might a' gang to the dog-driving; the bit and the brat was nae denied the raven o' the sky: his duds might na be as braw's the breeks o' his forebearis; but it was better to live on a little, than to hear bodies as ane passed them by, saying, 'Look, man, di' ye see that chiel; there's nae breard like midding breard.'" And with all his faults, the dominie was a sober man, a good man, a great scholar, and the best compa. nion at a merry-making that ever lived.

It was to this man, then, that Monsieur Villejuive applied for assistance in overcoming the scruples of the laird; and the method Monsieur Villejuive took to effect this, was what his judg ment dictated as the best; and the dominie, after having been employed by Monsieur Villejuive for some time as a kind of an accountant, for which he was handsomely rewarded, an attempt was made by his employer, when noth

ing else could do, to bribe him to persuade the laird to the propriety of the measure. It was to no purpose that Monsieur Villejuive reported the happy results that might be expected from such an union.

There was no gallantry in the dominie's pate. He was not to be se, duced by more than the reward of his well-earned cash, and to bribe him was like dissolving a diamond. But the manner in which Monsieur Villejuive went about these tasks was so refined, that it is impossible almost to handle even the outline; the details of the subject, the ramifications of the plot he had laid down, are not tangible. A rough draught of his efforts must suffice. The eye and the ear and the living picture should be together, to enable us to have an entire representation.

The upshot of this business was,

that Monsieur Villejuive did not succeed; and the laird even hindered his daughters from receiving the visits of their cousins as they had been accustomed to receive them. Mrs. St. Clyde had the most absolute command over her daughters, and neither Norah nor Ellen would offend mamma; but she could not understand how her nephews ceased to be as assiduous as formerly; and the laird never divulged the matter except to the dominie, who broke the ice on this delicate matter with him, by whispering, one day, how much need there was for St. Clyde's keeping a watchful eye over the affections and conduct of his nephews and daughters.

But one great and shocking feature in the conduct of Monsieur Villejuive was, his proposing a match between Louis and Norah, only nine months after the news of Colin's fate had been

received; and as this was the chief cause of offence between St. Clyde and Villejuive and the dominie, many weeks did not pass away till the Gaul made ample reparation for his misconduct, by concessions which became his character as a parent; and the laird and the dominie were so pleased with the good sense Monsieur Villejuive showed on this occasion, that the past was forgiven, and time only was necessary to cause it to be entirely forgotten. And it was by this acknowledgement of error, and generous forgiveness, that, in a few weeks more, things resumed their usual course; visits were received, and paid; parties were made of relations and friends; and the hospitality of one family was neither beyond nor beneath that of the other: and now that Monsieur Villejuive got fairly into the good graces of his friends, he was as anxious as they to prevent the results he had

once attempted to draw from an inti, macy between his sons and the daughters of the Laird St. Clyde, and the young Villejuives were to be sent over to Dublin to finish their studies.

In about a month these young men left Bute, and arrived safe at Dublin, where they remained without so much as corresponding with their friends in Bute, but for the necessary article of money; and when they were gone, the Laird St. Clyde felt happy, and Monsieur Villejuive lived very retired: he studied agriculture theoretically all winter, in spring and summer he reduced it to practice, thus relieving the fag of study by occasional labour in the field; thus practising what he had acquired, and becoming, in short, an adept farmer. But it was only for amusement; and the people at Knockmore were very much pleased to have the company of Monsieur Villejuive. His labours were