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"Of

my injuries, and the misfortunes of others," he replied. "Would it not be wiser to profit by the experience you have gained, than to bury recollection?" she continued.

"If I can profit by it," he replied; "but if the injury cannot be atoned for, the misfortune is irreparable; all that is left for us to do is to forget."

Mrs. De Tracy retired to rest at an early hour, upon the plea of fatigue. She dismissed her maid when she had removed her satin robe, and hastily donned her travelling dress in its stead. Then she threw a large shawl over her bead, opened the door, and, after listening a moment, glided down the staircase, through the hall, out into the dark night.

my fears forebode," replied the lawyer, with a glance at Mrs. De Tracy.

"You will speak as if you were quite alone, Mr. Holman," said the colonel, observing it.

"Then, sir, not to detain you from your friends longer than I can help, you will look at that paper, and say whether the signature is genuine?"

The colonel adjusted his eyeglass. The honorable blood of the old man mounted to his silvery locks, as he exclaimed, "It is a forgery, sir! a base fraud! Who has dared" His anger choked him. "I feared so! I feared so!" said the lawyer, slowly shaking his head. "Do you," he continued, "know a man in your neighborhood by the name of Robinson, Colonel De Tracy?" "I do!-a professed gambler!-an infamous swindler! What of him?"

"He presented that cheque at the bank," continued the lawyer. "But in consequence of some knowledge of his character, or from the clumsiness of the forgery, its genuineness was doubted, and the man detained until I could be sent for. I should have exposed him immediately, but for his assertion that he had received the cheque from-I grieve to say it, sir— Captain De Tracy."

"Edward!" ejaculated the horrified auditor. The paper fell to the floor.

Mr. Holman picked it up, and went on, in a tone of sympathy, "there is one way to save him. You can acknowledge this as your handwriting, refusing to return it to Robinson."

The drizzling rain fell steadily, but she paused not; she trod the well-known lane-past the Clearspring-its bubbling unruffled by the swollen waters—she gained the cottage. It was dark and still-evidently uninhabited. She could just discern its outlines through the gloom; but she felt for the broad doorstep, and, in the shelter of the rude porch, laid herself upon it. The rain splashed mournfully from the eaves and from the elmboughs; the wind echoed her sighs. The stone was wet with "Never, sir, never!" The resolution of a Brutus spoke in tears the first she had shed since her mother's death-and his uplifted head and marble countenance. "The viper has these were of a fiery, bitter flood, such as those who weep them struck his fang into the breast that warmed him! He is no should pray never to have renewed. One half hour to memory nephew of mine; the law may take its course!" and grief-then she arose, saying, "This injury cannot be 'Pardon me, Colonel atoned for; this loss is irreparable; yet I do not court forget-suited for a lady's ears. fulness!" be spared the further stance."

CHAPTER V.

"I SEE that ugly hut is standing yet. Why don't you pull it down, brother?" said Mrs. Schmidt, as she lounged by one of the drawing-room windows next morning.

"Not a stone shall be displaced while I live!" was the response, and a look, half regret, half sternness, passed over his face.

"As romantic and ridiculous as you were in your boyish days!" said his sister. "If Eleanor had not married, it would not have been there now."

"Eleanor may rest content with her efforts in that quarter," said Wilton, bitterly. The subject evidently excited him. "She has never repented her action," retorted Eleanor. "I have suffered enough for both," said her brother; "but we will not revive that unhappy affair upon this, of all days." "I wonder whatever became of the shoemaker's wife," continued the unimpressible Agnes. "She was almost pretty; rather vulgar-looking, though."

Enough of cobblers and sentiment for one morning," said Eleanor, rising.

"Aunt, I am a petitioner for your judgment of my dress," said Eleanor, and the aristocratic arm encircled Mrs. De Tracy's waist. The embrace of a boa-constrictor would have been more endurable; but, save by a stiffening of a slender form, as if the muscles had changed to steel, she did not resent the caress.

66

De Tracy, but these are matters little Mrs. De Tracy would perhaps prefer to discussion of this deplorable circum

"I thank you, sir," said the colonel. "Lavinia, you had

best retire."

