enjoy; and Godfrey was endeavouring to persuade me that it probably constitutes some of his own happiness above, and that he is only spared from the knowledge of aught that could afflict him or if the purified spirits have perfect knowledge, and it is hard to reconcile their having any, and not all,―he thinks it probable that in their extended foresight they smile at our little misfortunes here, as we do at the mimic woes of childhood, which we scarcely would remove, for the very sake of the transient variety they afford to them and to ourselves."

"I suppose this little fellow's name is Herbert ?" I observed, kissing the loveliest boy I ever beheld.

“No,” she answered, "Godfrey kindly proposed that it should be, but I could not bear to hear that name profaned even by that beloved being;" and she nearly smothered the boy with kisses in his father's arms, to make amends for the seeming slight."

We returned towards the house, the conversation still continuing in a religiously philosophic

strain; and will you laugh at your mother, my Theodosia, when I tell you that so happy, so charmed, so elevated did I feel by the sight of their happiness, and its rational and diffusive nature, that I sent for Palmer and my dressingbox, and continued with them till the duke returned.

"But you are very happy yourself, my dearest mamma; are you not ?" exclaimed the young countess, suddenly struck with the rapturous manner in which her still lovely and admired mother spoke of the happiness of others; a subject upon which she never remembered to have heard her expatiate before.

66

Happy, my sweet child! I am most happy; how could yours and Clandalton's mother be otherwise than happy? But still my happiness is now of a nature so different from theirs, that the variety is delightful; for though in point of calculation I am but a few years older than Gertrude, yet her feelings of wedded love and happiness are in their first youth still, with all the additional glow and fervour of long suffering turned

into the fruition of joy, while mine have of course sunk into the calm quiet of long habit.”

"You think then, mamma, that the habit of loving even one's husband, and being perfectly happy always, deadens one to the enjoyment of it?" inquired the young countess, still almost a bride, with an expression of melancholy in her lovely face.

Her mother did not wish to enter into the

subject too closely. Why, no indeed, my love, I do not; I scarcely know what I did mean, except what I tried to express at first; namely, that very young people are so prone to happiness, it is so much their natural state as it were, that they are scarcely more conscious of the blessing than they are of the advantage of having hands or feet; but when so many years have been spent in the school of discipline and adversity, one not only knows the true value of happiness, but ventures almost to feel that their dark hour, such as all must have on earth, has passed by, and that the future will be all sunshine: such, at least, I know are Gertrude's

and Mr.Vandeleur's feelings; but then their case is indeed a rare one, and can scarcely be tried by common rules.”

"She is a lovely-looking creature at all events; how long does she remain with you, mamma ?"

"Only till to-morrow," answered the Duchess of Castleton; "nothing can detain either of them more than a few days from their home: she remained this day solely for the pleasure of seeing you."

"Oh, then I must not indeed lose another moment in making her acquaintance. Come, mamma, and present me."

"Yes; but I should be sorry to think that this were all you should see of her, or she of you, my love. You must make a point of coming to Seaton this summer, where you have not now been for some years, but where I hope to persuade your father to pass most of his summers in future. I always loved Seaton, but now it has double fascination for me. Mrs. Vandeleur is a first-rate amateur painter; she per

fected herself in the art in her seclusion, and has done some beautiful pieces which now ornament my gallery three of them are historical pieces, if I may call them so, of the most critical moments of her own eventful life; two of them she did in her cottage in Switzerland, and the third she has done since at Mr. Vandeleur's request. I want her to do one more, choosing for the subject the evening I found them and their sweet children seated under the lime-tree, in order to show the happiness they now enjoy; but hitherto I have been unsuccessful: sometimes she says she no longer has sufficient leisure for painting, and at other times asserts that paintings are only meant to commemorate what has already

passed away. But come, love, we have indulged in a tête-à-tête too long."

And so, gentle Reader, perhaps have

you

and

I:

: so, fare thee well!

THE END.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,

Dorset Street, Fleet Street.