harebell at our father's feet, while the sun was sinking amid the hills of our own Scotland-there, at the cottage-door, when our aged parent taught you to lift up your then innocent hands to the Almighty in prayer and praise-I little thought you would have so soon forgotten his precepts !"

The thoughtless girl burst into tears, and Edward, whose good-nature was an active not a passive quality, kindly took her hand, and looking at his wife "Do not be so angry, Agnes, at her receiving a love-token; Harry meant no harm-that I'll answer for; surely if he is to be her husband

"Her husband!" repeated Agnes, with an energy that startled both Edward and Jessy; "the husband of Jessy Grey! I would rather shroud her for her coffin than see her married to a man devoid of religious and moral principle."

"You are strangely prejudiced against poor Harry, and a thousand times more methodistical than ever, Agnes," observed her husband.

"I am not methodistical, Edward -I am not changed —it is you who think differently; and, as the change has marred our happiness, you cannot wonder at my disliking him who has wrought it. You were independent, industrious, and happy: you now talk of the wealth of your superiors; you say it is wrong for them to possess so much, and yet you covet more: Edward, now you seldom smile or smile so that I would rather see you weep; if you attend the village church, your eyes and mind wander from your devotions, and you rejoice at the conclusion of the service. The flowers in our garden are neglected"

"Stop, Agnes!" interrupted Hoskins, "you have lectured me pretty sharply, I think, for nothing; have I ever suffered you to want? —have I ever treated you unkindly ?"

"Oh, no! -no Edward, not unkindly - not that yet."

"Nor ever will, my own Agnes! I will be more with you, and show you how much you have wronged me, and Jessy too, by these misunderstandings."

"I will speak to my sister apart, Edward - give her the infant Jessy, do not weep."

- there,

Jessy left the room in tears. "Now, in truth, Agnes," said Hoskins, when the door was closed, "your prejudices are amazing to me; there is not a better-hearted fellow in the world than Harry, or a more clever-I own that he thinks a little too freely, and you women don't understand that: the people are improving."

"Would," ejaculated Agnes, "that they felt Christianity to be their best legacy, and inherited the virtue of their ancestors!"

"The very thing Harry says: he vows the landlords grow worse and worse ; and unless the people take them in hand there'll be no end to their tyranny."

"Did you ever experience any tyranny, Edward?"

"Never, Agnes."

"Did Hinton ?"

"No- but yes he did, poor fellow, and that no later than last week. Squire Nicol's fox-hounds and the whole hunt went right through his barley; but that is not the worst of it - when he lived near Chester, his sister ran off with and was deserted by his landlord's eldest son."

"I am not surprised at that," replied Agnes, coolly, "if he instructed his sister in the principles of equality, the rights of women, and Mr. Owen's Morality. She only practised what he preache"

Agnes then proceeded to state to her husband the conversation that had passed between Jessy and Harry Hinton; in natural but forcible colours she portrayed the danger of his principles, aided by his insinuating man

hedge, and approaching her at an uneven but hurried pace. If she had been struck by her boldness, her attention was riveted by the expression of her wild and restless eye, which both watched and wandered. She appeared young, and, perhaps, under other circumstances, would have been called pretty; her figure was slight, and her hair, of a light auburn, fell in profuse but unarranged tresses over her face. She was without shoes, and the blood streamed from a wound in her foot so as to attract the notice of the little boy, who pointed to it with one hand, while he wound his arm tightly round his mother's neck.

"You did wrong to trespass, young woman," said Agnes, mildly, while the stranger stood gazing upon her with a peculiar and bewildered lookyou did wrong to trespass but you have been sufficiently punished: wrap this handkerchief round your foot, and if you will follow me to the cottage I will give you a pair of old shoes to protect you."

The woman did not accept the offered handkerchief; but, still staring at Mrs. Hoskins, who had risen from her seat, at last said, "Do you want your fortune told?"

"No;" replied Agnes, "and false as the art is, you have no pretension to it you are not even a gipsy."

"You say truly," replied the girl; "I am not a gipsy; and yet I could tell much that will happen to you -you must be the married one- where's the other ?"

