stock of warm affections centred in her orphan nursling, and in the master, whose fortunes she had followed through good and through evil.

The residence of Sidmouth becoming distasteful to Colonel Aboyne, after the death of his beloved companion, he removed, with his little family, to a more secluded spot on the same western coast, the obscure vil lage of Sea Vale, where motives of economy, as well as choice, induced him finally to fix his permanent abode. Uneventful, but not unblessed, flowed on the existence of the inmates of Sea Vale Cottage, till the young Millicent was grown up into womanhood, in the opinion of her doating father as fair and perfect a creature as was ever formed in the imperfection of mortal nature, and in that of Nora Carthy something still more faultless-an earthly angel!-the object of her idol worship, though the warm-hearted Irishwoman, having been brought up by her mistress, Colonel Aboyne's mother, in the Protestant communion, professed to abjure all Popish abominations. It should have been mentioned earlier in this little narrative, that the parents of Colonel Aboyne were of a divided faith, and that he himself-though educated in his father's tenets-those of the Roman Catholic Church-had received from his mother's early example, and restricted influence, such a bias in favor of the Reformed religion, as in after time, when he became the inhabitant of a Protestant country, the husband of a wife of that persuasion, matured into sincere belief in that faith which had been her support in the hour of death, and amid the pangs of separation, the mutual pledge of future reunion. It is almost needless to add, that the little Millicent was brought up in the belief which had become that of both her parents; but the circumstances of Colonel Aboyne had precluded all possibility of giving her any other advantages of education, beyond those in his own power to impart. Happily his capabilities of tuition ex

tended to the conferring of every thing really valuable, and even beyond those attainments, to many of the ornamental acquirements, which, like the capital of a Corinthian pillar, so gracefully surmount the more solid substructure.

The mind of Millicent Aboyne was, therefore, not only stored with sacred knowledge and useful information, but she could read Italian and French with perfect facility,-drew landscapes and flowers with more taste and truth than is ever evinced by half the spoilt children of fortune, on whom vast sums have been lavished, to entitle them to daub hot-pressed card-board with likenesses of things that never existed in "heaven above or in the earth beneath;" and even acquired so much skill in instrumental music, (to accompany a naturally sweet and flexible voice,) as could be taught by her father's crippled hand on an old Spanish guitar, the chords of which he had touched in his youth with such perfect execution, as, in unison with vocal powers of uncommon richness, had won for the gay and handsome soldier many a sweet smile and admiring glance from the circle of court beauties, of which Marie Antoinette was the eclipsing cynosure. Many an ear which shrinks fatigued and unedified from astounding bravuras, and scientific hors d'œuvres, running matches against time with scampering accompaniments on grand pianos, might have drank in delightedly the sweet and perfect melody of two blended voices, harmonising with now and then a harp-like chord, which often sounded at nightfall from within the small low parlor of Sea Vale Cottage, or from the honey-suckle arbor in its little garden, when the warm summer evenings drew thither the father and his child, with the tea-table, and Millicent's work-basket, the Colonel's old guitar, and his still treasured " cahier de romances nouvelles imprimées à Paris l'an mil-sept cents quatrevingt douze." But though this venerable récueil was prized by Colonel Aboyne as a relic of the pleasurable days of

youthful vanity-when hope was high, and "the world all before him where to choose”—and though visions of "long-faded glories" passed before his eyes, as they dwelt on the familiar music, and he hummed unconsciously the old favorite airs, he took far deeper delight in teaching Millicent the songs of his own native land, and in mingling his voice with hers, in those wild and thrilling harmonies. In one of those-the touching Gramachree-the united strains were sweetly swelling, when late in the twilight of a summer evening a solitary stranger strolled down the shady green lane which bounded Colonel Aboyne's garden, and passed close behind the honey-suckle arbor. It was not in nature—not in that stranger's nature-to pass onward unheedful of those melodious sounds, which poured forth so unexpectedly, as it were in his very path; and there he lingered (for strain succeeded strain) -till the bright moon climbed high in heaven, and the unseen harmonists, desisting from their vocal labors, began to converse with each other in such sweet tones of affectionate familiarity, as would have riveted the listener's attention even more forcibly than the preceding music, had he not started away from even a momentary indulgence of dishonorable curiosity. His forbearance was not unaccompanied, however, by views of ultimate compensation; and no later than the following morning, the Village Doctor, a worthy and sensible man, ever a welcome visitant at Sea Vale Cottage, was accompanied, in his early visit to its inmates, by a stranger of prepossessing appearance, whom he introduced to Colonel and Miss Aboyne as the Rev. Mr. Vernon, the new curate of Sea Vale.

