46 TURNS OFs FORTUNE.

haven’t you one to leave me for the curate %”
she inquired. ‘Deary me! but I’m sure for
every once the old gentleman came when Miss
Bond was so bad, the curate came three times ;
and no letter for him! deary, oh, deary me !”

‘¢ Why did you not put me in mind to write
to Mr. Lycight, Mabel?” inquired her aunt,
after the gate, upon which the poor woman
leaned, had closed.

Mabel made no reply; but Sarah felt the
hand she held tightly within hers tremble and
throb. How did she then remember the days
of her own youth, as she thought, “Oh! in
mercy she might have escaped from what only
so causes the pulses to beat or the hand to
tremble!’ Neither spoke; but Sarah had
turned over the great page of Mabel’s heart,
while Mabel did not confess, even to herself,
that Mr. Lycight’s words, however slight, were
more deeply cherished than Mr. Goulding’s pre-
cepts. ‘They hada long walk to take that
night, and both wept at first; but however sad and
oppressed the mind and spirits may be, there is a
soothing and balmy influence .in nature that
lulls, if it does not dispel, sorrow ; every breeze
was perfumed. As they passed the hedges,
there was a rustling and murmuring of birds
amongst the leaves; and Mabel could not for-
bear an exclamation of delight when she saw a
narrow river, now half-shadowed, then bright
in the moonbeams, bounding in one place like