was greeted; nor had they come back emptyhanded. Their expedition had been most fortunate, and, with honest pride, they displayed their cargoes to their wives, mothers, and daughters, who crowded around them with affectionate solicitude. It was an affecting and beautiful sight to note the smile of tenderness illumining the rugged countenances of these poor men as they walked to their humble homes, linked arm in arm with some dear relative, whose whole happiness was bound up in their safety, and whose whole thoughts were for their comfort.

Oh! the inestimable blessing of female love and attention, which can make, of the dreariest or meanest habitation, a sweet resting-place for the weary minds and bodies of those with whom she is linked!

Jenni had flown to the landing-place, and eagerly inquired for her husband's boat. The man she addressed told her that they had all been separated the night before by a gale of wind, and when the daylight returned, Antonio's bark was missing, but he had no doubt that

The

it would speedily make its appearance. man's words and countenance expressed no anxiety, yet Jenni burst into tears and sobbed violently, then running back along the beach she returned to the spot where stood the cross. Sedley had a small telescope with him, and he followed the poor creature, and offered her the use of it, as she was straining her eyes in the hope of discerning a sail.

She thankfully accepted the glass, and told Sedley that she feared he must think her very silly to be so fearful, but that her extreme anxiety was occasioned by a dream she had had the night before, and which had left an impression on her mind not to be shaken off.

Sedley saw that it would be vain to attempt reasoning with her, as her faith in dreams and omens was too deeply-rooted to be shaken; and she continued alternately praying, and looking through the glass, and wringing her hands, whilst the little girl, who was her sister, seeing Jenni so disturbed, cried without ceasing, at her side.

The evening was advancing, and already the sea was like a sheet of liquid gold from the approaching sunset. Sedley felt that he must think of returning home, and was about to request his glass from the fisherman's wife, when she uttered a loud cry, and, letting the telescope drop from her hands, clasped them together, and threw herself on her knees. Sedley looked out and saw, like a dark speck amid the gorgeous colouring of the horizon, an object which he knew to be a vessel.

A profound silence was now observed by all the party; Sedley watched the vessel with interest, the child ceased crying, and with eyes and mouth wide open, and the tears still standing on her rosy cheeks, gazed in the same direction, and Jenni, with anxiety amounting to agony, kept her eyes fixed on the approaching boat. It came in view-it neared the land-it was a fishing smack, and soon the trembling wife recognised her husband's well-known boat. In a transport of joy she flew to the cross, and

prostrated herself for a moment at its foot, then ran rapidly back to the landing-place.

The boat had arrived in safety, and the fishermen were landing when she reached the spot. A manly handsome youth sprang from the deck at sight of Jenni, and in a moment she was clasped to his breast. Surely the joy of that moment repaid her for all her anxiety.

Sedley watched this little scene with moistened eyes, and having seen the re-united couple walk away together in earnest conversation, he sought his horse and left this quiet village.

The Sedleys remained for some weeks at Genoa, and then accompanied their friends to Como, which was endeared to Sedley by the numerous associations it possessed to him connected with Teresa. They established themselves in the same villa that the St. Johns had occupied, and their friends took the house Lady Sedley had before rented.

The English family who had thus encountered the Sedleys, consisted of a mother with her son

and niece. They were people of large fortune and great consequence, in the same county in Wales where lay Sir Herbert Sedley's estates.

Mrs. Deane was a widow, and one of those excellent and worthy women we dignify by the sobriquet of "motherly;" she had been pretty in her youth, and was still a fine woman. was proud of her son, and her whole happiness centred in his welfare.

She

Edward Deane, her only child, was not strictly handsome, but no one who knew him ever felt the absence of mere regularity of feature. He was rather above the middling height, and his figure was manly and noble; his light hair curled carelessly round his open brow, and his smile expressed the frankness and excellence of his heart. But eyes such as his would have redeemed any face. They were peculiarly beautiful; there was such calmness, and earnestness, and deep contentment in their expression; and when pleased or amused, their clear depths would light up in a manner far more speaking than a mere smile of the lips.