company, as she had a word or two to say to me alone, she led the way down to the parlour, at the door of which she stopped.

66

"Ralph," said my mother, angrily, " Ralph, I am ashamed of you! You never called at Jessie Halliday's this morning as you told me you had! There is the first set danced, too; and all the while she has been sitting, as I made her promise to be your partner; but not a sight of you for the last half-hour have I been able to catch. In, boy, and make your excuses yourself."

And with that she opened the door, and half pushing me in, closed it again, leaving me alone with Jessie Halliday.

I will not, John, attempt to describe to you the angelic being that now stood before me! You must infer what she was, from the effect which the sight of her for the first time after an absence of three years produced upon me, taking into account the state of my mind from the time that I hurried in madness from her father's house.

I stood absolutely speechless, John! Had the possession of the loveliest of creatures-which she was-depended upon my uttering one single word at that moment, I must have foregone the matchless treasure! I felt as if every drop of blood in my body was gathered about the region of my heart! My head swam, I made a movement towards her, but staggering in the attempt-yes, staggering, my friend -desisted, lest I should fall flat upon the floor. Not a tittle of exaggeration, John, in all this. Dear, generous, ingenuous girl! She perceived my emotion-she comprehended it. She approached and took my hand, and seeing me still powerless from the trance that enveloped me, she passed an arm around me, and supporting me, led me to a sofa, and seated herself there beside me. The sweet, frank, tender action melted me and brought me to myself! The tears started into my eyes-hers were suffused at the same moment. "Jessie! dear Jessie!" was all that I could say.

Ralph," was her sole reply; but brief as were the symbols of our thoughts and feelings, they spoke to the souls of each what pages of prose and rhyme might undertake to describe, but could not.

Silent, thus we sat I know not how long, looking into one another's eyes; each clasping the hands of the other, and the countenance of each reflecting as it were the other's soul; when Jessie Halliday at length found utterance.

"What have I done to you, Ralph ?" said the heavenly creature, in a tone of plaintive reproach. "What have I done to you that you should have been ten hours at home, without ever coming to see me?"

I related to her the circumstance of my visit, and the result of itmy disappointment, alarm, madness; and, as I did so, the mood that had possessed me before returned, my hands relaxed their grasp of hers, and at the conclusion my head dropped upon my breast, and I sat the image of despair. Not long, however.

"Ralph!" said the sweet, ingenuous girl, slowly, and with the most thrilling impressiveness-"Ralph!" said she, "for the last three years I have cherished thoughts, with which if they are warranted, I would never wish to part-if not warranted, I cannot part too

soon."

Here, of her own accord, she caught my hands in hers.

"Your disappointment this forenoon," she continued, "I could not help; but for alarm or madness, Ralph, I never gave you causeI never will give you any, if, as you would seem to have me understand you, you esteem me of consequence to inspire you with either. The gentleman whom you saw at my father's this morning, was an admirer; but unsought for and undesired on my part. It was I that entered the drawing-room; it is true that he besought of me to descend with him into the parlour. What transpired there I confide to you, as I feel you have a right to know it, and as I am positive that the fact will go no further-he proposed for my hand, and I told him it was not mine to bestow, as my heart-"

Here her resolution wavered for a moment or two. She paused, and cast down her eyes, which hitherto had been riveted upon mine. There was a struggle-but heavenly ingenuousness prevailed! She raised her eyes again, beaming with generosity, affection, and trust; and fixing them again upon mine, resumed and completed the halfuttered sentence.

"As my heart was another's?"

"Mine! Jessie?" ejaculated I, little anticipating such an answer as she gave me.

I beheld, again, before me the blushing girl of three years ago, but deeper still was the crimson that now suffused her countenance-her neck-her very arms! She attempted to speak, but her feelings were too powerful for her tongue! She threw herself upon my breast-she suffered me to infold her sweet form in my arms-to-strain it to my heart! I bowed my lips towards hers. The first kiss of love was permitted without an attempt at avoidance, and returned without a sign of hesitation and now, John, lest a prude should frown if ever hereafter this passage in my life should be related to one, let the conduct of Jessie Halliday be judged by the effect which it produced upon me. I released her from my embrace at that very moment, and threw myself upon my knees before her, my heart overflowing with love, and gratititude and reverence.

