as a fortunate accident; I seem to have anticipated the entreaty that I am now exposed to-I told her, that such a refusal on my part, might hereafter seem harsh and invidious, and I begged that I might be provided with authority for my refusal by the expression of her wish in writing. She gave

it me.

I have it still; and since it must be so,

I will now show it."

He left the room, and soon returned with the paper, which he

which he put into the hand of Agnes. She recognised her aunt's hand-writing, and silently regarded it with emotion and respect. She turned away her face to conceal her tears then restored the paper to Sackville, and said, in a low and broken voice, "I am

satisfied," and the painful subject was then dismissed.

CHAPTER III.

Every wish which leads us to expect happiness somewhere else than where we are, only lays a foundation for uneasiness.

GOLDSMITH.

It was decided that the family should quit Dodswell as soon as possible, and the only question that remained was, where they should go. Retirement was considered a primary object, and various secluded parts of England and the Continent were proposed and rejected in turn. Sackville, who wished to retain them as much as possible within his grasp, and under his eye, until his marriage with Agnes, offered them his own house at Trentford: but, Mr. Morton, whose pride shrunk from the acceptance of such an extent of obligation, refused this offer, as

well as a similar one, that had been made by Lord and Lady Malvern. Sackville then recommended London or its vicinity, and brought forward many plausible arguments in its favour. The health of Lady Louisa, he was very sure, required that she should be in the neighbourhood of good medical advice, an opinion in which she strongly concurred: London, he said, and with some truth, was the best place for solitude and retirement-no where could seclusion be practised more effectually-let them only live out of the way, and show themselves never, or but seldom, in the world, and they might enjoy as complete a seclusion as if two hundred miles divided them from the capital. Then he described so well the meddling, prying curiosity of remote neighbourhoods, and the difficulty of escaping from vulgar intrusion where every one, however insignificant, became an object of attention, that Mr. Morton was soon brought to think that nowhere could he be so effectually concealed from notice as in the metropolis itself.

Thither it was finally determined that the whole family should soon proceed, and Sackville offered to go before them, with the view of obtaining some quiet and humble residence. The yearly allowance of Agnes, and a small income, constituting Lady Louisa's pin-money, were the only funds upon which they could now depend: their large household were all, with the exception of three old servants, obliged to be dismissed; many of them quitted the house long before the departure of the family, and its gloomy air of desertion, which every day became more apparent, added greatly to the misery of its unhappy inmates.

From the moment that the sheriffs' officers had entered the house, the hand of care and attention seemed to have been suspended; and the whole menage began to assume a character of confusion and discomfort. The outward signs of those little indefinable elegancies which characterize a well-ordered English country residence, had rapidly begun to vanish; and before

the Mortons had quitted it, Dodswell almost wore the appearance of being deserted. Within the dwelling there was little to relieve its silent gloom, except the melancholy preparations for the departure of the family, and for the approaching sale of the effects; pictures were removed from their places to be marked and registered, and rooms that had often been the scenes of social gaiety, were now converted into comfortless repositories of the collected spoil.

There are few who can withstand the influence of local attachments. Our country, our dwelling, and, above all, the place of our birth, are frequently clung to with an ardour which, though we cannot coolly justify its reasonableness, we find it no less difficult to subdue. We almost act as if we fancied that the inanimate objects from which we part so mournfully, were for a while endued with consciousness, and could participate in our regrets. They recal to our minds past scenes, and former friends; and we view them as relics that are hallowed to our