-too humble to continue hollow and silly. The first use she made of her returning strength was to write to Alice Lemington. The letter was blotted with her tears, and many times she laid down the pen, for she was confessing herself hollow, deceitful, and revengeful.

But the sweet answer she received repaid her for all, and when at length she laid her altered countenance on Alice's shoulder, and sobbed aloud, she felt her heart grow stronger, and her courage returned; she had lost her beauty and gained a friend.

The next event of Mary's existence was her mother's marriage with Colonel Maubrey. Fortunately, her father-in-law was a most good-natured man, and so wealthy that Lady Anne had secured the darling wish of her heart-a wealthy union.

Had poor Mary retained her beauty, she

might perchance have been allowed a marriage of choice, as the colonel had enough and to spare, and was, moreover, very easily persuaded to be good-natured; but, alas! Mary now strove only to be resigned, and she steadily contemplated her fate-that fate, to be an old maid.

CHAPTER XIII.

Even such is Time, that takes on trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.

RALEIGH'S Last Lines.

When life appears fleeting before the child of clay,-when visions not of this earth are filling the soul,-when recollection is growing dimmer, and events, once deemed important, are losing their magnitude, how little do men care for pomp or riches; even that greatest of all—ancestral pride, is hardly felt or remembered.

Three days had elapsed since Alice was

first introduced in Lord Cunnington's sick chamber, and although each succeeding day had seen her once again by the sick man's couch, she refrained from speaking of the subject which was ever nearest and dearest to her heart; whilst Lord Cunnington, on the contrary, was pondering deeply upon it. He saw Alice gentle, loving, and good whatever might be her parentage, she had been genteely and gently reared; she was accomplished, graceful, and beautiful; and the proud man asked himself, what more could pride desire? After all, thought he, the quaint old saying,

:

one man is Adam's eldest son as well

as another," does come home to us when we are leaving the world, and he determined to make Alice happy.

The thought of making any one happy was always delightful to Lord Cunnington ; how often in the glow of health it had

imparted a richer feeling of enjoyment than any besides how often amidst the stirring bustle of parliamentary greatness a small quiet voice had whispered greater applause than the loud cries of men's cheers could convey !

Lord Cunnington had never refused to investigate the minutest petition or request; and if he boasted that he had never been deceived, it is a boast many other noblemen would echo, did they not leave all investigation to secretaries and men of office.

Lord Cunnington had the great secret of doing universal good, for he formed no particular standard by which to judge mankind; he believed, and truly, that we are the creatures of circumstances, and that to judge by appearances was a most pitiful sophistry.

And so it is. Had Lord Cunnington