Horace Vernon was one of many children, the orphans of a deceased clergyman; and his widowed mother had strained her overburdened means to the very uttermost, to continue him at the University for two years after his father's sudden and untimely death.

Beyond that important period she was powerless to assist him; and when he was so fortunate as to obtain the desirable curacy of Sea Vale on entering into holy orders, her maternal anxieties, so far relieved on his account, were naturally engrossed by the more pressing claims of her younger children. Horace was well content with his allotted station. From his earliest recollection, accustomed to retirement, and to the strict though respectable frugality of his father's household, and subjected, during the greater part of his college life, to the innumerable privations and mortifications inseparable from the station of a poor scholar among the wealthy and the prodigal, he had acquired no habits or ideas inimical to the life of obscure usefulness apparently designed for him. There had never been any rational prospect of his obtaining church preferment, unless he should fag his way up the clerical ladder, by college tutorship, or private connexions otherwise formed at the University ; and this course he might have pursued successfully, had his father lived to continue him at college, and to excite him to the necessary exertions. But his was not an energetic character. It was amiable, affectionate, and feeling-endowed with no inconsiderable share of talent, much refined and elegant taste, and a sincere desire of acting up to every moral and religious principle. Add to this a very handsome person and engaging address, a little leaven of vanity, and a too great liability to be influenced, even against his better judgment, by the graceful and showy, in opposition to more solid but less attractive qualities, and the sketch of Horace Vernon's character will be faithful as a mere outline. This little history affords no scope for Flemish painting.

So constituted and endowed, the young curate settled himself very contentedly at Sea Vale, and was not long in making a most favorable impression on all classes throughout the parish. He was unaffectedly earnest and sincere in his pulpit duties, and

not less anxious to fulfil all others annexed to his pastoral charge. And he did fulfil them very respectably, and so as to give almost general satisfaction; though it must be confessed, not without occasionally yielding, and often doing violence, to certain feelings of morbid refinement, which revolted with sickening disgust from many of those scenes of human misery which must come under the eye of the zealous minister, and from which the faithful follower of Him who "went about doing good," will not shrink back with fastidious weakness.

Exactly twelve months from that sweet summer evening when Horace Vernon was arrested, in his first stroll round the village, thenceforth to be his home, by the plaintive air of "Gramachree," breathed in vocal unison from behind the high holly-hedge which separated him from Colonel Aboyne's garden ;-exactly a twelvemonth from that well-remembered evening, the young curate was seated in the arbor within that holly-hedge, and his voice, in lieu of her father's, was mingling with that of Millicent Aboyne in the same touching harmony, while her hand lightly swept the chords of the old guitar; and Colonel Aboyne, reclining comfortably in his large arm-chair, the "cahier de romances nouvelles" lying on his cushioned footstool, gazed with tender complacency on the twain, thenceforth to be inseparably united in his affections, for his Millicent was the affianced wife of Horace Vernon.