:

I need not take you up into the ball-room to witness my triumph as the conscious accepted lover of the most beautiful woman in D, neither shall I trouble you to be privy to our interview the following day, when a full explanation took place with many a tender review and blissful anticipation; suffice it, with the perfect consent of her father and my mother, we were solemnly betrothed, and our union was fixed for the day upon which I should complete my majority-now a long year and a half distant. Yes, John, I thought a year and a half was an insupportably long period to wait for the possession of the charming girl. I little dreamed how much further off from me lay the consummation of my impatient wishes.

My father, you know, was the chief proprietor of a very extensive and prosperous cotton-factory, his share in which he had left at his death to me, burdened, if I may say so, with an ample provision for my mother, arising out of the profits, but fixed so as not to be regulated by their fluctuation. The establishment was worked by power, and was chiefly attended to by females, under the superintendence of a number of overseers, one of whom presided over every separate department.

Out of three or four hundred women, John, and young ones, too, it would be strange if there were not one who could challenge admiration, even in a devoted lover. Such a one there was in the factory; a spirited, dark-eyed, bright-skinned, well-formed creature, who worked in the ground-floor, John,—that floor through which I had the most occasion to pass, as the counting-house stood at the further end of it. She was a picture, John, a perfect picture, as she stood tending the spindles in a light, loose wrapper of salmon-coloured gingham; while from her waist, which was indeed a span compared to her well-proportioned shoulders, depended a petticoat generally as white as snow. Don't be alarmed, John, I am not going to fall in love with herthough I will honestly confess to you, she struck me-nay, interested me. After a few times, never did I pass her but our eyes met, and never met our eyes but an expression of pleasure spread over her animated countenance-not unresponded to, I must admit, by a certain sympathy on the part of mine. Still, John, I never interchanged one word with that girl.

There is a class of writers whose works I have read with the most intense delight; but, nevertheless, who I almost believe, would have benefited mankind much more if they had never written them. Genius of a very high order, John, with a very low order of morality! Gross sensuality and refined sentiment alternately swaying the hero, who is drawn with such skill, that in either aspect you are interested in him, so that you love him and cleave to him to the last. The apology for this kind of writing is, that it is nature; but the excuse will not do; for although all men have their weaknesses, yet some men overcome them, and this is the lesson, the propriety and advantage of which it becomes the man of genius to illustrate. That the vicious shall ultimately prosper, is a pernicious example, John, to set up; nor is it the truth either. Happiness is the only prosperity, and the nearer to perfection, the fewer things we have to regret; and Heaven has planted that within us which makes sin and regret inseparable. I hope I am not preaching, John; but if I am, I have bitter

cause.

I had been reading one of the works of a great novelist belonging to an age gone by. I forget the title, or I don't care to remember it. No matter which; dinner was announced just as I had finished a chapter wherein the hero and a dissolute friar, in company with whom he is travelling, and who is perfectly at home upon the road, regale themselves at an inn, and indulge themselves there in a manner incompatible with the reputation of their host-the father of two comely young women. The hero in this place degenerating into the profligate, commits a trespass against his mistress, which the author justifies upon the very ground of his attachment to her-sentiment, John, apologizing for voluptuousness.

Now what think you was the effect of this chapter upon a young man of nineteen? Why, to set the young girl of the factory before me, the object of thoughts, with which, until then, I had never contemplated her. Nor could I get her out of my head. I sat over my wine-a thing I hardly ever did, except in company—ay, for a whole hour after the cloth had been removed; and each glass I took, more distinct and vivid grew the phantom which that fatal chapter-fatal to me at least had conjured up. I generally spent a couple of hours

every evening in the counting-house, but I was in no humour for it now. The workers had been dismissed. A languor, and at the same time a restlessness possessed my whole frame, physical as well as moral.

It had been a regular July day, cloudless and sultry; but now a gentle air began to stir, balmy with freshness. You know how fond I used to be of boating-indeed I am so still. My mind required action; I sallied forth, hastened to the river-side, and jumped into the little skiff, which I always kept for the exercise of rowing. I soon lost sight of the quay, but the book and its effects continued to keep company with me; nor did I use any vigorous effort to drive them away; but whenever I felt a pang of compunction, as the idea of Jessie Halliday crossed my mind, I reassured myself with the maxim of the novelist" that he who loves one woman heartily, will scarcely resist the attractions of the rest of her sex." I was in the vein for the incident which presently followed.

