Aunt, the Lady Sarah Herbert. She was the widow of a gentleman of ancient family, and extensive property, and was now spending the Christmas holydays at her estate in the South of England, where she had collected round her, a bevy of relations, and friends.

"Viola will there be introduced to many members of my family;" observed Lord Glenalbert to me one day, when we were discussing this plan. "She must not first come among them as my wife; but they shall learn to love and reverence her as Miss Sidney."

I honoured him for that sentiment.

Lord Glenalbert took his departure for the Continent.

Lady Sarah Herbert sent her invitation in due form; but the distance was great. Mrs. Sidney did not like to leave her young family; and she also wished to be on the spot to superintend her daughter's trousseau; so it was arranged that I should accompany Miss Sidney.

CHAPTER VIII.

The misseltoe hung in the castle hall,
The holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
The Baron's retainers were blithe and gay

Keeping their Christmas holyday.

HAYNES BAILEY.

All pages of human life are worth studying; the wise instruct, the gay divert us, the imprudent teach us what to shun, the absurd cure the spleen.-MRS. MONTAGUE.

I HAVE I fear, what many would call a foolish prejudice to Christmas festivities. I can indeed understand right well that to the toil-worn mechanic, the weary artizan, or bond-slave of the factory, with whom 'the night,' alas! 'is joint labourer with the day;' that to these last, in especial, victims of an unholy necessity, slaves to an unrighteous utilitarianism, whose shrunken frames, crushed limbs, and debased intellect, tell in fearful characters, a tale of cruel wrong, and dire oppression; (a blot are they in our body politic, a stain in our body social, a canker-worm

in our mercantile prosperity, a corrosive mildew preying on its very vitals; for surely, surely no land can ever prosper where such enormities are encouraged, protected, nay, lauded:-" Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear," and sooner or later will the cry of these unfortunates ascend up before Him, and pierce unto his mercyseat, and draw down His thunderbolts of judgment and of wrath, upon this hitherto favoured country;) I can understand full well, I say, that to these, and such as these, (if any such there be) this gracious festival may be one of licensed mirth and jollity; that the song with which they hail the morn that gives them a brief respite from iron toil, and carking drudgery, may be in them, a fitting Christmas carol: who indeed shall say, whether to their darkened minds, this sense of freedom from temporal slavery may not be a powerful medium of raising their souls to that far more blessed redemption from spiritual thraldom, with which this season his fraught?

But that the powerful, the noble, the wealthy, with whom life itself is a perpetual holyday,-that these with their rare talents, high privileges, and mighty responsibilities, should set apart this day in which we commemorate a boon so vast, so immeasurable that the dazzled soul trembles even

while she rejoices over it, a day too, "dark with excess of light" to those who should rashly lay unhallowed hands on the ark of the new covenant, and dive into a mystery which reason's fathom line could never touch, (oh! let them beware lest haply they fall into the black, boundless void of utter Scepticism, from which scarcely aught that has life in it shall ever emerge,) that these, I repeat should mark out this solemn season, for wassail and for revelry, is an anomaly that I care not to unravel.

Situated, however, as I was, I felt it my duty to accompany Miss Sidney, and accordingly we set forth on our journey. We were two days on the road, but the weather was delightfully mild for the season: the sun yet powerful enough to chequer the surrounding country with that variety of light and shade which gives such charm to the landscape. Viola was at my side speaking to me unreservedly, of all her plans and prospects for the future; plans so feasible, so sober, so reasonable, that I could not doubt they would be realised,―prospects so rational that they seemed to ensure a perpetuity of bliss. But as we approached that lordly castle, my spirits flagged; my heart sank; I was nervous in the extreme. I, who had not been in society for so many years; I, who was so plain, so gauche, so painfully

sensible of my own deficiencies, to encounter a group of strange faces, to live familiarly with them, and that for days and weeks; I literally trembled. Viola did all she could to console me: we entered the gates; the post-boys cracked their whips, although in my nervous trepidation, I besought them not to hurry, the horses galloped,-we were whirled along the magnificent avenue,-we were at the door. Infinite was my relief to find that the whole party, tempted by the beauty of the day, had gone on an exploratory expedition. We were conducted to our rooms; the very magnificence of the apartment depressed me, contrasted too as it was with my own dormitory at Mr. Sidney's,eleven feet by nine. The bed with its rich canopy and costly valance, the toilette table with its rare implements, that seemed designed for any thing but use. (Have I not said, that Lady Sarah Herbert's was a "Show house?") The packages were brought to my room, and I began most sedulously putting things in their places. The employment had a soothing effect on me, and having donned my grey satin gown (my best dress), I began to find out that it must be getting very late; so I resolved upon going in quest of Viola. I had no one to guide me, and I felt reluctant to ring the bell; but I fancied I should know the room again, as it had been pointed out