Such had been the very natural, the almost inevitable, result of an acquaintance and intimacy formed between two amiable and attractive young persons, brought perpetually together under such circumstances as characterised the intercourse of Horace Vernon and Millicent Aboyne. Had they become acquainted in the concourse of the world, or even been thrown together in a circle rather more diversified than that small group which constituted their world at Sea Vale, it is possible, nay, even probable, that neither would have conceived for the 12 ATHENEUM, VOL. 2, 3d series.

other a warmer sentiment than kindness and friendly interest, for in many points they differed essentially; and Millicent, more than two years older than Vernon, gentle and serious almost to pensiveness, elegant and pleasing in person, rather than strikingly beautiful, and characterised by peculiar diffidence and simplicity of manner, would hardly have been distinguished among the more youthful, the more brilliant, the more showily accomplished, by one so peculiarly liable as was Horace Vernon to be captivated by those graces which excite most general admiration.

But he had never mixed in general society ;—had never, in the small circle of his connexions and acquaintance, seen anything half so fair, so elegant and attractive, as the sweet Millicent. The high-bred manners of Colonel Aboyne were also delightful to his really refined taste; and the kind hospitality with which he was ever welcomed at Sea Vale Cottage, won on his best affections, while the tastes and pursuits of its inmates awakened his warmest sympathies. No wonder that, under such circumstances, Horace should attach himself devotedly to Miss Aboyne, nor that she, whose intercourse with the world had been even more limited than her lover's, should return his affection with the warmth and truth of a first and perfect tenderness, without questioning with herself whether the amiable and engaging qualities which had won her unpractised heart, were built upon that stable groundwork which formed the basis of her own gentle and diffident character. Essentially requisite it was to the present peace and future happiness of Horace and Millicent, that the virtues of patience and stability should be among their leading characteristics,-for prudence, or rather necessity, deferred to a distant period their hope of being united.

It was not indeed till the twelfth month of their acquaintance that Vernon had ventured to declare to Colonel Aboyne his attachment to his daughter, and to ask his parental sanction to

their future union. To this step he had been emboldened by the promise of a small living from an old friend and college pupil of his deceased father; and the present incumbent being far advanced in years, there was a rational prospect of Vernon's becoming, at no remote period, master of such a moderate competence as might enable him to marry, without subjecting the object of his affections to the miseries of genteel poverty.

Colonel Aboyne, who had become warmly attached to Horace, was well content to accept his proposals for that darling daughter, the thought of whose friendless and well nigh destitute condition, in the event of her becoming an orphan, not only banished sleep too often from his pillow, but wrapt him in many a fit of deep and sad abstraction, while listening-apparently listening-to the sweet music of her silvery voice, or sitting with her at the social board, where she "gaily prest and smiled," unconscious of the feelings she inspired. His consent was therefore cordially and joyfully yielded ; and to Horace and Millicent, the state of sanctioned and untroubled happiness which succeeded their betrothment, seemed for a time so near the perfection of earthly felicity, that even he (the more impassioned, but not more devoted, of the twain) contemplated, with tolerable equanimity, the possible intervention of two or three years-(a very reasonable allow ance of life to the old incumbent) between his present condition of probationary bliss, and the union which was to render it complete. Almost domesticated with Colonel Aboyne and his daughter, to the former he looked up

with filial affection and respect; and his more tender and intimate association with Millicent's finely-constituted mind insensibly led to the happiest results in his own character, which gradually settled into a steadiness of pursuit and principle well befitting his sacred profession, and holding out the fairest promise of wedded happiness to his affianced wife, who already went hand in hand with her

destined partner in all the sweet and holy charities constituting so essential a portion of pastoral duty. Never, perhaps, (allowing for the alloy which must temper all earthly happiness,) were assembled happier persons than the three sitting together, as lately described, under the honeysuckle arbor in Colonel Aboyne's garden, in the warm twilight of that sweet summer evening. Horace and Millicent had returned from a long ramble and many benevolent visits among the more distant cottagers of their extensive parish.

