ELIZABETH WILSON.

Yes! Mrs. Wilson would have been very glad | go to my family, from whom I have been two years of such a room to set her young visitors dancing absent. Hoping that you, and Mr. Gould, and the in. Lizzy wondered whether Nancy was as pretty children, may enjoy your visit into Devonshire, I as she used to be; and whether George could read am, Madam, Sincerely yours, well now. She smiled as she remembered the efforts made by both George and herself, to get him to read a page in "Frank" without miscalling a word, when he was twelve years old. Dear George! she did not believe he ever could read so as to amuse himself, and she thought he might work out his life, and a very honorable one too, without learning much from the alphabet. To her mind, George's dulness of the book-learning faculty was amply atoned by the quickness of his perception where his affections were concerned, and the general delicacy of his feelings. Lizzy was very fond of her younger brother, "stupid George."

In the midst of her recollections, the schoolroom maid came into the room with two letters. "One from my mistress, miss, and one from the post."

When Susan had lighted the candles and was gone, Miss Wilson opened Mrs. Gould's letter with a sort of vague fear that something was wrong. Perhaps she was about to be dismissed. Why? Well, it was silly to sit with the unfolded letter in her hand, speculating on its contents; would it not be better to read it? She read

MY DEAR MISS WILSON,-As Mr. Gould and myself are going to take all the children with us, for a month's visit to my father in Devonshire; and as the poor things really want a holiday after their late hard work, we have settled that you need not accompany us; and as, I dare say, you will not like to remain here all that time, you can do what you like with yourself for the month; which will be a nice relaxation for you; and I hope you will come back to us stronger than you are now. With many wishes for your enjoyment this Christmas, I am, my dear Miss Wilson,

Yours, very sincerely,

SOPHIA GOUld.

Having sent this note to Mrs. Gould, Lizzy took up the letter which had come by the post-it was from her mother. If you had seen Lizzy's face as she opened that letter, it would not have puzzled you at all. You would have declared that you had never seen one more tenderly affectionate, or one more capable of being lighted up by a smile. There was no trace of the former indignation and contempt, as soon as she saw the words, "My dearest child." The face became sweeter and brighter as she read on, and was quite joyous when she came to these words, "Tom is coming home for his usual fortnight-could you not ask Mrs. Gould to spare you for that time? I do not think she can refuse you, dear, because she must, I am sure, think highly of you, and you have not had a holI know that iday since you have been with her. it is humiliating to ask this, as a favor, when it should be considered as a right;—but I am anxious about your health, and am almost heart-sick for a kiss from my darling Lizzy.”

"My darling Lizzy," murmured the governess, "it would have been worth asking Mrs. Gould, for the mere chance of hearing those words again."

To see once more that her mere entrance into a room would brighten all faces and make glad all hearts in it! It was too much happiness, and she If you could have seen Lizzy's face, when she almost wished for Mrs. Gould, or any one, to tell had read that note, you would have been much it to. A whole month? And Tom-her merry, puzzled. There was joy in it, but the joy was handsome, high-spirited brother Tom, was to be strongly tempered by indignation, and for a mo- there for a fortnight. And her thoughts flew ment her lip was curled in contempt. If you could home to the little "White Cottage," at Everhave read her thought it would have been some- stead, far away in Warwickshire. She had what like this:- "This woman, whose children ceased to think of " the Parsonage" there, as her I have taught and tended for two years, grants me home; and the "White Cottage," though so very a month's holiday, as it cannot cost her the slightest small, was pretty; and her mother had grown to inconvenience. Had she spared me when it would like it, at last. It seemed but yesterday that she have been inconvenient to her, I should have felt stood last in the little parlor, with her bonnet and grateful, though, God knows, it would have been cloak on, ready to depart. She had been a long but bare justice to do so. And I suppose she ex-time up stairs, putting on the said articles of attire; pects me to be grateful for this. No, no, Mrs. Gould, corrupting to the character as my position is, I am not yet sycophant or hypocrite enough for that!" And she turned to her desk, and wrote the following reply ::

MY DEAR MADAM,-I am very glad to hear of the projected visit, since it leaves me at liberty to

