He

swashbuckler Captain had been seen, and whether | embraces under the name of "his cousin Lavinia," civilians might presume to lift their eyes in his as Miss Lavinia had been in her cousin the Cappresence. When lo! it transpired that the man tain. But he was too amiable a man to let the who was either the memorable cousin of Miss slightest indication of surprise escape him. Lavinia or an impostor, was scarcely above the came there to please and be pleased; to concimiddle height, meagre in person, and sallow of liate as well as be coaxed into convalescence; countenance; low-voiced as a woman, and shy as and readily resigned himself to play the longest a girl! Dr. Toddles protested there was no getting rubbers of the longest possible whist, for the smallest a word out of him; and the three Misses Prebbles, possible stake. In a society where he saw as great who lodged opposite, insinuated that, instead of a preponderance of petticoats as the one he had coming to Apston with killing intentions, the gal- just quitted exhibited of red coats, agreeable comlant Captain was evidently come there to die; panionship could not be wanting. Though disapafflicted with an incipient jaundice, or far gone in pointed of a "lovely young Lavinia," the Apstonians a decline. could not all be old, sour, and ugly. After half-aThis was a sad falling off, and a terrible disap-dozen years' hard fighting, he was, in short, easy pointment to Miss Lavinia. She, who had been to reconcile to a tea-table and an elbow-chair. squabbling with tax-gatherers and bullying churchwardens for the last three years on the strength of her assertion, that, "though a lone woman, she had those who would take her part; and that her cousin Captain Erskine would never see her put upon;" had scarcely patience to acknowledge the relationship of the poor enfeebled invalid, who, even in his best of times, could only have been five feet six. She felt humiliated in the person of her self-created Goliath!

There was, however, no help for it. She had threatened people too largely with her cousin, and boasted too loudly of her good intentions in his behalf, to disown him because he was slight and sickly; and aware that, having no other relations in England, it was on her account and at her suggestion he had applied for three months' leave of absence, she set about contracting her ambition to his proportions, and making the best of a bad cousin. She would not afford so great a triumph to the malice of the Toddleses, as reinstate her looking-glasses in their gauze screens, or the lustres in their canvas-bags, till the White House had rendered honour due to Captain Erskine, talis qualis.

For, after all, insignificant as he might look, he was fresh from the field of glory; and though such silly little ladies as the Misses Prebbles might feel disappointed that he had not made his appearance in regimentals, he was unquestionably many degrees nearer the heroic than either the mayor, the vicar, or the apothecary.

The new-comer, meanwhile, little aware of all that had been expected of him, arrived at Apston, hoping to recruit his health and spirits after a harassing campaign, so as to enable him to return to a profession which occupied every ambition of his soul; knowing of the Miss Meade by whom he had been so strenuously invited, only that she was the rich and heirless niece of his excellent mother, by whom, in her last moments, he had been enjoined to cultivate her good-will. He came, therefore without mistrust. Though ill and dispirited, he had experienced in too many professional emergencies the kindliness of the gentler sex towards a suffering soldier, not to feel assured of sympathy in one whose tenderness as a woman must be enhanced by congeniality of blood. Perhaps, indeed, the Captain may have felt almost as much disappointed in the spare, rectangular, ungainly being who presented herself to his

The gentlemanly manners and yielding temper of Captain Erskine would perhaps have eventually found favour in the feline eyes of his cousin, had not the defeated toady, on perceiving Miss Lavinia grow accustomed to his quiet presence at the White House, seized every occasion to twit her with the unenergetic tameness of her Bobadil; not as presuming to find fault with him on her own account, but expressing her regret that the valiant knight, on whom they had reckoned as so rampant a Romeo, should have sunk into the laughing-stock of the place! Miss Toddles protested that the Misses Prebbles had privately assured her, not one of them would accept him, were he worth a million per annum !

"No fear of their being tempted, I can promise them!" cried Miss Lavinia, in her shrillest tones; and from that day, though more pettish and fractious than usual with the gentle invalid, she began to drop hints among her female friends, that the young ladies of Apston need not look quite so disparagingly upon a man who, if not an Adonis, was heir-presumptive to three thousand a-year!

