that so many dresses were sent for her, and imputed it to the hurry of her damsels to save her property from Oliver Sinclair. Lady Glammis assured her of his defeat, and she believed her father had been at Glammis Castle: so she was spared anxiety on his account. chests she brought from Balveny Castle. Annabel secretly wished she could flog him for the officious question, and she could almost have flogged herself for negligence in securing the door of a room where the packages were stowed. Neither Andrew nor his younger sisters had seen Lord Balveny or Lord Ormond; they The horses were ready, covered were not privileged to appear in the with splendid caparisons that had hall till Wilmina asked that indul- seen better days, but now were targence for them. Annabel alone was nished by time. The escort assisted the depositary of her mother's se- Lady Glammis to mount, and Wilcrets when a coadjutor, was indis- mina lightly vaulted upon her saddle pensable, and one more able she before the men could offer their sercould not desire. She pretended not vices: they proceeded more slowly to have heard Andrew's interroga- than she wished; but she was pas tory, and talked loudly and rapidly sive, in consideration of her sister's on some other subject: but the youth age and bulk. As they drew near was not to be daunted by her frowns, the Cistercian abbey of Vallis Lunor out-prattled by her volubility; cis, Lady Glammis proposed to pass he asked so knowingly about the the night with her sister-in-law, the -chests, that Wilmina applied to Lady saintly lady abbess of the convent. Glammis, who seasonably opened the Wilmina had heard Mary of Glamdoor. She was a little disconcerted; mis warmly commended by her brofor as Wilmina agreed to go south ther Andrew. He said she was by/land, her ladyship intended to younger than Susannah, and older keep the chests till demanded, and than Hannah; not so pretty as eiishe trusted to her own machinations ther, but the best of all his sisters. to prevent the inquiry after her sis- She quarrelled with nobody, was -ter left the castle. She hesitatingly obliging to all, and never discontentanswered, that till Wilmina had re-ed. In allusion to the traces of smallgained more strength to arrange the contents, she delayed telling her that -packages were brought to the castle by the Glammis tenants, who received them from foreign sailors. There - was self-denial in this delay, for she sand her girls were anxious to see the far-famed wardrobe: would Wilmina gratify them with a display? Wil-niece, and would have travelled mamina immediately complied, and made handsome presents to her sister and nieces. Lady Glammis gave orders to send the chests south by sea. Annabel knew how far the order should pox on her visage, Lady Glammis, turning up her eyes with a sanctified air, said, the Lord had marked Mary of Glammis for himself; yet she yearned to see her once more ere she renounced for ever all connection with the world. Wilmina with real pleasure agreed to visit her ny miles to embrace her. On this oc- was evidently elated when her lady ship held out her hand to be kissed by the gentle affectionate girl. She had none of the beauty her sisters were taught to overvalue; but her face was the index of qualities that might benefit the world she was des tined to quit, without consulting her These reflections were confined to her own breast. Lady Glammis sel dom mentioned her father, nor did she encourage Wilmima to talk of him; the name of the knight of Drum mond she had never heard since the old woman asked her in the isolated tower, whether he was young or old, as she spoke much of him in her de-inclinations. Lady Glammis Dintilirium. Wilmina's cheeks glowed and tingled at the question: she put off her attendant with an indirect reply; saying, the knight of Drummond had been a hero in the wars of England, France, and Scotland. The good nurse supposed he could not be young, and dropped the inquiry, leaving Wilmina to think not only of his high renown, but to recal his domestic qualities, with the most endearing associations. mated a wish for private communion with her daughter, and the lady abbess desired Mary to conduct her mother to her dormitory. Her ladyship seated herself on the bed, ono seats being allowed but in public apartments. Mary, with downcast eyes, stood at a respectful distance, attending in unsuspicious reverence the insidious counsels of her mother. "Mary of Glammis once! now the happier bride of Him that loveth and gave himself for the souls of the elect! Mary! I charge you to eultivate the favour of your aunt: re A lowering sky added gloom to the long dusky avenue shaded by trees, the growth of ages, beneath whose meeting branches Lady Glam-member, it is to be obtained only by ¿mis, Wilmina, and their escort ap- dismissing in her presence all conproached the convent, situated