him so to his face, and giving him an opportu nity of vindicating himself."

The reader will perhaps observe a change in the character and style of Colonel Dangerfield when he compares his conversation and conduct with certain dialogues and incidents recorded in the commencement of our story. It is even so. Change of situation, duties, and modes of life do not make less impression on the mind than they do on the body. From the moment the colonel parted with his estate, his neighbours, and above all with Barebones, and dashed into the wilderness, his character resumed that native sagacity and vigour which wealth, indulgence, and, above all, idleness, had lulled to sleep with their syren lullabies. His mind rose with the exigences of the occasion; and whether as a soldier braving the dangers and toils of a forest war, a magistrate ruling the wild region around him more by the force of his personal authority than that of the. laws, a father instructing or providing for the wants of his children, or a husband fulfilling the duties of a household divinity, he was equally an example. His old friends on the borders of James River would hardly have known him now; and we ourselves, intimate as we were with this worthy gentleman, cannot help sometimes almost doubting his identity.

Showing how Mrs. Judith Paddock was almost frightened out of her wits.

VIRGINIA took the earliest opportunity of disclosing to Rainsford the particulars of the interview with her mother, and he expressed his grateful sense of her delicacy in withholding the secret which it had been the great object of his existence to preserve. But he foresaw, and he told her so, the painful situation in which he had placed her, and at times lamented that she had not made a full disclosure. From this period he imagined himself an object of jealous suspicion, and perverted every look, and word, and action of the colonel and Mrs. Dangerfield accordingly. Perhaps he was right; for though they preserved towards him all the appearance of outward courtesy, they could not divest themselves of that awkward embarrassment which is ever the product of the absence of confidence in those with whom we associate.

A few days had passed when, an opportunity presenting itself, Colonel Dangerfield took occasion to introduce the subject of the engagement which subsisted between Rainsford and Virginia.

"I will acknowledge, Mr. Rainsford, that all I have seen of you since you came to this part of the country has contributed to give me a fa

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ble opinion of your talents and character, endently of the obligation you have conon me and mine. In other circumstances, s an ordinary acquaintance, I should rest ed; but the relation in which you now towards my family makes it necessary I should know more of you. You will ore, I trust, not think me impertinent or as if I now take the liberty of asking a uestions."

ough in general Rainsford was highly us and sensitive, there were occasions he would rally himself into a lofty feeling mness and decision. In the latter spirit plied,

Colonel Dangerfield, you certainly have a to ask any questions you think necessary. sure they will be only such as your situaand mine render it proper for one gentleto ask another. But I must tell you beand, there are questions which, as yet, I ot, I do not feel disposed to answer.' Very well; frankly, then, where have you erally resided before you came hither ?" I cannot-I had rather be excused answerthat question."

Indeed! well, sir, may I ask the situation, umstances, and character of your family?" I am the last of my family," said Rainsford, ha shudder.

That is somewhat remarkable. I scarcely er met a human being so utterly desolate as be without relatives. You must have been y unfortunate. Are you a native of this untry?"

"I am. I have some distant relatives, but have never associated or had any interchange of kindness with them."

"And you decline giving any information on the subject of your family or fortune?"

"My family-so far I will say-my family is respectable; and as to wealth, I have more than I shall ever have occasion for. The proofs I can produce at any time."

"I am not very solicitous on that point. But you must be aware, Mr. Rainsford, that I cannot give my only daughter away to a man who not only refuses to explain who he is, but chooses himself to propose delays, for which, though he has given her sufficient reasons, he does not condescend to explain to my satisfaction."

"Is not this very proposal of delay a proof that I mean neither to wrong or deceive either her or you? Did I intend this, I should hasten the completion of that happiness which I sometimes hope I may yet enjoy. Swindlers and villains fear nothing so much as time, which sooner or later lays open all secrets."

"True, that is assuredly true," replied the colonel, musing; "but still, Mr. Rainsford-I will be plain with you-still you must confess, if you know any thing of the world and of the intercourse of mankind, that the man who declines giving a reasonable solution to any course of conduct which is not within the sphere of ordinary motives and principles, justly lays himself open to a suspicion that his motives will not bear examination. It is not without

good reason that the great mass of mankind confound mystery with guilt."

"But, Colonel Dangerfield, may not there be misfortunes of such a peculiar and painful nature, that a sensitive being will shrink from disclosing them, as he would from the acknowledgment of a crime?"

"Certainly; but these instances are so rare, that no man has a right to complain if the world transforms this feeling of sore delicacy into the consciousness of guilt.”

"Yes, I know that but too well."

"But, sir, to bring this home to ourselves: as strangers, we are not entitled to ask of you any disclosure that might be painful; as mere ordinary acquaintances, we would not wish it: but as the parents of a virtuous and, I must say, beautiful young woman, who has somewhat hastily intrusted her prospects of happiness to your future decision, I now inform you, once for all, that before the affair goes any further, we must and we will know who and what you are."

"I will tell you, in one word, a wretch; but not a guilty one. Colonel Dangerfield, do not take from me the hope of one day, if it please Heaven to spare me, calling Virginia mine. If you knew all, you would pity, perhaps you would shrink from me; it is that I fear, it is that which makes me shudder at the thought of laying open the sources of my conduct, the apparent mystery in which I have wrapped myself from all save Virginia. She had a right to know, and she does know it all.”

Some stale romantic story, I suppose,” said