my own, you inherit them from me,-as children of —but why waste sophistry upon that concerning which it is so impossible to argue, and so easy to feel!" cried Danby. "If you love me, Cecil, (and I am convinced you do,it is my comfort to believe that you do!~) you will let all proceed as it has ever done;—you will conduct yourself towards Lord Ormington as I do, you will obliterate as much as possible from your mind all we have been compelled to witness; and neither dishonour the dead nor grieve the living, by resenting what it does not belong to you, my dear brother, to pass in judgment."

Still, though solaced by his arguments, I could not refrain from bitter allusions to the hardness of my destinies.

"We do not choose our fortunes!" was Danby's mild reply. "As far as I have seen of human life, the compensations of Providence are so nicely balanced, that, even in this world, a more equal measure of good and evil is be

stowed than we care to admit. I have had my afflictions, Cecil. I have laid in the grave a wife and child, such as it is a severe trial to survive. Even the joy of possessing such a treasure as I have in Jane-but we will not discuss this further!" said he, on perceiving that his allusion to poor little Arthur had driven every tinge of colour from my cheek.— "I ask it of your friendship, Cecil, which is very dear to me; I ask it of your discretion, as fated (whatever rash struggles your unavailing generosity may attempt,) to succeed me in my family honours, to conduct yourself in this emergency with the same deference to the interests of our name and the opinion of the world, which has marked the forbearing conduct of Lord Ormington."

I obeyed, I will not say complied ;-for I felt that Danby was entitled to give the law

to me.

According to the absurd exigencies of aristocratic life, therefore, Lady Ormington's crimson

velvet and gilded cherubim, after being watched over with all the pomps of undertakerhood, were conveyed by an inconvenient journey to a remote family seat, to be laid among the remains' of the family on which she had bestowed an unlawful heir;-nay, as if to complete the mockery of this world-serving ceremonial, "Lord Ormington and his two afflicted sons met the body at Ormington Hall, and officiated as chief mourners at the affecting ceremony."

So said the county paper; following up the announcement by a description of the doles distributed to the poor, the hanging of the church with black, the muffled bells, the funeral sermon !-While all the time of that consignment of the sinner to her grave, the hearts of her sons were stricken with terror as they stood by her coffin to listen to the words of the burial service" I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that, though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see GOD!"—

The night before the funeral train quitted London, having complied with Danby's request that I would remain with him and Lord Ormington in Hanover Square to set off with them on their melancholy duty,-restless and irritable,-I found myself unable to resist my inclination to enter once more the chamber of death.

I knew that all had been disposed for the departure of the body at day-break ;—and concluded that the coffin, thus closed, was left there to the stillness and darkness of the night. The ceremonial of such occasions was new to me; and I started back with horror on perceiving the mass of black plumes upon the coffin lid, the flowing pall,-the hassocks placed around for the farewell prayers of the afflicted family-but far more, on perceiving that a solitary mourner was really praying beside the dead!

It was Lord Ormington !-so absorbed by the thoughts that bowed down his grey head

upon the pall of her whom as the bride of his youth he had loved so fondly, and for whom, as the curse of his age, he had made such mighty sacrifices, that he did not perceive my entrance into the room.

I stood there for a moment in silence, contemplating the scene.

The chamber in which Lady Ormington had breathed her last was the boudoir where, in my infancy, I had seen her absorbed, heart, soul and body, by the frivolities of life;—where I had traced the flowers of the Axminster carpet while listening to the rustling of her brocade. And now, her corpse was lying in the chamber, into which, a hundred times, I had seen her emerge, radiant, perfumed, fluttering with vanity and the last new fashion, to welcome Sir Lionel Dashwood!-There stood the sofa on which they used to sit together,

Smiling as if earth contained no tomb;

reckless of the condemnations of either this