"I sit not at your board, nor sleep under your roof again, sir," said he, in a calm, respectful tone, "till I am requested to do it, as an equal to yourself, your nephew, and the gentleman now your guest."

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Warland, you are my guest," interrupted Delaval, hastily.

"I was never deficient in the duties of hospitality," said Mr. Alston, "and I invite you, as the guest of my nephew, to take your accustomed seat; by so doing, I hope I neutralize the effect of any remarks that may have offended your pride."

With a stiff bow, he crossed the threshold, and Marcus, biting his lip and smoothing his brow, took the arm of Delaval and went to the supper-table. He there conversed with his usual ease with Mrs. Lewis, Delaval, and Florence, but he ate nothing; and when the supper was concluded, he took Delaval apart.

"We must leave to-morrow," said he, "at least, I must. Your uncle does not look upon me as he did before, and the presence of this young man is intolerable

to me."

"Not more so to you than to me," cried Delaval. "He is an upstart, a proud, ignorant, thick-headed coxcomb, who has fixed his presumptuous eyes upon Florence, caring for nothing but her wealth. He thought the proud heiress would look upon you with disdain, after the knowledge he imparted. He aspire to such a girl as Florence! When a frog catches the star that shines upon the pond, then Florence will look down on him. Never mind my uncle, Warland; he can't unbend, his back

is too stiff. He never lost his perpendicularity in his life. Besides, I am the real master here; he is only the guardian, and invested with delegated rights."

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Nevertheless, we had better start in the morning. It is best that we should. A few days more will make but little dif ference to you, and it may be of great consequence to me."

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'Well, I am ready. I dare say you are right. But I do wish that blockhead

Pellam had stayed away."

They made their arrangements immediately. They were to start very early in the morning, before the family rose, and bade their adieus before retiring for the night. Florence, who would not sit down with Pellam, had taken a light and withdrawn to the library, while Delaval and Marcus were making their hasty preparations. There the young men followed her. 'Florence," said Delaval, " we have come to bid you good-bye; we start in the morning, at day-break."

"I thought so," said she, with an agitated voice. "You cannot wish to remain while that intruding guest is here." She added this with an expression of the most sovereign contempt.

"We leave him to your tender mercies," said Delaval, "assured that you will not forget what is due to the dignity of your station, as our sapient uncle so often remarks."

Marcus, when he was last in that library, had spoken freely and boldly to Florence of the strong sympathy that drew them to each other; now, he was resolved to make himself a name and fame before he addressed the young heiress in the language of love. The time which would elapse before they again met would prove their minds and hearts. He felt confidence in himself, confidence in her, but his eyes alone betrayed the emotions he felt.

"You will write often, George," said she, when the parting moment "You will both write; will you not?"

came.

"I waited only for your permission," replied Marcus. "But may I not address you as L'Eclair, when I write? No other name will seem appropriate as a corre spondent."

"Write as the spirit prompts," said Florence, with a brilliant blush. "I believe in impulses, after all."

Marcus felt his stoical resolutions melting away. It was evident that Florence wished to convince him that malice had not shaken the hold he had on her esteem. Never had she spoken so feelingly, so confidingly.

"I don't like long good-byes," cried Delaval, "so God bless you, sweet sis, and watch over you, till I see you again." Florence wept, as he clasped her in a warm, fraternal embrace, and clung to him in her unwillingness to let him go. He was her only brother, and two years of absence was a long, long time, and perhaps other regrets which she dared not avow gave intensity to her emotions. It was strange to see tears flowing from the sunbright eyes of Florence, and Delaval wiped the moisture from his own several times.

"Why, my brave sister," he cried, releasing himself from her arms, "this will never do. Reserve one kiss and one tear for Marcus, your other, better brother."

Thus authorised, Marcus kissed the crimson cheek that rested a moment on his shoulder. It was the first time his lips had given, or her cheek received the kiss of love, and it was love, the first, the only love that had ever warmed their young hearts.

leaf and a crisping blade, there everything was glowing with the effulgence of vernal bloom.

