I first began to reason upon the subject. The moment you informed me that my nephew, Stephen Dugard, had fled from your house, I had an obscure remembrance of a dream, which foreshadowed such a business; and I find I was right. Here, Mr. Bosley," he continued, handing the volume to Ephraim, “read aloud from the top of that page. You will perceive, by the date, it refers to a period when Stephen was not born. Read it, Mr. Bosley."

Ephraim took the book, adjusted his tacles, and read aloud, as follows:

:

spec

“I dreamed, last night, I was walking in green fields, when a leveret, which was too feeble to move, lay in my path. It seemed to look at me with an imploring eye, and, taking it up in my arms, I carried it home. I thought I gave it food, and it waxed strong and lively. But, then, a strange man came unto me, and I gave unto him the leveret, and told him to take care of it, for I liked it, and, when it was a little older, it should be always with me, The strange man took it,

and went away, but, as I watched his departure, I thought it jumped out of his hands, and was lost among some bushes. I did not grieve, for, when he came back to tell me he had lost it, I said, 'I doubt not we shall find it again.' And I thought I went to look for it among the bushes, and I did find it again. But, lo! it had now the face of a toad, and the tail of a scorpion. I took it up, and it stung me, and with the sudden pain I awoke.”

Astonishing!" exclaimed Ephraim, as he ceased reading, and returned the volume to Sir Everton.

"Mr. Bosley," said the Baronet, "these are things that excite amazement, only where they act with the force of novelty. To me they are as much a matter of course, as that the earth should be wet when rain falls. My dreams have been the index of my life. They refer me to the page where I find written what is to be, and events themselves supply the explanation. Yesterday, that which you have read was but a dream; the event of today is its expositor."

"But the toad's face,-the scorpion's tail,Sir Everton ?"

"I read my dreams," replied the Baronet, "by the torch of time, whose light I follow with a steadfast eye, and rarely attempt to penetrate beyond it."

"Well!" ejaculated Ephraim, "it is very wonderful, happen how it may! But it is a comfort to know that everything is for the best; and that what must be, will be, even when it is to be."

Here the colloquy terminated; Sir Everton, who considered it necessary the interpretation of his dream should faithfully correspond with the dream itself, being no less stoical on the present occasion, than when the leveret escaped.

Mr. Bosley, meanwhile, was instructed to make inquiries respecting Stephen's flight, and, promising to use his best diligence in the business, he took his leave.

As he trudged homewards, however, with a sharp sleet drifting into his eyes, he pondered deeply upon all he had heard; so deeply, in

deed, that it was not in human nature he should go to bed that night without a decided propensity to dream. Accordingly, he had

scarcely laid his head upon his pillow, ere he found himself in full chase after a black rabbit, with a cow's horns, and a fox's tail.

CHAPTER II.

He never told his love!

SHAKSPEARE.

THE family of Sir Everton Azledine consisted of himself, Lady Azledine, two daughters, and one son. The last, who was named Cameron, after his grandfather, and was still pursuing his studies at Oxford, had attained his twentieth year. Both his sisters were younger, Arabella being in her eighteenth, and Bertha in her sixteenth, year. Sir Everton was on the wintry side of fifty, and Lady Frances Azledine on the same side of forty. Cameron, Arabella, and Bertha, were the reliques of eleven children who, as the phrase is, had blessed the nuptial bed, the other eight having all died in their infancy.

The pedigrees of Sir Everton and Lady