morning in search of you if you had not come," cried he, addressing his son and daughter. "Lady Cleveland, you are truly welcome to Rougemont-it shall be the study of our lives to make you happy here."

She articulated her thanks with excited feelings. The carriole then proceeded slowly along a noble avenue of oaks and elms, the Pirate riding by it, conversing with his children and occasionally with Lady Hester, who wondered how all this would end.

The equipage in a little time came in front of a mansion of the first class, and stopped at an imposing entrance supported by white marble pillars. The footman thundered at the door, then lowered the steps of the carriole as the Pirate dismounted and stood uncovered, while Lady Hester was handed into the house by Clinton. At the door of the room into which she was ushered, there stood another of her former acquaintances of the pirate ship-this was no other than Deborah, who had been rewarded for her disinterested attachment to Jane by being made housekeeper here. She was arrayed in the thorough British style of her order—a large cap, furnished with at least half a dozen yards of gay ribbon, adorned her head, under the shadow of which her broad red face appeared shining in gladness and content; her stout figure had enlarged itself under the influence of the good cheer with which she took care that her larders were supplied, and was comfortably clad in red poplin, set off by a white apron and an enormous frill.

"What are you here too, Deborah ?" said Lady Hester, as the Irish girl threw open the door and dropped a low curtsy.

66

"O yis indeed, my lady, it's mysilf at any rate-my

lord, the Marquis, has befrinded me grately, and I owe it all to Misthress Jane-I mane to my Lady Jane, begging her pardon a thousand times. May yer ladyship see many joyful days here, and that's the sincare wish of my sowl.”

-

"My lord the Marquis! Lady Jane!'-what can all this mean?" thought the agitated Lady Hester.

The room was richly decorated-the walls and ceiling were painted with historical scenes-the furniture was of the most handsome and costly description-the windows looked out upon grounds laid out with elaborate care and skill.

"Now, idolised Hester!-now, my own-my beloved!" exclaimed Clinton, as she stood bewildered and panting with powerful emotions, after he had shut the door, while his father and sister were speaking with Deborah in the hall, " you shall know whom you have consented to marry. I am the son of one who owns a rank still higher than that of your father. I am the heir of all that you see around-nor only of this, but of the whole seigniory in which we are. You have not banished yourself from the circles for which you were born by consenting to bestow yourself on me. I am the Earl of Wilton's equal, and I will wed you, Lady Hester, before the eyes of that world which you have so nobly disregarded for my sake. My father, now the Marquis of Rougemont, shall go to the Earl and purchase his consent to our union by such marriage-settlements as will far exceed any thing that he could make for a child of his."

He then related to her all the circumstances that had attended their coming into possession of the estate and

title. Lady Hester then said-" Do not think, Clinton, that you have made my head altogether giddy with delight by this change of prospect. I felt extremely proud of the sacrifice I was making for you, and hoped, by its means, to secure you to myself with such ties as could never be broken. Now, I am afraid, in making your marriage with me a matter of formal family arrangements, you will become a mere fashionable husband, and I, by consequence, an indifferent wife; and so all my romantic notions of our superlative felicity in the kingdom of Hymen will vanish away like other air-built fabrics."

"Never!" cried Clinton, with sincerity and passion in his transported glance, as he pressed his lip to her passive hand, "never! From my boyhood I have loved but you! and to the last hour of my life you shall be my soul's treasure and joy !"

CHAPTER XXVI.

"Who are these evil guests, that thus
Break uninvited in upon our privacy?"

THAT early friend of Clinton who was lately spoken of, had delayed to write to Pastor Wilson until Lady Hester took her second and permanent leave of England. By her he sent two separate letters for the Pastor and Clinton, in the former of which he detailed the information Lady Hester had imparted concerning the existence of the grandchildren and the son-in-law of the Pastor in America, and hoped he would soon meet with them if he had not hitherto. In the other epistle to Clinton, he dwelt upon the relationship of Pastor Wilson to his friend, and upon what he had learned of the settlement of the good Pastor in Upper Canada.

Clinton was delighted to hear from his old schoolfellow and playmate, and after scanning the letter in a cursory way, read it aloud to his father, his sister, and Lady Hester, while seated with them at dessert.

"It is very old," said Jane, who was bending over a peach that she was unconsciously dissecting on her

plate," that Nicholas and I should both have lived so long in the lodge without discovering our relationship, or that the Pastor was our grandfather."

"Or that Arthur Lee was our cousin," added Clinton, archly. Jane's knife slipped along the plate, and her blushing face drooped still lower over the peach.

"Do not mind him, Jenny," said the Pirate, "we had the laugh against him a little while ago. But what say you, must we not go and see this grandfather and cousin ?”

"With all my heart!" cried Clinton, who was exceedingly desirous of beholding his sister in possession of prospects as blissful as those which were before his own view.

Who was to go was the next question. Clinton was not disposed to take Lady Hester thither at present, lest she should hear of Lucy, neither was he willing that his father should go, as he wanted him to proceed immediately to Montreal, to make terms with the Earl for Lady Hester's hand. The idea would have been put off, therefore, at his suggestion, had he not perceived in Jane's eye a delight at the proposed journey indicative of a feeling of which he had had too deep an experience not to sympathise with it. While the matter was under discussion, Lady Hester, who had been informed by Clinton of Mr. Lee's attachment for Jane, and who participated in his wishes for her happiness, disposed of the difficulty by declaring her intention of going with the Pirate to endeavour to change the Earl's mind in respect to her intended marriage.

"While the Marquis and I are gone on this mission,"