Judge Cleveland, who presided over the law school which the young men entered, had been a classmate of Mr. Bellamy, who was educated at a northern university. The friendship formed between the students had outlived the chilling influences of time, separation, and opposing political interests. It was this which had induced Mr. Bellamy to send his adopted son to the town where he dwelt, one of the most beautiful and flourishing of the minor cities of the Eastern States.

It must be acknowledged, that notwithstanding the warm encomiums Mr. Bellamy had given the character of Judge Cleveland, the young southerners were imbued with some of the peculiar prejudices of the region where they were born, against northern coldness and reserve. They expected to find the hearts of the people covered with a cake of ice, clear and pure, but cold, inevitably cold, and though after a while it might break or melt, still the atmosphere around them must remain chilling and repulsive. They expected to meet with strong and majestic intellects, unrivalled powers of ratiocination, and concentration of thought intense as the solar rays. But they did not expect the urbanity, the warmth, the genial kindness with which Judge Cleveland met them at the door of his rural palace, nor the frank and sunny welcome of his charming wife. They were to become members of the family, and they were domiciliated at once, and invested with all the privileges of home. It was indeed fortunate for them that their lines had fallen in such a place. Judge Cleveland kind, not to the limited portion that surwas one of those men who belong to manAs the traveller, wherever he may be, amid northern snows southern blossoms, when he turns his eyes upon the illimitable firmament, seems himself the central point of the universe, so does such a man appear to those who feel his influence. No matter what position he assumes, he is still the central point towards which the social rays converge. He was a patriot, a philanthropist, and much did he mourn over the divided interests of the two beautiful and flourish

rounded him.

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ing regions of the common country. Could he, like the Roman Curtius, have closed the widening chasm by throwing his own life into the abyss, and seen with his dying eyes the yawning edges meeting over his crushed and mangled limbs, he would gladly have done it, so dear to his heart was the union which the blood of his fathers had cemented, and the spirit of Washington for ever hallowed. All that he could he did, to stem the misguided zeal, that, espousing the cause of one portion of the human race, would place the torch in the hands of the incendiary, and the knife in the grasp of the assassin, and roll on a wave of blood and flame over a fair and smiling land.

Instantaneously did the judge win the confidence of the warm-hearted young men who were placed under his charge. There was a mixture of majesty and mildness, of gentleness and firmness in his appearance and manner, that was singularly pleasing. If he spoke in the circle of home with the sweetness of woman's accents, one felt that he could launch the thunderbolt of eloquence, at the legal tribunal. If his large gray eye beamed with benevolence and tenderness on the domestic shrine, still there was a latent spark, in its centre ready to flash and burn into the very heart of the criminal arraigned before his bar.

They were fortunate, too, in the location they had chosen for their transient home in the North. There was no fairer lovelier spot, among the fair, green fields of New England. Mountains, whose empurpled mist rolled like a royal drapery round them, over which the clouds cast their ermine mantle and the sunbeams a golden fringe, guarded, with God-born strength, the sweet, luxuriant valley at their feet. A magnificent river, the pride and glory of the Granite State, formed its eastern boundary, and gladdened and fertilized with its clear, deep, rejoicing waters, the tranquil landscape through which it flowed. Nature seemed clothed with the freshness and vigour of eternal spring. It was impossible to believe those fields of living, dazzling green would ere long be covered with a cold, white winding-sheet of snow; those blue, bright-flowing waters bound with fetters of ice, and hard and unyielding as flint.

But it was even so; and notwithstanding the bleakness of the scenery and the in tense cold of the atmosphere, our young southerners enjoyed, with a keen zest, th exhilarating pleasures of a northern winter. Perhaps a few extracts from their letters to their southern friends would give their impressions in a more vivid manner than any narrative could do.

