canst say, I forgive thee still,-do so, and make self-pardon impossible! My father knew not of my attachment! he never forbade my love! but I, a mean and base dissembler, feigned the dishonorable artifice, the better to violate my solemn vow of making you my bride! that unaccomplished vow that even now doth press down my very soul!"

The voice, which from the first I had heard with anxious surprise and agitation, I now felt assured was no other than Neville Dalton's! and even in the dim obscurity of that darkened death chamber, I could note that the kneeling figure before me was indeed no other than the long-lost son of my friend. Yet ere I discovered myself to him, being first deeply desirous that he should repair the wrong he had committed, I said aloud, in a solemn voice, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thy vows!"

"Mysterious Providence!" exclaimed the young man, "whence was that voice? yet will I receive it as the command of God himself, and as a proof that my sincere repentance, though late, is not altogether unavailing. By all my hopes of heaven, then, I am this moment ready to fulfil to the very letter my uncompleted promise!"

"And for my part, Neville Dalton,” added I,

coming forward and grasping his hand, "I am ready to declare that in so doing, the Lord also shall put away thy sin: nay, more, that haply He who restored David and healed Hezekiah, may yet have mercy on his returning children, by blessing them even in this life."

"Ha!" returned young Dalton, with an animated voice, fervently pressing my hand, "is it in truth my wise and pious tutor, the good Theophilus Purefaith? this is a blessing unto us all. You then were the charitable Divine of whom my hostess told me, who took upon himself the task which it was my duty to perform. Your prayers have afforded consolation; and it may be, you are come again with skill, as well as holiness, to administer both hope and healing."—"My message," said I, "brings balm to the penitent, and counsel to the erring.My journey to this city of desolation hath been in quest of a prodigal son, to restore him to his father's house. Ah, Neville! little thought I that the promising child of a godly sire, would, in the very outset of life, become thus entangled in sin and sorrow." The young woman, during this brief dialogue, gazed alternately at me and at Dalton, with much earnestness. She spake not; but there was a language in her beseeching look, as if she

would have implored me to be gentle in my reproaches towards her repentant lover; and in the smile she bestowed on him, which did say, with mournful eloquence, "Still I forgive thee!" I would not disturb these feelings, so I drew the youth aside, and stated briefly under what circumstances I had been brought to London, what I had heard and witnessed in the house where we then were, and required from him, in his father's name, whether he had entered into any covenant with the suffering individual before us?

He at once confirmed all that the owner of the dwelling had stated, and confessed that he had gained the affections of the young maiden, though only to blight them; that he had made a contract, to forswear it; that he found her happy, in youthfulness and health, but had basely deserted her in sickness and adversity; but now, under the deepest remorse of conscience, was bitter in self-accusations. Fearing that I should request him to allay the alarm of his relatives by an immediate return to them, he added, "The poor deer that I have stricken, hath fled into the covert. I have tracked her there, but never again shall she be deserted, to die in loneliness and despair, since my fate shall now be for ever linked with her's. I have returned to repair

what may be, of the evil I have done, and to confirm, even with heart and hand, the vow I have already solemnly plighted. Your prayers have already tranquillised her spirits, and Ah! hath not your visit here been most wondrously brought about, in order to effect the fulfilment of my vow? Join with me, then, I pray thee, to obtain the only test by which the sincerity of my penitence and love can now be tried; and who shall say that life may not rekindle its powers, when that poor bosom shall be lightened of its load of wretchedness?"

Before I had time to reply, he threw himself again on his knees by the bedside, and implored the sufferer's assent to his proposal of an immediate marriage, urging that I was the friend of his father, the instructor of his own youth, and could confirm all he had said of his parents' character. “And," he exclaimed, passionately, "doth not the miraculous manner in which we are assembled at this time, augur well for the deed? Oh! my love! happiness may yet be our's; and think of the peace of mind you will impart to your Neville, by permitting him, even at this solemn moment, to perform his vow."

A fleeting crimson passed over the pallid cheek

of the sick one, as Dalton pronounced these words, and the brilliancy of a moment flashed from her languid eyes-the outward workings of a heart which, for an instant, beat responsive to the thrilling hopes of earth. A bright vision of happiness in this world, of happiness to be shared with Dalton,-had beamed upon her. But it speedily departed as a shadow; for, laying her wasted and burning hand on his, while she spake, and looking at him with an expression of calm resignation, most saintlike, yet withal most melancholy, she responded, "Alas! my Neville, it is too late! It would be but the union of the quick with the dead!" Still undismayed, he rose hastily from his knees, and seizing me by the arm, drew me towards the bed. Sympathising, as I then most truly did, in the situation of those around me, and irresolute, from stricter motives of duty, respecting the course I should pursue, he grasped one hand of his beloved, upraised mine, and cried, in an agony of voice which defied my resistance, "We are man and wife-for better and for worse,- for life and for death! Oh! withhold not thou the benediction of the Church: the innocence of my forsaken one will insure her peace in the Kingdom to which she is passing, though in this heart she will dwell for ever!"