or telling
you that I cannot, will not, abandon every hope of seeing him again.
If you knew the pictures of happiness I sometimes draw, in which you
and he are the chief actors, I am sure they would please instead of
paining you. I sometimes fancy him returned; I go through in
imagination your marriage; I feel a real delight in fancying myself
placing your hand in his at the altar; I'--- Here the speaker was
interrupted. Her companion, clasping her suddenly for support, had,
overcome with emotion, fainted in her arms!

From that day Mrs Hardman forbore all allusion to her lost son.

That summer went by, and grief had made such inroads on Mrs Hardman's
mind, that her health gradually declined. Catherine also was weaker
than she had ever been for a continuance previous to her last
illness. Besides the disfigurement the disease had made in her
countenance, grief had paled her complexion and hollowed her cheek.
Yet she kept up her spirits, and was a source of unfailing
consolation to Mrs Hardman, who gradually weaned her from her
father's house to live entirely at Coote-down, where Dodbury also
spent every hour he could spare from business. He had recovered all
his lost influence in the family affairs, and was able, by his good
management, to avert from the estate the embarrassments with which
his fair client's former extravagances had threatened it. Mrs Hardman
was now gradually becoming a rich woman.

Ere the winter arrived, she expressed a wish to pay a visit to her
late father's attorney, who lived at Barnstable. Dodbury offered to
accompany her; but she declined this civility. She wished to go
alone. There was something mysterious in this journey. 'What could
its object be?' asked the lawyer of his daughter.' Surely, if Mrs
Hardman require any legal business to be transacted, I am the proper
person to accomplish it.' Catherine was equally ignorant, and the
mistress of Coote-down was evidently not inclined to enlighten her.

The journey was commenced. 'I shall return in a fortnight,' said Mrs
Hardman. 'Should anything occur requiring my presence earlier, pray
ride or send off for me.' These were her parting words. They did not
surprise Catherine, for well she knew that an irrepressible
presentiment kept possession of the mother's mind that the lost son
would one day return. There was not a morning that she rose from her
pillow, but the expectation of seeing her son before sunset existed
in her mind.

Mrs Hardman