with- ventual grave airs. The Lady Wilin view of the abbey of Vallis Lu- mina has an inward call to the blisscise. Wilmina shuddered on enter-ful self-devotion of religious life, and it will be inexpiable sin, if the nuns or novices frustrate the benign invitations of the Holy Spirit by wearing an aspect of melancholy, Donyou, my once daughter, warn all the sisters to shew in their looks and deportment a joy untasted amidst our wicked world.") ar at me 5 bo 1 ing the walls, where the stillness as of death presented a fit emblem of the living tomb. The lady abbess gave them a sedate, but cordial welcome. Her face and figure might have resembled Susannah her niece in youth; but her blue eyes had a cast upwards that marked the pious aspirations of her soul. Her cheek was pale, and her demeanour composed: yet Wilmina could perceive the poignancy and elevation of her feelings, since, on any touching theme,shed betrayed a wildness of aspect, restrained by determined self-controul. To acted a Mary paid her duty to Lady Glammis with a subdued timid air, and Mary implicitly obeyed her mother. If the injunction had come from other lips, her pure mind would have revolted against the assumption of false appearances; but inured to submit without questioning, or even presuming to examine, maternal commands, she innocently drew on herself a stern reprehension from some elders of the sisterhood. She saw the error, and gave the night to re- | attempted to make a display of elo pentant tears, and to prayers in behalf of her mother. Before the escort was dismissed to quarters, Wilmina said to Lady Glammis, it was her duty, her fervent wish, to rest only one night on the way to Balveny Castle. She would go forward thither with the earliest dawn of day. Lady Glammis had her own reasons for desiring to leave Vallis Lucis: she told Wilmina she would not be remiss in taking measures for her satisfaction; and when they had partaken of simple refreshments, her ladyship said to the lady abbess, she had family matters for her private ear; Mary would converse with her aunt. Lady Glammis made known to the lady abbess the afflicting communication she must impart to her sister. The lady abbess recommended that Wilmina should receive it in bed; and when her young guest would have taken leave for the night, she said, with an affectionate pressure of her hand, that her benediction would attend the repose of her dear daughter in the Lord. The heart-rending intelligence of Lord Balveny's fate suspended every faculty of the mourner, though softened by the most tender sympathy, and some delicate reservation of particulars, when communicated by the abbess. Days elapsed before Wilmina found relief in tears; and so petrifying had been her anguish, that the clamorous sorrow of Lady Glamninis seemed not to touch her ear. The lady abbess exhorted Lady Glammis to resignation, or at least to quietude, beseeming a daughter whose tears embalmed the memory of a Christian parent; and her ladyship, finding her parade of grief unavailing, suppressed the exclamatory lament, and quent sensibility; wringing her hands while a torrent of speech poured from her lips, contrasting her own woes as the wife of an attainted lord, the mother of unprotected daughters,i bereaved of her father, her only stay; and admonishing Wihnina to take her example of fortitude. The ab bess was employed in chafing the temples and cold hands of Wilmina. Her eyes opened with a vacant gaze? and but for the slow heaving of her breast, a beholder might conclude her spirit had escaped from affliction to the eternal mansions of peace. Lady Glammis continued to speak? the abbess turned to her a penetrat ing look, and said, "Lady Glammis, the agony of lacerated nature over whelms your sister. By a suspension of our distinct perception, the mer ciful Redeemer sustains frail huma || nity, until, in slow degrees, the pang grows less acute, and reflections died tated by the assuasive influence of piety produce resignation. Your words cannot at present make any impression. Your sister hears themt not: you have filled the air with sounds of woe, but they penetrated not to her mind: her eyes are open) she sees us not. The Lord in his own time will restore her." : Lady Glammis submitted to the rebuke, and was silent. Her sister-in-law had great wealth: the mention of unprotected daughters was introdu ced as an appeal to her liberality, and to prevent her from endowing the convent to the prejudice of her nieces. The abbess said, that as Lady Glammis purposed so soon to leave Vallis Lucis, her daughter would be disappointed, if during her stay she had so little of her society. Lady Glammis was not averse to take all the variety she could find, and wents in search of Mary and some amusement. The abbess seldom left Wilmina; but she spoke only to invoke the saints to send her comfort in