tion of shining before people quite unworthy of him.”

"And think you those reasons of sufficient force, Horatio, to make me give up the pleasures of my singularly-happy home for a person I do not love?"

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"I think them at least sufficient to make you pause, and consider well before you reject his suit."

Mr. Birkit soon declared himself both the author of the lines, and a pretender to Julia's hand.

As her brother had recommended, Julia did deliberate before she rejected him; but her final determination continued the same, though she contrived to give her refusal such an air of gratitude and politeness, that the friendship Mr. Birkit retained for Somerville and his sister rendered their intercourse nearly the same as before he had proposed for her.

This refusal, and the motives Julia avowed for it, touched Horatio deeply. He had thought it his duty to set before

her the advantages of such a marriage, though he secretly acknowledged the society at Bear Hall to be the most unsuited to her manners and taste. He had performed this painful duty, and the result was a conviction of the strong attachment and gratitude with which he had inspired herd im oblton L

The brother and sister had now each had it in their power to marry, and éách had sacrificed the uncertain advantages of a new connexion to the pure and permanent pleasures of domestic felicity. Still there was a higher happiness of which Julia could form the idea; and in the innocent and affectionate enthusiasm of her young heart, she wished for her brother a wife who should unite every valuable and amiable quality, and who should be, to her, that female friend, of which, notwithstanding the tender attentions of Ho ratio, her heart sometimes felt the want.

*

None approached so nearly to the idea Julia had formed to herself of that charac

TELIST A 10. LIAT

ter, as the gentle and interesting Amelia De Ross. On her part, the heart of thes timid, dejected girl seemed to expandin this scene of domestic affection; and she expressed her feelings with a graceful ener gy, of which those who only saw her ins the cold and heartless intercourse of solt ciety would have scarcely believed her capable I should not be surprised; Miss Somerville," she would say, if your "if néver married.In Where can you hope to find a man bso devoted, so attentive, so constantly affectionate, as your brother?LI cannot express to you what passes in my mind, in contemplating your sweet your holy union! It presents to me the pic ture of the most endearing Baffection of which thed human mind is capable Tan affection which has every thing that constitutes delight, unmingled with a single painful feeling that is love, and yet is not love."! T bo. I vilt of wilach web Amelia blushed at the animated warmth of expression into which she had been be si't has pled Le Minigo to strayed, bilnos

trayed, and Julia could not help secretly observing, that the extremely-severe system of Miss Ravenshawe had produced in her niece the tendency she most guarded against and dreaded-a disposition to enthusiasm and romance, however veiled by a shrinking delicacy of manners. To this was united the most pensive and interesting style of beauty.

Amelia De Ross was pale, but an additional tint of colour would have warred with the general expression conveyed by her features and countenance. It was impossible to look upon her without involuntarily recalling to mind every thing that is soft and fragrant, faint and fair.

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To cheer this drooping lily became Julia's most pleasing employment. Knowing how unhappy she was at home, Miss Somerville held out every temptation to draw Amelia to the Lodge. They made appointments to ride, to walk, to read, and practise music together. The conformity in their opinions and taste, and the confidence

confidence between them, became unbounded. There was but one subject from the discussion of which the delicate Amelia ever shrunk-that was the separation between Lascelles and her sister; and Julia, as by a tacit agreement, imitated her silence. On the contrary, the happiness of family union, such as existed between Somerville and Julia, was an inexhausti ble topic with Miss De Ross.

One day, in reply to some good-humoured expressions of Amelia's envy, Julia said-" It is time, I think, my dear Amelia, that, like the princesses of romance, we should each give to the other a sketch of our little lives. I will set the example; and you shall see,” she added, with a deep convulsive sigh, "whether I have not dearly purchased the privilege of possess ing a pattern brother."

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"You

Oh, do!" answered Amelia. cannot imagine how much my curiosity has been excited on your account, though I trust

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