Mrs. De Tracy was scarcely in the corridor, when a closed door flew open, and Eleanor sprang out, ghastly with terror. "I have heard all!" she gasped, seizing her aunt's arm. "My husband! save him!"

The hour had come. A pitiless, retributive spirit filled her breast at the appeal, expelling all womanly compassion "Come with me," she said, composedly. "We cannot talk here."

Down the lighted staircase, through the bustling hall, she led the way to the little library, and locked themselves in. With frantic vehemence Eleanor pleaded for her erring husband. She told of his misery at the dominion of his tyrannical passion ; all was lost, she said their estate secretly mortgaged-their furniture even pledged to the sharpers who had robbed him. "But let it all go!" she exclaimed. "Let us live in pinching want; only spare us this dreadful shame. You can soften that Oh! think of my children, my guileless babes,

stern old man.

and have mercy!"

In her distraction, Eleanor clung to the knees of the silent, unmoved figure.

"Eleanor Lisle," said Mrs. De Tracy, "look at me!" She obeyed, with a shudder at the unpitying accents. "Nine years ago," continued Mrs. De Tracy, a heartbroken woman knelt to you in this room, knelt where you are crouchAmong the throng of carriages that evening at Wilton Lisle's ing now, and besought your mercy in behalf of an innocent door, a travel-stained postchaise was driven up, and a gentle- husband. You drove her out into the storm with contumely; man, stepping from it, inquired for Colonel De Tracy.. by your agency he was deprived of every earthly comfort; you "He is dressing, sir," said the footman. "Will you walk murdered him as certainly as if you had stabbed him to the in ?"

heart. You talk of pity!-you who, only this morning, gloried "My business is urgent," said the gentleman. "Take him in a deed a fiend would blush to confess! I answer you as you this card." did her I never interfere' with Colonel De Tracy's business. "He will see you," said the servant, returning; "please to As you could not provide for paupers,' we may be excusable walk up-stairs."

He conducted him to Mrs. De Tracy's dressing-room. "Mrs. De Tracy, Mr. Holman," said the colonel shaking hands with the new comer. "I sent for you here, because we shall be less liable to interruption. I trust nothing unpleasant has procured for us the honor of this visit, Mr. Holman."

"An affair which, I hope, may terminate more happily than

for declining to furnish means of escape to criminals." Mechanically Eleanor arose, and, staring wildly at her accuser and judge, asked, “Who are you?''

"The avenger of innocent blood! You vouchsafed her but three minutes; I have wasted twenty."

She unbolted the door, and passed with unruffled brow into the crowded drawing-room. To her surprise Colonel de Tracy

entered at the same moment, with Mr. Holman, whom he pre- | her hand to pluck a leaf, her bracelet became unclasped. Wilsented to Wilton as a friend who had arrived unexpectedly. ton recovered it dexterously before it touched the floor. The colonel's face was ashy pale; but he controlled himself ad- "Allow me!" he said, playfully. mirably, receiving recognitions and introductions with his customary precise politeness. Exchanging bows and friendly greetings with all in his way, he drew near his wife. His brief whisper "All must be kept quiet to-night; we must have no scenes," was caught by no other ears.

Alfred Hazlitt, asserting his right, as Wilton's nearest male relative, opened the ball with the bride, and the groom led out Mrs. De Tracy. Edward was her vis-à-vis, so dashing and gal

. She held up her arm, dimpled and round as a child's. With a start and exclamation he raised it to the light. He had perceived and recognized the butterfly scar. One moment he stood transfixed, gazing at her in mute astonishment; then, throwing back his hair, revealed the irregular cicatrice upon his temple. Subterfuge would be idle. She spoke ere he could. "Your suspicions are just, Mr. Lisle; you knew me as Minnie Thorn. This is not the time or place for explanations."

lant, that his partner, one of the beauties of the evening, did not remember that he was a married man, until Wilton asked him "what had become of Eleanor?"

"Hush!" said the captain, affecting to whisper, looking towards the object of his present devotion, and they whirled away, laughing.

