fine galantee show, and she 'll hae a gude tocher, and gin she conducts hersel' wise-like in the high station she has chosen, there's nathing to be said. 'Bode a gown o' gowd, and ye 'll get a sleeve o't,' they say; she has done that same, and has gotten sleeves and tail and a'. He's a douce discreet lad, the Lord Bellamont, and seems on every haund likely to mak' her a gude husband; but Lady Frances was ever ta'en up wi' her ain beauty, and that's a thing winna bide, and afttimes lang ere it's awa, the flush and glamer o't is clean gane. Och hone! dautie, the beauty o' youth is like the sough o' the simmer wind, so that for the wear and tear o' every-day use, it's o' little price. Really, Lady Emily, your account o' Bentley Farm was sae exact-like, that I could fancy mysel' sitting aside ye. Hech, sirs! gin I'd but the penny siller, I'd soon mak' out that same visit; but though, thanks to Lord Mowbray, I'm a rich woman, biding in my ain bounds, I should soon no' hae a sark to my back, if I gaed wandering up and down the countrie side; but why canna ye come owr the muir among the heather, to bonnie Heatherden?-O! for a sight o' the General's winsome countenance, and your ain canty smile! I'd wager ony thing the General would soon cease to be sae glum and melancholious-like, for there's no denying but changes are lightsome; and then there's no better cure for an ailing than to keep aye moving. The vera bustle and stramash o' a flitting, gars the bluid tingle again. "I had sair work whan I cam' first till this place; forby, a' the thoughts o' lang syne which cam' owr me like spirits o' the departed. No' a bit but I thought I heard the auld Lady Mowbray's voice craick, craiking in my lug, 'Marian, whaure's my pillow? Marian, whaure's my bag? Why are ye no' at the spinning o' the wearifu' booming-wheel?' Mony a saut tear has it gar'd me greet, whan I'd far rather been out and after the blackberries or the rowan berries-or seeking the lintwhite and the cushie doo's nest. And now, now that my time's my ain, what use do I mak' o't? Keep me, but we're pitifu' creturs at the vera best-girning at ae time for what we canna tell how to use at anither—shouldna this teach us to keep a calm seugh in our heads? Ye can weel conceive, my sweet Lady Emily, how sair a pang it cost me to part frae you and yours-and then it was an unco' tryal to come to thae parts. The days o' our youth! the days o' our youth! Had we a grip o' them back again, how different-like wad we use them; at least, so we think :---but wha can hinder the wind to blaw?—youth winna be guided. Yet this is no language for you :-troth and it sets you ill, my bonnie birdie, wha hae taen tent in youthfu' prime; and whan years hence, gin ye be spared, ye'll backward cast your ee, there'll be no girnings o' conscience to rive your heart. "Weel, aweel! here I am, wha hae outlived a' my ain kith and kin, and am my leefu' lane in this wearifu' warld! Yet still I hae mony blessings; and so lang as life's left, doubtless there is aye a meaning in 't. That's what we ought to luke to :— pit a stout heart till a stey brae-and that will brake the neck o' a' our troubles. I pray for that same; and that every blessing may be showered upon the honest General, and your sweet sel', is the very hearty prayer o' your friend, "MARIAN MACALPINE. CHAPTER V. For what admir'st thou? what transports thee so? PARADISE LOST. SOON after Lord Bellamont's marriage with Lady Frances, they went from Richmond to Godolphin Castle, where the Duke and a gay party of Lady Arabella's friends, as she called the fashionable group of idlers as assembled in that luxurious abode, were awaiting the bride's arrival, as the Queen of the Revels, and the dame of all fashion to be, for the ensuing season in London. Here, then, opened the very first scene on which Lady Frances had calculated to play her destined part in the life which she had purposed to lead ; and here, accordingly, she made her debut in the very top of her bent. She had married Lord Bellamont because he had a fine estate, was a gay gallant-looking young man, with a fine showy person, and could supply her with all the paraphernalia of dress, jewels, and equipage, in which she centered her principal ideas of happiness, and which could render her an object of envy to characters equally vain and heartless as her own. She had overlooked in her husband the more precious qualities of a warm, affectionate, and ingenuous disposition: or rather, she had regarded these as mere tools, wherewith to work her own will, and obtain an absolute sway. Lord Bellamont, on his part, had married her, bona fide, for red-hot love: but it was that sort of love which, though had it fallen on good ground it would have brought forth good fruit, yet falling as it did, it had no basis to rest upon, and preying ever on its own disappointment, withered away in process of time, and settled in a captiousness of temper which embittered his existence. |