ther," answered Cecil," and I never had convenience to send her yet."

She spoke with perfect simplicity, as if wholly unconscious of the generous fidelity which her words implied.

I had so long been accustomed to riches that I could not always remember my poverty. In five minutes I had glided through the crowd, purchased Cecil's treasure, restored it to its owner, and recollected that, without doing her any real service, I had spent what I could ill afford to

spare.

The time had been when I could have mistaken this impulse of constitutional good nature for an act of virtue; but I had learnt to bestow that title with more discrimination. I was more embarrassed than delighted by the blessings which Cecil, half in Gaelic half in English, uttered with great solemnity. "Is it enough," asked conscience," to humour the prejudices of this poor creature, and leave her real wants unrelieved?" "But can they," replied selfishness, spare relief to the wants of others, who are themselves upon the brink of

She

want?"-" She is like you, alone in the land of strangers,” whispered sympathy. is the object,” said piety," of the same compassion to which you are indebted for life -life in its highest, noblest, sense!” “Is it right," urged worldly wisdom, “ to part with your only visible means of subsistence?" "You have but little to give," pleaded my better reason; " seize then the opportunity which converts the mite into a treasure." The issue of the debate was, that I purchased for poor Cecil the more indispensable articles of her furniture, secured for her a shelter till a milder season might permit her to travel more conveniently, and found my wealth diminished to a sum which, with economy, might support my existence for another week. ·

Much have I heard of the rewards of an approving conscience, but I am obliged to confess, that my own experience does not warrant my recommending them as motives of conduct. I have uniformly found my best actions, like other fruits of an ungenial climate, less to be admired because they were good, than tolerated be

cause they were no worse. I suspect, indeed, that the comforts of self-approbation are generally least felt when they are most needed; and that no one, who in depressing circumstances enters on a serious examination of his conduct, ever finds his spirits raised by the review. If this suspicion be just, it will obviously follow, that the boasted dignity of conscious worth, is not exactly the sentiment which has won so many noble triumphs over adversity. For my part, as I shrunk into my lonely chamber, and sighed over my homely restricted meal, I felt more consolation in remembering the goodness which clothes the unprofitable lily of the field, and feeds the improvident tenants of the air, than in exulting that I could bestow "half my goods to feed the poor."

That recollection, and the natural hilarity of temper which has survived all the buffetings of fortune, supported my spirits during the lonely days which passed in waiting Mrs Murray's reply. At length it came, to inform me, that the state of Captain Murray's health would induce my pa

troness to shun in a milder climate the chilling winds of a Scotch spring; to express her regrets for my unavailing journey, and for her own inability to further my plans; and, as the best substitute for her own presence, to refer me once more to the erect Mrs St Clare. This reference I at first vehemently rejected; for I had not yet digested the courtesies which I already owed to this lady's urbanity. But, moneyless and friendless as I was, what alternative remained? I was at last forced to submit, and that only with the worse grace for my delay.

To Mrs St Clare's then I went, in a humour which will be readily conceived by any one who remembers the time when, sobbing under a sense of injury, he was forced to kiss his hand and beg pardon. The lady's mien was nothing sweetened since our last interview. While I was taking uninvited possession of a seat, she leisurely folded up her work, pulled on her gloves, and, crossing her arms, drew up into the most stony rigidity of aspect. Willing to dispatch my business as quickly as possible,

I presented Mrs Murray's letter, begging that she would consider it as an apology for my intrusion. "I have heard from Mrs Murray," said my gracious hostess, without advancing so much as a finger towards the letter which I offered. I felt myself redden, but I bit my lip and made a new attempt.

"Mrs Murray," said I, "gives me reason to hope that I may be favoured with your advice."

"You are a much better judge of your own concerns, Miss Percy, than I can be."

"I am so entirely a stranger here, Madam, that I should be indebted to any advice which might assist me in procuring respectable employment."

In

"I really know nobody just now that wants a person in your line Miss Percy." my line! The phrase was certainly not conciliating. "Indeed I rather wonder what could make my friend Mrs Murray direct you to me."

"A confidence in your willingness to oblige her I presume Madam," answered