And now, Captain Erskine had indeed a hard time of it. Between the peevishness of the old maid, who treated him almost as a dependant, and the forced civilities of her associates, he felt thoroughly disgusted. More than two months, however, remained unexpired of his leave; and with only his pay to depend upon, and the remembrance of his mother's dying injunction, he felt that he must bear and forbear with his kinswoman.

It was luckily summer time; and there were the woods, and fields, and animated waters of the Severn, to diversify his walks. Between the river and the ledgy cliffs rising high above, was a winding path on a margin of short green turf, which, at three quarters of a mile from the town, was cut short by the fall of a rapid brook into the Severn. But over the brook was a wooden bridge, connecting the two sides of the narrow valley severed by its waters; a valley of fertile meadows, now compressed by a rocky gorge, now opening with outspreading verdure, through which the little brook meandered like a truant idling away its time, and loath to leave those pleasant pastures, with their thickets of alder and maple, and the gay profusion of wild flowers which water-meadows are apt to engender.

when Captain Erskine ventured to open the cottage-door, and look out without hazard of alarm to its trembling inmates, so sweet and refreshing an air burst in to relieve the stifling atmosphere of that close chamber, that an ejaculation of general thankfulness was irrepressible.

This secluded valley was a favourite resort of Captain Erskine; perhaps, because out of distance for the elderly ladies of Apston, while even the younger ones preferred the frequented promenades in the suburbs of the town. He took care never to ask them why they never bent their steps so far as the Bournefields; and once, when the spot was alluded to at the White House tea-table, spoke of it as damp and dreary,-so that he enjoyed his favourite walk all to himself, that is, almost to himself for once or twice he had noticed there a meanly-dressed young girl, as insignificant-look-young stranger upon her release from her panic. ing as himself, who appeared to be carrying a parcel, as if employed in business.

One very oppressive afternoon, he found her seated halfway in the valley, under shelter of one of the thickets of maple-bushes; and as thunder was beginning to growl in the distance, apprized her, as a mere act of charity, that a heavy storm was coming on, and that a few hundred yards further up the valley, was a house that might afford her better security. Deeply colouring, and apparently too much alarmed at being spoken to, to reply or resist, she rose from the ground, and followed Captain Erskine's directions at so rapid a pace, that when, some minutes afterwards, he availed himself of the same shelter, he found her already installed with the old cresswoman, the proprietress of that wretched abode, to whom she was apparently well known.

"I told ye awhile ago, Miss Margaret, my dear," said the poor woman, familiarly, yet respectfully, "that thunner was coming on, and you'd best bide wi' me till a'ter the storm. But you wouldn't be guided."

"I was in hope of getting home before the rain began," replied the young girl, neither refusing nor accepting the wooden stool pushed towards her by Captain Erskine; but standing beside it, and peering through the small window of the hovel, as if to examine the weather, not very easy to be scrutinized through the cracked and clouded panes. Soon, however, the storm commenced in fearful earnest; and the cottage was so frightfully shaken to its foundation by every fresh peal, that all ceremony among its inmates was thrown aside. Margaret, whoever she might be, hastily flung off her bonnet, and covering her face with her hands, knelt down on the clay-floor, concealing it, either in prayer or agony, against the seat she had rejected; while Captain Erskine was occupied in surmising what would be the result should the electric fluid set fire to the thatch, the lurid flashes seeming every moment to reach the threshold of the hovel which they illumined with fearful brightness.

But either the prayers of Margaret, or the helplessness of the poor old cress-woman, propitiated the genius of the storm. Though at the first qutburst it seemed concentrated on that devoted spot, by degrees, the crashing thunder followed less immediately the momentary glare, diminishing alike in violence and frequency. During these pauses, the loud pattering of the rain was now distinctly heard, At length, even the rain seemed to abate. The growling march of the storm had evidently outstripped the limits of the valley; and

Margaret rose from her knees, and joined him on the threshold; and while the shower still fell heavily beyond the eaves, all within was so calm, so sheltered, that, instead of warning her from the open air, he stood smilingly congratulating the

But he did not smile long. He saw, from the redness of her eyes, that she had been really weeping, and from the gravity of her brow, that she had been absorbed in prayer. Moreover, the old woman was muttering in her tremulous voice allusions to Mount Sinai and the manifestations of Jehovah in the olden time, which rendered jesting out of place. So Captain Erskine contented himself with speaking kindly instead of jokingly to his new friend: for friends they already were. After that storm and those tears, it was impossible to feel himself a stranger to Margaret. She was no longer the shy girl who sat pulling the beard from an ear of rye-grass under the maple bushes; but a gentle creature, to whom he had whispered words of solace when shrinking from the terrors of the voice of God.