Wilton offered his arm to his companion at the close of the set, and they sauntered through the room, chatting gaily and seriously by turns. The deep recesses of the windows were filled with shrubs and flowers, and, as Mrs. De Tracy put out

"I must, I will speak!" said he, impetuously. "I dare not defer what I have to say to another opportunity. For years I have sought and longed for this meeting. I never dreamed that it would come thus. I can be of no use to you now. My fond. hope was to assist or relieve you in some way, to the sacrifice of years of time, or the whole of my estate. But I may express my shame and sorrow at the treatment you encountered from those of my blood and name, whose obligations to you were great and uncancelled. My father was not inhuman. Upon his deathbed he assured me that he was ignorant of your

"You allude to Eleanor," said Wilton. "She had only the One sentence of Wilton's stung like a scorpion-lash: her extenuation of thoughtlessness, and a silly, unfounded spite, "meekness and charity!" Was their proof to be found in her which distorted her views of right or wrong. She was a vain, sarcastic, scathing denial of the prayer of her humbled foe; in spoiled girl, with strong prejudices, which she retains to this her deliberate consignment of three sinless babes to a life of day. I cannot say, 'pardon her;' but your meekness and hardship and degradation? Their mother-wicked and heartcharity were boundless once; cannot they cover her trans-less though she had been-was Wilton's sister. Should his gression?'"'

explored the apartments in quest of her husband. He was planted in front of a loquacious dowager, enduring with unflinching civility her cannonade of prosy reminiscence and anecdote. Upon ordinary occasions, no one acquainted with his punctilios would have ventured to interrupt the monologue; but his wife touched his shoulder, and motioned him imperatively to accompany her. On her way upstairs she communicated her apprehensions and their cause. One impassioned supplication for his forbearance towards the wretched man made him forget his harsh sentence. None of the servants knew where he was; but one had met him going to his chamber about an hour before. The key was on the inside of the

lock.

"Knock!" said the colonel, in an undertone, to the servant. No reply. "Call him!" He did so, but not a breath or a movement responded.

"He has set out," said Mrs. De Tracy, aside. know something about him at the stables."

"They may

worthy father was benevolently desirous that he should secure the favor of so useful a patroness as the rich and childless neophyte. His junior was not loth to make himself agreeable. In time, his powerful, acute mind acquired a mighty influence over hers, enfeebled by distress and superstition; and the sagacious superior foresaw, in this ascendancy, an additional and indissoluble chain, binding her to the ceremonial Church and its penances.

My poor pen falters in the attempt to convey a faint idea of the pious scandal, the rage, the amaze, the unaffected grief of the good man, when coolly informed by his pupil that he had written to Rome, praying for a licence to espouse Lavinia De Tracy; and he added, irreverently, "If this reasonable petition is denied, Mother Church' loses two unworthy members. Mammon and Cupid versus Stole and Cassock! What man in his senses could hesitate in the choice?"

The "reasonable petition" was negatived; but the interdict arriving but a day before the nuptials, the bride was kept in ignorance until the ceremony was over.

They wintered in London; the late candidate for the priest

The servant had sunk upon his knee, with a knife turned the key, and applied his eye to the keyhole. His yell, as he sprang to his feet, brought a crowd to the spot. "Murder-murder!" | hood launching upon the dancing billows of gaiety and extravait said, and the old colonel fell across the threshold. They thronged up, master, and guests and servants. The door was forced; and there, leaning back in an easy chair, was the body of the captain, his career of vice closed by the hand of a suicide.

CHAPTER VI.