Passing the point of a small, sequestered, sandy cove, I startled a young woman who had been bathing, and who had just completed the task of reattiring herself. My heart leaped at the sight of the factorygirl. To turn the direction of the boat, to pull her in, to run her high upon the shelving beach, to jump from her, to fly and clasp the frightened creature, who, to my amazement, resisted what I thought a venial and not unwelcome freedom-the kiss which I would have imprinted upon her lips-was the work of a moment-a moment that decided my destiny for the rest of my life!

A shriek from the top of a bank, some twenty or thirty feet high, and forming one side of the cove, caused me to look up. I beheld the father of Jessie Halliday, with the angelic creature herself hanging fainting in his arms. I released the struggling girl, leaped into my boat, and pushing her off, rowed back again with the fury of a madman; and springing upon land, flew to the abode of my betrothedI was peremptorily refused admittance. "She had just returned home greatly indisposed, and was too ill to be seen." Nor would her father even allow me a moment's speech with him. With difficulty did I restrain myself in presence of the servants, who resolutely enforced the injunctions of their master, opposing my every effort to obtain entrance; but when the portal, at which I had never experienced any thing but respect and obedience before, was shut upon me, I gave full indulgence to my emotions. I raved aloud!-smote my forehead! -grasped my hair, as if I would tear it out by the roots!-wept !— shrieked!-dashed myself upon the ground!-committed a thousand acts of extravagance, more befitting a lunatic than a man who had a spark of reason left him.

That night I did not return home, but slept at an hotel; but my mortifications were not at an end. The next morning, upon going into the counting-house-which was a matter of necessity, otherwise I should have bent my steps any where else—I found the overseer, who superintended the floor where the young girl worked, expecting me, for the purpose of imforming me that he had made up his mind to resign his situation in consequence of the outrage which I had committed the preceding evening. Upon inquiry I learned that he and the girl had been long attached. He was an exceedingly well-conducted young man. I had increased his salary, and thereby promoted the accom

plishment of his wishes. month.

Their marriage was to take place in a

The pleased looks of the factory-girl were now accounted for. What an interpretation had the awakened corruption of my nature put upon the very workings of respect and gratitude. I felt myself degraded into the inferior of my servant. My better part of man rallied-resumed sway. I acknowledged my fault-my contrition for it-declared my resolution to atone to the utmost of my power for the violence which I had done to the feelings of both, and did so.

But Jessie Halliday! At length through the intercession of my mother, I was permitted to see her-not alone though, but in the presence of both our parents. I went, but with a heart foreboding any thing but a favourable issue to the interview. I had intended upon entering to throw myself upon my knees before her, and by dint of contrition and supplication to extort forgiveness; but the moment I looked upon her, I felt that it would be vain. She sat the figure of perfect self-collectedness and unalterable determination. I was going to speak

"Stop, Ralph!" interposed she; "I anticipate what you would say, and have but one answer to return-What you have been to me, you never can become again !"

My heart sunk within me with a conviction of utter despondency! I could not speak!

"I had determined," she continued, "never to see you again; but, upon mature reflection, I thought it better that this interview should take place, lest you should attribute my avoidance of you to any lurking weakness, which, by perseverance upon your part, might alter the determination which, for the first time, refused you the welcome of my father's roof. I need not remind you, Ralph, not only of the total absence of any attempt at disguise, but of the perfect frankness which has marked my deportment towards you ever since I became aware of the state of my own heart, and, as I believe, that of yours; nor do I blush for the course which I adopted, because that course was dictated by the purity of my feelings-purity which it was the life of my affections to believe was equalled by that of yours. That belief which made me glory in loving and being beloved, you have destroyed for ever! What I regarded as a reality, you have proved to have been but a vision. I have been deceived, mocked, humiliated, and I shall never put it into your power to wrong me again!"

me.

I was about to speak, but by a gesture of her hand she prevented

"Do not," she resumed, "afflict me, or rather add to my affliction; for I am afflicted already-deeply! irremediably! Do not, I implore you, add to my affliction, by expostulation, which must be fruitless; or by arguments which, be they ever so forcible, my soul assures me cannot be otherwise than specious, and calculated only to mislead us both. Ralph, had I forgotten myself with one of your sex, as you did with one of mine, what that I could have advanced in my excuse would have prevented you from casting me from your confidence for ever? Nothing! For that integrity, delicacy, and devotion, which you will look for in a mistress, I looked for in you, from the moment that I imagined only what it was to love! I thought I had found them in the young heart upon which I believed it was my fate to have