abounding divine love of the Creator for his creature Man?

"October 16th.-I had a long conversation with Madame Leclercq on the subject of my marriage to-day. Only two persons have been entrusted with the secret-Justine, who accompanied me to the altar, and Madame Leclercq. But I cannot imagine that my husband will be displeased by my imparting it to the latter when he knows the protection which her friendship has afforded me. It was, alas! his own friends and relatives from whom he dwelt so strongly on the necessity of keeping it a secret. It was his own father to whom he either could not or would not acknowledge me as his wife. To avoid that has he cared to leave me exposed to wrong and insult? We discussed the subject some time, and Madame Leclercq appeared to fully enter into my feelings, yet I was not prepared for her concluding remark. And now, my dear Ellen,' said she, 'can I hear of these annoyances without suggesting to you the means of avoiding them?" I did not answer, for I failed at the moment to catch her meaning till she explained it. It was to lay aside my wedding-ring, and resume my maiden name, in fact disown my marriage till my husband's return! Am I doing right to follow her advice? At first I refused—then reflecting

No! Art

of my once unrivalled talent, is gone. requires entire, undivided devotion; it is a shrine at which one must worship with the soul as with the intellect if one would penetrate the sanctuary, and attain perfection. Alas! for those who abandon the worship of their youth, till an hour comes when wearied and spirit-broken they return to the temple and seek the shrine, to find the god has fled!

CHAPTER XV.

WE will now beg the reader to retrace his steps in the path of Time, and return to the ancient Irish castle, and its present inhabitants. A bright clear autumnal morning followed the evening of the traveller's arrival at CastleDeloraine. The calm waters of the lake shone like a sheet of molten silver in the sunbeams, the purple hills which bounded the horizon were fully defined to view, and the sunshine streaming through the painted glass of the richly mullioned Gothic windows, reflected its gorgeous hues on every object around. Annie and her husband were sitting in a small apartment, fitted up as a boudoir; like the rest of the suite, it was on the second floor, and commanded an extensive view from the windows.

"Do you see," said Harry, adjusting a tele

her delicate beauty fully realized the sculptor's conception of representing her as rising from her tomb, to ascend, purified from sin, to her native skies. Paintings of the life of Christ from the Nativity to the Crucifixion were hung round the chapel, and as Annie contemplated one on the latter subject, she exclaimed, "There is something peculiarly sad in contemplating pictures of the Passion of our Saviour; yet surely He, who bade His followers rejoice, and bless His memory, did not intend us to dwell upon it in sorrow and despair. Is it not a relief to turn from the sight of that agonized face,-those muscles quivering with pain, to this exquisitely beautiful Madonna of Guido's ?"

Annie's judgment was correct-the painting was faultless, and the fair oval face, with the dark blue eyes and glossy braids parted on the pure open brow, exquisitely lovely; but what . made Captain Thornton suddenly turn away at the first glance, as if insensible to the surpassing beauty of the face, and the excellence of the picture?

"Do you not admire it ?" asked Annie in surprise, as he turned to leave the chapel.

"The subject is so familiar to one after travelling abroad, that one gets wearied with the same

ness displayed in the conception," he evasively replied. "Shall we adjourn to the old portrait gallery ?"

It was a long and narrow wainscoted apartment, with a polished oaken floor, and the diamond panes of the deep embayed Gothic windows admitting that "dim, religious light,” which gives so piquant an air of mystery to the stately abodes of our forefathers. Formerly used as the grand reception chamber of the Castle, the ancient tapestried dais of the first baron of Deloraine occupied one end of the gallery, with the cumbrous suit of mail in which he had won his power and title. The arms of the same doughty knight were emblazoned on the ceiling, surrounded with the crests of every noble house who had intermingled in marriage with their line; and cumbrously carved settees were ranged along the walls, as if each had never known removal from its place since powdered dames in spreading hoops, or cavaliers with flowing wig and rapier, had met in stately conclave in that dim old gallery.

"How is it," asked Annie, as she lifted her eyes from the portrait of a Deloraine in the courtcostume of the reign of George the Second, "that the family name on the margin of this picture is Fitzherbert, and not your own?"

"It was owing to the marriage of my

VOL. II.

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