While assisting her to tie on her bonnet, he had occasion to remark the delicacy of her features. She was not a beauty, perhaps; but she was pleasanter to look upon than a score of beauties; and though still apprehensive that she belonged to the workingclass, it could not be to a class of very hard workers; for her hands were slender and white, and smooth as alabaster. He could not be mistaken on that point,-having contrived to hold one of them some seconds within his own when assisting her from her kneeling position.

When the moment of sunshine came that fully justified her departure for the town, Erskine was divided between his desire to bear her company by the way, and his wish to remain behind and crossquestion their poor old hostess. A little management reconciled both temptations. While offering the old woman a pecuniary acknowledgment of her civility, he lingered longer to receive her thanks than was his wont on such occasions, in order to obtain an answer to his question of "Does Miss Margaret belong to Apston?"

"Where else should she belong to, after being born and bred there!" was the unpolished reply. " Though, having her own living to get, poor young lady, ever sin' the death of her father, (who was master to the grammar-school, and left her bitter bread, and little enough on't,) she might as well have set up in business elsewhere. Hows'ever, the ladies, she says, begins to employ her; and well they may; for a sweeter, more charitabler young lady never trod the earth. My sons, now at sarvice, were scholars to her poor father: and so she's apt to stop here and rest o' days, on her way up to Hobart's Farm, when she carries home her work."

This was enough for Erskine, He determined noe

to enter Apston with the poor young girl, seeing that she was of a condition of life to be injured in reputation by his attentions. Yet, somehow or other, -either because the path being slippery from the rain, Margaret loitered by the way, or because he found it difficult to slacken his usual soldierly pace,-before ten minutes had elapsed, they were walking side-by-side; nay, more than side-byside, arm-in-arm! But this was decidedly the fault of the slipperiness of the path, which rendered it dangerous for the young girl to traverse the wooden bridge without support. Arrived on terra firma at the opposite side, they probably forgot to separate.

But Captain Erskine was more to blame than his companion; for before they parted he managed to ascertain on what day Margaret had promised to carry home her work to the farm; evidently not with the intention of avoiding the Bournefields at the moment specified. It required more than light-infantry philosophy to withstand such a temptation.

their faces with as little fear or reverence as before the alder-bushes, were alone cognizant of their growing friendship: let us emulate their discretion, and keep the counsel of the lovers.

The venerable cottager, indeed, unversed in social etiquette, thought it strange, perhaps, that Miss Margaret, who had a quiet comfortable room of her own, (over the upholsterer's in the Market Place at Apston,) should prefer receiving lessons in botany in the open air, exposed to vicissitudes of weather, and with only a mossy bank to rest on, when tired of rambling. The swallows, perhaps, were wiser. But no matter.

Meanwhile, so far from the pleasant rambles of Captain Erskine in the Bournefields rendering him less patient under the thwartings of his maiden aunt, or less courteous to the circle of her tabby friends, his nature seemed to become milder than ever under the influence of a heartfelt passion. His growing affection for his poor Margaret-poor and simple, but neither unlettered nor unrefined-seemed to inspire him with indulgence In spite of the stunning storm and the wet for the failings of her whole sex. He could not grass, he had, in fact, been spending the pleasant- expect, indeed, that the Misses Prebbles, the vain est morning he had enjoyed since his arrival at daughters of a silly mother, should have received Apston. After the shrill voice of his cousin, after so solid an education as the schoolmaster's child; the frightened looks of her household, after the nor was his rich old cousin, spoiled into selfishness silly affectations of the Misses Prebbles, and the from her very cradle, likely to emulate the saintspiteful emptiness of the rest of the White House liness of spirit of one accustomed to the buffets of coterie, the mild and unaffected deportment of Fortune, yet so conscious of her own incompeMargaret was as refreshing to his heart as the soft tency to resist them, that she preferred stitching outline of her youthful features to his eyes. To for her bread in her native place, to the hazard of meet with a woman, a womanly woman, after harsh usage among strangers as a teacher or goconsorting with that horde of tabbies, was a temp- verness. tation beyond any inflicted upon St. Antony of Padua.