They had felt that "when the eye saw, it blessed them ;" and the tender and serious heart of Millicent, in particular, overflowed with that blissful conviction, and with the delightful assurance, that her heavenly, as well as her earthly parent, did indeed sanction her intended union, and that her lot, and that of her chosen partner, cast as it was in the quiet vale of sweet retirement and safe mediocrity, where, nevertheless, opportunities of doing good would be abundantly afforded, was one so peculiarly favored, that while she thought thereon tears swelled into her dove-like eyes, and she faltered out something of her feelings-(for what tongue could speak them fluently?)-to him on whose arm she leant in tender and perfect confidence. So time passed on with the betrothed lovers, accompanied in its progress by all of pleasantness and enjoyment that could compensate for protracted expectation. And on, and on it passed-still pleasantly-still happily on the whole, but to a length of probation so little anticipated by Vernon-so unchangeable as to any immediate prospect of termination, that something of the sickness of hope deferred began to steal into his heart, and now and then betrayed itself, even to Millicent, by a fretful tone or word, or a look of languor and sullenness, even in the midst of occupations and interests which to her had lost nothing of their soothing and salutary influence.

A year-two-three-four years(in truth, an awful amount in the sum

of human life!) passed on, at first swiftly and happily, then with more tedious pace, and at last heavily, and sometimes sadly, at Sea Vale Cottage. Still existing circumstances were precisely the same with all parties, as when, four summers back, they felt themselves the happiest and most contented of human beings. But as years crept on with Colonel Aboyne, his anxiety to see his child securely established became naturally greater, and he could not but occasionally observe and lament, that though Vernon's attachment to Millicent suffered no apparent diminution, feelings of despondency and irritability were growing fast upon his character, where they might acquire a fatal influence, not to be counteracted hereafter by the tardy operation of happier circumstances. And Millicent! she was too well aware, even more so than her father, of the morbid change which was effecting in her lover's mind, composed as it was by nature of gay and happy elements. Poor Millicent!-how many thorns had already sprung up in that peaceful path, which but so lately she had accounted peculiarly favored! Vernon's affection for her, though less ardently demonstrated than when they first exchanged their plighted troth, she verily believed to be entire and sincere as in those halcyon days; and her feelings towards him had but matured into deeper and more holy tenderness entire and self-devoting, such as only woman's heart can cherish-not blind to the imperfections of the beloved object, though sweetly extenuating and excusing them, with unconscious ingenuity. Miss Aboyne could not but observe, also, that the broad open brow of her dear father was more frequently contracted with deep and open lines than she had ever yet seen imprinted there -and she fancied too—(it might be only fancy)—that there was a perceptible change in his whole person and deportment, as if Time were hurrying him on with more hasty strides than the imperceptibly downward pace of natural decline.

Millicent's tender apprehensions were not wholly groundless; Colonel Aboyne's constitution, impaired by former severe suffering, had of late felt the pernicious influence of increased mental disquietude, and again, the physical ailment, reacting on the moral, brought on a train of those nervous miseries, scarcely to be repelled by any effort of reason and self-con. trol, even when perfectly imaginary ; and unhappily there was too much reason for Colonel Aboyne's uneasiness. He persuaded himself the hour was fast approaching which would make his daughter not only a friendless, but almost a destitute orphan, her sole inheritance comprising the small cottage they inhabited, and a sum of money scarce amounting to hundreds, though the accumulated whole of his small annual savings, religiously hoarded, with whatever sacrifice of his own comforts, since the hour of his darling's birth. The circumstances of her engagement to Horace Vernon were such as would also render her situation one of greater difficulty, if the period was still to be deferred when she might be taken from a father's to a husband's home; and while revolving all these perplexities in his sleepless and solitary hours, Colonel Aboyne was almost inclined to yield to the frequently impatient proposals of Horace for his immediate union with Millicent; and thus, leaving fearlessly to Providence all care for the future, they might form for the present one humble and contented family, under the peaceful roof of Sea Vale Cottage. But Colonel Aboyne was too well aware of the distresses which might tread close on such a measure to sanction it, except as one of imperious necessity; and at length, after long and harassing reflection, he determined on the execution of a project, to which nothing less than overpowering anxiety for his beloved child could have reconciled his high spirit and fastidious feelings. It was no less an enterprise (great indeed to the long-secluded valetudinarian) than to revisit the land of his birth-the home of his fore