was merely in jest!-I shall never again volunteer my opinion upon this subject; but when you ask it now, let me assure you of my candid and conscientious belief, that his sentiments are entirely misunderstood." You “There are none so blind as those who will not see! were always very obstinate, Matilda, but I shall convince you some day, and that will be one of my greatest pleasures, when Sir Alfred declares himself. How delightfully odd and eccentric he is!—but I cannot make up my mind whether he would suit me or not." + "Then try, if possible, to think that he would not!" said Matilda, earnestly. "My dear Eleanor, I appeal to your own knowledge of me, whether I would deceive you, or prefer my interest to yours, if both were at stake; but it would be unlike our former friendship, not to tell you fairly my real opinion, that in appearing to prefer Sir Alfred to Mr. Grant, you are mistaking your happiness, as well as your real feelings." CHAPTER XVIII. What spirits were theirs, what wit, and what whim, GOLDSMITH. DURING their walk to the Fairy Glen, Eleanor contrived that her cousin should again fall a victim to the prosing propensities of Sir Colin, while she proceeded at some distance herself, with a numerous train of attendants. Matilda had little notice to spare for any one, as her thoughts were pleasingly engrossed with tracing the almost imperceptible attentions by which Sir Alfred contrived to testify how continually she occupied his mind. It filled her with surprise, at the same time, to consider how greatly he seemed embarrassed after any unusual exhibition of his feelings towards herself, and how instantly he became reserved when there was a chance of his being remarked. "What can it all mean ?” was the question which forced itself upon her thoughts in a thousand different shapes, as she proceeded along the path in deep, though agreeable meditation. Meantime, Sir Colin's voice flowed on in an uninterrupted stream, while, à propos to an accidental remark on the extreme coldness of the day, he gave Matilda an elaborate description of all the greatcoats he had used during many successive winters; and by the time they were nearly worn out, the subject happily diverged into a dissertation on coughs and colds, when the Baronet treated her to an account of a violent rheumatism which he had very nearly caught, about twenty years before, owing to a window having been left open at night, though he fortunately discovered the mistake in time. to have it closed before retiring to bed. Sir Colin was charmed with the silent interest which Matilda manifested in the dangers he had passed. Her large, bright eyes were intently fixed on him, and he was not aware that their usual intelligent expression was wanting, for whenever he appealed to her, and asked whether what he related was not "wonderful, fortunate, or remarkable," she almost unconsciously echoed his words, with a preliminary adjective, giving additional emphasis to his expression. Matilda had on no previous occasion thus completely lost the command of her attention, but Sir Colin was filled with admiration of her good sense. He had never before met with so judicious a young lady! so conversable! so companionable! so easily amused, and so highly intelligent! "How superior to her cousin!" thought he, "whose flippant manner spoils conversation entirely! If Miss Howard continues to play her cards as well, there is no saying what may be the consequences! She knows what she is about!" But Matilda was very far from "knowing what she was about." The varied scenery of her extensive walk was, for the first time, unmarked by her eye, the impediments in her path were now mechanically surmounted, and the incessant hum of Sir Colin's voice became only obvious to her senses when he paused for a reply, while she rapidly traced over her whole intercourse with Sir Alfred.—The peculiar interest he had testified on their first meeting at Barnard Castle,— the deep attention he paid to all she said, the assistance and protection he was constantly on the alert to afford her in Eleanor's society, and the ambiguous expressions, either of love or of friendship, which he had long taken every opportunity of addressing to her. There was lately even a tone of diffidence in his manner of speaking to her, far different from his aspect of cold indifference to others, which rendered the contrast only stronger; and as this change occurred to the remembrance of Matilda, her color became brighter, and she walked with a more elastic step than before. "But Eleanor has observed nothing of all this!" thought she, with a sudden revulsion of feeling; “and whọ is so observant as she is, if there had been any truth in all I have fancied! No! I will not plunge myself into the dark abyss of disappointed affection and unavailing regret, by allowing vanity, even for this one hour, to deceive me. The customs of society warrant all the attention Sir Alfred has yet shown me, and I must not imitate Eleanor in misconstruing his meaning." Matilda's reveries were interrupted by the party in advance suddenly coming to a dead pause, and she was instantly restored to the consciousness of Sir Colin's presence, by hearing him conclude his long oration with a remark which was intended to be quite new and original. "So, you see, Miss Howard, nothing can be more dangerous than a draught of air." "Do "What is it that gives a cold, cures a cold, and pays the doctor?" asked Mr. Grant, wheeling suddenly round. you give it up, Fletcher ?