:

It happened just then that the old matron of Hobart's Farm and her comely daughters, must have been more than usually in want of replenishment for their wardrobe; or that Margaret's mantua-making was sorely in need of alteration. For almost every day, certainly every fine day, she had occasion to carry home work, or bring away orders. And it would appear as if, unwilling to lose time on the road, she devoted it to a course of botany for if the old cress-woman, the sole inhabitant of that secluded valley, had been inclined to make observations, she could not have failed to perceive that irriguous as were the windings of the brook, Miss Margaret and her new friend preferred following them to the utmost, for the sake of having the waterflowers (of which they were doubtless discoursing) nearer at hand, than to keep to the pathway. Except, indeed, that Margaret occasionally cast down her eyes upon a bunch of forget-me-nots, bluer than the rest, presented to her by her preceptor, she seemed to give no great attention to his lessons. But Erskine must have been a grave teacher; for he was a man who seldom smiled; and but that there was a gentleness in his voice more encouraging than the warmest compliment, might have passed for a man of cold and reserved temper.

No need, however, to pry into the wanderings of the inoffensive couple. The old cress-woman, and the swallows that skimmed the brook before

And so, Captain Erskine's increased deference towards the tiresome old lady, and the consideration with which he did not suffer even his course of botany to interfere with due submission to her hours and domestic arrangements, so softened her feelings in return, that towards the end of his leave of absence, she began to count the days as anxiously as himself. Not one of the old ladies, from the vicarage downwards, (with the exception of Toady Toddles,) but had observed to her, "I'm sure, Ma'am, I don't know what we shall do when the Captain is gone: the Captain is the life and soul of our parties." And though the Prebbles' trio whispered apart, that " it was but still life after all," Miss Lavinia heaved a sigh as she reflected upon the dreariness of her cousinless day's to come.

Just, however, as she was on the point of inquiring whether an extension of leave were out of the question, there arrived, per post, a letter of extra dimensions, yet free of postage, bearing printed on the address, " On His Majesty's Service;" and within, an intimation from the HorseGuards, that his Majesty's service had no further need of the second battalion of the gallant corps to which Captain Alexander Erskine had the honour to belong.-At Christmas it was to be disbanded.

This was a terrible blow to one who had been fighting the flesh off his bones for six years in Spain; and whose face was still sallow with privation and toil, For he knew that he had not sufficient

interest at the Horse-Guards to get on active service again, at a moment when so many officers were thrown on their own resources by the arrangements of the peace establishment; and lo! there was nothing before him but half-pay, and a few hundreds of prize-money, and what was at that period emphatically called blood-money, still due for the sufferings of his peninsular campaign. "But your old uncle, Sir John Erskine?" suggested Miss Lavinia, the agitation of his feelings having betrayed to her the nature of the communication he had received.

ence.

"My old uncle has little interest with the present administration, and no parliamentary influGovernment, in rewarding his services with a baronetcy, thought it had done enough. Nor is he able to assist me otherwise than in my profession. Sir John has three young unmarried daughters to provide for."

Miss Lavinia preserved an awful silence. Her grisly eyebrows were elevated, and her severe mouth primly pursed up, as much as to say, Expect no liberalities from me." But it was not of her the disbanded Captain was thinking at that moment.

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Captain Erskine's heart thrilled within him. Yet he scarcely dared give way to the delicious hopes, the charming prospects, opening around him.

"In short, cousin," resumed the spinster, with a grim smile, "not to waste more breath upon the matter, what I have to say is-MARRY! and your wife and family have a home ready provided for them at the White House. All I expect in her is a cheerful companion, willing to make herself pleasant and useful, so long as my time lasts, and calculated to do honour to my name and place; which she will inherit after I am gone to a better world."

