gentleman, who immediately began to stare | what a farmer was, or a decent housekeeper; Anne out of countenance. The wicker basket had previously been standing upon the seat Anne had taken, and it was now placed on the woman's lap at the top of a large bundle done up in a checkered handkerchief, so that it almost obscured the small square window. but a plated piece of goods like this would-be gentleman, she could not make out. In a short time the dame took some apples out of her basket, and offered them all round. And when she had done eating them, the farmer and herself drank each a little glass of a white liquid, which was concealed in a thick, green bottle. Then she ate some buns, and next some sandwiches, which she shared with the farmer; and then he produced the green bottle again, - for that part of the picnic seemed to belong to him, and the glass crossed over more than once to the dame, who generously offered it to Anne each time before she drank herself. After this, they both ate some sausages, which they cut with a clasp-knife upon slices of bread, and then it appeared that they had made their supper. The courteous and grateful manner in which Anne declined each delicacy in succession, particularly the green bottle, when she found it did not contain water, which she had rather hoped, formed a complete contrast to the opposite gentleman, who exclaimed abruptly, "Thank you! no, I took a cutlet at six; confounded early dinner, but it will serve me till to-morrow;" "Well, then, perhaps half-past eight in the or, "No, I'm much obliged to you. I drink morning," said the dame. nothing but champagne this weather;" speakmaybe half-past," said ing to the farmer, and looking at Anne; "perhaps, one of the lowest habits existing." In The good woman and the square farmer looked very hard at Anne, though not so disagreeably as the gentleman in the other corner; but she did seem a little out of place among them, and that is the truth. Her little drawn bonnet of white silk, her high dress of lilac and white stripes, finished with a small collar of costly lace, her green cashmere shawl, her pale gloves, and the single massive bracelet, from which swayed two or three pendant ornaments, encrusted with turquoises, composed a toilet not often displayed in a stage-coach. And when she turned to the dame at her side, and asked in a very clear and subdued tone, "How long it would before they reached A?" her companions had no difficulty in deciding upon her station in life. There is nothing common people are more sensitive about than the voice. "More likely nine, the square farmer. “You have friends at A———, miss?" asked Staffordshire they dropped the gent, as the the dame, looking very inquisitive. farmer very properly called him. At War "I have a very old acquaintance not far wick the farmer got out, the good dame was off," said Anne. to go on to A. About nine o'clock 66 Might one ask in what line?" asked the they drove into that clean old town, and Anne, good woman. "She keeps a farm, - she once was my nurse; I am going to pay her a visit,” replied Anne. having paid the coachman so liberally that he forgave her want of luggage, was accommodated with an ancient post-chaise to take her to the Homestead, about two miles out of the They stopped before an old brick wall with a curious indented coping. A heavy, wooden door, with a rough stone step before it, stood half open; and disclosed, like a picture set in a frame, a garden, dyed a thousand colors with beds of summer flowers, and a low brick house with casement windows, seen in glimpses through the gnarled boughs of several fine apple-trees, dotted over a mossy lawn. This was possible; the dame looked con-highway. tented. A fine lady might take such a freak into her head; but the young man was only the more puzzled, for he knew that a lady would indulge her whims in a different manner, and not take a fatiguing journey by night in a stage-coach, and, above all, unattended. However, he felt in his duty to impress Anne favorably; and, to effect this object, he arranged his hair and dress a good deal, and then talked for her benefit to the farmer, about Anne stood irresolute a minute, after having dogs and horses, and his father's seat in West- dismissed her chaise, with one foot on the moreland, his father being a retired cotton- step, and one hand on the massive iron handle spinner, who rented a paradise on the shores of the door, gazing wistfully into this peaceful of Windermere. Of course to Anne he was retreat. Presently there came into the porch, an object of far less attention than her two the neateat, prettiest elderly woman, in a snowother companions; his class being one pecu-white muslin cap and kerchief, and a black liarly removed from her thoughts; she knew stuff gown, with a sweet, calm face, soft blue eyes, and light hair, streaked with gray. She my dear? looked round the garden once or twice, and | Datchley?" then called in a pretty little voice, — "Towser!" Is your papa come down to "Come and sit with me in the porch, Mrs. Ford," said Anne, still holding the kind story." The porch was built of brick, with loop-holes on either side above the oaken seats. Instead of a mastiff, as might have been ex-woman's hand; "and I will tell you all my pected, a strange-looking girl emerged from a parsley bed, and came trotting up the walk with her apron full of herbs. She had a face like a shark, yellow hair gathered into a bristly knot behind, and a thin, wiry figure about four feet high. Nothing could be neater than her reddish print dress, and brown holland pinafore, and the tight, black worsted stockings and leather boots, rendered very visible by the shortness of her petticoats. Anne and her nurse sat down together, and Towser, thinking she might gain