-not that Lizzy Wilson was much given to anxiety as to how she looked in a bonnet; but it takes a long time to dress, when the eyes are blinded by hot tears, and the hands tremble so much from the endeavor to suppress emotion, that they refuse their poor office of string-tying. It was no wonder that Lizzy was a long time up stairs; or that when, at

own.

esteem? He knows that I forgive him thoroughly, and yet he neither looked from his window nor said 'good-bye.' This ends all. He is too light, too trivial, for me to waste a thought or hope on. Alas! what would my poor father say, if he heard that I thought thus of Felix Merton, whom he used to point out as a model to us all. My father loved him too well. 'Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.'”

last, she came into the little parlor, and spoke in a quick, cheerful voice, they all came crowding round her. Mrs. Wilson took her daughter's two hands, and looked into her half-shut hazel eyes, and strove in vain to keep back the tears from her Little Nanny wept aloud, and clasped her sister in her arms. She was only eight years old, and George, who was twelve, tried to comfort her; but he looked at Lizzy as if his heart would break; and he felt as if he could gladly give his right arm As Lizzy's lips murmured these last words, the to be cut off, if it would make him, at once, old coach suddenly stopped; she opened her eyes listenough to go and earn money instead of Lizzy.lessly. Some one was tapping on the window Then, poor boy, he remembered how stupid he outside; she let down the glass, and saw Felix was-that he could not read the easiest book well; Merton. "One moment, Lizzy. I walked on, out he feared that he should never be able to earn 1001. | of the village, to wish you good-bye. And I have a year, and send seventy out of it to his mother, brought you what you asked for." She took a as Lizzy was going to do ;-and George burst into packet from his hand, but she did not speak. “I tears. How well she remembered putting her am going to London soon, may I call on you arms round her darling brother and whispering there?" asked Dr. Merton. comfort to him as well as she could! Then he took Nancy away, to stand with him at the garden gate, and look out for the Coventry coach, which was to take their sister away, and she remained alone with her mother and listened to her words of affection and advice. At last the coach stopped at the gate, and a general bustle in the little cottage commenced. Nancy flew back again to cling to Lizzy, as she stood in the porch with Mrs. Wilson, who was tying something round her neck, and endeavoring to adjust the old travelling cloak in the best way to keep out the cold, and delivering into her hand a little basket of sandwiches to be eaten on the road. The old servant, Alice, was crying, and contending with George about taking "Miss Lizzy's" boxes down to the gate. George insisted on lugging them thither by himself; he would not let Alice help him;-anything that could be done for Lizzy was an honorable business in the eyes of George, and worth fighting about.

Good-bye! I

"No. It is better not to come. am glad I have seen you once more. Remember my father, Felix; and do your duty bravely. God bless you! now go." So saying, she tried to smile, and putting up the glass once more, she waved her hand to Dr. Merton, who remained immovable till the coach was out of sight; and then he sat down on a bank by the road-side; and it was so long before he returned to Everstead, that his wife was quite angry with him for "taking so long a walk and keeping dinner waiting in this way." And she flung her pretty little person down on an ottoman, in high dudgeon, and, for the first time since they were married, Felix did not kneel down and coax her into good humor, smoothing the raven down of her ringlets till she smiled. Lilla was surprised, and after a time she looked up, and saw that her husband had gone out of the room. Poor Lilla!-Poor Felix! This little circumstance was afterwards related, in a While her mother was "making her comfort-letter to Lizzy, by Lilla herself, who wrote in a able," Lizzy gave a glance at the house opposite.great pet about Felix's unfeeling conduct on the Dr. Merton was not at the drawing-room window occasion. Lizzy wrote a letter in reply calculated with his wife, who was watching her neighbor's to benefit both parties by its sweet-toned strength. departure. Her eye stole quickly to the window During the two years she had been away from of the little study; the blind was down there- home, Lizzy had quite recovered from the remains perhaps he was out; at all events he might have of her girlish affection for Felix Merton. stepped over to say "good-bye." However, one was quite glad that he had married Lilla; for she thing was clear-Dr. Merton did not trouble him- herself felt that she could not respect or love him self about her leaving the village. She embraced enough to have been a happy wife; and Lilla abher mother once more, in silence; and stepping solutely worshipped him, for he was of a higher into the garden out of the shadow of the clematis nature than her own. Sometimes, when a thirst over the porch, she smiled and waved her hand to for sympathy over some book or music was strong Mrs. Merton, and ran down to the coach, followed within her, Lizzy still thought, with a sigh, of by George and Nancy, who kissed her heedless of Felix Merton. "How he would enjoy this!" the staring of the passengers, and would scarcely | And then a sadness came over her, as she felt that let her go at all. She was the only inside pas- there was no one on earth with whom she had so senger. In a moment the "White Cottage," much in common, and yet, she could neither love George, Nancy, her mother and old Alice were nor esteem him thoroughly; was this her own out of sight, and Lizzy sank back in the coach, a fault? was it in the nature of all human things prey to many conflicting feelings. The rapid mo- never to satisfy? or was it owing to the peculiar tion seemed to soothe her, and at length she suc-nature of her mind, that must forever be finding ceeded in composing her mind; except one secret out here a spot and there a blemish ?—she was corner of it, which was full of mournful dissatis-inclined to think that the fault was in herself. faction.

