, thank heaven that's all!" exclaimed Alice. "O don't go for to thank heaven for that, miss; it's a shocking thing for two lone females like us, and them ere windows all open to the ground! You sees, as I was taking the note to be changed, at Mr. Harris's, the great grocer's shop, where all the poor folk was a buying agin to-morrow" (for it was Saturday night, the second Saturday after Ernest's departure; from that Hegira, Alice dated all her chronology)-" and every body was a-talking about the robberies last night. La, miss, they bound old Betty-you know Betty—a most respectable 'oman, who has known sorrows, and drinks tea with me once a-week. Well, miss, they (only think!) bound Betty to the bed-post, with no |