gance with an abandon that testified to the irksomeness of his previous austerity. Along with other affectations, he threw off the show of tenderness and respect for his wife. Without a friend in the world, insulted daily by her only guardian, deprived of the importance with which her wealth had invested her, the meanest hireling in her household was an object of more consideration than its nominal mistress. In subsequent COLONEL DE TRACY was gathered to his fathers a year after his years, in reviewing this epoch of her history, she described her nephew's death. Eleanor and her children had a home at Lisle 'heart as a desert, above which clouds brooded for ever, moving. Villa; but a comfortable provision was made for them in their indeed, at the breath of contention, but never passing away. uncle's will. Castle Tracy was bequeathed to young Wilton They had been married but a year when a fresh and fruitful cause of discord presented itself. By a clause in Colonel De Hazlitt, upon condition of his taking the name of De Tracy; and the widow, anxious to leave scenes fraught with such har- Tracy's will, she had a life interest (not transferable) in certain rowing associations, removed to the west of Ireland. Here she property. This was but an inconsiderable part of her original had few associates, no intimates. Her interesting appearance income, and she was astounded when told by Kennedy that i and settled sadness excited curiosity and sympathy; but inwas now all they had to depend upon. With this information quiries and attempted consolation were met by the same rigid commenced a system of persecution as cruel as unprovoked. reserve. Her religious duties, neglected for years, were attend- Again and again she represented that she had no right to dised to with a severe exactitude, denoting a morbid or uneasy pose of this life-interest; he was obstinate in the assertion that conscience. No beggar passed her door or left her presence she could devise some means of evading the testamentary disempty-handed; the heats of summer, nor the blasts of winter, position, at least that it was her fault that the clause was incaused her pew to be vacant; yet, the eagerness with which serted. His worried victim seemed, even to his indifferent eyes, she bestowed alms, and went through the form of worship, to be but a pace from the tomb, when he unexpectedly stepped could not be mistaken for ostentation or devout zeal. Dis-in before her. He met his death in a gambling-house; and covering that ease of mind was not to be bought, she chose to when his mutilated face was uncovered to the gaze of the wife ascribe her dissatisfaction to the coldness and poverty of the of eighteen months, her comment was in her clasped hands and "Thank Heaven!" Protestant faith, and sought balm in the bosom of the "Mother fervent ejaculation, Church," as her Irish acquaintance called it.

To her confessor she unloaded her sorrowful breast; and he added penances to the propitiatory offerings to remorse. But the "Benedicite of his absolution failed to drown that hollow laughter and awful cry of "Murder;" holy water nor incense could cleanse the bloodstain she felt resting upon her soul. Such sweets revenge carries behind his back to cast upon the dupes he smiled on while approaching.

In her rounds of mercy she was accompanied sometimes by a Sister of Charity, but oftener by Father Roget, who was exceedingly proud of his proselyte; and when he could not attend her in person, he not unfrequently sent, as a substitute, a guest-brother, or one of his pupils, recommending a careful imitation of this pious "sister's" works and deportment, as an invaluable aid in the improvement of their own religion and manners.

Paul Kennedy, his favorite pupil, was of Irish parentage; but his feet had pressed the shores of many lands. Educated for the bar, he entered the army in a boyish freak; fought the French, and afterwards, falling in love with their customs and style of life, cut no mean figure in the salons of their metropolis; squandered his fortune in dissipation, disappeared in the vortex of society, returned to Donegal, and was now a candidate for holy orders in the Church of Rome. He was, at the time of our story, about thirty years of age, with an elegant person, grave but winning address, a far-reaching, scheming brain, and a will that said "lord and master" to none-not even his holiness.

0

I have not drawn upon my imagination to tax the reader's credulity in setting down the leading incidents of this tale of vicissitudes. I have often, in my childhood, seen the thrice wedded, thrice widowed woman, then a calm-eyed person, long past the meridian of life, residing, in unpretending style, in a quiet little cottage, that years gone by had been to her the haven of happiness and content. Upon a stormy winter night, when the heavy dash of the rain was like the tramp of mourners, the sobbing wind like the weeping of the bereaved, she related her story to a dear friend of my own, who has since joined her in the far, changeless land. She touched, unwillingly, upon her latest and most singular marriage; spoke of the second as of a dream; but upon the wedlock of her youth she dwelt with swimming eyes and a smile of tender remembrance.

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'Except during these latter years of resignation and contentment," said she, "I have never known such happiness as when we sat in this cottage porch on a warm summer's day, Harry at his work, and I, binding shoes, at his side."

COMMODORE CHARLES WILKES.

THIS distinguished officer, whose name is now upon the lips of every American, is well known both in science and navigation. He was born in the State of New York, in 1805, and entered the naval service of his country in 1818, being but thirteen He was to be admitted into orders in a few months, and the years of age. He gave evidence of marked ability by scientific

It is no fault of Captain Wilkes that national exigencies and our bedchamber, where, secured from observation by the leafy a feeble Minister have rendered his act abortive.