66 Faith, I know not what to think," and the admiral drew Beresford's last letter from his pocket-" I am at sea, without chart or compass. The boy writes so indefinitely it is all about hopes and fears, not crediting us with one jot of anxiety." "Captain Beresford is no wizard," said Gertrude, raising her bright blue eyes to the weather-beaten face of the admiral: "how can he possibly guess that we have walked to the Tile-house every evening for the last week? Depend on it, sir, Miss Beresford is too weak for quick travelling." "We must exert our patience a little further," remarked Mr. Penrose, " and reap the walk for the pains-taking. It will be well," and he gazed affectionately at his daughters, "if disappointment be ever meted out with as sparing a hand." "One more look," exclaimed Rhoda, and again, like a young fawn, she bounded across the green sward, and mounted to to the top of the look-out station: and as she stood, bright in the last burnish of sunset, her white dress and her dark locks sporting and floating on the breeze, she looked Perhaps, in right and appropriate order, we ought first to portray the elder sister Gertrude: but it suits our whim to pause with Rhoda; for we have just mounted her on the hill, and par conséquent she is more immediately in our eye; beside, she is so playful and so sportive, that the back ground ill suits her fancy; and as our unvarying aim is to please the fair daughters of Eve, we will even venture the experiment, though we admit it to be altogether at the expence of etiquette. Rhoda then-for Rhoda it must be— had just numbered her seventeenth sumShe was small-fairy-like-agile mer. as as a young fawn-without thought in her brain, or care in her eye she was what the world calls beautiful: but the epithet beautiful might with truth be applied to both the sisters; nevertheless, their beauty was of as distinct and opposite a character, as the beauty of sisters could well be. Rhoda was a brunette, with a skin of so exquisite and delicate a texture, that it might well be likened to " -That clear obscure, So softly dark, and darkly pure," said to have been the perfection of the queen of Egypt's beauty. She had hair, curling, rich, and glossy, and vying with the raven's wing. "She had the Asiatic eye, Like the first moonrise at midnight; Large, dark, and swimming in the stream, Which seem'd to melt to its own beam." Reader, we hope you like her: now turn turn your eyes downwards on the lawn, and mark her contrast Gertrude. "A gentle spirit, and young, with golden hair, Gertrude was one year older than Rhoda, and she was much taller, and more majestic in step and figure. The contour of countenance too was altogether opposite. Her features were pensively pleasing: the indications of keen sensibility, the thrilling vibrations of soul, were there. Perhaps there never were two beings more dissimilar, yet more united; more at variance in action-more linked in spirit. What with the one would but lightly skim the surface, with the other would sink deep in the heart:-the one by nature seemed formed to stem sorrow; the other to sink beneath it. But at the period at which we thus introduce them to the notice of our readers, sorrow was known but by name. "All, Commence with feelings warm, and prospects high; "Labour lost-all labour lost!" exclaimed the admiral, as Rhoda, descending from her elevated station, moved slowly towards them. ""Tis well our time is not very precious, for now we may measure our steps back again." "Not so, my dear sir," said Mr. Penrose. "You must take the Vicarage in your way; and after tea we will walk with you to the Elms." "Yes, yes; you must-you must; 'tis the only balm to disappointment;" and Rhoda, as she spoke, hung upon his arm, and looked up coaxingly in his face. "Not to-night-excuse me, not tonight. I am hipped-confoundedly hipped," said the admiral. "The very reason why we must not part company," urged Rhoda. "Do oblige us, my kind friend;" and Gertrude's persuasive voice was a charm irresistible, |