"If you mean my sister," replied Agnes," she has left England." "Left England! -left England!" repeated the young woman, clapping her hands1-66 gone away from" - then suddenly changing the joyful tone in which she had spoken, added "But not of her own accord - -not of her own accord --no girl would leave him of her own accord." Agnes looked upon her with astonishment, and the suspicion that the poor wanderer was a maniac occurred so forcibly to her mind, that she held her child closely to her bosom, and commenced returning to the Mosspits. "Stop, Agnes Hoskins, stop! you sent her away, and I would bless you if I knew how-but I cannot remember the words." She paused, pressed her soiled but delicate fingers to her brow, and sighed so deeply that Mrs. Hoskins could not have said an unkind word to her for worlds. "He will be returning soon!" exclaimed the girl, at last, in a hurried tone; "but look you to your husband—maybe you love him; and it is very sad, as the song says —

"To love and love for ever,'

and then to find your lover go away just like the down off the thistle - and maybe for as light a breath! Well, keep him from Harry, or the curse will overshadow you; for I was as blithe and as happy as a nightingale till I kept his company not but what I'm gay enough still only I don't ever

feel peaceful here (laying her hand on her heart)- yes, Jane is gay enough still, and does his bidding, too, as well as if he loved her; only I must not tell, because it would get Harry into trouble, that I danced round the burning ricks." She approached closely to Mrs. Hoskins while uttering the last sentence, which she pronounced slowly and in an under-tone.

An allusion to a circumstance that had excited so much terror throughout the country, and made every one look with alarm to his own homestead, caused an involuntary shudder to pass over the frame of Agnes. The wild girl shrieked, and clapped her hands on her mouth; then, without uttering another sentence, retreated rapidly across the meadow. She had not, however, reached the spot where she entered, ere she retraced her steps with visible agitation.

"They are coming," said she, "and if he sees me here he will murder me outright; do-do, just let me hide in your house till he goes to his own,

and then I can go for it will be dark, dark night, then."

-

The poor creature trembled from head to foot, and, before Agnes had time to reply, had not only established herself in the cottage, but coiled herself into an inconceivably small space in a cupboard that opened into the little passage. Edward Hoskins and Harry Hinton were soon upon the green that fronted the cottage, and the flushed cheek and loud laughter of her husband told Agnes, but too plainly, he was intoxicated. Her first feeling was that of anger and disgust - her second brought the excuse, “It is not often thus with him ;" though she could not but acknowledge, what every woman so circumstanced must feel, that each time she so beholds her husband must lessen her respect — and, without that, woman's love for man is little worth.

"Well, Agnes-pale, pensive, as usual!" he exclaimed, as, notwithstanding his situation, she had advanced to the door to meet him. "Won't you wish Harry good-night?"

"I am always to suffer in Mrs. Hoskin's opinion, I fear, although I hurried her husband home. We saw some gipsies about, and I said they might frighten you" he added, drawing nearly to the threshold of the door, and peering into her face with his small gray eye, which she used to characterize as cold," but which now appeared illumined by some secret fire"did not you see any?"

66

"No," replied Agnes, without shrinking from his gaze; "many persons passed on their way, but I did not recognise any as gipsies." Her selfpossession, doubtless, disarmed the querist-for, wishing her courteously good-night, he entered his cottage, and seemed determined to shut out intruders, by carefully barring doors and windows.

"So you saw poor Jessy off, my love?" exclaimed Hoskins, throwing himself on the chairs that stood near the table. "Do n't, for Heaven's sake, look so calm and quiet-I know what you think - but I am sober - not quite cool perhaps but sober sober as a judge. Why should n't I be a judge? Well, if I'm not wise enough for a judge, you are for a judgess though you are not always right; now you were wrong about Hinton, for he'd have made a good husband for Jessy-only, as I said, she 's your sister, not mine: so you've had your own way-banished your sister, and smashed that poor fellow's heart all to pieces. But the coach must have come very quickly; I did not think you could have been home these two hours. Give me the boy, Agnes, I have not had a kiss from either of you since I returned."

