ain--now that His purpose may be served by my contrition--select that
of the destroyer of my child. But there is another that must be taken
from these haunts;" and, turning to Alice, whose face was still
directed to the fire, she gazed on her hapless daughter, while the tear
stole down her cheeks.

Wallace's eye was fixed on the couple. He seemed to understand the
allusion of the mother, which indicated plainly enough, that though the
hills and glens of Whitecraigs had been the scene of the ruin of her
daughter's peace, she anticipated still more fatal consequences from
taking her away from them. Meanwhile, Alice, who had listened to and
understood all, arose from her seat.

"I will never leave Whitecraigs, mother," she said; and bent her steps
towards the door.

"Let her follow her fancy," said Wallace. Then relapsing into a fit of
musing, he added--"the 29th of September of this year will soon be of
the time that is. For twenty years I have looked forward to that
day--under a burning sun, far from my native land, I have sighed for
it--in the midnight hour I have counted the years and days that were
between. Every anniversary was devoted to the God who has chastened the
heart of the sinner; and there was need, when that heart was full of the
thoughts inspired by that day, and penitence came on the wings of
terror. Now it approaches; and I have not miscalculated the benefits it
may pour on other heads than mine."

"Alas!" said the widow, as she cast her eye through the window after her
daughter, "there is no appointed day for the termination of the sorrows
of that poor creature. To the broken-hearted, one day as another,
sunshine or shower, is the same. But what hand shall bear Alice Scott
from Whitecraigs?"

"Perhaps none," replied Wallace, as, taking up the newspaper, he retired
to an inner apartment, where he usually spent the day. Some hours
passed; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Pringle, while passing, took occasion
to call at Homestead, and informed the widow that it would be her duty
to look out for another habitation, as Whitecraigs was to be sold by the
creditor, Mr. Colville, whose object in granting the loan was, if
possible, to take advantage of the difficulties into which extravagance
had plunged the young proprietor, and to bring the property into the
market, that he might purchase it as an appanage of the old estate of
Haughton, from which it had been disjoined. He represented it as a cruel
proceeding,