usefulness;" she wished to know his ideas of such a life. The conversation this evening had increased her esteem for Dunallan, yet she felt even less able than before to understand him. She wished, however, that she could, and determined that, in future, she would not avoid his society. As they were entering the house, she said to him, smiling,

"Mr. Dunallan, you must tell me what you think is a useful life at some other time.”

"I shall be most happy to tell you," replied he," and if you would agree with me-if in this we could be of the same opinion;" he hesitatedthen stopped, and left the sentence unfinished.

St. Clair was near, and heard what passed. They then joined the party in the drawing room. St. Clair almost immediately addressed Dunallan in his usual slighting tone of voice and manner.

"Pray, Mr. Dunallan, are you one of those people who approve of young ladies teaching poor children to read the Bible, &c. &c. instead of sending them, in the good old way, to be taught by some old woman in the village ?"

"I think," replied Dunallan, with unmoved calmness, "that where there is an old woman. capable of teaching, it would be a pity to supersede her in her profession; but I think young ladies most properly and most amiably employed in superintending and encouraging the old woman in her labours."

"Well," resumed St. Clair, "I confess I have not been able to perceive the benefit poor children can receive from the instructions of young ladies that they might not equally receive from that of old women; and I mean, when I get a seat in Parliament, to offer my services to the old VOL. I.

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ladies, to bring a bill to guard the profession against those pretty intruders; and that for their sakes as much as that of the old ladies; for I know nothing so likely to injure the charms of the lovelier sex as the air and manner of a schoolmistress."

All the young ladies laughed excepting Rose. "I beg, Mr. St. Clair," said Mrs. Lennox, "that you will have the goodness to let that subject remain at rest. Teaching the poor is the fashion of the day, and my poor Rose has been infected by it; but she has an inaptitude about her at doing any thing, even a fashionable thing, fashionably. Instead of subscribing, as I do, to Lady Mary D.'s school in our neighbourhood, and always going to its examinations, and presenting the children with new dresses, for they have such a neat uniform,-instead of this, my poor Rose must have a dozen little miserable things, who are too sickly to walk so far as the school, in her room, and teach them to read the Bible, during those very hours I wished her to devote to her harp.'

Rose blushed, and tears started into her eyes. "You know, Mamma, I was to rise two hours earlier for my harp."

"Oh, yes, my dear, and look like a ghost from want of sleep! Ridiculous!"

Surely," said George Lennox, "ten hours of sleep is too much, either for health, or in a moral point of view."

"Dear George," said Mrs. Lennox, " do not encourage your sister. She will think I was quite cruel in preventing her spending the precious hours necessary to acquire those accomplishments, which are quite indispensable, in

teaching a few miserable cottagers, what, if they are to live, they will learn equally well in the next village."

"Which is four miles off," said George," and the school not large enough to admit nearly all the children who have strength to walk; consequently, half the girls around us have scarcely any means of instruction."

"I did not know you were so intimately acquainted with their affairs, George," said his mother, trying to smile.

"I am perfectly acquainted with their situation," replied George," and long most earnestly to see it improved.

"Well, I declare," exclaimed Sir Archibald Cameron, addressing Lord Dunallan, “I think there is something very amiable in the enthusiasm for improving the state of the poor, which is so general at present amongst well-disposed young people."

Very amiable indeed," replied his Lordship, with an air of absence.

Certainly," said Mrs. St. Clair, "improve the lower orders as much as possible by proper means; but not by young ladies forgetting their places in society, and doing that themselves which ought to be left to more proper persons, while they neglect..."

"Their harps," interrupted Dunallan playfully.

"Oh, I forgot, Mr. Dunallan, that you were an advocate for ladies' schools."

Dunallan attempted to change the subject, which seemed disagreeable or uninteresting to most of the party; but St. Clair appeared deter

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mined to pursue it, and appealed to Catharine for her opinion.

"I have not formed any," replied she languidly; her thoughts had indeed wandered from a subject in which she felt little interest.

St. Clair looked disappointed at the careless indifference of her manner; she perceived this, and said smiling, "I can tell you, however, what my opinion is, without taking time to consider what it ought to be. I believe it is proper to have the poor children taught all that may afterwards be useful to them; but I think it would be very tiresome to do it myself; and I suspect that the young ladies who do it have, in general, (perhaps almost unconsciously,) some secret view to praise, or, in short, something more agreeable than the mere pleasure of imparting knowledge to the ignorant.

St. Clair laughed, "Ah! Miss Dunallan," exclaimed he, "your penetration leads you to the truth direct, without a tedious attempt to form a wise opinion."

"The discovery of such truths, however," said Dunallan, in a tone of voice almost severe, "does mere honour to the penetration of the head than to the feelings of the heart."

Catharine reddened, and bowing to Dunallan said, "It is perhaps fortunate for me, Mr. Dunallan, that of late I have found it necessary to avoid consulting the heart; I might otherwise have felt your compliment too deeply." She then rose, and went towards her harp, to conceal the tears she could not restrain.

St. Clair glanced indignantly at Dunallan, and then followed her; an expression of pleasure, however, was also on his countenance. Dunallan

became very thoughtful, and the ladies looked at each other.

"You see the consequences of your foolish schools, Rose," said Mrs. Lennox in a whisper to her daughter; "you have made your young friend quite unhappy."

Rose seemed to believe herself the cause of what had passed; and going towards Dunallan said, in a low voice, "I believe Catharine is quite right; I did hope I should be doing something worthy of praise in teaching those poor children."

Dunallan smiled, "But that was not your motive for doing it, Miss Lennox."

"Oh, perhaps it might; at any rate, it does not signify how it was. Don't you like the harp ? Let us go near.

Dunallan followed the sweet girl. St. Clair was attempting to recommend himself to Catharine by the most flattering description of a scene he had witnessed that day,-a family who, from great wretchedness, had been placed in a situation of comfort by Catharine's bounty. Dunallan listened eagerly. St. Clair used all his eloquence to reconcile her to herself. Rose joined in admiration of her friend's goodness; young Cameron also was more eloquent than usual in the eulogium he bestowed on this idol of his heart. All seemed anxious to make up to her for the cruel speech of Dunallan; but in vain; a cloud was fixed on Catharine's brow which nothing could remove during the whole of the evening. She tired of the harp, and, intreating Rose to take her place, and putting her arm within Elizabeth's, she passed Dunallan with an air of extreme coldness, and led her friend to another