ls you?" cried the invalid. "Reach me the drink."

Elinor mechanically obeyed; but her head was turned the other way, and
her eyes still fixed upon the window. A light flashed along the dark
avenue, now lost, and now again revealed through the trees. The cup fell
from her nerveless grasp, and faintly articulating, "Yes--'tis he!" she
sank senseless across the foot of the bed, as a carriage and four drove
rapidly into the court-yard.

The miser, with difficulty, reached the bell-rope that was suspended
from the bed's head, and, after ringing violently for some minutes, the
unusual summons was answered by the appearance of Ruth, who, thrusting
her brown; curly head in at the door, said, in breathless haste:

"The company's come, ma'arm! Such a grand coach! Four beautiful hosses,
and two real gemmen in black a' standing behind--and two on hossback a'
riding afore. What are we to do for supper? Doubtless they maun be
mortal hungry arter their long ride this cold night, and will 'spect
summat to eat, and we have not a morsel of food in the house fit to set
afore a cat."

"Pshaw!" muttered the sick man. "Silence your senseless prate! They will
neither eat nor drink here. Tell the coachman that there are excellent
accommodations at the Hurdlestone Arms for himself and his horses. But
first see to your mistress--she is in a swoon. Carry her into the next
room. And, mark me, Ruth--lock the door, and bring me the key."

The girl obeyed the first part of the miser's orders, but was too eager
to catch another sight of the grand carriage, and the real gentlemen
behind it, to remember the latter part of his injunction.

CHAPTER V.

Is this the man I loved, to whom I gave
The deep devotion of my early youth?--S.M.

Algernon Hurdlestone in his forty-second, and Algernon Hurdlestone in
his twenty-fourth year, were very different men. In mind, person, and
manners, the greatest dissimilarity existed between them. The tall
graceful figure for which he had once been so much admired, a life of
indolence, and the pleasures of the table, had rendered far too
corpulent for manly beauty. His features were still good, and there was
an air of fashion about him which bespoke the man of the world and the
gentleman; but he was no longer handsome or interesting. An expression
of careless good-humor, in spite of the deep mourning he wore for the
recent death of his wife, pervaded his countenance; and he seemed
determined to rep