it may comport with your views and feelings to restore this young man to your wonted countenance and good favour, provided he has done nothing which can justly entitle him to lasting displeasure."

"I am almost ashamed to confess," said Montchensey," that, in this business, I have been, in a great measure, the architect of my own sorrows; for I have suffered Hubert and Helen to be much together even from their childhood; and I ought to have recollected, that it was scarcely possible for two young and unrelated persons of different sexes and of the most amiable dispositions, to be long and exclusively companions, without the interchange of the tenderest affections."

"I am to infer then," remarked Shakspeare, that the obscurity which, I understand, hangs over the birth and parentage of Hubert Gray, forms the principal, if not the sole defect in his character."

"Until within these few months," answered Montchensey, this has been precisely the case; for how could I bear to encourage what might lead to a union with one of whose origin and

connections I knew nothing! It is now about sixteen years ago, shortly after an event that has never ceased to overwhelm me in the deepest affliction, that I first saw Hubert Gray, then a mere child of but four years old, beneath the roof of Simon Fraser. Young as he was, there was something in his features so peculiarly lovely, touching, and intelligent, and rendered perhaps more touching by the mystery which surrounded him, and which I found Simon pledged not to reveal, that I felt myself strongly. impressed in his favour: and when, two or three years afterwards, I understood he was to receive all the advantages which education and ample remittances could procure, all that Simon, who was the earliest preceptor in my own family, could in the first instance impart, and all that masters elsewhere could subsequently confer, I hesitated not to admit him as the playmate and fellow-student of my own children. He grew up, indeed, a favourite with us all, as pleasing in his person and manners, as he was amiable in disposition, and accomplished in mind; and when it pleased Providence to deprive me of my sons, he seemed as it were to

supply their place, being, though nominally the guest and lodger of Simon Fraser, almost daily here. It was not, in fact, until I fully perceived the nature of the attachment which subsisted between him and Helen, that any coolness was shown by me. I thought it then highly necessary, and simply for the reason which I have already assigned, to interfere; and I must here, in justice to my daughter declare, that though I believe her heart to be deeply entangled in this bewitching snare, yet she listened to my wishes and injunctions with a filial deference and resignation that has, if possible, more than ever endeared her to my bosom. A very slight degree of reserve, indeed, on her part, all, in fact, that her tenderness for the youth would allow her to assume, was sufficient to effect the purpose I had in view; for there is a spirit of independency about Hubert, an acuteness of sensibility which speedily takes alarm, and he soon ceased to appear where the wonted cordiality, however slightly diminished, had failed to greet him. Indeed, with the exception of the casual view which I think I had of him but just now in the plantation, and which has, I

confess, greatly surprised me, I know not that I have seen him for more than a twelvemonth.

“I must further own, that in thus discharging what I thought an indispensable duty to my family, I have not only deprived myself of the society of one who was endeared to me by many amiable qualities, and, I fear, at the same time, materially injured the health and spirits of my beloved Helen, but I suspect that I have in a great measure been the cause of driving this unhappy young man from his only home, and, what is worse, of precipitating him, if some late reports be true, into courses which, even if the mystery of his birth could be cleared up to my satisfaction, might prove an insuperable bar to all his hopes and prospects."

"Shakspeare started at the information which the latter part of this narrative was calculated to convey, and after a pause of some moments, in which he seemed absorbed in thought, he at length said: “I can truly feel for your situation as a parent, Master Montchensey; but, nevertheless, I must say, that I think the fate of Hubert Gray is greatly to be pitied; for his was, I apprehend, the silent homage of the heart,

you

and considering the history and character which have yourself given of the youth, how could it but be answered! I am, indeed, to a degree which surprises even myself, interested about the destiny of this young man; he is one, I think, after my own heart, and it shall go hard but I will fathom the bottom of a mystery which seems, in more directions than one, to threaten very undeservedly the extinction of his happiness, and, perchance, of his life; trusting, that should I find his birth what you cannot disapprove, you will not suffer any irregularity into which he may have been lately drawn, and which may probably, indeed, be considered as in some part the result of your own measures, to stand in his way."

"Be it so, my friend," replied Montchensey, " and I cannot but add, that in accomplishing your kind purpose, you will take from my heart one of the many burthens which press heavily upon it. But why should I thus entangle you in my domestic sorrows, why suffer the clouds which darken my own days, to spread their influence over all who approach me? Let me then, I pray you, turn your attention to another