"Dearest and best!" cried the General,

kissing her, " you shall have your revenge now, if you like it.”

"Oh, no! not now, if you please; you know it is time for a little music."

66

Ay, very true: let us have that delicious Di Piacer!" and, to the regret of Miss Macalpine, music banished cards: not that she disliked music, only she liked cards better.

"Is your Lordship fond of our Scottish airs ?" said Miss Macalpine, addressing Lord Mowbray.

"I like them now and then, when they are sung with taste and spirit, and in the true Scottish style; but I am afraid," (smiling) "that my real predilection is for Italian music.”

“Well, you shall hear Lady Emily sing

'Will ye go to the Ewebuchts, Marian?' and tell me true, if ever ye heard the like, far or near!"

They now adjourned to the music-room: Lady Frances sat down to the piano; Lady Emily drew the harp towards her; the General took his flute, and the concert commenced.

There is something in a family concert, even when the performers are only moderately skilled in music, which is peculiarly harmonious, owing to a kindred touch and feeling; and also perhaps to the habit of studying and playing together and if this be the case in merely instrumental pieces, how much more decidedly is it so in vocal music. Is there any thing more striking than the similar tones which harmonize so divinely together in the voices of near relations who sing in parts? they are like shades of the same colours, all differing, yet all agreeing, fading, mingling, contrasting, and blending in one perfectly harmonious whole. When listening to the concord of sweet sounds thus poured forth from fraternal and filial song, it is difficult to conceive that a moral concord should not always continue to exist between the parties; and that the soft melody of sweetly attuned voices should not pervade the whole of their intercourse with each other. But, alas! relations are parted-sometimes cruelly parted, by the jealous or evil passions of others: absence produces estrangement; estrangement

leads to forgetfulness; and all the sweet influences of natural affection are dispersed and vanish like those dulcet sounds which die in their very birth. It is, however, some consolation to think, that the ties of consanguinity cannot be broken by mortal hatred or mortal malice; they will, every now and then, make themselves to be felt: and the sound of a wellknown voice, or the melody of an oft-sung air, will frequently bring back the tenderness of recollected love, after long years of cold neglect and apparent oblivion.

It was impossible, when hearing General Montgomery and his nieces tuning their voices together in song, not to feel soothed into a forgetfulness of worldly evil; and even those persons who were least alive to tender impressions, acknowledged somewhat of this balmy sensation, at least during its immediate influence.

The General's voice was most peculiar: it still retained much of the power and charm it had once possessed, and was a clear deep tenor, as singular in its quality of tone, as he was him

self unlike any being that ever lived in the union of sweetness with nobility of disposition. Lady Frances was a perfect musician; the ear found no fault with her execution and skill, but there was a touching richness in her sister's voice which spoke to every heart. Music was as necessary a mental aliment to this family as any other food is to common existence; and the General required from his nieces the tribute of a song every evening. Those who had no particular taste for music had ample freedom to absent themselves, and found abundant means of amusement in the library or the billiard

room.

Lord Mowbray having got over the first introduction, and being comfortably established on a sofa, was pleased with what he conceived to be the usual routine of the house. It suited him exactly there was an absence of form, and a tranquillity in the manners of General Montgomery, which were precisely according to his ideas of comfort. The visionary admiration which he had entertained in his fancy for Lady Emily was considerably lowered in tone; but

Lady Frances's beauty was splendid, and he found no great difficulty in transferring his penchant from the one sister to the other. As he sat, therefore, during that first evening of his arrival, admiring the graceful bend of her wellturned neck, and watching the motion of her fairy fingers, he thought inwardly that, pro viding a woman could always look as beautiful, he should care very little whether she ever did any thing better worth doing than net silk

purses.

From this wise reverie he was disturbed rather unpleasantly by Miss Macalpine's affirmation that he had never heard any thing so charming as "Will you go to the Ewebuchts, Marian?" He prepared, however, with as good a grace as he could, to have his ears excruciated by a drawling Scotch tune. In this he had been agreeably disappointed; it was a charming air, sung with exquisite feeling and simplicity; and Lady Emily afterwards proved that, though she sung Scotch airs to please Miss Macalpine, and Handel to please the General, she was not insensible to the power of