She

"Can I have forfeited his respect or She reflected that she had done her duty as far

"Will you take from me my only pleasure?" "Yes! if it be one that gives others pain." "It does not give you pain; you do not care for me any more, now, Lizzy! I can see that.”

"You are mistaken; you have no better friend in the world, and I beg of you for your own sake not to come here where I am not a free agentwhere I must meet you. I must accompany my pupil to the dinner table, unless I feign illness."

as Felix was concerned. Dr. Merton during the | come again; and he spoke of her father, and her first year of her stay with the Goulds had come to promised friendship. She begged him earnestly town, and somehow or other had got himself intro- not to come, for Lilla's sake. He bit his lip, and duced to Mr. and Mrs. Gould, without breaking grew pale. through Lizzy's command "not to call on her." He ingratiated himself with the Goulds, as he did with every one; he was so clever, and sensible, and had so prepossessing an exterior. One day, when Lizzy as usual went down with her eldest pupil to dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Gould, she was astonished to see, among the company assembled in the drawing-room, Dr. Merton. He came up to her, in the remote corner where she seated herself. At first the joy of seeing an old friend, where all was so friendless to her, overcame every other feeling. "I am delighted to see you, Felix. How are all at home?" He was pleased with his reception, and replied with affectionate animation. At length she said, "But how came you here?" "Oh! leave me alone for making my way where I want to go. I never saw these Goulds till the day before yesterday; and I am come to dine with them en famille to-day. Of course I took this trouble that I might see you, without calling on you," he added archly. Lizzy was so glad to see him, that she felt no wish to find fault just then. Mr. Gould came up to them; Lizzy liked him. He had always treated her with respect and kindness.

"Ah! Dr. Merton, I perceive you know Miss Wilson; I was about to present you to her, as you are from her part of the country."

Felix persisted, and Lizzy became angry, and walked away from him. This took place in the drawing-room one evening when several persons were there. Mr. Gould, while pretending to read, had watched this conversation with some interest. He was a man of a keen perception and a kind heart. He could not quite make out matters; but he saw clearly enough that Merton came to the house to see Miss Wilson, and that she was very intimate with him; and he also knew that Merton was a married man. He fancied that Miss Wilson began to be annoyed by these visits; and he was determined to find out the truth, and put a stop to them if it were so. He said nothing to his wife on the matter, for various reasons. She was not

a very clear-headed woman, and he might be teased by remarks upon "his interfering with Miss Wilson's affairs;" also, she might get alarmed at the bare idea of having a governess in the house who 66 Thank you, but we are natives of the same was an object of interest to a married man-one place, and have known each other ever since we who had actually contrived to get introduced into were born," replied Dr. Merton, with a look full her house only that he might see and talk to the of pride and affection at Lizzy. governess. And then poor Miss Wilson might be Indeed! I suppose, then, you knew that Miss dismissed, which would be a bad thing for her, Wilson lived with us?" and, as Mr. Gould knew by experience, a very bad

"Oh! yes," answered Dr. Merton, as he rose thing for his family. Until Miss Wilson came, to take Mrs. Gould to dinner. his wife had never been able to find a governess to Miss Wilson fell to Mr. Gould, in the order of suit her. He had a high respect and esteem for going. Miss Wilson, from all he had heard and seen of

'Is Dr. Merton married?” asked the latter of her; and he hoped she might remain to educate the former.