"On my word, Florence," thus wrote Delaval to his sister, in the midst of snow, and ice, and frost; " on my word, I wish you were here. This is the very region for one of your free, glad, brave spirit. I thought I should be shrunk into the dimensions of a cubic inch, congealed into an impenetrable cake of ice; but never did I feel a more extended sense of vitality, a fuller consciousness of jubilant existence. I feel as if I could wrestle with the snow-spirit, and mock its merriest gambols. If you only knew the rapture of a moonlight sleigh-ride! Last night Mareus and myself joined a party, that went out about seven or eight miles from here to a dance. We were all in double sleighs, six in each, pretty closely packed together in buffalo skins; and if you had seen the bright-eyed, rosycheeked maiden who sat next to Marcus, to say nothing of the one at my right hand, I fear a pang of jealousy would have shot through your bosom. I tell you, bright heiress of Wood Lawn, the stars themselves don't shine more brilliantly, or wink inore mischievously, than the eyes of these northern damsels during these moonlight rides through drifting snow, and the music of the bells that ring multitudinously on the necks of the, spirited horses is not more inspiring than their joyous merriment. If it were not for a certain pair of down dropping, silkshaded, love-diffusing, violet eyes at the South, that have irretrievably stolen away my heart, I should certainly be captivated by some of these high-spirited, wholesouled, warm-hearted daughters of New England. I see winter here is the season of hilarity and amusement. There has been a constant succession of parties lately, mostly, I believe, in honour of your humble servants. Warland is the lion of the season. The extraordinary attraction he carries about him, that captivated at one glance a certain little wild, dark

girl of my acquaintance, that riveted me, when I first beheld him on the recitation bench, dismal place as it was, draws magnetically towards him, man, woman, and child. I find my lesser lustre completely merged in his superior brightness. I will give you an instance. The other night we attended a gathering at the hospitable mansion of Judge Carlton. I shall never more prate of hospitality as if it were the peculiar, the exclusive grace of the South. Never have I seen it more cordially, nobly exercised than in this land of snow. Perhaps you will say they think we are the sons of rich southern nabobs, and court our wealth and alliance. No such thing. There is less of the aristocracy of wealth here than at any place I ever saw. The only sovereignty admitted is that of mind. And Judge Cleveland really reigns on a throne, whose foundations are everlasting as the hills,-yea, far more so; for the perpetual hills, will bow, and the elements melt with fervent heat; but the mind of man shares the eternity of the Being from whom it emanates. That they should make an excitement about Warland is not surprising; but for me, if I were made of gold and studded with diamonds, they could not cherish me more kindly. But in his presence, as I said before, my fine gold is all dim. I have lost the thread of my story. The other night at Judge Carlton's, when we entered the room, the walls were all lined with living blossoms, blooming as gaily as if it were all summer abroad. We sought the lady of the house, to pay our respects, as in duty bound we ought. Of course, the eyes of the lady were fixed on the splendid face and form of Warland, and beheld only his graceful bow, though I am sure I put my best foot foremost on the occasion. After a while she asked Warland, in a very sweet voice, How is your friend, Mr. Delaval? I hope he is not indisposed, that he did not accompany you-and there I was, right at his elbow, looking steadily at her with my big black eyes. I was but a mote in the sunbeams-a little, twinkling planet, lost in the effulgence of day. When we moved round among the living blossoms, the sweet wall-flowers, that fluttered, as we approached, like roses at the coming of the zephyrs, it was to him the fair heads inclined, towards him

the ringlets bowed. Perhaps here and there some very polite damsel would inquire, Why Mr. Delaval did not come?' while I was looking at her unutterable things. To tell the truth, so dearly do I love him, so ardently do I admire him, and so truly do I honour him, that I should think meanly of her or him, who did not forget me in his presence, unless it might be a sister of his,' perchance. I would be willing to make her an exception.

"You ought to hear him when defending the rights of the South. You must not think, because I speak of moonlight rides and gay soirées, that we court amusement at the expense of study. We are the hardest students in the institution. I am obliged to study harder than Warland. He seems to take in every thing, no matter how difficult or abstruse it may be, by a kind of intuition. Instead of being obliged to toil up the rugged steeps of knowledge step by step, he really has found a royal way. His spirit is plumed with the pinions of the eagle, and bears him up toward the goal for which we are panting below.

