ent to Eton, and the two girls were left to weep and
mourn his absence, or to study a thousand delightful projects to
welcome his return at the holydays.

What happy seasons those were when, released for a time from the
thraldom of college pursuits, Rupert once more sprung in freedom
through the haunts of his childhood; the old walls rung with cheerful
voices, and every dell and dingle echoed to the merry music of their
happy hearts. And then, as each holyday came round, what changes
marked their progress. The two little girls had become graceful,
lovely women, while Rupert from a school-boy had as suddenly shot up
into a tall, elegant young man.

Sir Hugh and his lady saw with pleasure the attachment of the cousins;
they already loved Mildred as their daughter, and it was the nearest
wish of their hearts that in time the affection which now united them
might assume a more enduring form. As the education of Mildred might
now be considered completed, and the object for which she had been
sent to them attained, they grew every day more and more fearful that
Mrs. Donaldson would claim her long absent child. Mildred was too
young when she left Jamaica to have other than a faint recollection of
her mother; she could only remember the beautiful blue eyes which used
to meet hers so fondly, and the long golden ringlets through which, as
she nestled in mamma's lap, she had played bo-peep with an old
gentleman in a high-backed elbow-chair. Then she was so happy at
Norcross Hall that when her heart whispered to her, as it often did,
of her other dear mother in a far-off land, she could not but reproach
herself for not being more impatient for the moment to arrive when she
might again embrace her. But now the time drew near when she must bid
farewell to this cherished spot.

April had smiled farewell in tears, and May with her beauteous buds
and blossoms danced over the green earth. The streams welcomed her
presence with songs of glee, and the forests dressed in fresh beauty
opened their arms to greet her presence. It was yet early morning, and
to the uplifting of the rosy curtain draping the couch of the day-god
the birds were singing a merry prelude, as two young men stole softly
around an angle of the old building, and crept silently under the
shadow of the wall, until they stood beneath the windows of an
apartment whose inmates were probably buried in sleep, as through the
half-closed shutter the curtains appeared still clos