something by their conversation, stole to the outside, and standing on the tips of her strong boots, with her eyes raised to the level of the loop-hole, and her fingers clutched firmly in the opening to sustain her in that exalted posture, took her "I think you must have gathered enough, first lesson in Romance! Towser?" said the dame. 66 "Not half enough, missis," replied the girl, diving her hand into her apron, and bringing out a fragrant heap of herbs; you take these to begin with, and I'll soon get some more; and you mind and chop them fine enough, for Master George will lay it all to me if the stuffing is not good." The quiet dame seemed to take this admonition in very good part, and received the herbs into her own snowy apron; and Towser, having got rid of her bundle, threw her brown pinafore over one shoulder, and went along the path executing sundry steps and capers which bore some distant resemblance to the contortions of the earliest polkas, and showed off her leather boots to great advantage. Suddenly her sharp blue eyes discerned would not have known him; and dwelling on Anne leaning in the doorway. the cruelty of being driven from her father's roof, because she refused to give her hand to a titled idiot. "Missis, here's a lady!" she exclaimed. Anne, finding herself discovered, advanced timidly. It was difficult to her to ask protec- Most warmly did Mrs. Ford assure her that tion, for what could she do if she was re-everything in her house was at her service, fused? and that she could receive no greater satisfac"Mrs. Ford?" she asked, as the dame came tion than in having Anne for her guest. forward to meet her. "But, my dear child," she added, we "That is my name, madam,” she replied, in must let Mr. Scawen know where you are. a gracious tone. Imagine his uneasiness and regret until he hears that you are safe." "You don't know me, Mrs. Ford. I am Anne Scawen. I am grown quite out of your recollection." "Miss Anne? What a pleasure!" exclaimed Mrs. Ford, her soft complexion glowing quite brightly between delight and surprise. "It is so many years since I have seen any of your dear family." "Will you take me in, Mrs. Ford?" said Anne; "I am come to ask you to give me shelter for a long time." "Will I, my dear Miss Anne? Why, this house is more yours than mine, being Master Hugh's. But how is it? Who brought you, "Oh, not yet, Mrs. Ford," said Anne, imploringly; "I am not equal to any fresh excitement; I am so completely exhausted. If he were to come and insist on my returning with him, I should not know how to bear it. Let me have a little rest before anything is done." Thus urged, Mrs. Ford could only take her in her arms, and agree to put off the discussion to some future time; and then, having led her into the parlor, fragrant with jessamine and mignonette, and placed her in state upon the sofa, she sallied forth to summon Towser to 1 prepare breakfast for her guest. Towser, ap- | house. For a few minutes after she had laid pearing with a very innocent countenance, as if she had heard nothing of what had passed, bustled in and out of the kitchen with teathings, and fresh bread and butter, and put on the water to boil, and whisked an egg into a little saucepan, and a slice of ham on the gridiron; and was then ready to start upstairs, carrying a huge can of spring water into the spare bedroom, and returning like a moving hillock under heaps of lavender-scented sheets, which she disposed on three or four chairs to air around the fire. Anne, who had not eaten since the morning of the previous day, was not sorry to see these preparations; and Mrs. Ford, with a delighted countenance, stood pressing her to do justice to the meal before her. Towser, likewise, was very urgent, bringing in a "drop of cream," from the dairy, and a cold fowl from the safe, and part of a currant tart which had been set aside for the evening meal, and which she possibly thought would assist the flavor of a strong cup of tea. And when Anne had breakfasted, and Mrs. Ford insisted on her going to bed, and taking a few hours' complete rest, Towser suggested that if the lady did not get up to dinner at one o'clock, it might be better that she found a slice of bread and cheese on the chair by her bed, on which she might regale at her leisure, together with a draught of strong ale. Anne declined these luxuries, but gladly availed herself of Towser's proffered service to walk over to A, and procure her a few needful articles of clothing; and that young person having accepted a five-pound note, and tied on a coarse straw bonnet with a strip of blue calico across the crown, expressed herself ready for action. "And I tell you what, missis," she said, "you put in the apple-pudding at twenty minutes to, and the potatoes at half-past, and the greens at a quarter to, and, oh! my gracious, mind you strain 'em properly, or Master George will lay it all to me. And lend us your flag-basket, for I shall bring home all I can, and Mill's boy may come over with the rest in the afternoon. But, la! I shall be home in time to see about the greens, so don't you touch them till I come back." Mrs. Ford then conducted Anne to her bedroom, which was low and spacious, with a massive old bedstead, and carved chest of walnut-drawers, and a wide casement opposite the bed, which, standing open, admitted the soft breeze, fluttering through the broad, fragrant leaves of a fine old walnut-tree, whose whitened boughs sheltered that corner of the her head on the lavendered pillows she remained awake, gazing on the patch of blue sky visible through the rustling leaves, or watching Mrs. Ford, as with noiseless steps she moved about, dusting and folding her delicate clothes; and then the feverish hurry and fatigue seemed to give way to a refreshing