sketched a design of the whole so beautiful, that the Countess was in ecstasies.

Mrs St Clair witnessed all this with very dif ferent feelings; but she saw the ascendancy Colonel Delmour had gained over her daughter was absolute, and she feared to come to extremities with either of them, lest it should prove the means of throwing her more completely into his power, and he might prevail upon her to unite herself to him, notwithstanding her promise to the contrary. She had remonstrated with both on the impropriety of Colonel Delmour continuing to reside at Rossville in the present situation of the family; but her words produced no effect, till, at length, finding she could not dislodge him, she formed the resolution of taking Lady Rossville to London, as the best means of detaching her, in some degree, from him. She thought of Lyndsay's words too, "Let her see others no less gifted than he is,”—and she thought it was not impossible that a change might be wrought in Gertrude's sentiments; at least, there was more likelihood of its being effected amidst the novelty and variety of the metropolis, than in the romantic seclusion of Rossville.

This resolution caused infinite chagrin to the lovers. To Gertrude's young enthusiastic heart, all happiness seemed centred in the spot which contained herself and the idol of her affections; and although the mere inanimate objects of nature, woods, rocks, water, are in themselves nothing, yet, combined with the associations of fancy and memory, they acquire a powerful hold upon our hearts. Every step to her was fraught with fond ideas; for it was at Rossville her feelings had been most powerfully excited, whether to joy or sadness, and Rossville, its trees, its banks, its flowers, seemed all entwined with her very existence. It is thus, when the heart is exclusively occupied with one object, it clings with fond tenacity to every circumstance connected with it.

"Ah, mama," said she, with a sigh, "how sad to think of leaving Rossville, when it is just beginning to burst forth in all its beauty; and to immure ourselves amidst the stone, and lime, and smoke, and dust of London: do only look at these almond trees and poplars."

But Mrs St Clair put it on the footing of her health, which required change of air and scene,

and a consultation of the London Faculty; and her daughter could say no more.

Colonel Delmour shared in her regrets; but his arose from a different cause: his heart was too worldly and sophisticated to participate in those pure and simple pleasures, which imparted such delight to hers. But he was aware of the admiration Gertrude would excite when she made her appearance in London; and he was unwilling that she should be seen there until she should be introduced as his wife. He thought too well of himself and her, to dread any rival in her af fections; but still the gay world was very unfavourable to the growth of sentiment; there was a multiplicity of objects—a diversity of amusements—a glare—a glitter and bustle, that could not fail to distract her attention, and weaken the strength of that exclusive attachment she now cherished for him; and, selfish and engrossing as he was, he felt the charm would be diminished, were the devotion lessened.

But, in his murmurs and repinings, Gertrude heard only the same tender regrets which filled her own heart even to overflowing, and she loved him the more, for this sympathy in her feelings.

The day before that on which they were to set off, was the Countess's birth-day, but she would not have it observed.

"This day two years, it shall be celebrated gaily, nobly, if you will,” said she.

"And must this one pass away, like other vulgar hours," said Delmour, "unmarked by aught to distinguish it from common days, without a single memorial to mark it? Poor that I am, I have not even the most trifling memento to lay at your feet."

"I will not tax you so unmercifully, as did the ladies of old their lovers," said the Countess, with a smile; "I want neither a dragon's scale nor a hydra's head, nor even a glass of singingwater, nor a branch of a talking-tree; but you shall bring me, from the green-house, a rose unique, and that shall be my only gaud to-day."

Colonel Delmour brought the rose. Lady Rossville drew from her finger a rare and costly. gem, which had belonged to the late Earl.

"Such tokens are but mere vulgar and oft-repeated emblems of an old story," said she smiling," from Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, down to the milkmaid and her rush

ring;' but it will mark the day, will it not? and if you should turn rebel, or I tyrant, you must choose some more faithful messenger than poor Essex did; and that's all the moral of my tale."

"Woe to the hand that shall ever seek to wear this while I live!" exclaimed Delmour, as he pressed it to his lip, and then placed it on his finger.

Lady Rossville's sole ornament when she appeared at dinner was the rose unique; but the heat of the room caused it to expand too quickly, and the leaves dropped suddenly away.

66

Happily my nurse could never succeed in making me superstitious," said she, in a low voice, to Colonel Delmour, " else I should have looked on this as some fatal omen."

"The prodigy is," answered he with a smile, "that either the rose unique has suddenly expired of envy at finding itself so eclipsed by the wearer, or that your gardener forces his flowers too much."

"I fear the latter is the true cause," answered the Countess laughing, "and it is my own fault, for I never have the patience to wait the gradual