that she had fallen innocently, I might weep for her-yea, I must weep for her, but not these bitter hopeless tears." Ellen entreated her to mitigate her grief, at least till she had more certain knowledge of the motives of Emily's departure. Susan evidently felt humbled to find herself the subject of the compassionate efforts of even the loveliest of the world's people; but she yielded insensibly to Ellen's beneficent influence, and even admitted that there was some consolation in her rational suggestions. Deborah had tact enough to perceive this was too delicate a case for her handling-quite out of her province, and beyond her skill; and therefore she had remained silent till she perceived that the elder sister was tranquilized, and that Ellen had expended all her consolatory arguments; she then, like a prudent officer, thought it best to retreat before another occasion for action should discover that their strength was exhausted, and she abruptly proposed their departure. Ellen, grieved to think they had no reason for delay, assented; and Susan, who at another time would have insisted on performing the rites of hospitality to friends that she both valued and loved, silently acquiesced, probably deeming it prudent in the present state of her feelings to exclude every exciting cause. This caution would seem incompatible with strong emotion; but it must be reVOL. II. 10 membered that caution was habitual to the elder sister was virtue in her estimation-and was essential to the preservation of her influence with the society, and had yielded for a short time only to the mastery of those powerful affections over which it had held a long and secure dominion. Such an exhibition of her feelings as that into which she had been surprised by the sudden appearance of Emily's friends would, she well knew, in the view of her brethren and sisters, degrade her to a level far below the frozen summits where they remained secure, regarding with equal contempt the earthly influences that bless and fertilize, or ravage and destroy. Before parting, she promised to despatch a messenger to Lebanon springs (whither Deborah informed her that she and Ellen were going, and should remain for a few days,) with any intelligence that she might receive of the fugitives: she then summoned one of the sisters, and having requested her to provide some refreshments for her friends, she bade them farewell with her usual composure, save a little faltering of the voice, and trembling of the lip. The travellers were then conducted to a small parlour, where a table was quickly spread for their entertainment. It was covered with a cloth of the purest white by one of the sisters, who lingered in adjusting it, smoothing down the folds, pulling it first on one side, and then on the other till this artifice of her innocent vanity had succeeded, and Deborah's liberal praises were bestowed on the delicate manufacture which had employed the skill and taste of the sisterhood. All the varieties of the staff of life' were now displayed bread made of the 'finest of the wheat, interspersed with slices produced from the native indian corn, which, in its prepared state, deserves still to retain the poetical epithet of golden; next to this plate, groaning with its burden, were placed some tempting slices of the sad-coloured rye these gifts of Ceres were so perfect in their kind, that the delicate goddess herself might have banqueted on them: then came the delicious butter and the purest honey-the fruits in season, and pies, cakes, and sweetmeats-accompanied (it may be thought somewhat incongruously,) by cheese, pickles, and cider: and to crown all, the aromatic tea-pot, diffusing like the censer at the ancient feasts, its fragrant fumes over all the board-with such incitement, what mortal with mortal senses, would have contemned the fare? If the truth must be told, the spirituelle Ellen Bruce, after her long abstinence, did not regard this repast with the indifference of a true heroine, and Deborah played her part as well as one of Homer's heroes might have done, had he had the good fortune to sit at a shaking quaker teatable. She was yielding to the hospitable solicitations of the sister in attendance, and taking her fifth cup of tea, when Ellen reminded her a second time that the sun was fast declining, and that without despatch, they should be overtaken by the night before they reached Lebanon. Deborah's appetite submitted to the necessity of the case, and our travellers, after thanking their kind entertainer, took leave of her, and left the village, as many other travellers have done, with a grateful sense of the unpretending hospitality of its simple inhabitants. 113 CHAPTER XIX. Say from whence you owe this strange intelligence, Macbeth. ELLEN'S mind had been so filled with comaniseration for Susan, she was so much more in the habit of attending to others' feelings than her own, that until she had turned her back upon the shaker village, she did not feel the full weight of her own disappointment in regard to Emily. The thought of old Mrs. Allen's grief, and the most gloomy apprehensions in relation to the poor girl's destiny, engrossed her attention, and prevented her heeding Deborah's profound remarks on the "pattern people," as she termed them. We would not insinuate that Deborah herself was unmoved by Emily's sorrowful case : she would have gone to the ends of the earth to have served her, or any other fellow-creature in distress, but it was an inviolable principle with her 'never to cry for spilt milk.' After expressing some conjectures as to the uncertain fate of the poor girl-bewailing alternately her folly and her misfortunes, and anticipating with compassion the |