period fhould ever arrive when the fhould lose her prefent influence over his affections, what was fhe to expect from paffions fo irritable, fo impatient of control, and from a difpofition fo little influenced by the reftraints of decorum, or the opinion of the world!

Mrs. Evans's remembered admonition diverted her mind from pursuing this melancholy theme; but, as fhe traced the chain of her parting precepts, fhe felt that there was one obfervation with which he never could coincide. Should the event which her fears anticipated ever take place, fhe knew it would be a misfortune which time could never overcome, a forrow which patience never could foften.

While the fweetly tempered mind of the young countefs framed extenuating apologies, and concerted a thoufand little acts of attentive kindness, to mi

tigate the painful effects of her lord's felf-willed negligence upon the minds of his friends, he was agreeably furprized to find affairs in the beft train poffible, and a greater degree of cordiality and good humour arifen from what the fufpected must have proved the death-blow to family amity. No fooner had the earl announced his intention of setting. out for Scotland, and trying to make his 'old caftle fomething habitable, than the active imagination of lady Madelina flew back to the times of her grandfather, when Monteith was in its greateft fplendor.. She again anticipated the found of the bugle-horn, reverberating round its projecting towers, to fummon the

clan to attend their feudal chieftain to a hunting party or a curling match. Her mind now recurred to the grandeur of a public day, the court glittering with fplendid vifitors, the defolated

halls

halls refounding with the cheerful notes of the bagpipe, and numerous fervants in gaudy liveries conducting the aftonished guests through the long galleries to a magnificent entertainment. Fired at the idea, her countenance loft its usual afperity, and with an air of melting kindness the applauded the wisdom of her nephew's project. "By all " means," said he, " endeavour to re"ftore the castle and its vicinity exactly ".to the fame ftare in which it was at "the time of your great-grandfather. "Never be seen beyond its walls with"out a train of archers and broad"fword-men. Your ancestors would "not even appear at Stirling without "fifty attendants, most of whom were "Macdonalds in the right line. It "ftruck an awe into the neighbour "hood; for not one of these gentlemen

" ever

"ever condefcended to engage in any "mercantile purfuits, but dined every

day at the laird of Monteith's table. "The country was not then over-run "with upftart traders, who, by intro

ducing manufactories, as they call "them, corrupt all the common people, "and render them infolent to their fuperiors. I remember, even when I "was a child, that if a coach with the "Macdonald arms quartered upon it did "but pass through Glafgow, all the in"habitants ran to the door, and testi"fied their refpect by fuitable gef"tures; but now you may traverse "the whole town, and not one loom "shall be stopped to pay you a proper "compliment."

Let not the reader fuppofe that lady Madelina's harangue was intended to have terminated fo abruptly. It might

have extended to the length of the expoftulation of the ghofts in Gray's "Long Story," had not Arabella taken advantage of a cough to rejoice that her dear fifter was going to recruit a little in the wholesome air of the Highlands after the fatigues of diffipated London. The pleasure which glowed in her countenance did not, however, in truth, refult from her hope that the faded cheek of Geraldine might foon refume its priftine rofes. In spite of the contempt which the affected, the abfence of a rival who abridged her conquests and humbled her vanity was the real fource of Arabella's joy.

Lord Monteith was fo delighted to find his plans thus cordially approved, that his refentment immediately foftened, and he politely offered his aunt the use of his house in London till fhe could fix herself