wound on his head. This apology the frank and generous Conyers instantly interrupted; and Magdalen, when the stranger deprecated the fatigue which she must endure in walking, turned on him the liquid lustre of her large eyes, and murmured softly, "Ah, dearest Marsland, name not any fatigue I may encounter for your sake; what danger have you not risked for mine !"

THE much complained of variable nature of the English climate may be found, perhaps, on calculation at the end of the year, to afford as large a number of fair and pleasant days as the inhabitants of any country can boast of; and these fair days interposing between very gloomy ones, are all the more valuable and agreeable. On the morning after the snow-storm, though October was so near its close, the sun rose with beams as vigorous and cheering as any that had glowed on our western isle a month before; quickly melting away the snows on the banks of streams and on the level ground, while on the ledges of rocks, and among the dark verdure of pines and arbutus, it still rested in masses of dazzling whiteness. Drooping nature seemed to revive under the influence of those sunbeams, and nowhere did they produce more gorgeous effects of rich colouring, of light and shade, than among the wild beauties of the ancient domain of the Musgraves of Ravenglas.

Situated at the northern extremity of Cumberland, the wide estate of Ravenglas comprehended in itself specimens of all that is awe-inspiring or beautiful in the county. The broad smooth lake, the rushing torrent, the hills bleak and

barren, or crowned with solemn woods, the lonely sheepwalk, and the valley rich with its treasure of corn; though in this last characteristic of fertility, Ravenglas was, indeed, less favoured than the contiguous barony of Allerdale. From time immemorial, the most friendly relations had existed between the Musgraves of Ravenglas and the lords of Allerdale; and these relations, it was whispered, were at the present time about to be cemented by the marriage of the niece and heiress of the proprietor of Ravenglas with the eldest son of Lord Allerdale. Though known to be not altogether immaculate as far as the follies, or perhaps even some of the vices, of fashionable life are concerned-the handsome person, captivating manners, and though last, probably not least, the brilliant position, both present and future, of the Honourable Edmund Conyers, the heir of Allerdale, led many a fair lady of the "North Countree" to envy the destiny of Ellinor Musgrave; much then would more than one thoughtless damsel have marvelled, had they beheld the grave and even mournful countenance with which, on that particular morning to which we allude, Ellinor issued from the proud and ancient halls of her uncle, and bent her solitary steps towards the beautiful lake from which the estate derived its name. But Ellinor, an orphan since she was six years of age, and brought up under the sole care of her uncle, a man of weak health, deep learning, and nervous susceptibility, had come to consider the world's real ills, to reflect and exercise a sober judgment, as much as many of her sex who were daily enduring the hard struggle for bread, while she fed delicately, and slept on down. The decision and habits of thought, however, which so widely distinguished the character of Ellinor from the usual frivolity of her sex, though originally the gift of nature, had been ripened and called into action by the peculiar circumstances in which she had been

placed; for her uncle, Richard Musgrave, was at once one of the most amiable and least energetic of human beings. A person slightly deformed, and severe fits of illness, had doubtless contributed to indue Richard Musgrave with that spirit of morbid melancholy which rendered him the very antipodes of the hearty, hospitable, north-country squires of the neighbourhood. They, the squires, would even have disliked him for his book-learning and solitary habits of life, but that the gentle temper of Richard, his ready kindness, ever prompt to alleviate the troubles, or aid in the enjoyment of his neighbours, charmed the rough sportsmen in spite of themselves. Richard Musgrave could not join them in the chase, it is true, but if sickness had made the strong man as feeble as a girl, then would Richard Musgrave come and sit by the sick couch, and wile away the weary hours with the countless anecdotes with which his memory was stored; or if a christening or a wedding were the point in question, perhaps the timid nervous owner of Ravenglas, painfully susceptible on the score of his personal misfortune, would decline to mingle in the gay circle, but never failed to send some substantial token of his friendly interest in the baby or the bride. the ladies and gentlemen of Cumberland always spoke of the proprietor of Ravenglas as "that dear Richard Musgrave," or "poor Richard Musgrave," &c.; the latter-the gentlemen -would sometimes, when over their wine, add what would have been heresy in the hearing of their wives, that "it was a pity, after all, that poor Richard ever was born, or that he did not die when he was a child, so that his brother -that fine fellow Leonard-might have come into the estate, instead of going out with his regiment to die on the burning plains of India, where he was suffered to perish, forsooth, because his wife, the beautiful Lady Geraldine, the penniless daughter of an earl, had naturally preferred him

So

with his manly beauty and his poverty to his elder brother's deformed person and his great estate." Oh! the world, the heartless, thoughtless, selfish, ungrateful world! Leonard Musgrave was certainly what this world calls a fine fellow, a gay dashing spirit, who ran through his course with so free and generous an air, that its selfishness was either not perceived, or forgiven perhaps for its very audacity. And the lovely but weak-minded woman who was captivated by that dashing handsome Leonard Musgrave, and the poor deformed elder brother who stood between the handsome profligate and the rich estate-oh, if the world could have known what tears of blood-blood from the heart's core, those two, the brother and the wife, had wept! But the world was just and candid after its fashion; it did call Richard generous and kind, when his brother died, as it was said, in India, and the widowed Lady Geraldine pined away, and left a little daughter, three years old, to the kindness of her only near relation, Richard Musgrave-it did call him good and generous, all things considered, that he supplied so well the place of a father to the orphan Ellinor. That poor uncle with the deformed body and the beautiful soul-he was more to that child than ever her own father would have been; and that was the least of his virtues! Oh, what wonder that Ellinor loved him so tenderly, so entirely, that pausing in her melancholy walk she turned to look at the fine old mansion, with its huge but not ungraceful proportions, its crumbling walls, and diamond-paned casements, overgrown with ivy and with moss, and the dark hills crowned with woods rising behind it, -and the broad waters of the lake, with the red-deer reclining on its margin; spreading far in the foreground, the rich prospect of the fertile valley below, the park stretching farther than the eye could reach; oh, what wonder was it