mortgage, as a sufficient premium, by which he should be intitled to enter upon possession, and in a month's time he was fairly settled in the estate of Ellen St. Clyde as heiress general.

The attentions of Louis ceased not, and the father now showed a strong inclination to the match between Louis and Ellen; but when Villejuive took possession of her estate, she became every day more and more reserved; and the attentions of Louis, in place of being agreeable, became truly obnoxious to her. She reflected on the disinterested conduct of Levingstone; and by that fine sensibility which, in afflic tion, makes the nicest distinctions between genuine friendship, mere professions, or interested assiduities, she was induced by the re-action of her principles of truth and honour, to look upon the attentions of Louis as the mere effect of relationship, and not as pro

ceeding from any determined intentions of offering her his hand, which he privately knew she would never accept.

And as the minister found that Ellen now viewed Louis merely in the character of a relation, and not of a lover, he considered his object attained; but Monsieur Villejuive was more and more prompted to further the match he had planned; and when he found that the young lady was even averse to the company of his son, he took an opportunity, which circumstances offered, to insinuate to the minister the happy results that might be expected to flow from the union of his son with Ellen St. Clyde. This the minister evaded with as much policy as the other pressed it; and Monsieur Villejuive, finding his first attempt was partially baffled, applied by the most consummate address to the fiscal to obtain his judgment on the subject; but the fiscal considered

the minister the proper guardian of Ellen, and he would not say or do any thing contrary to Mr. Thornhill's intentions.

But though the minister and the fiscal both were averse to engage in discussing this topic with Monsieur Villejuive, Louis was enjoined by his father to ply Ellen hard; and she with no difficulty gave her negative to his proposals. But when the matter had been canvassed long by all parties, there was much propriety seen in the proposition of Monsieur Villejuive. And as the name itself of Levingstone, from the time that had fled since he left the island, was scarcely legible, except in the grateful recollection of the services he had shown when the catastrophe of St. Clyde's family took place, Monsieur Villejuive thought it was not to be expected that a young lady, whose affections, though easily

attracted, had not been given to any object, was likely to be suspended in her decisions by a comparison of the absent, silent Levingstone, and the constant, pressing, assiduous Louis.

And as there was on Ellen's part not any fixed attachment for Levingstone, the inferences the people drew, Monsieur Villejuive's conduct, the comparisons those in the secret made between Louis and Levingstone-all being favourable to Ellen and her uncle and cousin; it was broadly whispered, and in the barber's shop, and the smithy, on the quay-head, and at the

cross-stane," in the church-yard of a Sunday, at the mill on a Monday, every-where and by all parties, it was whispered and wished that Mr. Thornhill and the dominie were not so strict in their opinions about marriage, as nobody could be a finer young man than Louis; and though Ellen might

have many offers, yet, if she slighted the proposal of the son of him who re deemed the estate of her late father, her life might be as eventful as her sister's! and such was the superstitious conclusion of one old lady.

It was not possible for these surmises to be abroad in noon day, to be wafted by every breath to every part of the island, and not reach the ears of Ellen; but she learned the general opinion and feeling from the servant-girl of the minister's house. Forlorn as had been Ellen, and sequestered as had been many days of her life without any company except the plain Mr. and Mrs. Thornhill, it was extremely natural for her to make a minor confidante of this girl, of genuine devotion in listening to the oral histories of others for hours when she ought to be refreshing nature by sinking into the arms of the god of sleep. But she would sit up