John's raillery, now that Lucilla could be no longer pained by it, was cordially received, or rather I was inattentive to every object but the one of which my

heart was full. To be heard, to be accepted, though tacitly, to be referred to parents who I knew had no will but hers,

Was such a sacred and homefelt delight,
Such sober certainty of waking bliss
As I ne'er felt till now.

During the remainder of the day I found no means of speaking to Mr. Stanley. Always frank and cheerful, he neither avoided nor sought me, but the arrival of company prevented our being thrown together. Lucilla appeared at dinner as usual: a little graver and more silent, but always unaffected, natural, and delicate. Sir John whispered to me, that she had intreated her mother to keep Celia out of the way, till this curricle business was a little got out of her head.

́CHAP. XLIII.

THE next morning, as soon as I thought Mr. Stah

ley had retreated to his library, I followed him thither. He was busy writing letters. I apologized for my intrusion. He laid his papers aside, and invited me to sit by him.

"You are too good, Sir," said I, "to receive with so much kindness a culprit who appears before you ingenuously to acknowledge the infraction of a treaty into which he had the honour of entering with you. I fear that a few days are wanting of my prescribed month: I had resolved to obey you with the most religious scrupulousness; but a circumstance trifling in itself has led almost irresistibly to a declaration, which in obedience to your commands, I had resolved to postpone. But though it is somewhat premature, I hope, however, you will not condemn my precipitancy. I have ventured to tell your charming daughter how necessary she is to my happiness. She does not reject me. She refers me to her father.'

"You have your peace to make with my daughter, I can tell you, Sir," said Mr. Stanley, looking gravely, "I fear you have mortally offended her." I was dreadfully alarmed. "You know not how you afflict me, Sir," said I; "how have I offended Miss Stanley?" "Not Miss Stanley," said he, smiling, “but Miss Celia Stanley, who extremely resents having been banished from the drawing-room yesterday evening."

"If Celia's displeasure is all I have to fear, Sir, I am most fortunate. Oh, Sir, my happiness, the peace

of my future life is in your hands. But first tell me you forgive the violation of my promise.".

"I am willing to believe, Charles," replied he, "that you kept the spirit of your engagement, though you broke it in the letter; and for an unpremeditated breach of an obligation of this nature, we must not, I believe, be too rigorous. Your conduct since your declaration to me, has confirmed the affection which your character had before excited. You were probably surprised and hurt at my cold reception of your proposal; a proposal which gave me a deeper satisfaction than I can express. Yet I was no dissembler in suppressing the pleasure I felt at an address so every way desirable. My dear Charles, I know a little of human nature. I know how susceptible the youthful heart is of impressions. I know how apt these impressions are to be obliterated,- a new face, a more advantageous connexion"" Hold, Sir," said I, indignantly interrupting him, "you cannot think so. meanly of me. You cannot rate the son of your friend so low."

"I am very far indeed,” replied he, "from rating you low. I know you abhor mercenary considerations; but I know also that you are a young man, lively, ardent, impressible. I know the rapid effect which leisure, retirement, rural scenes, daily opportunities of seeing a young woman not ugly, of conversing with a young woman not disagreeable, may produce on the heart, or rather on the imagination. was aware that seeing no other, conversing with no other, none at least that, to speak honestly, I could consider as a fair competitor, hardly left you an unprejudiced judge of the state of your own heart. I was not sure but that this sort of easy commerce might produce a feeling of complacency which might

I

be mistaken for love. I could not consent that mere accident, mere leisure, the mere circumstance of being thrown together, should irrevocably entangle either of you. I was desirous of affording you time to see, to know, and to judge. I would not take advantage of your first emotions. I would not take advantage of your friendship for me. I would not take advantage of your feeling ardently, till I had given you time to judge temperately and examine fairly."

I assured him I was equally at a loss to express my gratitude for his kindness, and my veneration of his wisdom; and thanked him in terms of affectionate energy.

"My regard for you," said he, "is not of yesterday. I have taken a warm interest in your character and happiness almost ever since you have been in being; and in a way more intimate and personal than you can `suspect."

So saying he arose, unlocked the drawer of a cabinet which stood behind him, and took out a large pac. quet of letters. He then resumed his seat, and holding out the direction on the covers, asked me if I was acquainted with the hand writing. A tear involunta rily started into my eye as I exclaimed-" it is the well known hand of my beloved father."

"Listen to me attentively," resumed he. "You are not ignorant that never were two men more firmly attached by all the ties which ever cemented a Christian friendship, than your lamented father and myself. Our early youth was spent in the same studies, the same pleasures, the same society. We took sweet counsel together, and went to the house of God as friends.' He condescendingly overlooked my being five or six years younger than himself. After his marriage with your excellent mother, the current

of life carried us different ways, but without causing abatement in the warmth of our attachment.

any

"I continued to spend one month every year with him at the Priory, till I myself married. You were then not more than three or four years old; and your engaging manners, and sweet temper, laid the foundation of an affection which has not been diminished by time, and the reports of your progress. Sedentary habits on the part of your father, and a rapidly increasing family on mine, kept us stationary at the two extremities of the kingdom. I settled at the Grove, and both as husband and father have been happiest of the happy.

"As soon as Lucilla was born, your father and I, simultaneously, formed a wish that it might be possible to perpetuate our friendship by the future union of our children."

When Mr. Stanley uttered these words, my heart beat so fast, and the agitation of my whole frame was so visible,that he paused for a moment, but perceiving that I was all ear, and that I made a silent motion for him to proceed, he went on.

"This was a favourite project with us. We pursued it, however, with the moderation of men who had a settled sense of the uncertainty of all human things, of human life itself; and with a strong conviction of the probability that our project might never be realized.

"Without too much indulging the illusions of hope, we agreed that there could be no harm in educating our children for each other; in inspiring them with corresponding tastes, similar inclinations, and especially with an exact conformity in their religious views. We never indulged the presumptuous thought of counteracting providential dispensations, of conquer Vol. II.

૧