this my mother, if indeed she know it herself, conceals in moody silence. But I can go no where without finding means to communicate with you-means to express my ardent, my unalterable affection. Farewell-Ah, farewell."

CHAPTER XIV.

PERPLEXITIES.

“Das Leben ist ein Gänsespiel:
Je mehr man forwärts gehet,
Je früher kommt man an das Ziel,
Wo niemand gerne stehet.”

THE foregoing was my correspondence with this admirable young woman. Her duty to her fond, but weak and erring mother, nothing could induce her to forego; and however, I might in my inmost soul, have wished, I never ventured to urge her to stay her departure.

Of what avail would it have been to either of us, had she abandoned her parent, whose situation, wandering and desolate, would have been a source of unceasing anxiety? A desire, apparently irresistible, to stray from her adopted hearth, had again seized on Mrs. Hastings; and however happily she might be circumstanced, from the moment her resolution was taken, the means of accomplishing it were forthwith inquired into. To this desire, probably owing to the hard usage of her mother, and subsequent unhappy marriage, might, in a great measure, be referred her abrupt transitions from place to place, and the now extraordinary procedure of leaving the country altogether. I cannot say, however, singular as it may seem, that I experienced the same uneasiness which this step would at one time, have occasioned me. I had the greatest Julia's firmness and decision.

reliance on Her intellectual powers had undergone consi

derable development from the date of our last

intercourse, not only as regarded new springs of action, but in the proper direction of those which already influenced her. These, she had determined to fortify by a rigid course of selfdiscipline. "I shall not abandon, my Thornley," she said, in one of her subsequent letters, "the course of study which you were so good as to point out to me, or neglect any of the advantages which accident may place in my way." I felt assured whatever pressing exigencies might await her, that she would rise superior to them all; and that while a sacrifice was exacted of her and submitted to in relation to her mother, there were also duties as regarded herself, of which nothing should frustrate the performance. There were, however, other grounds for disquietude. It was hard to say into what predicaments her mother's growing weakness and obstinacy might serve to plunge her. There were difficulties from which, with all Julia's determination and sagacity, she might find it difficult to extricate herself. Among

these were sickness, isolation, and want of

means.

I knew that Mrs. Hastings was sufficiently provided for; sufficiently at least, as regarded her real wants and moderate expenditure. I had received satisfactory assurances on this head from Julia so often as I adverted to the subject. The idea of an addition to her mother's funds, she wholly rejected; but still, these might be exhausted. Mrs. Hastings, I feared, had made no provision for a periodic supply; and Julia's inexperience, indeed I may add my own, had suggested no distinct precaution. Then, as now, gold formed an ample medium of exchange; but money orders, bank credits, and the like, were managed with much less fecility. It was unlikely they had taken a large sum with them; and when that was gone, as in time it must, what were they to do? I regretted, as one will regret, that I had not forced a sufficient sum on Miss Hastings' acceptance. They could know little of the