"Yes."

"Do you know his wife?"

"Perfectly."

"What sort of a person is she?"

his girls. Accordingly, on the very next morning, before he went down to breakfast, he knocked at the door of the school-room, where he knew Miss Wilson was alone.

"Good morning, Miss Wilson; I have a ques

"She is a famous beauty; by far the prettiest tion to ask you." woman I ever saw!"

Mr. Gould glanced towards his wife, who was considered very handsome, and felt piqued that Miss Wilson had not excepted her, and he said no

more.

By some manœuvre of Dr. Merton's, he secured a seat next Lizzy. She was in good spirits, and he went away assuring Mrs. Gould that he had never spent a pleasanter evening. He and Lizzy sang all their old duets together; and Mrs. Gould had 66 never seen Miss Wilson so easy and animated before."

Again, and again, Dr. Merton dined there. Lizzy saw that although it was safe visiting for her, it was not so for him. She told him not to

"Indeed! I will answer it as well as I can.” "Was there any person in our party last night, whom you would rather not meet again here?"

Miss Wilson looked steadily at Mr. Gould for an instant, and being satisfied with her scrutiny, she replied, "Yes, I should be glad if Dr. Merton were not a guest here."

"Thank you, Miss Wilson, I expected this candor from you; I shall not invite Dr. Merton to dinner here any more. You excuse my question, I trust?"

"Certainly. Real kindness I cannot mistake for impertinent curiosity. I am obliged to you for your friendly interest."

"Thank you. Good morning."

After that time Miss Wilson saw no more of Dr. Merton; but she kept up a correspondence with his wife, who was aware of the early attachment between her husband and Lizzy Wilson, "before," as she expressed it," they knew what was good for them both."

Lizzy sat ruminating over all these things, and many more, in the short half-hour before she sat down to write the following letter to her mother:

whom I thought I loved. I was humbled-nay, I felt insulted by the evidence which he had given of the slight nature of the feeling (which he nickhad many proofs that he cannot love in my sense; named a passion) that I had inspired. I have since but that he did love me better than he ever loved before or since. Had he done so steadily throughout-but then he would have been different from what he is.

I have never told you all this before; perhaps, because there was some lingering of painful feelMY DEAR MOTHER,—I have two good pieces of ing connected with the subject. Now there is news to communicate. Guess what they are. As none. You will rejoice with me that I did not Madame de Sevigné says, "Je vous la donne en marry a man I could not always respect, and you trois-je vous la donne en dix. Jetez-vous votre will think it better for me to remain an old maid. langue aux chiens?" Of course, you do. Then I long to see Lilla with her baby. What a lovely you must know that-prepare your mind, make group they must make, with Felix bending over George hold Nancy fast on her chair-you must them! I must take a sketch of them. Toin once know that I, your own darling Lizzy," am coming to spend a month with you! Having digested that properly, listen to the next piece of intelligence. Mr. Gould has given me a presentation to Christ's Hospital for George; and Mrs. Gould says, that she hopes George will often come and see me here. What does George think of that for a Christmas-box?

Oh! if you knew how I long to see you all! If you could tell how I shall fidget and chafe, until I am once more in the dear little nut-shell of a home! Mr. and Mrs. Gould are very kind to me. I wish she had a little more feeling and delicacy But it is useless to find fault with any but one's self. So Tom will be at home when I am there? Shall we not be happy, dear mother? Of course you will not have Nancy's party till I come home. I claim the top for Sir Roger de Coverley with George. Mind, George, you are engaged to me! And Nancy must let me be blind man first.