"About a week ago Judge Cleveland gave a dinner to his students, and invited the principal gentlemen of the place to meet us. When Mrs. Cleveland, who presided with true southern grace and hospitality, had retired, the conversation gradually assumed a political turn. There was one gentleman present whose prejudices against the South are very bitter, and for whose opinions I have very little respect. Yet he has reputed intellect, and a high standing in society. I saw him in earnest conversation with Marcus. One by one, those who were conversing with others left their companions and drew near the cynosure. I was anxious to become a listener myself, for I saw that he was excited by the dark spot in his eyes and the slight quiver of his lips, a peculiarity of his which gives great depth of expression to his countenance when speaking. I know not what had been previously said, but the first words I caught were these, evidently in answer to something advanced by his antagonist:

"I do not pretend to justify those who first rolled this shadow on our land. My conscience would not permit me to

do it. The evil as it now exists is too widely extended, too deeply rooted, to admit of the remedy you propose. You may eradicate the weeds from your garden, the tares from your wheat, but this is like the fibrous grass, so interwoven into the soil it binds together that you cannot tear it up, without destroying the earth where it grows.'

"Better let it be destroyed at once,' said his opponent, than have it kept together by such an unholy cement.'

"Time, the great rectifier of all human ills,' replied Marcus, with graceful gravity, can alone accomplish the work. Every rash and hasty effort will only make the operation more difficult and protracted. He who is actuated by philanthropy and a sincere desire to ameliorate the condition of slaves, will only deprive them of the blessings they already enjoy, and retard the period of their emancipation. Should a servile war be the consequence their ruin would be inevitable, as well as the destruction of thousands of lovely and innocent beings, whose claims to humanity seem forgotten in a wild and burning zeal.'

666 Those who live on the edge of a crater,' replied the gentleman, must expect to be destroyed by the volcanic power that ejects the boiling lava. But such a state of existence would not be life to me. It would be living death. I could neither eat nor sleep with the groans of these unhappy creatures ringing in my ears; with their tears moistening the bread their shackled hands were preparing for my lips. I should expect every mouthful would choke me. should expect my dreams would be haunted by the spectres of accusing con

science.'

"I am very young,' said Warland, looking earnestly at the group now gathered around him, and my words may have less weight on that account; but, nevertheless, hope their truth will be their passport. Young as I am, I have been on many broad plantations, and witnessed the discipline of hundreds and hundreds of slaves. I have seen them in the household, I have seen them in the field, and seldom while engaged in their labours have I heard one groan of anguish, or witnessed one tear of sor

1

row. They sing and jest over their tasks, and wear far happier and more smiling faces than the hired servants employed to perform your daily work. They are not taxed beyond their strength and endurance. Self-interest alone, if no higher, better motive, would induce the planter to husband the strength that is to till his soil and gather in its wealth. That there are instances where the master abuses his power, and the African feels the heavy weight of bondage, I do not doubt; for where is the social or political institution which tyranny has not abused and power perverted? The taskmaster of your factories often oppresses the pale operative that toils over the loom, and the master of a household sometimes rules with an iron rod. I only contend for the general law of kindness and humanity.'

"Still, you must acknowledge,' continued the gentleman, that the only bond existing between the enslaver and the slave must be exerted power on one side and enforced obedience on the other?'

"No, sir," exclaimed Warland, with a heightening colour, and his fine voice swelling like a rich, deep-toned instrument. I acknowledge no such thing. There is the bond of affection, of grati tude, tenderness, and esteem. The dark background of slavery exhibits some of the most beautiful and touching traits of the southern character, and into that dark ground itself are wrought some of the brightest and softest colours that adorn the landscape of life. Allow me to speak of my own experience. In very early years, myself and infant sister were deprived of a mother's care, and peculiar circumstances threw us on the kindness and fidelity of a negro nurse. With all a mother's self-sacrificing tenderness she watched over and cherished us, and with true filial and devoted love have we repaid her maternal cares. The fair hands of my adopted mother, the mistress of more than a hundred slaves, are now scarred by the flames, into which she plunged them to save the life of a poor mulatto girl whom she tenderly loved.' This is only one of the many instances of generous self-devotion to the welfare and happiness of others displayed by this admirable woman.

(Continued at page 211.)