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now alone; I entreat you to explain the | had been uttered jarred on his best feelcause of your distress of mind."

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ings.

The wedding parties were all over at last, and the master of "The Retreat" rejoiced in the fact.

"Now, Selina," said he-rubbing his hands gleefully, as he marched up and down his snug book-room, clad in his easy grey deshabille-"Now we shall settle down for a comfortable life; eh, my love? Upon my word, this little domain of mine ought to prove now quite a paradise of comfort. I have been many years waiting for peaceful home enjoyment, without the cares of business, and now it has fairly come at last; and here I am, and here you are, my beautiful pet, and all is well with us, thank God; we have health, wealth, and--"

There was a look upon her face that stopped him. Her hand was on her heart.

"A slight spasm," she faintly said, drawing a long breath.

"I will send for Doctor Montague," he exclaimed, seizing the bell-pull.

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"By no means," she said. "It is gone. | fact is, my uncle left me a great deal that I am quite well now." I have hardly yet looked into; but what"You don't look so, my dear. However there be in my possession when I ever, I was going on to say, that we ought to be thankful to the Most High for our numerous great blessings. My mind is truly blest; not one care remains-past, present, or to come."

"What! Not for the widow ?" "Ah, well, she does give me some little anxiety now and then, to be sure. But yet, she has substantial comforts. She may be happier without me than she would have been with me; who can tell! Don't mention her again. I was going on to say, that it is an additional comfort to me that I have provided for you, in the event of your surviving me."

"O, I thank you very much." "Yes, my dear, as you very properly pointed out to me my duty in this respect, I lost no time in making a proper legal settlement; and I have great pleasure in handing over to you this document, which will secure to you, at my decease, five hundred pounds a-year for as long as you may live."

The late poor governess took the precious parchment with eager thankfulness, and then gently inquired if there would be any other property left?

"Yes; O, yes," he answered. "The

leave you a widow-over and above the five hundred ensured to you-will go to a little orphan girl that my uncle adopted, educated, and left to my care. I am her guardian, and my uncle's property, at my death, will revert to her."

This took the fair Selina completely by surprise, and in no very pleasant tone she asked why he had concealed this part of his affairs from her until now?

"I did not know that I had. I thought I had mentioned to you about my ward. However, it is of no consequence, in a business point of view."

"No consequence for your wife to know that the property you boasted of is to pass to another ?"

"At my death, Selina. But I am only forty yet. Besides, I knew that I had ample provision for you as long as you lived, independent of every one. could you possibly want at any time of more than five hundred a year ?"

What

"Your ideas of life are rather mean, Mr. Stuckley."

"What, my dear; what!"

Mrs. Stuckley rang for dinner, to put a stop to the conversation; but her husband had lost his appetite, for he was no fool

and a sad misgiving lay like lead on the mind that he had just before boasted was so free from care.

Could it be that this beautiful and fascinating woman had only married him for his money? Ah! that thought stung deep. But he would not be unjust or suspicious. No, no. If it even were so, as he began to fear, whose was the fault? "Surely mine-only mine: I ought to have known better."

wandering from country to country for years, writing to me occasionally, always with the greatest cordiality and warmth of heart. I helped him once when he was in very great straits, and his nature was so grateful that I never heard the last of it.

"Well, at this little French theatre I inquired after MacDougall, and was truly shocked to hear of his melancholy death from intemperance six months before. I and my wife found his widow lodging in a wretched fifth-storey attic, almost bare of furniture. We found her engaged in teaching theatrical danc

From this day he was changed, yet tried to hide the change. He watched her incessantly, and she knew it, and was very guarded. He behaved to her with uniform kindness-he could not do other-ing to poor MacDougall's only childwise; but his doubts of her sincerity grew daily. That she had any love for him was a delusion, and he knew it, yet he clung to it with the desperate tenacity of an affectionate and trusting nature. Her mercenary spirit could not be masked. Her personal vanity was immense, and her love of display. He was compelled for peace sake to submit to both. Contention was utterly foreign to his nature; besides, he loved his wife. And so it was that the beautiful Mrs. Stuckley remained, as one might say, mistress of the situation.

CHAPTER II.

A YOUNG LIFE, AND ITS SHADOWS. "AND pray, who, and what, and where is this ward of yours ?" inquired Mrs. Stuckley.