--a draft !" "As for curing a cold," began Sir Colin, deliberately "there's nothing equal to-__” "Leaping over a three pair of stairs' window! That is what I always recommend to my friends, for it saves such a fortune in lozenges." Now, good people here is the cottage of old Janet, which I brought you to admire," cried Eleanor, rounding an angle in the glen, and displaying, with evident exultation, a scene which nature and art seemed to rival each other in embellishing. The sunbeams played gaily through the inmost depths of a lovely valley, and streamed along the bright edges of every tree and bramble, which glittered with the silver whiteness of a clear hard frost. The distant mountains were covered with patches of snow, varied by the dark face of many a rough gigantic precipice. The river danced merrily along over a bed of granite, and after rushing and tumbling through massy blocks of stone, it suddenly shot over the highest pinnacle of the rock, and fell in one vast arch of foam into the dark and fathomless basin beneath. ་ Contrasted with the bolder features of this gorgeous landscape stood Gowanbank, a lovely rustic cottage, which seemed formed to become the abode of peace and contentment. It crowned a sloping bank, which rose from the margin of the stream; a little white paling surrounded the garden, which was fancifully planted with groups of evergreens, the varnished and sombre leaves of which were tipped with golden light, and edged with fringes of snow. Every bough, and every rock, was hung with wreaths of sparkling icicles, which were illuminated by a thousand prismatic hues, rivalling the tints of a rainbow; and the deep overhanging roof of the cottage had so sheltered the southern wall, that it still bloomed with the scarlet blossoms of the pyrus japonica. "Now for a sonnet, or a fugitive piece of some kind, Mr. Grant!" said Eleanor; "you ought to be an eloquent improvisatore, having resided so much in Italy!" "Indeed, Miss Fitz-Patrick, I possess the finest poetical vein in the world! It has but one little defect, that the moment feelings should be put into words, the whole evapo rates! I have a thousand times seized a sheet of paper, feel. ing precisely like Byron or Moore, but invariably, after writ ing a large emphatic OH! at the top of a page, I have been obliged to desist." "How very unlucky! for I was planning what a good amusement it would be, if our large party were to set about writing a Christmas Annual. You must each send a contribution, and I shall sit for the frontispiece myself. Sir Colin's story must be limited to twenty pages; Mr. Grant may throw in a few comic sketches; and Major Foley shall court the muses." "I can be at no loss for a subject," said he, with a gratified bow. "That is precisely what I intended you to say! Captain M'Tartan must toss up some good shipwrecks for us, and be sure to invent a splendid storm.” "If a leaf of my log-book can be of any service, you are welcome; but otherwise, I never speak of the ship upon shore, and would rather wave the subject. Besides I may perhaps publish a volume myself, to be called 'Dulse and Tangle, or Yarns at Sea,' dedicated to the first Lord of the Admiralty, whoever that may be." "Colonel Pendarvis! we shall accept any of your adventures which have not already enlivened the United Service Journal. By the way, I must make an exception of your trip to Calcutta, because nothing new can ever said be about India. My receipt for a book upon that subject would describe them all. Begin with a tiger-hunt, then follows a suttee; a visit to a rajah, two or three serpents, plenty of currie, and an escape from an alligator." "One might quite as generally characterize all descriptions of savage countries, which are invariable repetitions of the same thing," said Mr. Grant. "Whether the subject be New Zealand, Polynesia, Greenland, the South Pole, or the North, you may bind them up in alternate pages without being found out. Describe the universal outcry for glass beads and knives, the filthiness of the natives, their thievish propensities, their wonder at first seeing a ship, some detestable particulars of the food they eat, and a great deal about the author's gentlemanlike horror at observing them use their fingers, as if these poor creatures ought to starve until they had silver forks-and the whole is wound up with a tremendous picture of cruelty, depravity, vice, and superstition." “There is but one use in reading such representations, |