the hour of parting at length arrived, though a promise of a speedy return took from its bitterness. She returned home, pleasure and satisfaction filling her heart with abundant food for meditation. Still, however, there were some passages in Evelyn's conversation which bewildered and puzzled her; and she sighed that Julian should have proceeded to Oakwood, instead of cherishing that affection which she now felt almost certain Evelyn had once entertained for him. 1 CHAPTER VIII. "But he, his own affection's counsellor, So far from sounding and discovering-' "Alas! that love, so gentle in his view, Ir may appear strange and not according to nature, that a man, such as the Duke of Strathhaven has been described, one who had no longer youth to excuse the ardour with which he cultivated a new acquaintance, should thus devote his valuable time and the powers of his superior mind almost wholly to the task of watching with an eye of the tenderest solicitude over the fortunes of a family who, until within the known to him. 1 last few months, were scarcely The mystery, however, is soon solved when the truth is declared, that from the earliest period of his acquaintance with Evelyn Cecil, our Hero-Duke had been inspired with a feeling which soon ripened into the warmest love, a love which was the most noble, the most generous in its nature, springing as it did from a heart in which was centered every feeling which does honour to the name of man; and notwithstanding his grave proud deportment his brilliant talents which made those around him shrink with a feeling of their own inferiority-his age, which had reached the period of more than forty, a time when “the hey-day of the blood is generally cooled"— still with all these solemn circumstances attached to his character, that very heart beat with all the violence of youthful ardour at the very name of a child-like girl who had scarcely numbered eighteen summers. Perhaps it would have been next to an impossibility to have seen this interesting being under the circumstances in which she was placed, and not to have admired with enthusiasm the beautiful conduct the resigned and cheerful manner in which she performed the duties of her arduous trial. But when to this was added the surpassing grace and loveliness of the young creature, her gentle and affectionate nature, we can scarcely wonder at its having effect on the mind of one, who, though certainly more than double her age, and with the coldest exterior, possessed feelings fresh and warm as those of his early youth. The Duke of Strathhaven having been talked into marriage by prudent friends at an age which had placed him much under their control, had entered upon that state without one spark of love, and, as might have been expected, this union brought with it no happiness. His military career had soon separated him from his wife; and it was during one of those long absences which the active part he had taken in the war in Spain had necessitated, that she died, leaving one son. This short matrimonial experience had not been productive of any charm, therefore the Duke, then a soldier of fortune, felt no wish again to be fettered by the chains of Hymen. He followed fame as the mistress most easily wooed and won. While his country and its interests absorbed his every idea, his son, brought up by an indulgent and thoughtless mother, had been nurtured in the very lap of luxury, and his feelings from his earliest infancy had been enervated and perverted. His father saw with sorrow the ef fects of his own neglect; but it was then too late, and dissipation and immorality sprang from the seeds too deeply sown. The character of Fitz-Henry formed itself into that of the cold-hearted yet profligate, the profuse and yet selfish worldling. The Duke's natural and domestic feelings were here again checked, and with sorrow and disappointment at his heart, he again turned with renewed energy VOL. 111. G |