a kind "God bless you" to his niece, and bowing coldly to the protesting and anti-hierarchical Katherine, the dignitary of the Church of England retired for the night.

"Katherine, my love," said Geraldine, as the friends parted in the open gallery, which ran round the hall, "do not vex my uncle by your Scotch objections to the English Church just at present. It is rather hard upon him for us both to attack him at different points; besides, it will puzzle the subject to my already confused mind."

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My dear Geraldine, I will promise not to speak at the same instant with yourself; for that, indeed would be enough to distract us all; and though I cannot promise to be totally silent, I will not puzzle you away from Protestantism. Indeed, I repeat that it would be far better for you to comprehend, and embrace your uncle's opinions, than to become a member of a still more arrogant Church. However," continued Miss Graham, laughing as she turned away, "I shall think but little of your doctor of divinity, if he cannot stand an attack from two

CHAPTER III.

Truth is deposited with man's last hour,
An honest hour, and faithful to her trust,

YOUNG.

MISS CARRINGTON woke the following morning, with a feeling of hope, of joy in her existence, which, although natural to the buoyancy of her disposition, had been damped, nay, all but destroyed, during the preceding months of mental solicitude, and, what was far less endurable, mental uncertainty.

Decision of character, and an almost impetuous love of truth, had been evinced in earliest childhood, and had strengthened with her strength, under the encouragement of a father who had fostered these qualities, almost, it had sometimes been feared, to the risk of the more feminine and gentle ones of deference and endurance: and, for the first time in her life, to have been kept in suspense without hope of relief, to have been tossed to and fro between the most opposed trains of thought and argument, was a trial under which both health and spirits had sunk. It was true, that even now she could not fix by anticipation the result of her conferences with Dr. Sinclair; but to rest somewhere, to be past all doubt, and to find in religion all, and more than all, she had ever done before-this was what Geraldine now fully expected; and perceiving by her watch that she had overslept the usual hour for rising, she joyfully rang the bell for her attendant, still continuing to indulge in a species of dreamy meditation, more fraught with enjoyment than profit, during

another hour. Starting up, at length, full of wonder that she was thus left to herself, Geraldine rang an authoritative peal for her neglectful tirewoman, and arose. Still no one approached, and, divided between discontent and alarm, the Heiress of Elverton, for the first time in a life of three and twenty years, was compelled to finish her toilet without assistance. Having at length achieved it with some difficulty, she passed from her dressing-room, through the boudoir, to a little ante-room, which, terminating her suite of apartments, opened on the gallery from whence she had parted from Miss Graham the night before. The outward door of this ante-room was locked on the side of the gallery, and after shaking it ineffectually, and calling aloud, but in vain, for assistance, Geraldine at length suspected the motive for her imprisonment. Listening with beating heart, she heard, from the hall below, the sound of voices, and distinguished that of her uncle above the rest, giving directions in his usual clear, calm, manner. In a few moments Geraldine's apprehensions were confirmed, by hearing the Warden order some one to ride instantly with a note to Mr. Edmund Sinclair, and, in the interval, to hoist some signal, agreed upon with the inmates of the Vicarage, to warn them that disease had broken out at the Hall. Her uncle then was safe-but Katherine! was she the victim? Springing from the door, as she remembered another egress by which she could. gain the apartment of her friend, Geraldine hastily returned to her boudoir, and, to her unspeakable relief, saw Katherine Graham rushing up the flight of steps, which communicated by a balcony with the private flower garden beneath. Several of the servants followed, carrying the breakfast, and supporting Miss Carrington's maid, who, having fainted, was borne into her mistress's room, and laid on a sofa.

"Geraldine." said Miss Graham with emotion, "you have doubtless guessed the truth."

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Yes," replied she, "the destroying angel is at length passing over this house, and has struck some victim. Thank God for my loved father's absence, for your and my uncle's safety, and also for having spared me this faithful creature," added she, kneeling by the side of her maid, and administering the usual remedies, "for I pray that this terror may not be the forerunner of disease. Do you know any particulars?"

"None whatever," said Katherine, "I found my doors both locked on the outside, and having conjectured in vain who could be guilty of so practical a joke, I sate down quietly to read, until it should please my unknown tyrant to let me have my breakfast. The truth did glance across my mind, but I repelled it. After my patience had endured a great deal, your Mrs. Kelsoe, followed by my own Phoebe, suddenly appeared, grasped my arm, dragged me down stairs, and through rooms I knew not, into the library, thence to the terrace, then down the slope to your private garden, where we met the men-servants bringing our breakfasts by an equally circuitous route. On seeing them, Mrs. Kelsoe for the first time broke silence, uttered the word 'cholera,' and fainted."

"Poor dear Kelsoe," cried Geraldine, "I will not upbraid you for fainting, since you have well fulfilled your appointed task."

"She will soon recover, ladies," said Phoebe ; "and if you please to take your breakfast, because I heard Mrs. Kelsoe receive strict orders from the Warden, that she was to attend to that, and to every thing that would make you strong and cheerful; and the reverend doctor, your uncle, wrote you a note, besides these messages, Miss Carrington,"

"Where? where is it?" cried Geraldine.

"Here," groaned the reviving Mrs. Kelsoe, trying to extend the paper to her mistress, and then sinking back.

Geraldine read as follows:-" Let your faith be firm and practical: occupy yourself constantly, and be cheerful. Do not attempt to leave your suite of rooms, and your own flower garden. You will know best, as mistress of this house, how to arrange with the least possible inconvenience to yourself and your friend. Your meals will be sent you, and I shall hope to join you in the evening. J.S."

"Oh! God grant it may be so!" said Geraldine, giving the note to her friend.

"How characteristic of the head of a college!" cried Katherine smiling, "first to lock us up, and then to beg us not to get out! Why, we cannot help being obedient, which, perhaps, is the safest predicament, after all, in which to place four women. Pray, Phoebe, who is ill?"

"I don't know, Ma'am," returned the girl, hesitating; and then added, "Mrs. Kelsoe wishes to tell the bad news, Ma'am, herself."

A rapid recovery now took place from the fainting fit into which the elder Abigail had fallen. She shook her hand at Phoebe, and, on Miss Graham observing roguishly, that her maid had better inform them of what had passed, " as Mrs. Kelsoe was still so weak," the latter started on her feet, protesting that not only was she perfectly restored, but Phoebe knew nothing except through her, having been locked up herself till brought up to her lady's room. "Not that I am yet permitted, my dear ladies, to say a word, good or bad, till you have been strengthened and refreshed by breakfast; for so I faithfully promised the worthy and reverend Warden, who commanded that my lips were to be