Breathless from emotion, Captain Erskine scarcely knew to which first to dedicate his thanks,

to Providence or his generous cousin. While he was still pressing his lips to her bony hand, she continued; and for once, her harsh, creaking voice, was music to his ear.

"I have always a little fund laid up at the Apston bank, for a rainy day," said she. "As many hundreds as may be necessary to make a merry wedding, shall be placed to your account. I do not mean to do things skimpingly. Dr. After a cheerless pause, during which the click- Toddles and his sister are fond of hinting, when ing of the old-fashioned buhl clock on the mantel- my back is turned, that with my fortune, I ought piece became as audible as at dead of night, to cut a better figure in the world. I mean to the weird-woman suddenly exclaimed, " Cousin! show them, ay, and others in Apston too, who shall when I thought you were going to wish me good-be nameless, that, when occasion needs, I do not by in a day or two, I felt lonesomer at the notion of parting from you than I ever expected to feel at the loss of any living companion. Your ways suit me, Captain Erskine. You give little trouble in the house, and make no noise; and, betwixt friends, I should not mind having you for a permanent inmate, if it were not for the evil tongues of this wicked world."

A blush, deep enough to be visible even through the sallowness of his complexion, overspread the cheeks of the soldier. To live and die at Apston, was certainly just then the height of his ambition. But a terrible suspicion glanced into his mind during the second clause of the old damsel's address, that she was desirous of drawing yet closer the ties of relationship between them. As he glanced towards her hard, perpendicular figure, and a countenance furrowed with all that is meanest of the cares and solicitudes of life, the notion of such a Mrs. Alexander Erskine caused his blood to curdle.

But he was speedily undeceived. "For this, however," she primly resumed, "there is a remedy. I am getting in years, cousin; and, as it will probably please Providence to assign me length of days, (as to my forefathers before me,) I cannot deny that it might be a comfort to have companions of my own kith and kin about me, in place of interested folks, who have no thought but feathering their nests by the plucking of mine. Nay, it might be even a pleasure to see a younger generation growing up around me. Though I have chosen to avoid, on my own account, the cares of a family, I am not averse to children; especially such as I should have a right to inspect in the rearing."

lose sight of my family credit."

"My dear Madam,-my dear cousin!"-faltered Captain Erskine, deeply penetrated by such unlooked-for generosity.

"The only point on which I have to restrict you," said she, interrupting his demonstrations, "is your choice of a wife. I am not so narrow in my notions as to fancy there is any one in Apston worthy to share the noble fortune I destine for you. The Misses Prebbles shall learn, to their cost, that my heir may go further and fare better in his selection."

Captain Erskine was about to reply; but Miss Lavinia chose to be heard to an end.

"You spoke just now," said she, "of Sir John Erskine's daughters. You have often mentioned them before, as pretty, and pretty-behaved young ladies, presented at court, and moving in the circles becoming their birth. Among the three, it is hard but you find one to suit you, and whom you will suit. Hasten, therefore, to London; make your choice; and pursue your courtship with fitting discretion; and when the time comes to disclose your inclinations to your uncle, inform him that your mother's family is somewhat better to do in the world than your father's; and that your nearest maternal kinswoman is content to settle a thousand per annum upon your bride. What you may both inherit at her death, will be contingent on your future behaviour."

Miss Lavinia naturally prepared her bony hand for a repetition of the salutation already imprinted. But Captain Erskine's lips were ready neither with kisses nor thanksgivings. He was paralyzed! It was but natural his cousin should conclude it to be from joy.

"I shall like to hear what Apston will be pleased | ever, and his prospects of inheritance vanished

Infuriated as she was, however, Miss Lavinia was resolved to do the amplest justice. Instead of giving way to her temper or her prejudices, she generously gave a choice to her cousin ; offering to overlook the insult to herself and roof conveyed loveless and joyless being; and little surmise of by the infamous connexion he had been carrying the designing malevolence with which her bitter on with what 'she was pleased to term "the very spirit was daily aggravated against him and his dregs of the people," and confirm all her noble pre- young wife, by Miss Toddles ;-never weary of dispositions in his behalf, on condition of his break-dwelling upon the luxurious manner in which her ing off his acquaintance with the worthless creature he had presumed to name in her presence, and undertaking to pay his addresses to one of the three Miss Erskines.