SIXTH EXTRACT.

"I have seen him again, Matilda,—seen him twice. I have used every argument to convince him that this secret intercourse is dangerous to us both-I even pressed him to pursue his views of fortune without farther regard to me, and to consider my peace of mind as sufficiently secured. by the knowledge that he had not fallen under my father's sword. He answersbut how can I detail all he has to answer? he claims those hopes as his due which my mother permitted him to entertain, and would persuade.me to the madness of a union without my father's sanction. But to this, Matilda, I will not be persua ded. I have resisted; I have subdued the rebellious feeling which arose to aid his plea; yet how to extricate myself from this unhappy labyrinth, in which fate and folly have entangled us!

"I have thought upon it, Matilda, till my head is almost giddy-nor can I conceive a better plan than to make a full confession to my father. He deserves it, for his kindness is unceasing; and I think I have observed in his character, since I have studied it more nearly, that his harsher feelings are chiefly excited where he suspects deceit or imposition; and in that respect, perhaps, his character was formerly misunderstood by one who was dear to him. He has, too, a tinge of romance in his disposition; and I have seen the narrative of a generous action, a trait of heroism, or virtuous self-denial, extract tears from him, which refused to flow at a tale of mere distress. But thẹn, Brown urges, that he is personally hostile to him -And the obscurity of his birth-that. would be indeed a stumbling-block.-O Matilda, I hope none of your ancestors ever fought at Poictiers or Agincourt. If it were not for the esteem which my father attaches to the memory of old Sir

Miles Mannering, I should make out my explanation with half the tremor which must now attend it."

SEVENTH EXTRACT.

"I have this instant received your let ter your most welcome letter !-Thanks, my dearest friend, for your sympathy and your counsels-I can only repay them with unbounded confidence.

"You ask me, what Brown is by origin, that his descent should be so unpleasing to my father. His story is shortly told. He is of Scottish extraction, but, being left an orphan, his education was undertaken by a family of relations settled in Holland. He was bred to commerce, and sent very early to one of our settlements in the East, where his guardian had a cor respondent-But this correspondent was dead when he arrived in India, and he had no other resource than to offer himself as

a clerk to a counting-house. The breaking out of the war, and the straits to which we were at first reduced, threw the army open to all young men who were disposed to embrace that mode of life; and Brown, whose genius had a strong military tendency, was the first to leave what might have been the road to wealth, and to chuse that of fame. The rest of his history is well known to you; but conceive the irritation of my father, who despises commerce, (though, by the way, the best part of his property was made in that honourable profession by my great uncle,) and has a particular antipathy to the Dutch; think with what ear he would be likely to receive proposals for his only child from Van-beest Brown, educated for charity by the house of Van-beest and Van-bruggen! O, Matilda, it will never do-nay, so childish am I, I hardly can help sympathizing with his aristocratic feelings.-Mrs Van-beest Brown! The

name has little to recommend it.-What children we are!"

EIGHTH EXTRACT.

"It is all over now, Matilda !-I shall never have courage to tell my fathernay, most deeply do I fear he has already learned my secret from another quarter, which will entirely remove the

of

grace my communication, and ruin whatever gleam of hope I had ventured to connect with it. Yesternight, Brown came as usual, and his flageolet on the lake announced his approach. We had agreed that he should continue to use this signal. These romantic lakes attract numerous visitors, who indulge their enthusiasm in visiting the scenery at all hours; and we hoped, that if Brown were noticed from the house, he might pass for one of those admirers of nature, who gave vent to his feelings