pearance of cheerfulness. She had nearly completed her seventeenth year, at the period her father began to fear his projects relative to her brother must be relinquished, and bore a strong resemblance to her mother, with this difference, that her complexion was fairer, her stature taller, her black eyes still more brilliant and expressive. Her smile evinced the sweetness of her temper, her voice proclaimed the sensibility of her soul, her actions and deportment the goodness of her heart and excellence of her understanding, both of which had been most assiduously cultivated.

She had early been taught the luxury of doing good; and that a well-improved mind, like a contented heart, was a continual feast-like the woman celebrated in the Proverbs, who cloathed her household in scarlet and purple, she stretched out her hand to the needy, though small the offering her narrow circumstances permit-.. ted it to contain; but she remembered the widow's mite, and small as it was, believed it acceptable in the eyes of heaven. Her

mother, who had all that inherent grandeur of soul for which the Spaniards are in general distinguished, had rendered her somewhat romantic, not only by their conversation, but the studies in which she had indulged her.

Munro, however, was not displeased at this, since he considered romance the parent of enthusiasm; without a certain portion of which, he believed it scarcely pos sible any thing great, any thing glorious could be achieved.

Elizabeth had heard of balls, and plays, and courts, and masquerades, and she was certain they must be all delightful; yet lively as her imagination was, she could not conceive a higher pleasure to be derived from them than she experienced when seated with an entertaining book, the offspring of some vivid and luxuriant fancy, beneath a fresh tree's shade, inhaling the light breeze that whispered through the foilage, literally wafting both health and harmony.

This pleasure was heightened by its

being one she could not always indulge in for Elizabeth had much to do at home; she had been brought up to be useful to herself and others, and the prin cipal management of the household concerns devolved on her, as soon as she was of an age to take it upon herself, her mo ther having a large share of that indolence which in general characterizes the natives of warm climates, particularly those of the one she came from-and wishing, besides, to give her a perfect knowledge of such affairs, in case she came to have a family of her own.

Equal to her love of literature, and taste for it, was Elizabeth's fondness and taste for rural scenery; she was a perfect devotee of Nature's-a bold and beautiful landscape never failed of inspiring her with a thrilling sensation of delight; nor was there any amusement which afforded her greater gratification than did such contemplations. To range over the slow rising hills-to rest on a rock whence the streamlet distilled-to watch the rising of the

golden-haired son of the sky-to behold the clouds of night come rolling down upon the dark brown steeps-the stars of the north rising over the waves of the ocean, and shewing their heads of fire through the flying mists of heaven, were all sources of inexpressible delight to her, such as inspired her mind with the most rapturous enthusiasm, and made her heart. beat with the most delicious emotions.

The prospects to which she had been accustomed from infancy, early furnished: her with ideas of the sublime, and, though in a less degree, the beautiful. The bluefading mountains of the western Highlands -a vast expanse of ocean and immense forests of fir, composed the horizon she was daily in the habit of contemplating; while nearer, the natural wildness of the scenery was here and there varied and restrained by the hand of cultivation.

The house of Munro was an antique rambling mansion, rough on the outside, and plain within; nothing fine, nothing gaudy was to be seen in any part of it, but

in one room, fitted up as a chapel for Mrs. Munro, who scrupulously adhered to the faith of her ancestors, and at which a priest from a neighbouring town at stated periods officiated.

Mrs. Munro could not forbear expressing a wish to be allowed to bring up her daughter at least in her own persuasion; but a wish which she relinquished without a murmur, since, though devout, she was not bigotted, on her husband's candidly informing her, that the indulgence of it would in all probability render his father more averse than ever to a reconciliation with him, his bigotry being excessive, and of consequence, his dislike to all who either differed, or shewed any indulgence to those who did, in the article of religion from him.

In allowing his daughter to have been educated in the religious tenets of her mother, Munro would have done no violence to his own feelings; since, though decidedly of opinion that, from the wavering nature of man, a settled form of reli