with success-the canvas appeared little short of animation.

With her ideas entirely absorbed in the picture, stood Eleonora, till a deep sigh roused her from her trance of thought; she turned round her head, supposing it to have been uttered by Gillian; but she found that Gillian, having led her to the spot which she had considered as worthy of her inspection, and which she had át some other time sufficiently examined for her own pleasure, had quitted her. The sigh was repeated; and Eleonora now believed that it had proceeded from the lips of some one who was divided from the chapel by a door of a dark brown wainscot, which she perceived on one side of the altar; and to which a single step, composed of the same material as the door itself, led.

Eleonora had, undoubtedly, heard that confession formed a part of the religion of the Roman Catholics; but entirely unacquainted with the nature of a place of

worship

worship such as she was now in, she had not the remotest idea that the door she beheld excluded from her sight a being in the act of performing that duty.

Whilst her eyes were yet directed towards the door, it was slowly opened, and the step descended by a man handsomely dressed, who appeared between forty-five and fifty years of age; his figure was good, his countenance more than usually handsome, but strongly marked with the expression of a mind deeply sorrowing, or ill at ease, within itself.

The moment Eleonora beheld him, a suspicion flashed upon her senses, that he could be no other than Sir Sigismund Blunt; and the sound of his voice, when he addressed her, immediately confirmed her opinion.

Sir Sigismund had advanced some steps into the chapel before he observed her; then raising his eyes from the ground, on which they had before been bent, and fixing them upon her countenance, a violent

start shook his frame, and he exclaimed. "Merciful God, whom do I behold! who, or what art thou? speak-speak-I entreat thee, speak!"

Alarmed by his manner, Eleonora tremblingly and faulteringly replied, "I implore your pardon, if I have offended or interrupted you; when I entered the chapel, I believed no one to be within it."

Still Sir Sigismund kept his eyes fixed on her's; after a short pause, during which he appeared to have been collecting his recollective faculties, he again repeated, "Who are you?"

Faintly Eleonora stammered out her

name.

"Are you Eleonora Latimer?" returned Sir Sigismund; he advanced towards her, and taking her hand in his, he said, “Pardon the strange address with which I have greeted you at our first introduction to each other;" he pressed the hand which he held in his, and continued, "you know not how strongly your person brought to

my

my memory one, once most valued and esteemed by me; so great is the resemblance which you bear to her, that at the first moment of my beholding you, I believed you the aerial shadow of her sainted form. My spirits are weak, Lady, and ideas which a stronger mind would deride as the offspring of folly, are become painfully habitual to my senses."

He appeared to wait for her reply. Eleonora knew not what to answer, and continued silent.

Sir Sigismund spoke again-"Accept my welcome beneath this roof; that you are unfortunate, is a sufficient claim for you upon my services and my protection, were you not the relative of my wife."

"The obligation which I shall lie under to your benevolence," returned Eleonora, "is greater than I shall ever have it in my ability to repay."

"It is at this moment in your power," returned Sir Sigismund earnestly, "to throw the obligation entirely upon me;

will you consent to perform this kindness towards me?"

"I do not comprehend your request, returned Eleonora.

"Confer on me," resumed Sir Sigismund, "the favour of not making the surprise with which my first observation of your person affected me, the subject of your conversation to any individual being; and you will bind me to you in an eternal debt of gratitude."

"The request is too trivial for me to merit your gratitude for my compliance, answered Eleonora; "were I to transgress it, I should be amply worthy of that scorn from you, of which I trust you will never find me deserving. It shall not be spoken of by me."

Sir Sigismund returned her his warmest thanks, repeated to her his promises of protection, and then led her into an apartment where Lady Blunt was expecting the assemblage of the family at breakfast. There was n undefinable something

both