vale of Llewenmawr, for a few weeks, if he could be accommodated with lodgings. Mr. Price replied with a courtesy of manner, still more flattering than his words, "Could I find any accommodations in the village equal to my desires for your comfort, Mr. Balfour, I would not be so selfish, as to solicit you to remain my guest; but I frankly confess, I know not of any better, than the bed-room that you have under my roof, and the little closet that I dignify with the name of study, which I beg you will consider appropriated solely to your use; these with a chair in my parlour, and a place at my table, whenever you will honor me with occupying them; and the range of my grounds, over the whole of which, you might range in one quarter of an hour, are what I have to offer you, what you are not only heartily welcome to, but will oblige me by accepting, and what you will not find any of my parishioners capable of offering you. Thus you see,' Ꮮ Ꮫ continued continued he, smiling, "I threaten you into a compliance with my wishes." "And mine my dear sir," said Sir Edward," are too much interested in it, to need the repetition of such friendly entreaties. I should have preferred a lodging could I have procured one, as your conversation is such a temptation to me, that in order to enjoy it, I fear I shall intrude on your solitude, oftener than may be agreeable to you; but whenever I am troublesome tell me so, and give me an opportunity of shewing my sense of your kindness, by the readiness with which I would make my gratification yield to your convenience.” Sir Edward accordingly took up his abode with the worthy clergyman; and his mind gradually recovering from the anguish under which it had smarted, softened into a melancholy not unpleasing. The tidings of Lady Courtney's disappearance had not reached him, and he endeavoured to detach his thoughts entirely from her, feeling feeling that by so doing, he paid the only tribute of respect in his power, to the memory of a man, whom in life he had esteemed, but whose death he had unfortunately precipitated. Perhaps he had the less merit in this forbearance, as he found it more easy to practise than he had once supposed it could ever be. But now horror would have mingled with his love, and he could not bring himself to even wish for the woman whom he had so fondly adored, when he considered her as the widow of the man whom he had destroyed. Whether it were that in dwelling on the remembrance of Claudina, his ideas were unalloyed by any sentiments foreign to that tenderness and sensibility, which she was eminently calculated to inspire; whether it were that she gained by the force of contrast, or whether as Rochefaucault asserts, "The heart is never so readily disposed to receive new impres sions, sions, as when it is smarting under the wounds caused by old ones;" certain it is, that Sir Edward incessantly thought ́of her, wished earnestly that he had esteemed her as she deserved, when he first became acquainted with her, and then sighed again, as he recollected that it would have availed nothing, for, had she not owned that she loved, and loved without hope? This recollection filled him with a peevishness, for which he knew not how to account. He was certain it was not jealousy; that could not exist without passion, and he knew that he had never felt the influence of passion but for Everilda. He might have been happy however, he acknowledged, had Claudina condescended sooner to become his monitress, for who so capable of instruction as she, whose conduct so amiably illustrated the precepts she would teach? He wished to know her sentiments on the late unhappy occurrence, but he feared she |