sense of weariness, and she sank into a profound slumber. Towser, meantime, was wending her steps towards A- - with a vast increase of importance in her gait, owing to the bank note which she squeezed firmly in one hand. "I must make haste," she thought, as she pressed forward in the heat, “because of the greens, and because I want to be the first to tell Master George what has happened." For, notwithstanding her tender years, being not quite fourteen, Master George was the object of her idolatry. It would be absurd, at her age, to give the name of love to such a preference; but always talking and thinking of him, and referring everything to his will and pleasure, a good many grown women know less of the feeling than Towser did. Her admiration, however, was neither perceived nor returned by Master George, a tall, showy-looking young man of two-and-twenty, with dark hair, a rich, brown complexion, and deep, sparkling blue eyes. He managed the small farm attached to the Homestead, with considerable skill and energy; and, taking an honest pride in his vocation, was as careful to be every inch a farmer, as other people are to push themselves beyond the limits of their class. You would always see him dressed like a Cumberland peasant, in a broad-skirted coat, leather gaiters, and a gray felt hat. But he spoke pure English, like his mother, and was more scrupulously neat and clean than farmers usually are on working days. Towser went nearly a mile out of her way, in the hope of meeting him; but he was not in the field where she expected to find him, and therefore, running to make up for lost time, she made her way along the High-street, and entered Mr. Mills' shop. There she planted herself stoutly at the counter, ordered and demurred, and threw the things about, as if she had been twice her age; objected to the price of this, and the quality of that, and stood her ground with a determined good nature, that did her some service among the shopmen. Having selected her purchases, and stowed the smaller articles in her flagbasket, she ordered the boy not to be a minute later than six o'clock with his parcel, and then proceeded to several other shops, where she bought exactly what she had been directed, without having any list to refresh her memory, and without making a single mistake in quantity or price, and having then quite filled her basket, turned her back on the town of A - and trotted home, where she arrived in time to put on the greens. But Master George did not come home to dinner, and neither greens, nor boiled beef, nor apple-pudding could make amends to her for his absence, and it was very hard work to wait till evening before she could confide her secret to a living soul. She had serious thoughts of stealing into the straw-yard, and telling Jack Ridge, the thatcher, all she knew about the strange lady. And the afternoon was usually devoted to needle-work, which, like Clorinda, she hated extremely; and she had to sit in the parlor with Mrs. Ford hemming towels, and shuffling her black boots in a state of great irritation, until she was allowed to put on the kettle for tea. Then to see how she wielded the kitchen poker, lunged desperately at the bars of the grate by way of getting up the fire, and railed at the farmservant (cook and dairy-made in one), who had let it burn rather low, which was no wonder, with the glass at seventy-five, and pumped the kettle full to overflowing, and swung it on the trivet, and rattled about the cups and plates, without breaking any, prove what great souls sometimes inhabit little bodies, and struck awe into the heart of the fat dairymaid. and the flowers overrunning the baskets and borders in which they were planted. While she looked out, the garden gate was pushed open, and a young man came briskly up the walk. At the same instant the clatter of Towser's boots along the tiled passage kept time to the tune he was whistling as he entered the porch, and proved the accuracy of her ear. "O Master George, why didn't you come home to dinner?" she began in an appealing tone. "Why didn't I?" returned Master George, suddenly placing his gray felt hat on Towser's yellow locks; ". why, because I wanted to see them carry that field down by Welsted, which I knew would not be done if I was not looking on." Towser's shining face was distended with grins beneath the felt hat. "But, I say, Master George!" she exclaimed, "missis has got a strange lady in the parlor with her." This intimation nothing daunted Master George, for the farmers' wives were called ladies by Towser, and he supposed that one of them had dropped in to take tea with his mother. "Well, you little imp, stand out of the way and let me get in to my tea," he replied. Towser seemed to offer some opposition to Master George's progress, for there was a sound of scuffling and of suppressed laughter from the young lady, and then a hasty retreat into the kitchen, as he entered the parlor. While she was thus engaged, Anne came downstairs, so refreshed by sleep, and a plentiful use of Towser's can of spring-water that Mrs. Ford was startled by her beauty. She "My son George," said Mrs. Ford, a deep thought it was no wonder the young gentle-blush overspreading her sweet face. man would not give her up; but, indeed, she doubted whether there was any man in the world deserving of such an exquisite creat ure. Anne turned from the window with a gracious smile, said she was glad to see him, and moved leisurely towards the table. "This is Miss Scawen, George," said Mrs. Ford. - Anne, on her side, could not cease to admire Mrs. Ford's appearance, in her afternoon dress He colored crimson through his brown comof black silk and close lace cap. In her nur-plexion, advanced a step or two towards sery days she had never been