"I will read to you my uncle's account of her," replied her husband, drawing out a bundle of letters from a drawer of a writing-table, and selecting portions from several closely-written sheets of paper:"I and my wife were in Paris, and while there went one evening to a small theatre, where a musician that I had known in Scotland-a fellow-countryman and schoolfellow of mine-was picking up a scanty living. My wife agreed with me that we could not leave France without looking after him, especially as we had heard in Perth that he had married a French wife, and was in distress.

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'MacDougall I remembered as a fine young fellow, but unsteady, roving, and fond of gay company. He had been

one of the sweetest little girls that human eyes ever beheld-slight, springy, graceful, with long, bright curls, and the smiling face of an angel. My wife fell in love at once with the delicate little creature; and her Presbyterian feelings were thoroughly shocked at the idea of this six months' widow training a cherub like this for such a life as that of the stage-and a low French stage too! We found, in conversing with Madame MacDougall, that she had few moral or religious scruples of any kind. She intended, she said, to bring up Eva as a dancer; and it occurred to my wife, who had no children, to ask Madame if she would like us to take little Eva to Scotland, where her father's relations were living. Madame raised few objections, and that was how it was the child first became ours.

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"My wife was extremely conscientious in watching over the education of her adopted daughter, who, in our Highland home, was instructed in religion by our revered pastor, and in domestic management had the best of examples before her, for Mrs. Cameron, though I say it, was a model of household duty. I believe I myself was Eva's best instructor in moral philosophy and history, but I am afraid she was her own instructor in novel reading, poetry, and plays. Still we durst not keep her too strict, lest we should lose her; and why should I conceal the truth, that she became a daughter to us in love and obedience? What do I not owe to her tender duty paid to my wife in her decline and on her deathbed!"

"Take care of Eva!' were my poor Bessie's last words.

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and I will not wrong him, not even for Eva's sake. But I most solemnly bequeath her to his love and care, and at his death all my landed and freehold property, which I value roughly at about twenty thousand pounds, shall be inherited by Eva MacDougall, who shall claim it in my name of Cameron, as my adopted daughter. And it is an express condition of her so inheriting, that she take and keep that name, be she married or single."

"And here are other curious conditions of inheritance," said Mr. Stuckley to his wife, turning over his uncle's papers and reading: "Eva is bound to spend six months out of every year in my Highland home, and she is required to attend the morning services at Glen Finnis church, (where her adopted mother lies buried, and where I myself shall lie,) not fewer than twenty Sundays in every year, so long as health permit and no serious impediment prevent. For these conditions I have the best motives, as I have explained to her."

"Well now, Stuckley," said his wife, "you have not told me one thing." "What's that ?"

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Suppose this child of fortune-this darling of sentiment-this petted daughter of a low French actress, dies before you; how then, Josiah Stuckley?"

"How then, my dear; why, of course, you see”

"That all your uncle's estate remains where it ought, with you or yours?"

"Of course it does: that is expressly ordered in his will. But it was not worth mentioning."

"Oh, life is uncertain at all ages." "So it is; you are very right there."

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Now, another question, Mr. Stuckley." "As many as you please, my dear, only don't be sarcastical. I never could bear it. I think I told you so once."

"You did. This is what I want to know: suppose, when you pass away from the world you adorn-don't excite yourself; suppose there is nothing left by you for this Eva to inherit; suppose you have contrived to dispose of it all ?”

"But the will takes care of thatat least I think so: it must. And if my

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and in the spirit."

hands are not tied by my uncle's will, every wish of Mr. Cameron's, in the letter they are by God's will." "How is that, pray ?"

"Selina, I would not for all the world wrong this poor girl, in whom my uncle took so deep an interest, and whom he bequeathed to me with such confidence in my integrity."

"You do not then see, with me, that this girl wrongs you and yours by thrusting in claims where nature gives her none ?"

"We won't argue the point, my love. It is all settled without my opinion being asked, or yours, and to-morrow she will be here."

"Here!"

"Yes. Eva Cameron will take up her residence with us from to-morrow; and every summer I intend that we shall go with her to visit my late uncle's Highland property, with the intention to carry out!

Mrs. Stuckley compressed her lips, as if forming some secret resolution, while her white and slender fingers were busied with lace embroidery.

"I can't understand her," murmured Stuckley; and unconsciously he spoke aloud, and with emphasis. His wife started, as if a shot had struck her. Then she smiled sweetly, and observed that perhaps he might understand her better by-and-by.

"But, my dear, between us why should there not be a perfect understanding now? My whole nature-my whole soul, is open to you; why not be equally frank and open with me. I always disliked secrets, and never could feel perfectly at home with secret-keepers."

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Especially if sarcastical ?"

Selina, you have such a cool, keen

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