not lead you into extravagances: out
of debt, out of danger, Walter. It would have been well for poor Peter
Hales, had he remembered that maxim. Often and often have I been to see
him in the Marshalsea; but he was the heir to good fortunes, though his
relations kept him close; so I suppose he is well off now. His estates
lie in--shire, on your road to London; so, if he is at his country-seat,
you can beat up his quarters, and spend a month or so with him: a most
hospitable fellow."

With these little sketches of his cotemporaries, the good Squire
endeavoured to while the time; taking, it is true, some pleasure in the
youthful reminiscences they excited, but chiefly designing to enliven
the melancholy of his nephew. When, however, Madeline had retired, and
they were alone, he drew his chair closer to Walter's, and changed the
conversation into a more serious and anxious strain. The guardian and
the ward sate up late that night; and when Walter retired to rest, it
was with a heart more touched by his uncle's kindness, than his own
sorrows.

But we are not about to close the day without a glance at the chamber
which the two sisters held in common. The night was serene and starlit,
and Madeline sate by the open window, leaning her face upon her hand,
and gazing on the lone house of her lover, which might be seen afar
across the landscape, the trees sleeping around it, and one pale and
steady light gleaming from its lofty casement like a star.

"He has broken faith," said Madeline: "I shall chide him for this
to-morrow. He promised me the light should be ever quenched before this
hour."

"Nay," said Ellinor in a tone somewhat sharpened from its native
sweetness, and who now sate up in the bed, the curtain of which was
half-drawn aside, and the soft light of the skies rested full upon her
rounded neck and youthful countenance--"nay, Madeline, do not loiter
there any longer; the air grows sharp and cold, and the clock struck one
several minutes since. Come, sister, come!"

"I cannot sleep," replied Madeline, sighing, "and think that yon light
streams upon those studies which steal the healthful hues from his
cheek, and the very life from his heart."

"You are infatuated--you are bewitched by that man," said Ellinor,
peevishly.

"And have I not cause--ample cause?" returned Madeline, with all a
girl's beautiful enthusiasm, as the colour mantled her cheek, and gave
it the only additional loveliness it could receive. "W