when he went from home would never return again! Emily hid her face with her handkerchief, and waved her hand.

Do taste the coffee, said Theresa. My dear young lady, be comforted-we must all die. My dear master is a saint above. Emily took the handkerchief from her face, and raised her eyes, full of tears, towards heaven; soon after she dried them, and in a calm, but tremulous voice, began to enquire concerning some of her late father's pensioners.

Alas-a-day, said Theresa, as she poured out the coffee, and handed it to her mistress, all that could come, have been here every day to enquire after you and my master. She then proceeded to tell that some were dead whom they had left well; and others who were ill had recovered. And see, ma'amselle, added Theresa, there is old Mary coming up the garden now; she has looked every day these three years as if she would die, yet she is alive still. She has seen the chaise at the door, and knows you are come home.

The sight of this poor old woman would have been too much for Emily, and she begged Theresa would go and tell her, that she was too ill to see any person that night. Tomorrow I shall be better, perhaps; but give her this token of my remembrance.

Emily sat for sometime given up to sorrow. Not an object on which her eye glanced, but awakened some remembrance that led immediately to the subject of her grief. Her favourite plants, which St. Aubert had taught her to nurse; the little drawings that adorned the room, which his taste had instructed her to execute; the books that he had selected for her use, and which they had read together; her musical instruments, whose sounds he loved so well, and which he sometimes awakened himself-every object gave new force to sorrow. At length, she aroused herself from this melancholy indulgence, and summoning all her resolution, stepped forward to go into those forlorn rooms, which, though she dreaded to enter, she knew would yet more powerfully affect her, if she delayed to visit them.

Having passed through the green-house, her courage for a moment forsook her, when she opened the door of the library; and, perhaps, the shade, which evening and the foliage of the trees near the windows threw across the room, heightened the solemnity of her feelings on entering that apartment, where every thing spoke of her father. There was an arm chair, in which he used to sit; she shrunk when she observed it, for she had so often seen him seated there, and the idea of him rose so distinctly to her mind, that she almost fancied she saw him before her.But she checked the illusions of a distempered imagination, shough she could not subdue a certain degree of awe,

which now mingled with her emotions. She walked slowly to the chair, and seated herself in it: there was a reading desk before it, on which lay a book open, as it had been left by her father. It was some moments before she recovered courage enough to examine it; and, when she looked at the open page, she immediately recollected, that St. Aubert, on the evening before his departure from the chateau, had read to her some passages from this his favourite author. The circumstance now affected her extremely; she looked at the page, wept, and looked again. -To her the book appeared sacred and invaluable, and she would not have removed it, or closed the page, which he had left open, for the treasures of the Indies. Still she sat before the desk, and could not resolve to quit it, though the increasing gloom, and the profound silence of the apartment, revived a degree of painful awe. Her thoughts dwelt on the probable state of departed spirits, and she remembered the affecting conversation, which had passed between St. Aubert and La Voisin, on the night preceding his death. As she mused she saw the door slowly open, and a rustling sound in a remote part of the room startled her. Through the dusk she thought she perceived something move. The subject she had been considering, and the present tone of her spirits, which made her imagi nation respond to every impression of her senses, gave her a sudden terror of something supernatural. She sat for a moment motionless, and then, her dissipated reason returning, What should I fear?, said she. If the spirits of those we love ever return to us, it is in kindness.

The silence, which again reigned, made her ashamed of her late fears, and she believed, that her imagination had deluded her, or that she had heard one of those unaccountable noises, which sometimes occur in old houses. The same sound, however, returned; and distinguishing something moving towards her, and, in the next instant press beside her into the chair, she shrieked; but her fleeting senses were instantly recalled, on perceiving that it was Manchon who sat by her, and who now licked her hands affectionately.

Perceiving her spirits unequal to the task she had assigned herself of visiting the deserted rooms of the chateau this night, when she left the library, she walked into the garden, and down to the terrace, that overhung the river. The sun was now set; but, under the dark branches of the almond trees, was seen the saffron glow of the west, spreading beyond the twilight of middle air. The bat flit ted silently by ; and, now and then, the mourning note of the nightingale was heard. The circumstances of the hour brought to her recollection some lines, which she had once beard St. Aubert recite on this very spot, and she had now a melancholy pleasure in repeating them.

SONNET.

Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve,
That creeps, in shudd'ring fits, along the wave,
And trembles 'mid the woods, and through the cave
Whose lonely sighs the wanderer deceive;
For oft, when melancholy charms his mind,
He thinks the spirit of the rock he hears,
Nor listens, but with sweetly-thrilling fears,
To the low mystic murmurs of the wind!
Now the bat circles, and the twilight-dew
Falls silent round, and, o'er the mountain-cliff,
The gleaming wave and far-discovered skiff,
Spreads the gray veil of soft, harmonious hue.
So falls o'er grief the dew of pity's tear
Dimming her lonely visions of despair.

