Year: 1875

| remember no more when l came tC myself, weeks had passed. l had beer missed in the morning, and, after long search, had been found insensible on the path in front of the old Hall. It was not 1atil I was fairly convalescent, after { long lingering illness, that I told my cousin what had seen. He ridiculed il at the time, and told me that what I de- scribed must have presented itself to me in the fever from which I was recover ing, I knew the contrary, and told him so. After many attempts to convince him, I desisted.

 But nearly year afterwards, when I was once more busily engaged ill the cares of my London parish, and when my adventure ill the north, though not for gotten, had ceased to dwell with such vivid force in my mind, received long letter from Robert Fetherstone. In it he stated that, when 1 told him what help believing me, knowing as he did to close it and allow it to fall into decay but that he had feared to tell me so then, in my weak state of health. In his letter also he narrated the history, which will briefly set forth in my own words.

 The family of Robert Fetherstone, my cousins grandfather, and the last of the family who had resided at the Hall con sisted of two sons and daughter. With the second son, John, upon whom the estate eventually devolved, this story has nothing to do. Charles, the elder son, and his father, both of whom had violent tempers, used constantly to dis agree, and the young man had frequently expressed lis intention of leaving home, and going to reside with the relations of l his mother, who was dead. Two things, | however, had hitherto detained him at home; the one, that he was in love with a young girl in the neighboring town ]; the other, his affection for his sister.

 Amy Fetherstone, in her eighteenth year, was the influence that alone render ed the life at Fetherstone Hall endr1rable to her brother; indeed, she was not only her brothers favorite, but the idol of all in and about the place. For her, her father, hot-tempered and overbearing as he was to others, had never even frown ; for her sake, her brother Charles, who inherited no small portion of his fathers l disposition, would submit to bear the angry and unjust words with which his father often addressed him; for her sake, even her brother John, the bookworm, who, it was said, cared for nothing but | his studies, would at any time have sacri- feed his darling pursuits to have grati- fed her lightest wish; in short, in the dull old Hall she was the one bright in fuence which made 1t something like a l home to the three men, who, though so nearly related, had yet no tastes or habits in common.

 She was engaged to be married to Robert Allan, wealthy gentleman some seven or eight years her senior, who, as report says, loved her dearly, and to whom she also was most sincerely and fondly attached. The spring which was to see her nineteenth birthday was also to see her bride; and there did not ap- pear to be single cloud to mar her hap piness, except the unfortunate disagree ment between her father and her elder 1 brother.

 One great cause of this disagreement was Charles Fetherstone's s attachment to a girl who was certainly beneath him in station, and penniless; the latter circum- stance his father would have easily looked over, but he could not and would not hear of his son marrying the daughter of lawyer ill @ country town, who could not trace even the slightest affinity to any of the county families. He had, therefore, forbidden Charles even to see her; and Charles, wishing to avoid, if possible, an open quarrel, used to walk 1 over at night to the town, where, by the arrangement of her friends, he had ire quent opportunities of meeting her.

 This, however, was at length discover ed by the old squire, and & terrible scene ensued between father and son; a scene which terrified Amy to such an extent that she would have done anything or risked anything to have effected 8 recon ciliation between them. It ended by the heard again that Charles had visited the girl, he would never allow him to re- enter the house; and by the son with equal fervor vowing that nothing should make him give her up, even if his father him.

 From that night, however, the squire took precautions to prevent, if possible, his sons nocturnal visits; he insisted upon seeing himself all the fastenings of the Hall secure, and intrusted to ser want the task of watching to see that 1 Charles made no effort to leave the house l at night.

 i Clla1lSS WttS uOG GO D8 uolGdUol, when his father had retired to his room, and when the servant was safely en- sconced in snug corner by the fire ill the Hall, on more than one occasion l Charles had, with the assistance of his sister, lowered himself from her window and made his way to Kirby, the town where his sweetheart lived, returning in few hours by the same way, without any one in the house being aware of his absence.

 Just at this time another trouble came across poor Amy's path. Robert Allan, who had hitherto been most constant in his attendance at the Hall, and who lived but few miles distant from it, for eight whole days had not been near her. She could not comprehend it at all, nor was she conscious of having given him any otfense. She knew that he was, hoW- ever, by disposition jealous ill the ex- treme, and she feared that she had some how unwittingly offended him. Her hope that he might have been suddenly called from home without time to make his adieus was dispelled upon inquiry from her brother; and poor Amy, after wait ing as long as her patience and her love would allow her, at last humbled her pride and sent a note to her lover asking him the cause of his absence, to which she received no reply.

 The story draws to it's close, Poor - Amy sought her brother and conided her grief to him, and Charles, indignant at such treatment of his sister, and not sorry for an excuse which would take him near to Kirby, close to which Robert Allan house was situated, vowed he would go over that night and see him, comforting his sister with the assurance that it could only be some trifing fit of jealousy, which word of explanation would re- move