her tribulation. On the second morning she found the mourner out of bed, and calm though dejected. Wilmina asked Lady Glammis to procure for her habiliments suitable to her situation. At these words the sluices of grief overflowed; the abbess beckoned Lady Glammis from the apartment, and Wilmina wept unrestrained. Hers was no ordinary affliction. A parent, whose excellencies dignified his family, and whose kindness sweetened every moment of her life, had embraced her for the last time they parted in perfect health: she should behold him no more; he was laid in the earth, and she had not breathed a prayer nor dropped a tear over his loved remains; his mouldering corpse was for ever removed from her view Could she hope to experience from Archibald even the indulgence of visiting her father's grave, unless she accepted Ormond? This thought was verging ón distraction. Sooner would she forfeit life than give herself to Ormond; and Drummond, the sole engrosser of her orphan heart, since her dear, dear father was no more— Drummond, the only earthly stay of her happiness, who would conduct him to her? Her meditations were broken by Lady Glammis. After a few sentences of common-place condolence and religious advice, she subjoined bise !! 275 it is too sure that the moment your 66 she far smos bas "The church, and the laws and customs of our land, require obedi ence to your brother Archibald," said Lady Glammis imperiously; and Archibald commands you to become the bride of Lord Ormond. It must be so, if you venture, to leave this sanctuary. I speak for your own I have no doubt you will approve happiness, my sister. You are form the caution which delayed giving bited to animate, to adorn, and exalt ter tidings, till I could lodge you in the offices of religion; and in that safety from Lord Ormond's perse hallowed vocation your felicity will cuting love, my dear Wilmina. Alas! be almost angelic. But if you cast yourself upon the world, you expose all the subsequent events of your lot to the controul and dictation of our eldest brother. He has said you shall be the wife of Ormond, and he never has been known to alter a decree. Who can interfere to save you from a detested marriage, or to restore you to Drummond? Archibald is your ruler, and no friend: if your friends were numerous as they are few, none could have a right to interfere between you and your natural director." "I will adhere to the ties completely ratified by my dear and honoured father," said Wilmina. "The God of truth will not forsake me, while I humbly endeavour to tread the path of duty. My friends, though small in number, are true; and my trust is in the Lord and his saints." the orphan from a marriage with the dissolute Ormond. She must remain at Vallis Lucis till Lord Bal veny gave orders concerning her; and if the nuns and novices did not frighten her with grim faces, she might be weaned from the world. If she took the veil, Lord Balveny must bestow on her a pension according to her rank and the riches left by her father. The abbess, in compassion to her soul, would no doubt engage her to shun the wedded influence of a man so wicked as Ormond. convent was her only protection from him; and if the sisterhood laid aside for a time the austerity of their de meanour, she would not be deterred from joining their order for life. The "With my concurrence, Lady Glammis," replied the abbess, "no fallacious show of cheerfulness shall Lady Glammis felt it would be mislead your sister: but if she can waste of time to admonish a girl so comprehend the heart-enjoyments of inflexible, but the abbess might have sincere piety, she may here experimore influence. Wilmina evincedence them; and when she has seen high esteem for her, and she had us as we really are, I shall endeapowers of persuasion seldom equal-vour, as in duty bound, to save her led. Her ladyship sought the ab- from the snares of the world." bess; related the conversation with (To be concluded in our next.) her sister, and besought her to save tion, I actually worked myself up into a far-niente fever. I was no sportsman; I was no reader; and I had too much honesty and humanity to be a gamester. In short, I began PERHAPS the most difficult thing | Being of a restless, nervous disposiin the world to do well is-nothing. It is an art in itself, and one I could never acquire. It used therefore to be a source of considerable annoyance to me that I had nothing to do. I could not rest quiet under the no-to think myself an absolute nonentity. tion, that I was a perfect drone in Turning this in my thoughts one the creation. It is true, that in my day as usual, I said to myself, "What youth I had led an active life; but am I?" An answer to this question this served only to make the idleness suddenly flashed across my mind. that afflicted me the more oppressive. I'm a consumer. That's it exactly. |