Lionel was drawing her on towards a precipice! and Augustus could not stir a step to save her; and then he heard a piercing shriek -Lucy calling to him to save her children, for Lionel was drowning them; and the sea raged, and he saw Lionel cling to the spar, just as he had often thought his brother must have done in his last moments.

Lucy was endeavouring to take hold of it also to save her life, and Lionel pushed away her hands. Hubert and Charlotte were struggling also amid the waves; and then the sea seemed suddenly to be transformed into a churchyard, and the crested foam of the billows assumed the forms of tomb-stones, and black coffins were strewed about; and Augustus thought that some of them contained the bodies of Lucy and her children buried alive; but he could not discern which they were, yet he had the painful impression that if he could but discover and open the lid, they might still be saved.

And his brother and the young Frederick were both looking on with triumphant countenances, and fiendish laughter sounded in his ears, while Augustus thought they knew, but would not tell him. And then black figures, who had been digging deep graves, came and took the coffins away, and Augustus could not stir to prevent them. And he saw three coffins laid in the dark, deep chasms, and the black earth covered over them.

With a shriek of agony he awoke, and it was a dream; but the impression left was so fearful, that although a bright sun shone into his room, it was some time before he could even realize that this was his wedding-day—the day for which he had sighed for the last fifteen years.

"Oh! why could I not have done right!" he thought; "why could I not have acted as her father would have wished!" And he felt utterly unworthy of the prize he had obtained.

With feverish haste he dressed; he would

not be at peace till he arrived in London and made his will.

This was the only alternative. He might indeed postpone the marriage and make a settlement, but what commotion there would be; how every one would wonder, and what a disappointment it would be, too.

No, that was impossible: he must hasten the ceremony as much as possible, and start immediately for London after church.

CHAPTER XV.

FIRST LOVE.

In the meantime Lucy had passed a sleepless and anxious night; for the idea of leaving her children, from whom she had never yet been separated for a single day, depressed her more than she had thought possible.

Hubert had not been well for some days; and as he now slept by her side, his little pale, upturned face had an expression of suffering which was very touching.

A bright moonlight shone into the room,

for Lucy had opened the shutters when she found she could not sleep, having no light, and she felt anxious to look on the children as they slept on either side of her bed.

It had been arranged that they were to visit the Flamboroughs during her honeymoon, and old Jodkins was to accompany them.

Sir Frederick Renton was to proceed, immediately after the marriage, to a private tutor, who had undertaken to prepare him for College.

The young man had not made much progress in the culture of either head or heart during the years he had passed with his uncle.

He appeared, however, to have improved; and Augustus sometimes flattered himself that his endeavour to educate his once most wild and unruly nephew had been successful.

But, in fact, Frederick's increased appa