CHAPTER XXIII.

And feel I, Death, no joy from thought of thee?
YOUNG,

GERTRUDE was now Countess of Rossville, and how often had her heart bounded at the anticipation! How slight a thing seems the life or death of an individual, to whom we are united by no ties of affection, when merely thought of, as to be or not to be, and Death and his awful attributes are not made manifest to our senses. But how sad and solemn, when we come to witness, even in those most alien to us, the last struggle -the dread change-the total extinction of mortality!

As the youthful Countess looked on her uncle's cold remains she forgot all her dreams of vanity, and wept in real sadness, as she thought how many a painful emotion of anger and disappointment she had excited in that now still, unconscious form.

Oh! how bitter are the upbraidings which come to us from the lips of the dead! Would that the living could lay the too tardy reflection to heart!

Gertrude could not blame herself, but she sorrowed in the sorrow of a warm ingenuous heart, that she should ever have offended the pale and peaceful image now stretched before her. But tears, though shed in earnest, are, alas! often shed in vain.

"As from the wing no scar the sky retains,
The parted wave no furrow from the keel;

So dies in human hearts the thought of death,"

when that thought is not embalmed by affection.

The funeral obsequies were celebrated with a pomp of heraldry-a display of solemn state, which would, if aught on earth could, have brightened the dull cold eye of the dead to have witnessed.

The Earl had left no settlements-he had destroyed his original ones, and been planning others of a totally different nature, which, had he lived, would certainly have been put in execution, to the utter exclusion of Lady Rossville, unless as the wife of Mr Delmour.

VOL. II.

Gertrude wished for nothing more ardently, than for an opportunity of coming to an explanation with that gentleman, and at once putting an end to the delusion under which he evidently laboured. But there was so much formal politeness -so little of the energy of passion, in his addresses, that she felt it would be like anticipating, were she to appear to look upon him in the light of a lover.

She was, therefore, obliged to endure the annoyance of his little punctilious assiduities, which, though for ever claiming her notice, were yet too vapid and insignificant either to please or offend -they were merely flat, stale, and unprofitable. From these she was soon, however, unexpectedly released. A few days after the Earl's funeral, an express arrived with the intelligence of the death of his cousin, the Marquis of Haslingden—he had died of the breaking of a blood-vessel, and, in so doing, had rendered Mr Delmour presumptive heir to the dukedom. As his presence was now required in the south, he immediately set about preparations for his departure; but, previous to setting off, he sought an interview with Lady Rossville, for the purpose of expressing his regret

at being under the necessity of leaving her at such a time, and his assurances of returning as speedily as the nature of the mournful circumstances under which he was called away, would permit-concluding with the hope, that, whenever propriety sanctioned the fulfilling of his late lamented uncle's intentions, his fair cousin would at once testify her respect for the wishes of the dead, and complete the happiness of the living. However much Gertrude had longed for this opportunity, she now felt, as every delicate mind must feel in a similar situation, that 'tis a nervous and a painful thing to tell a person face to face,

"I don't like you, Dr Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But I don't like you, Dr Fell;"

for, however it may be expressed, that is generally the substanee of a refusal. The words must be uttered, however, in some shape or other, and, collecting herself, she, with that self-possession which, in such cases, speaks even plainer than words, expressed her regret at the misunderstanding that had so long been allowed to existassured him, that the Earl had been perfectly aware of her sentiments-they were such as made

it impossible she ever could do honour to her uncle's intentions.-Politician as he was, Mr Delmour could not conceal the surprise and pique with which he received this communication. He had all along been led to consider his union with the heiress of Rossville as a settled point-he had, therefore, looked upon her as his destined bride-fortunately, a very beautiful, charming, elegant girl, to whom it was his part to be more than usually polite and attentive-and now, at the very moment when he had extended his hand to seize the prize, like a second Ixion, he found he had grasped a cloud. But whatever were his feelings on the occasion, he had too much pride to express anything beyond mere surprise at the very awkward and unaccountable misapprehension which had thus involved both parties in so unpleasant a dilemma. He certainly could not accuse Gertrude of having varied with the circumstances of her fortune, since his own was now, to all appearance, much more brilliant than at the commencement of their acquaintance; but it was evident he thought himself extremely ill-used by her, and, therefore, took a very distant. and stately farewell.