placed her in his chair, and turned to the lieutenant, saying,

"I shall prevent a recurrence of such folly, and my daughter shall never be at its mercy as CarolineSpringfield; she and you, Lieutenant Stuart, are too much for the guardian care of a too indulgent parent: consider my house your home, till it is your own in the proper forms our church prescribes; and here, Caroline! call this gallant man your tutor, or brother, till your uncle the dean authorise you to call him husband."

Caroline flew and embraced her father, and Charles, on bended knee, kissed the admiral's hand.

"A thousand blessings on you, father."

"On yourself and on this brave officer, may they divide their felicity. Come, my love! come! this is too much for my spirits. I'm unused to

combat in this warfare. Here, Charles, take her hand, and may Heaven make you both happy, till mutual pas

your

sion shall be utterly unknown, and consciousness shall be lost in bliss.".

The transition was almost too sudden for the spirits of Caroline, and Charles's mind was stretched far beyond the power of contemplating and acknowledging so much generosity.

In fact, the rapidity with which the several details in this scene shifted and vanished from his memory, left his imagination in amaze. His speech forsook him, and the odd figure he was in, as well from his dress as from his disfigured countenance, would to any but the parent, well-meaning actor, and the confounded Mr. Leaf, have rendered him an object of risibility more than of generous and parental compassion.

But as soon as dispassionate atten

tion regained its seat, the admiral could not help swearing that," the lieutenant was the drollest fellow he had ever encountered, but that the success of the whole affair was to be attributed, more to the fertile invention of Miss Caroline, than to the lieutenant."

And since it was so, "he thanked Heaven that the whole had been so opportunely discovered, as, of all things on earth, he detested most a clandestine marriage; and he had no doubt that this would have been the result of this affair, had he interposed his authority with all the rigour a parent's duty, in many cases, might dictate; but it was an instantaneous impression of this kind, when he entered the room, that deprived him, for some minutes, of his judgment and resolution, yes! even of himself; and that, simultaneous with his revival from the vio

lent paroxysm he had been thrown. into, determined him to settle the business at once, and let his daughter have, with his instant and most hearty approbation, the object of her choice."

Caroline was beginning to say that, "if Charles had not superior excellencies about him, she was sure her papa would never have introduced him to their house, and papa alone she would therefore thank for the good luck that had attended her stratagem: it was the excellence she had seen in Charles that raised her esteem of him; she did not know what he saw about her, for she thought there were many young ladies far her superior in personal appearance and the endowments of intellect Providence had blessed her with; but she would not conceal now from papa, that from the first moment she saw Mr. Stuart, she would have died for his sake: she was

satisfied also that her dear Charles could live only to make her happy; but papa's generosity would always command her gratitude; she was sure that she breathed the soul of Charles in addressing her father."

And the sweet girl would have gone on to harangue, had not the admiral stopped her, saying, "My sweetest little angel! do let's hear what the lieutenant has to say for himself."

This was a command for Charles to speak.

66

O, sir! Miss Caroline has said all I could say; you are clemency itself. I did not look for this hour to have opened to me so much generosity. I am too sensibly affected by the honour you have conferred on me, to utter a word. The universe at your disposal, could not have been a greater gift than the hand of your dutiful daughter. I receive it with a grati