Company's military service as he verged on his twenty-fifth year. But Helen and he parted not before vows had been exchanged, solemn as vows can be that are not sanctioned by human institutions; and in one heart at least, the record never was effaced.

As years had waned, so successive changes had dimmed Helen's prospects, as those of her lover had brightened. One by one her relatives sank into the slumber of death; and amongst the few who remained, she dwelt on a scanty competence. With Mordaunt, the case had been reversed. He had made for himself many influential friends, who had essentially served him. His promotion in his regiment had been fortunately rapid, and he had been also appointed to one of those offices which sometimes render an Indian career delightful. To do him justice, his first desire was, that Helen should share his prosperity and his advancement. And if sometimes the consciousness that her beauty and sweetness would not, to say the least, mar the brightness of his course, mingled with the purer elements of his

feeling, let the earthiness of our nature be remembered, and this alloy forgiven.

To Helen, therefore, he wrote a passionate request that she would venture to this distant land for his sake, and find her reward in the devotedness of his love, the engrossing of his entire heart. Helen's few remaining friends still opposed the union, but she awakened from the torpid melancholy into which frequent sorrows had plunged her, bounded once more to hope and joy, and resolved on rejoining the lover of her youth.

And Mordaunt, alas! he had recently awakened to the conviction that a higher prize was in his grasp if he extended his hand to receive it ;—that he might ally himself above his most ambitious hopes;- become the envy of his rivals and the superior of his equals;and-Helen was at hand!—was it possible this conviction could touch one chord of his bosom that vibrated with other than rapturous delight? Mordaunt indulged a secret sigh that the possible brightness of his fate had not earlier dawned on his mental view, and then resolutely

endeavoured to fix his thoughts on the truth, the tenderness, the loveliness, the vivacity, of his all but wedded Helen.

The ship arrived at length, but it was many days after his early walk on the beach to look out for her arrival, and he was some miles distant from the Presidency, when he received intelligence that Helen was safely lodged in the house of the friend who had volunteered to receive her. The business in which he was engaged, imperatively commanded his longer absence, and he spent the interval in endeavours to shake off the now certain disappointment of the ambitious plans he had for one moment indulged.

The compulsive absence, however, ended, and he hastened, with a heart trembling with a tumult of mingled and conflicting emotions, to the abode of his betrothed. "You will find Miss Manners in very delicate health," said his friend, "and your arrival has agitated her exceedingly. I almost fear that she is not likely to encounter the trials of this climate with impunity."

Mordaunt entered the apartment where Helen, in an anxiety that defies description, awaited his approach. He entered, and one glance rooted him to the spot. "Great Heaven, how you are altered!" were the only words of greeting that welcomed the woman who had forsaken home, friends, and country, for him.

Helen sank again on the seat from which she had risen. The hand that was extended, but not touched, fell cold and powerless by her side. She read with one glance, in his dismayed eye, all of disappointment,-all of astonishment and -displeasure,—that actually struggled within him. That single sentence had sufficed to tell the story of the change of both,—his heart and her person. From that moment the fate of the unfortunate was decided.

It began soon to be rumoured at the Presidency, that matters were not altogether in train for Mordaunt's nuptials,-an event that had been anticipated during many weeks. There were floating reports abroad, that his conduct to his fiancée had been any thing but manly and honourable; and it was quite certain that

the lady who had received Miss Manners, no longer opened her door to him. Comments soon cease to be whispered in a society not likely to tolerate any action so manifestly base; and opinions were loudly and broadly expressed, that Mordaunt owed it to the community to explain the circumstances under which he was acting. Terrified at the probability that this untoward occurrence might ultimately blast his prospects, Mordaunt flew to the highest official authority, and pleaded his own cause skilfully. He declared that he had been willing and eager to fulfil his engagements with Miss Manners, and that from some inexplicable caprice, she had rejected him after undergoing all the fatigue and privation of so long a voyage for the avowed purpose of uniting herself with him. And so he won the ear of a man not much addicted to the practice of separating the false from the true, and never able to resist an appeal that flattered his own desire of superiority.

In a few weeeks Helen Manners lay quietly beneath the simple white monument on which her name was recorded. And And very few months