nd how do you think I replied, mamma? I
said to her, 'If you would avoid misery--misery, mark--never violate
truth even indirectly.' I said that solemnly, and would have said more
but that Agnes rebuked her for speaking, and then wept. Did you not
weep, Agnes?"

"Oh no wonder I should," replied her sister, deeply moved; "the
interview she alludes to, doctor, was one that occurred the day before
yesterday between her and another poor girl in the neighborhood who
is also unsettled, owing to a desertion of a still baser kind. It was
becoming too affecting to listen to, and I chid the poor thing off."

"Yes, indeed, she chid her off, and the poor thing as she told me, about
to be a bride to-morrow. She said she was in quest of William that they
might be married, and asked me if I had seen him. If you do, she added,
tell him that Fanny is waiting for him, and that as everything is ready
she expects he'll come and marry her to-morrow as he promised. Now,
mamma, Agnes said, that although she chid her, she wept for her, but
why should you weep, Agnes, for a girl who is about to become a bride
to-morrow? Surely you did not weep because she was going to be made
happy? Did you?"

"All who are going to become brides are not about to experience
happiness, my dear," replied her sister.

"Oh, I should think so certainly, Agnes," replied Jane. "Fie, fie, dear
sister Agnes, do not lay down such doctrine. Did you not see the happy
girl we met yesterday--was it yesterday? But no matter, Agnes, we shall
not quarrel about it. Come and walk. Good-by, my mamma; doctor, I wish
you a good morning," and with a grace that was inimitable, she made him
a distant, but most respectful curtsey.

"Oh!" said she, turning back, "if any stranger should arrive during my
absence, mamma, send for me immediately; or stay do not--let him meet me
at the place appointed; I will be there."

She then took Agnes's arm, for Agnes it was who attended her in all her
ramblings, and both proceeded on their every-day saunter through the
adjoining fields.

A little time, indeed, proved how very accurate had been the opinion of
Dr. M'Cormick; for although Jane was affected by no particular bodily
complaint, yet it appeared by every day's observation that she was
gradually sinking. In the meantime, three or four months elapsed without
bringing about any symptom whatsoever of improvement. Her derangement
flashed out into no extraordinary paroxysm, but on the contrary