fering in every respect a contrast to her fearful, suspicious, wild-looking, hypochondriacal husband.

"I will not say that I am glad to see you," she exclaimed to Jocelyn, "for nothing but dire and deep misfortune could have brought you hither; but if this forlorn abode can give you the security you seek, I shall rejoice in your having chosen it, not less upon your own account than upon our's."

Jocelyn bowed as he observed, that if it had no other recommendation, it at least seemed admirably calculated for the purposes of concealment, though he feared it was little adapted for a lady's residence. "Every place has attractions to a wife that is cheered by her husband's presence," replied Mrs. Strickland.

The wild and restless eyes of the exile lost for a moment their haggard character, as he turned them affectionately upon his wife, exclaiming: "If female friendship and devotedness could assuage my wdes, I need not be unhappy; but, alas! it gives acuteness to my misery to think that I am most afflicting those who love me the best. Our lively Julia, too; where is she?"

"The dear wild girl was so rejoiced at the idea of a visitor," replied Mrs. Strickland, "that she declared she would consult her glass and her toilet before she saw him, lest she should frighten him away again. She will return immediately." Her eyes dropped upon the Bible as she concluded this speech; her husband seated himself opposite to his

guest, and a pause ensued, during which Jocelyn had leisure to contrast the silent and sombre figures before him with those wrought on the tapestry, which represented Bacchus and Ariadne in joyous procession, preceded by satyrs and fauns sounding their crooked shells, followed by dancing Bacchanals and singing boys, and the rear occupied by a drunken group, whose united exertions could hardly keep Silenus upright upon his long-eared quadruped. From this contemplation, and the reverie to which it was conducting him, he was aroused by the sudden entrance of Miss Strickland, of whom he had so often heard Miss Beverning make mention as her beautiful friend Julia.

To this praise, however, rigorous judges of female charms might have denied her claim, by availing themselves of the single exception to which she was liable, her height being a trifle under the prescribed standard of perfection. Of a brilliant fair complexion, her eyes were hazel, her locks a bright glossy brown. Her eyebrows, which were of a much darker hue than was warranted by the colour of her hair, generally assumed that high peculiar arch which accompanies visible emotion, appearing to sympathise with the dimples in either cheek, which were full of lurking laughter, imparted to her countenance a singularly arch, joyous, and fascinating character, without however injuring its capacity for loftier or more serious expression. Her mother's sedate looks brightened as she approach

ed, and even the grim and ghastly wildness of the exile was softened into an appearance of complacency, as covering his overgrown beard with his right hand, he gazed upon the cheerful features, and listened to the sprightly tones of his daughter. Jocelyn was the more delighted, as he little expected to encounter vivacity of any sort in an abode that seemed dedicated to melancholy. Pleasure was heightened by surprise her appearance was like a sudden flash of sun-shine irradiating the gloom of a prison-cell; there was contagion in her smiling happiness, and her animation was the more bewitching, because it seemed perfectly spontaneous and natural.

In a short time, however, the countenance of her unhappy father again became overcast; he had apparently been communing in silence with his own sad thoughts, for his eyes rolled with a suspicious wildness; and he was about to quit the apartment without uttering a syllable, when Julia, running up to him, exclaimed-" Nay, my dear father! you will not retire for the night without hearing your favourite hymn. Here is your arm-chair in your own fire-side corner; the virginals are in good tune; you must sit down and let me sing to you you have often said it was consoling to hear me; and I am sure it is not less so to me when I am playing."

Having led her father to an arm-chair, she hurried to place herself at the virginals. The charac

ter of her countenance was now altered: it was sobered into a serious and tender expression, which became gradually exalted into religious fervour as she sang the necessity of submission to the dispensations of Providence, the charms and consolations of piety, the vanity of all human enjoyments, the imperishable beatitudes of Heaven. The calm of resignation again stole over the exile's ruffled features as he listened to so sweet a voice, breathing the words of peace to his wounded spirit. He rose when she had concluded, kissed her fondly on the forehead, and, putting his handkerchief to his eyes, walked silently out of the room.

"Our dwelling is a hermitage, so far as seclusion can render it such," said Mrs. Strickland-" and we keep the hermit's hours. Long days are for the happy; but for my poor husband, sleep is the greatest of blessings, when he can obtain it, because it brings forgetfulness. We retire early, and we rise with the lark. Mr. Strickland performs his devotions in his own closet ;-the rest of our household will be shortly summoned to prayers, after which we shall be obliged to bid you good-night, and leave you to withdraw to rest at your accustomed hour."

Jocelyn declared that the fatigues of his journey would make him gladly conform to the family arrangements in this respect; and accordingly, after prayers had been read to the assembled household, he bade his hostess and her fascinating daugh

ter good-night, and was shown to his apartment. It assimilated with those he had already seen the hangings were of faded arras, the furniture exhibited the forlornness of departed grandeur, and the bed, of danske worked with flowers of gold and silver thread, had its canopy surmounted with a plume of feathers, which shook down the dust of many years' accumulation as he stretched himself beneath them. For some time he was unable to sleep. The lone desolation of his abode in the very midst of the watery wilderness, the wild, terrified, and woe-worn looks of his host, conjectures as to the crimes or misfortunes, which had thus occasioned him to be excommunicated by his species, reverence for his devoted wife, and an unbounded admiration of the vivacious and bewitching Julia, occupied his thoughts in succession, until the weariness of his body at length subdued the activity of his mind, and he sank into a profound sleep.