had a penchant for Lilla, when he was seventeen. Ah! you knew nothing about that; but I did. Tom is not very susceptible, you know; but he is not a person to change very soon. He always was dreadfully obstinate. I verily believe that Tom has not got over his boyish love yet! At least, the recollection of it has hitherto prevented him from forming other fancies. Lilla knew nothing of it. You must remember she was a year or two older; and at eighteen or twenty a girl looks upon a boy as a nonentity. But I knew then that Tom was more a man than Lilla was a woman. Lilla is one of those persons who never grow to maturity, and Felix is another. He will never be what I call a man. There will always be something childish about them both. Perhaps Tom may find that out now he is five-and-twenty. Good-bye, dearest mother! I shall fill up this side to George.

songs. This was an old habit, contracted long ago, at the parsonage, where her bed-room was between her brother Tom's and her papa's dressing-room, and they used to challenge each other in the morning, taking up each other's song in the style of Venetian gondoliers. There was one peculiarity in Lizzy's singing on these occasions; it seemed equally pleasant to her to sing any kind of song.

During the fortnight that elapsed between the What you say of the Mertons is very pleasant. writing of the above letter, and the day fixed for I was quite sure Lilla would make him an excel- the departure of the Gould family from town, lent wife, and that he would find that out in time. Miss Wilson's health and spirits grew gradually No, dearest mother, do not imagine that Felix better and better, until, on the morning of their would have been happier with me. him, and could not have made him a good wife. her own, she quite forgot the dignity of office, I do not love journey, (the 21st of December,) the day before It was a girlish error. I never really loved him, except as a brother-just as I love Tom-perhaps and while she was getting up, poured forth a a little more, as we had more tastes in common multitude of little snatches of songs in her very than Tom and I have. You say you never rightly best voice. It was a strange medley of ballads, understood how I broke off my engagement. You opera scenas and airs, hymns, scherzas, and comic know, my poor father had set his heart on this match, and so had Felix, until his mother persuaded him that Lilla had fallen in love with him; at a time, too, when he was piqued at my coldness, as he was pleased to call it. He proposed to her one fine morning, and was accepted; and the next day he came over to Coventry, (I was living with the Halls then,) and told me what he had doneswore he was inad the day before, and loved no one but me. I behaved then, as people say, very nobly. I renounced my engagement, refused ever to marry him; and, at last, exacted a promise from him that he would marry Lilla in three months, and would not seek to see me during that time. Upon these conditions I promised him my friendship after his marriage; the alternative being my resolution never to speak to him again. People would call this a noble sacrifice for a person in my condition; because I was convinced then that Felix really loved me as much as he could love anything in the world. But it was not noble, nor a sacrifice, mother; it was simply the dictate of woman's At breakfast, Mr. Gould inquired "who that wounded pride and affection. I was mortified to was that was singing like Lablache, and Grisi, and find that Felix was so weak in nature-the man Braham, ever since it was light?"

and "Tom Bowling" with her father, and "Non She would sing "Cease rude Boreas" più audrai" and "Crambamboli" with her brother.

On the 21st of December, as she was dressing, and preparing to pack up her things, before the breakfast bell rang, she sang all these songs and a great many more, to the infinite surprise of the servants, male and female, who were going up and down stairs, and to the amusement of Mrs. Gould,

whose room was under hers.

The shops had never looked so tempting before, and, cold as it was, she was as cheerful as a lark Anybody could make Miss Wilson sing," ex- in June, as she walked briskly down Oxfordclaimed Master Gustavus Gould, a youth of four-street, lingering now and then, as women love to teen, who had come from school yesterday. linger, before some rare display of bonnets, "You have only to whistle an air she knows, shawls, and ribbons. Lizzy seldom looked at the and she 'll soon begin." shops; she never had money to spend on super

"Your whistling, I grant, always makes me fluities, and therefore she thought they did not sing," replied Miss Wilson.

Why Do I whistle so very beautifully?" free from a feeling of responsibility when she asked the boy, with a grin.

"No; but you whistle just as one of my girls with her, which circumstance did not tend to brothers used to whistle."

"Is that the brother who is coming to be to improve the health. The girls were nice Christ's?" asked Mr. Gould.

Good morning!" and Mrs.
Gould ran down the steps to the carriage.
As soon as she was left alone, Lizzy Wilson | fine, is it not, madam?"