may hear besides; and dreams, that echo them,-give to the silent loneliness of night a charm beyond the converse of the day.

Yet, to her, who thus has tasted the entrancing draught of passion, friendship' may yield the satisfactions of esteem ;-that calm regard, which, like the moonlight sheen, is beautiful, but warms not; and so felt Madalena. The fond enthusiasm that sparkled in Carema's eyes; the lingering pressure of her hand; the kiss of mute affection that heralded the day, and sealed the coming night,—these were valued by Madalena more as tokens of the influence she had gained, than for themselves, for she had come to win Carema's friendship for another.

With this ulterior view,—as method is said to show in madness, so was there a craftiness in what might seem the spontaneous effusions of regard; and the magic scenery of the South, with the high qualities of Lord Montrano, were themes repeated in a thousand ways, but

always coloured with those rays of romantic interest that best allure the young, -until Carema was already, in heart, an exile from the quiet home that once had bounded all her wishes. This proneness to speak of Italy had seemed so natural, and accorded so well with the 'national feeling' that Hagglestone had desired to foster in his ward, that no shadow of suspicion, until the present night, had crossed his brain,—and even now it arose from another

cause.

However frank and fair,—a man of business gains a morbid sensibility in all cases in which money becomes a matter of profitable calculation. He may 'give' with princely munificence, but, in the way of barter, feel disquietude at the least shadow of a loss. This last was exactly the case with Ephraim, in reference to the loan advanced to Kenrick, on the joint security of Blandford. He had pledged his word to do so, partly under the advice of Dr. M'Mara, who thought it a plan,

that would render Kenrick, to some extent, responsible for his nephew's property :-but the security, when given, was not what the quaker liked, either in quality or manner :it was not direct; and Blandford had seemed to shun all personal intercourse in the negociation ;—in this last particular, his unfortunate ramble to the Limekilns, and the artful arrangements of his uncle, had given a doubtful cast to his conduct, but as Hagglestone knew nothing of either, the conclusion seemed but too just; and though unwillingly, yet he began to view Blandford's character in a light almost as dubious as his uncle's.

With the swift infection of suspicion, the uneasiness excited by the seeming neglect of Blandford was extended to Madalena; and no sooner were the 'green glasses' of distrust assumed, than the conduct of the Italian seemed to darken into something sinister and strange. The letter of Montrano, which had been viewed as a burst of innocent enthusiasm, was now

deemed of mysterious import; and the simulated warmth, and insinuating converse of Madalena, seemed to the mortified Ephraim as proofs of some intended stratagem, to allure Carema into the power of the Count :-and if so, it was a consummation already beyond his power to avert, for as he now remembered with bitter chagrin, a clause existed in her father's will, securing to Carema the power of revisiting her native land, if with the concurrence, and under the protection, of Mon

trano.

The ready acquiescence of the meek Mrs. Hagglestone rendered these angry suspicions certainties at once, in the estimation of her husband, when a fresh parley arose as to the line of conduct to be immediately adopted. Ephraim was for the candid and direct; in other words, for an explanation, which would at once expel the foreign interloper; but his helpmate advocated more lenient measures, and very justly too, on the plea, that the

unconscious and unoffending Carema would be shocked by an occurrence which could not but appear to her harsh and unprovoked.

Though conscious that he held the weaker end of the staff argumentative,' yet Ephraim grew hot and restive. The contention, as we all know, must be vain, where both love too well to be out of humour in earnest; and in due time, the all-persuasive Jemima had found means to assuage even his most prominent asperities, so far that on their appearance at the breakfast table, no token of the past remained, save that the lordly 'he,' seemed rather odd, sleepy, and owlish; aspects, perchance, not very unusual at such an hour; - and 'she,' his smiling Eve, with downcast eyes cowered like a shy and fluttered dove, and strove to hide her consciousness in a hurried fluster of amiable attentions. The conjugal telegraph' of nods and glances, that family freemasonry,' that