[Jun 23, 1859.
ONCE A WEEK.
74
and indifierent than she would if she had not sistency she pointed it out to Gerard with her white finger. betrayed this agitation. “ Ay,” said he, “but to-day it is aJl hidden in “What! is it you, Master Gerard? What on that great cap.” earth brings you here, I wonder.” “ It is a comely cap, I’m told by some.” “ I was passing by and saw you ; so I thought “ May be : but what it hides is beautiful.” I would give you good day, and ask after your “ It is not : it is hideous.” father.” “ Well, it was beautiful at Rotterdam.” “ My father is well. He will be here anon.” “ Then I may as well stay till he comes.” “ Ay, everything was beautiful that day.” “As you will. Good Martin, step into the And now Peter came in, and welcomed Gerard village and tell my father here is a friend of cordially, and would have him to stay supper. his.” And Margaret disappeared; and Gerard had a “ And not of yours ? ” nice learned chat with Peter; and Margaret re appeared with her hair in her silver net, and shot “ My father’s friends are mine.” “ That is doubtful. It was not like a friend to a glance half arch half coy, and she glided about promise to wait for me, and then make off the them, and spread supper, and beamed bright with moment my back was turned. Cruel Margaret! gaiety and happiness. And in the cool evening you little know how I searched the town for you Gerard coaxed her out, and coaxed her on to the —how for want of you nothing was pleasant to road to Tergou, and there they strolled up and me.” down, hand in hand; and when he must go they “ These are idle words ; if you had desired my pledged each other never to quarrel or misunder father’s company, or mine, you would have come stand one another again; and they sealed the back. There I had a bed laid for you, sir, at my promise with a long loving kiss, and Gerard went cousin’s, and he would have made much of you, home on wings. and, who knows, I might have made much of you too. I was in the humour that day. You will From that day Gerard spent most of his evenings not catch me in the same mind again, neither you with Margaret, and the attachment deepened and nor any young man, I warrant me.”
deepened on both sides till the hours they spent toge
“ Margaret, I came back the moment the coun tess let me go ; but you were not there.”
therwere the hours theylived ; the restthey counted and underwent. And at the outset of this deep
“Nay, you did not, or you had seen Hans
attachment all went smoothly ;
obstacles there
Cloterman at our table; we left him to bring were, but they seemed distant and small to the you on.” eyes of hope, youth, and love. The feelings “ I saw no one there, but only a drunken man
that had just tumbled down.” “ At our table ? How was he clad ?” “Nay, I took little heed: in sad coloured garb.” At this Margaret’s face gradually lighted with a mixture
of
archness
and
happiness ;
then
assuming incredulity and severity, she put many shrewd questions, all of which Gerard answered most loyally. Finally, the clouds cleared, and they guessed how the misunderstanding had come
and passions of so many persons, that this attach
ment would thwart, gave no warning smoke to show their volcanic nature and power. The course of true love ran smoothly, plaoidly, until it had
drawn these two young hearts into its current for ever, and then (To be continued.)
AN OLD CHURCH LIBRARY.
“ LANGLEY LIARSH ! not a very inviting locality about. Then came a revulsion of tenderness, all I should judge. What could attract you to a the more powerful that they had done each other marsh, in your longing for country air? ” “It is no marsh. The soil is gravel. Believe wrong; and then, more dangerous still, came mutual confessions. Neither had been happy since; neither ever would have been happy but
Lady Hertford, the invoked by Thomson, the
Countess who wrote thus to the Countess of Pomfret, about Richings, not a mile distant from my calumniated village: ’One great addition to the pleasure of living here is the gravelly soil,
for this fortunate meeting. And Gerard found a MS. Vulgate lying open on the table, and pounced upon it like a hawk. MSS. were his delight; but before he could get to it which after a day of rain, if it holds up for two two white hands quickly came flat upon the page, or three hours, one may walk over without being and a red face confronted him. wet through one’s shoes.’ ” “ Nay, take away your hands, Margaret, that I “Well. Hume says, all Britain was marshy may see where you are reading, and I will read once ; and I suppose this marsh has been drained there too at home; so shall my soul meet yours in some rude agricultural fashion of the days in the sacred page. You will not? Nay, then, before tiles, and instead of quagmires you have I must kiss them away.” And he kissed them so only standing pools.” often, that for very shame they were fain to with “ Hume misquotes his authority when he says draw, and, lo ! the sacred book proved to be open at
all Britain was marshy once; and I have little doubt some blundering topographer has misquoted
an ancient title-deed, and made libellous English out of the obscure Latin which distinguished “There, now,” said she, “I had been hunting this Langley from others of the same family for it ever so long, and found it but even now-— name.” and to be caught!” and with a touch of incon Iwas piqued at my friend’s scepticism about
An apple of gold in a net-work of silver.