Emily, wandering on, came to St. Aubert's favourite plane-tree, where so often, at this hour, they had sat beneath the shade together, and with her dear mother so often had conversed on the subject of a future state. How often, too, had her father expressed the comfort he derived from believing, that they should meet in another world! Emily, overcome by these recollections, left the plane-tree, and, as she leaned pensively on the wall of the terrace, she observed a group of peasants dancing gaily on the banks of the Garonne, which spread in broad expanse below, and reflected the evening. What a contrast they formed to the desolate, unhappy Emily! They were gay and debonnaire, as they were wont to be when she, too, was gay, when St. Aubert used to listen to their merry music, with a countenance beaming pleasure and benevolence. Emily, having looked for a moment on this sprightly band, turned away, unable to bear the remembrances it excited; but where, alas! could she turn, and not meet new objects to give acuteness to grief?

As she walked slowly towards the house, she was met by Theresa. Dear ma'amselle, said she, I have been seeking you up and down this half hour, and was afraid some accident had happened to you. How can you like to wander about in this night air! Do come into the house. Think what my poor master would have said, if he could see you. 1 am sure, when my dear lady died, no gentleman could take it more to heart than he did, yet you know he seldom shed a tear.

Pray, Theresa, cease, said Emily, wishing to interrupt this ill-judged, but well meaning harrangue; Theresa's lo quacity, however was not to be silenced so easily. And when you used to grieve so, she added, he often told you how wrong it was-for that my mistress was happy. And, if she was happy, I am sure he is so top'; for the prayers of the poor they say, reach heaven. During this speech, Emi

ly had walked silently into the chateau, and Theresa lighted her across the hall into the common sitting parlour, where she had laid the cloth, with one solitary knife and fork, for supper. Emily was in the room before she perceived that it was not her own apartment, but she checked the emotion which inclined her to leave it, and seated herself quietly by the little supper table. Her father's hat hung upon the opposite wall; while she gazed at it, a faintness came over her. Theresa looked at her, and then at the object, on which her eyes were settled, and went to remove it; but Emily waved her hand-No, said she, let it remain, I am going to my chamber. Nay, ma'amselle, supper is ready. I cannot take it, replied Emily, I will go to my room, and try to sleep. To-morrow I shall be better. This is poor doings! said Theresa. Dear lady! do take some food! I have dressed a pheasant, and a fine one it is. Old Monsieur Barreaux sent it this morning, for I saw him yesterday, and told him you were coming. And I know nobody that seemed more concerned, when he heard the sad news, than he.

Did he? said Emily, in a tender voice, while she felt her poor heart warmed by a ray of sympathy.

At length her spirits were entirely overcome, and she retired to her room.

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CHAPTER IX.

Can music's voice, can beauty's eye,
Can painting's glowing hand supply
A charm so suited to my mind,
As blows this hollow gust of wind?
As drops this little weeping rill,

Soft tinkling down the moss-grown hill;

While, through the west, where sinks the crimson day, Meek twilight slowly sails, and waves her banners gray ? MASON.

EMILY, Sometime after her return to La Vallee, received letters from her aunt, Madame Cheron, in which, after some common place condolement and advice, she invited her to Tholouse, and added, that, as her late brother had entrusted Emily's education to her, she should consider herself bound to overlook her conduct. Emily, at this time, wished only to remain at La Vallee, in the scenes of her early happiness, now rendered infinitely dear to her, as the late residence of those, whom she had lost for ever, where she could weep unobserved, retrace their steps, and remember each minute particular of their manners. she was equally anxious to avoid the displeasure of Madame Cheren.

But

Though her affection would not suffer her to question even a moment, the propriety of St. Aubert's conduct in appointing Madame for her guardian, she was sensible, that this step had made her happiness depend, in a great degree, on the humour of her aunt. In her reply, she begged permission to remain, at present, at La Vallee, mentioning the extreme dejection of her spirits, and the necessity she felt for quiet and retirement to restore them. These she knew were not to be found at Madame Cheron's, whose inclinations led her into a life of dissipation, which her ample fortune encouraged: and, having given her answer, she felt somewhat more at ease.

In the first days of her affliction, she was visited by Monsieur Barreaux, a sincere mourner for St. Aubert. I may well lament my friend, said he, for I shall never meet with his resemblance. If I could have found such a man in what is called society, I should not have left it.

M. Barreaux's admiration of her father endeared him extremely to Emily, whose heart found almost its first relief in conversing of her parent's, with a man, whom she so much revered, and who, though with such an ungracious appearance, possessed so much goodness of heart, and deli cacy of mind.

Several weeks passed away in quiet retirement, and Emily's affliction began to soften into melancholy. She could bear to read the books she had before read with her father; to sit in his chair in the library-to watch the flowers his hand had planted-to awaken the tones of that instrument his fingers had pressed, and sometimes even to play his favourite air.

When her mind had recovered from the first shock of af fliction, perceiving the danger of yielding to indolence, and that activity alone could restore its tone, she scrupulously endeavoured to pass all her hours in employment. And it was now that she understood the full value of the education she had received from St. Aubert, for in cultivating her understanding he had secured her an asylum from indolence, without recourse to dissipation, and rich and varied amusement and information, independent of the society, from which her situation secluded her. Nor were the good effects of this education confined to selfish advantages, since, St. Aubert having nourished every amiable quality of her heart, it now expanded in benevolence to all around her, and taught her, when she could not remove the misfortunes of others, at least to soften them by sympathy and tenderness ;-a benevolence that taught her to feel for all, that could suffer.

Madame Cheron returned no answer to Emily's letter, who began to hope, that she should be permitted to remain sometime longer in her retirement, and her mind had now so far recovered its strength, that she ventured to view the