but then it would have been her own workat least, so she would have reported it-now Ellen had been away from her for many months-she was known to have had no control over her actions-she was the adopted daughter of an absurdly eccentric recluse, who had disappeared from the hemisphere of fashion as completely as though she had never shone there, one of its brightest and most worshipped luminaries; and it was from under the auspices of this ridiculous, and as she believed crazy, Lady de Quincy, that her ward, Sir Howard Wilmot's niece, was to be married to Lord Enersdale-was to make a match she had vainly tried to entrap for her. When the last obstacle she had vexatiously brought forward was overruled by Lord Horton's firmness, and she saw nothing to delay the marriage, she exclaimed to herself, "I must be sent for by some friend out of town, for it is just possible that they may crown their inconvenance by not making me a prominent person at the celebration of the ceremony." CHAPTER XVÍ. "And they who are to be wed are happy? وو "Happy! Oh! conceive the happiness to know some one person dearer to you than your own selfsome one breast into which you can pour every thought, every grief, every joy! One person, who, if all the rest of the world were to calumniate or forsake you, would never wrong you by a harsh thought, or unjust word; would cling to you the closer in sickness, in poverty, in cares,-who would sacrifice all things to you, and for whom you would sacrifice all, from whom, except by death, you can never be divided,-whose smile is ever at your hearth, -who has no tears while you are well and happy, and your love the same. Such is Marriage, if they who marry have hearts and souls to feel that there is no bond on earth so tender and so sublime." BULWER'S Night and Morning. HAPPY in themselves-grateful for the return of present peace, and the prospect of future bliss, neither Lord Enersdale nor Ellen could find place in their hearts for an unkind or revengeful thought; and so far from treating Lady Wilmot with the contumely she anticipated, and which, to less gentle minds and less happy hearts, her conduct might have appeared to deserve, they both showed her every outward attention and public respect that her quality of guardian could exact. To have neglected this, would have appeared to them both, a covert censure on the late Mrs. Douglas's choice. Lady de Quincy, who always leant to the side of mercy, whose every thought, whose every act was redolent of kindness and delicacy of feeling, entered fully into their ideas on this point, and was the first to suggest that Ellen should be nominally married from her aunt's house; that she should be accompanied by Lady Wilmot to the altar, and go in her carriage to the church and as this arrangement was one to satisfy the world, as to the consideration and respect in which : Lord Enersdale would be supposed to hold her, Lady Wilmot accepted it with goodhumour, and pretended to believe it emanated from affection on Ellen's part. It was the last week in September before the settlements were ready for execution. Lady de Quincy, contrary to the expectations of many who heard her speak of Ellen as her adopted daughter, added nothing to her marriage portion. She knew that money was not coveted by Lord Enersdale-that his own large fortune was ample for all the expenses incident to his rank; while Ellen's 20,0007. which was settled on herself, and over the interest of which she had the same control confirmed to her, as if she had come into its possession as an unmarried woman, would be equivalent to her personal expenses and private charities but on the evening preceding the day fixed for her marriage-some hours of which evening Ellen had arranged to devote : |