Year: 1878

Ing you 10 Inc care or none OuL servants.


"Oh! As to that, you need not have the
slightest fear, assure you," said Maurice.
II shall get on capitally, and if need any
more nursing, there's old Dinah and lot of
others, who are excellent hands at it. Be-
sides, am getting quite strong now. l have
no intention of being ill again. As far as l
am concerned, there is nothing to prevent
your setting off at once"


"Well, if those are really your views, l
suppose there can be no reason why I shouldn't
CO." rejoined Mrs. Blanding, in e relieved
tone. $50 think that 1 will write to Mary
Ann at once, and tell her to expect me at
home"


Of she hustled to write the SAID letter and
pack her trunks; and two days later, she bade
adeu to Mosslands and departed, leaving
Maurice master of the field.


Very quiet, very solitary, was the old place
now. The loneliness oppressed him, yet it
brought no salutary reflections to his mind.
Wandering idly through the rooms where
many happy hours of his boyhood and youth
had been spent; seeing around them the
familiar objects 80 closely associated with
thoughts and memories of one who had ever
extended warm welcome to him; whose tones
had never breathed aught but kindness in his
ear; he still felt no compunction in the thought
that he was plotting to undermine the whole
fabric of this friends happiness-that he had
violated his trust, and cast every claim of
honor to the winds.


He improved the first day of his solitude
by writing the long meditated letter to Mary.
He told her how lonely, how unhappy, he felt
How severe was the punishment which he had
entaied upon himself, by his ill;judged be-
trayal of feelings which he had been unable
to control, and how be longed for some token
of her forgiveness some proof, however
slight, that she did not quite hate him. He
reproached her gently for having stolen away
without warning, saying that had he but
dreamed of her intention, he would have in.
stantly Withdrawn himself from her presence,
since his society was unendurable to her.
Far better would it have been," he wrote,
"for me to find shelter in the humblest dwell
ling near my cousins place. where I might
still have given an eye to his affairs, than for
you to quit the abode of which you are the
rightful mistress. But, OIL Miss Eustace,
how deeply am wounded by this want of
confidence; this evidence of your utter con-
tempt for me! One word from you would
have suficed to effect this separation, without
inficting upon me the modification of find
ing myself placed in the position am now
forced to occupy. What will your guardian,
what will the world, Think And I must
be forever the wretched victim Of selfre-
proach, which, added to other pangs equally
keen, continually torments me in these hours
of my solitude. May 1 entreat you to write
me but one single line Of comfort? But fear
the request is vain. You have hitherto Civ
en- me too scanty proof of kindness for me to
venture to hope for this. That you are do
ing good, that your presence must ever shed
a blessing around it upon all on whom it
shines, too we'll know. And, therefore, you
must, in measure, be happy, under all cir
cumstances of life, since the good, the lovely,
the benefcent, always reap their own re-
ward" Much more he added, which it is
not necessary here to transcribe. Suffice it to
say, that his effusion took up four large pages,
and when be read it over, after signing him.
self, "Yours faithfully, M. c." he felt glow
of satisfaction in the conviction that it was
a mastery composition, and must surely find
favor in its recipients regard.


He would have been disappointed, had be
known that Mary, after reading it, exclaim-
ed only, with weary sigh, "Ohl uhy can he
not leave me aloneY"


TO BE CONTINUED.