Agnes held the child towards him, but-whether it was that the little fellow retained a remembrance of the bleeding foot and the red cloak, or that he felt the antipathy of childhood to the smell of spirits, I cannot determine he shrunk from his father and hid his face on his mother's bosom. Edward grew angry, and forcibly disengaged the boy, who screamed more loudly, Mamma-- mamma."

"Take the brat!" ejaculated the father, with an oath, at the same moment throwing him with violence to Agnes-"take the brat; but I tell you that, whatever you may do, my own child shall not thwart me; this is what comes of its having an aristocratic god-mother; it already thinks my hands too rough to hold it, I suppose !"

-

A silly woman - nay, a woman with a moderate share of good sense, as it is called would have replied to this, and high words would have ensued, and seeds of bitterness therewith been sown: but Agnes was a superior woman; so, without uttering a syllable, without suffering an unkind word or gesture to escape, she took the screaming infant out of the room, gave it into the arms of the little serving-maiden, and, having wiped those eyes to which unbidden tears had started, and offered up a silent but fervent prayer to the throne of God for wisdom to form and strength to persist in her good

resolves, she returned to prepare her husband's supper with her own hands.

When Agnes had seen Edward to bed, she went to seek the poor wanderer, who had sheltered in the cupboard; but the girl was gone-how, it was difficult to conjecture, unless she had let herself down from the bedroom window, which appeared partially open. It must not be supposed that Agnes was one of those women who "humour" a husband in his faults, asserting, with a mock amiability (the sincerity of which I always doubt) that they "have no right to oppose him in his little ways." A woman possessing a great and well-cultivated mind will be anxious that her husband shall both be and appear perfection, and she will watch for a fitting opportunity to point out, with gentleness and humility, whatever his better judgment, if exercised, would also declare wrong. Agnes knew it was not when he was intoxicated, that she ought to say a word calculated to add fuel to the flame, but her resolution was not less decidedly taken to combat, with her gentle strength, the growing evil.

The next morning Edward was very penitent, and for an entire week there was no recurrence of the same fault; but the evil did continue; and, with anguish which only a wife so circumstanced can feel or understand, Agnes saw that her influence and happiness were both decaying; the serpent-coil was round and round her husband, and each day added to its closeness and to its strength; she prayed, she wept, she entreated; and sometimes Edward himself would seem bitterly to feel his weakness and vow to amend it; but Hinton had attained that command over him which the powerful mind possesses over the weaker; and his duty, his business, were neglected, for the society of him he termed his friend. Mrs. Cecil Wallingford called herself upon Agnes, and told her that unless Edward paid more attention to her affairs, however unwillingly, she should be obliged to get some one else to act as steward and gardener. The suffering wife assured the lady that she would do her utmost to correct his habits, of which she refrained from complaining. Mrs. Wallingford, to say the truth, felt sincere sorrow for the altered looks of her protegée, and said many kind and complimentary things to Agnes on the extreme beauty of the bud, which seemed to increase in size and loveliness in proportion to the fading of its parent flower.

Mrs. Wallingford had hardly departed when Agnes received the following letter:

"Berwick, Nov. 23.

"MY DEAR FRIEND, "It is with very sincere sorrow I inform you, that last night, without any reason that I can discover, your sister left my house; and all attempts to trace her, during the day, have been ineffectual. Lately she manifested a great uneasiness and restlessness of disposition, which I tried in vain to combat. Perhaps she has returned to you; let me hear immediately; and, praying to the Almighty to preserve you and yours in peace and happiness,

"Believe me your truly affectionate,
"T. MIDDLETON."

Agnes sat, with the open letter in her hand, more like a thing of marble than a breathing creature; and when her husband came in she presented it to him, and covering her face with her hands, wept long and bitterly.

"Hinton knows of this, Edward," she said at last, "and must be spoken to on the subject."

"Hinton knows no more of it than you do; how could he? To my certain knowledge he has never been one day or night from home since she left, and how could he get to Berwick and back in that time, think you?