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CHAPTER X.

Lay on him the curse of the withered heart,
The curse of the sleepless eye;

Till he wish and pray that his life would part,
Nor yet find leave to die."

WHEN it was ascertained in what manner the Laird St. Clyde had mortgaged his estate, there was a very considerable degree of anxiety shewn by Mon. Villejuive, to get it freed from the claims of the mortgagee; and after consulting much with the fiscal, the baillie, and the minister, Mon. Villejuive offered to redeem the mortgage of the estate of the Laird St. Clyde, on condition of living on the estate, till its rent should give Ellen the power of redeeming the mortgage.

This was a matter not very easily to be got accomplished, especially as all those who had any power, made very considerable objections to any one living in the house, except Ellen, and her servants. Ellen, poor girl! she had not wholly recovered from her grief to make any objections. The sons of Mon. Villejuive had just returned from Dublin, whither they had been since a short time before the death of the laird; and the afflictions into which Ellen had been thrown by that irretrievable loss, gave her charms Louis Villejuive had never before seen: Norah's tragic end occupied all his thoughts; and he would sit for hours together, and listen to Ellen tell how poor Norah had breathed her last: and the interest Louis took in the closing scenes of Norah's life, made him very acceptable as a conversational friend to Ellen.

His brother she had received more

attentions from, in the life-time of her sister, but now that that sister had ceased to engage the attentions of Louis, his brother held a place in the second order of rivals in Ellen's estimation: but indeed it was not the foolish, nonsensical, rodomontade tales of dying lovers that engaged Ellen and Louis: she was sad, and he would weep with her; she was without father and mother; her sister had died in her presence; and her brother, that brother who was all her delight, had never been heard of since he commanded in battle on the heights of Abraham; and Louis was her cousin; his attentions were not addresses; his conversations were not solicitations; and his yisits were not so many steps to an union; it was friendship in affliction, it was the consolation of consanguinity.

Antony Levingstone had done all the duties and offices of a son and a

brother, when triple death assailed Ellen's feeble strength; and she was in that season of life, when affliction makes every charm bewitching, and the attentions of friends give a relative affection, which health, peace, happiness, and all one's friends about one's elbows, cannot impart. But it is not to be dissembled that Ellen was originally of a very sanguine temper; and though her conduct had not bordered on absolute levity, there was a great deal of that hoyden playfulness about her, even at seventeen, which now could not be discovered. The sedateness of her mind, the evenness of her temper, the continued serenity of her countenance, the soft but elegant conversation which she readily adapted to the character and circumstances of those she conversed with, made her interesting to every person.

Mon. Villejuive beheld with pleasure

the friendship, the attentions, the reciprocity of a willingness to oblige, the similarity of disposition, which discovered themselves in the persons and conduct of Ellen St. Clyde and his son Louis; and he gave no hinderance to their interviews; on the contrary, he favoured the visits of Louis to the manse, and whenever they could come, Ellen was invited with the minister and his wife, to spend the Saturday and the Monday at Mon. Villejuive's house.

Nothing more is necessary to make young people of one mind, than to have them always together, and to allow them freely to converse, without the interruption of parents or guardians, nurses or tutors.

Their opinions will soon amalgamate; for if there be any latent embers of Cytherean fire in their hearts, the collision of their opinions will elicit some sparks, which, by a slight fanning,

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