not I-an I can make no sport I'se spoil none-and Squoire Mervyn's as cross as poy-crust too, mon-he's aye maundering an my guests but land beneath his house, though it be marked for the fourth station in the Survey. Noa, noa, e'en let un smell things out o' themselves for Joe Hod ges,'

"You will allow there was nothing for it after this, but paying honest Joe Hodges' bill, and departing, unless I had preferred making him my confidant, for which I felt in no shape inclined. Besides, I learned that our ci-devant colonel was on full retreat for Scotland, carrying off poor Julia along with him. I understand from those who conduct the heavy baggage, that he takes his winter quarters at a place called Woodbourne, in shire in Scotland. He will be all on the alert just now, so I must let him enter his entrenchments without any new alarm. And then, my good colonel, to whom I owe so many grateful thanks, pray look to your defence.

+

I protest to you, Delaserre, I often think there is a little contradiction enters into the ardour of my pursuit. I think I would rather bring this haughty insulting man to the necessity of calling his daughter Mrs Brown, than I would wed her with his full consent, and with the king's per mission to change my name for the stile and arms of Mannering, though his whole fortune went with them. There is only one circumstance that chills me a littleJulia is young and romantic. I would not willingly hurry her into a step which her riper years might disapprove-no ;-nor would I like to have her upbraid me, were it but with a glance of her eye, with having ruined her fortunes-far less give her reason to say, as some have not been slow to tell their lords, that, had I left her time for consideration, she would have been wiser and done better. No, Delaserre-this must not be. The picture presses close upon me, because I am aware a girl in Julia's situation has no distinct and precise idea

of the value of the sacrifice she makes. She knows difficulties only by name, and if she thinks of love and a farm, it is a ferme ornée, such as is only to be found in poetic description, or in the park of a gentleman of twelve thousand a-year. She would be ill prepared for the privations of that real Swiss cottage we have so often talked of, and for the difficulties which must ne cessarily surround us even before we at tained that haven. This must be a point clearly ascertained. Although Julia's beau ty and playful tenderness have made an impression on my heart never to be era sed, I will be satisfied that she perfectly understands the advantages she foregoes, before she sacrifices them for my sake.

"Am I too proud, Delaserre, when I trust that even this trial may terminate favourably to my wishes ?-Am I too vain when I suppose, that the few personal qua lities which I possess, with means of competence however moderate, and the deter mination of consecrating my life to her

happiness, may make amends for all I must call upon her to forego? Or will a difference of dress, of attendance, of stile, as it is called, of the power of shifting at pleasure the scenes in which she seeks amusement, will these outweigh, in her estimation, the prospect of domestic hap piness, and the interchange of unabating affection? I say nothing of her father;— his good and evil qualities are so strangely mingled, that the former are neutralized by the latter, and that which she must regret as a daughter is so much blended with what she would gladly escape from, that I place the separation of the father and child as a circumstance which weighs little in her remarkable case. Meantime I keep up my spirits as I may. I have incurred too many hardships and difficulties to be presumptuous or confident in success, and I have been too often, and too wonderfully extricated from them to be despondent.

4

"I wish you saw this country. I think the scenery would delight you. At least

it often brings to my recollection your glowing descriptions of your native country. To me in a great measure it has the charm of novelty. Of the Scottish hills, though born among them, as I have al ways been assured, I have but an indistinct recollection. Indeed my memory rather dwells upon the blank which my youthful mind experienced in gazing on the levels of the isle of Zealand than on any thing which preceded that feeling. But I am confident, from that sensation, as well as from the recollections which prece ded it, that hills and rocks have been familiar to me at an early period, and that though now only remembered by contrast, and by the blank which I felt while gazing around for them in vain, they must have made an indelible impression on my infant imagination. I remember when we first mounted that celebrated pass in the Mysore country, while most of the others felt only awe and astonishment at the height and grandeur of the scenery, I rather shared your feelings and those of Cameron, whose