struck, as she Anne, and said with emotion: was now, with the superior air of refinement in her ci-devant nurse; her language and gestures were so completely those of a higher class; but a child naturally thinks more of a servant who will give her sugar on her bread and butter than of one who speaks English, and eats her dinner like a lady. "Madam, you are the only one of your family I have ever seen; you are the first whom I am able to thank for your kindness to my mother." "I am sure, Master George, as far as I am concerned, the kindness was all on Mrs. Ford's side," said Anne; "I gave her nothing but trouble." Towser, who had entered with the teapot in one hand, and a plate of water-cresses in the other, stood stock-still listening to the interview with the air of a connoisseur, and being probably satisfied with Anne's gracious man ner towards her young master, she deposited | guilty creature that no one would trust or reher contributions to the meal, and retired, ceive. And then the good doctor told me that nodding her head gravely. a lady, a patient of his, who had been spend "I don't like to vex you, Miss Anne, but I shall not be able to sleep till I have written to let Mr. Scawen know you are here." When tea was over, and Master George had ing the summer at Richmond, had heard my gone out into the farm-yard, Mrs. Ford, draw-story, and was willing to take me as a nurse. ing nearer to Anne, said gently: "I was cowardly enough, when the moment of escape was at hand, to hesitate for a while -but all was at stake-my peace here, my safety hereafter. My lord was absent,-the nurse, too, had stepped into the town, the doctor's carriage was at the door, I dressed myself in haste, wrapped my infant in a shawl, and rushed downstairs; before we arrived at Richmond, I fainted, and for two or three days I remember nothing. The agony of that period-I wish it might atone; at least it proved I was sincere in my remorse, and sometimes I am able to rejoice that I quitted "Oh! why, Mrs. Ford?" asked Anne. "It is no common obligation I owe to your parents," replied the nurse; "it is through them that I am not now a miserable and degraded wretch; and to fail in any act of respect to your father would be the basest ingratitude. I will tell you my story, Miss Anne, and then you will not blame me that I seem to prefer his will to yours." "I could not blame you, nurse," said Anne, him, not in consequence of being deserted and looking into her sweet face. forgotten, but while his affection was as ardent Mrs. Ford paused as if to collect herself for as in the first days of our acquaintance." an effort, and then began: "And how did he bear your flight?" asked Anne. "He tracked me into Lancashire, and wandered about King's Cope in the hope of meet was still very weak and ill, he wrote to me, and your dear mamma, to whom I showed the letter, consulted with Mr. Scawen, who went out and met my lord, and told him plainly that he considered him a villain, and would shoot him with as little concern as he would a mad dog, if he found him lurking about his premises." "O nurse, you were a true heroine! How few women would have acted as you did!" "Nothing can palliate my conduct," said Mrs. Ford, with a deep sigh; "but when the love lasts always, it must be true and deep, and not very coarse, to survive so many years' absence and oblivion on his side; and I cannot hear his name now without a thrill, such as the sound of his footstep used once to send through my heart. "When I was about eighteen, I was apprenticed to a milliner at Windsor. I was thought beautiful at that time; I do not mind saying so, for it was allowed by one who was sup-ing me; but as I never left the house, for I posed unerring in his judgment of such matters. I do not think I was vain. I never cared to hear people flatter and admire me; but this person, a nobleman in a regiment then at Windsor, won my heart, I am sure my whole affection; and though I knew I could not be his wife, I consented to live with him; I would have agreed to die for him as readily, for he had entire power over my whole being. We passed more than a year together, -- I cannot say happily on my part, for I repented the step I had taken from the very first. Although he lived very much in the world, he spent a great deal of his time with me; and I must say he never reproached me for my melancholy or my tears, which I believe to be a very uncommon act of forbearance. Only when my remorse grew stronger, and he began to fear that I should leave him, he resided wholly at Windsor, and set such a watch upon me, that I should have found it difficult to make my escape. Well, when my son George was born, the doctor who attended me,- a true Christian,- seeing the low state of my spirits, which prevented me from recovering, entered on the subject with me, and represented that the first act of a real penitent would be to quit the guilty life I then led. I had often thought so before, but when the prospect drew near, I felt as if I had not strength; for I loved him, and I do still, as a husband, and the kindest that could ever be. Besides, as I toid the doctor, I did not know which way to turn, a "I was twelve years nurse at King's Cope, and my boy was put out in a laborer's family at Richmond. At your dear mamma's death, I was placed by your father's generosity in this farm, he was pleased to say, as a just recompense for my faithful service." "And your son knows --” "Evorything, my dear. Concealment is not in my character. He knows, as I do, what a downward course mind must have been but for such timely help as your parents afforded me. And now, my dear Miss Anne, you will not be angry that I write to Mr. Scawen." "I will write myself, nurse. I have no reason to be ashamed of what I have done. |