nged it so, and have to
say that, except the hope of meeting my child in death, it is now the
only consolation left me. I am, I know, fulfilling her wishes; and, my
dear Alice, you will relieve my heart--my broken heart--by accepting
it."

"O, would to God," replied Alice, sobbing bitterly, "that I could give a
thousand times as much to have our beloved Agnes back again! I have now
no sister! Alas! alas! I have now no sister!"

"Ah, my child," he replied, "for now I will call you so, your grief,
though deep and poignant, will pass away in time, but mine will abide
with me whilst I stay here. That period, however, will not be long; the
prop of my existence, the source of my happiness, is gone; and I will
never know what happiness is until I rejoin her and her blessed mother.
Good-by, my daughter; I will have neither reply nor remonstrance, nor
will I be moved by any argument from this my resolution."

He then passed out of the house, entered his carriage with some
difficulty, and proceeded home with a heart considerably relieved by
what he had done.

It was in vain that Alice and her father did subsequently remonstrate
with him upon the subject. He refused to listen to them, and said, his
determination was immovable.

"But," he added, "if it be any satisfaction to you to know it, I have
not forgotten my relations, to whom I have left the legacies originally
intended for them. I would have left it directly to Henry Woodward, were
it not that his grasping mother sent him to another relation, from whom
she calculated that he might have larger expectations; and I hope he
may realize them. At all events, my relatives will find themselves in
exactly the same position as if our beloved Agnes had lived."

Mr. Hamilton, then advanced in years--for Agnes might be termed the
child of his old age--did not survive her death twelve months. That
afflicting event fairly broke him down. Death, however, to him had no
terrors, because he had nothing to detain him here. On the contrary,
he looked to it only as a release from sorrow; an event that would soon
wipe away all tears from his eyes, draw the sting of affliction from
his heart, and restore him once more to his beloved Agnes and her dear
mother. He looked forward only to close his eyes against the world and
sleep with them--and so he did.

When his will was opened, the astonishment and dismay of his
relations may be! easily imagined, as well as the bitterness of
their disapp