That day was a new era in my grandmother's existence :— in Herbert Morland she saw the hero that her girlish imagination, nourished by solitude, had created, and when she returned home at night, it was to a pillow haunted with sweet dreams and sweeter thoughts of the gallant, frank, handsome young soldier, whose admiring eyes and lowered tones when he addressed her indicated, even to her inexperienced heart, that her feelings were not unreciprocated.

A week passed away without any change in the intercourse between the hall and the cottage, when one morning, at breakfast, Lord Amesford addressed his ward with even more than his accustomed solemnity :-" Lady Millicent," he said, "I have a matter of considerable importance to communicate to you alone: I must request, therefore, the honour of an interview in your private apartment, at eleven o'clock precisely."

My grandmother trembled from head to foot-what could it be?— something disagreeable, she felt sure; but to avoid, or even postpone it, she knew was impossible: so, blushing and stammering, she replied, her time was at his lordship's disposal, and prepared herself, with what courage she might, for the dreaded encounter.

As the clock struck eleven, Lord Amesford knocked at the door, which the trembling girl hastened to open, and then, slowly advancing, he took a chair by his ward.

There was a momentary pause, during which my grandmother might have counted the beating of her heart.

"I have requested this interview to-day, Lady Millicent," began Lord Amesford, " because I consider it high time that you should be informed of my intentions-and I may say those of your late father-concerning you; they are that you shall, on arriving at your majority, if not before that time, become the wife of my son, by which means the estates and title will be reunited in his and your persons, and descend undivided to