d a relief to his reflections. He found a pure and
unfailing delight in watching the growth of their young minds, and
guiding their differing dispositions; and, as time at length enabled the
to return his affection, and appreciate his cares, he became once more
sensible that he had a HOME.

The elder of his daughters, Madeline, at the time our story opens, had
attained the age of eighteen. She was the beauty and the boast of the
whole country. Above the ordinary height, her figure was richly and
exquisitely formed. So translucently pure and soft was her complexion,
that it might have seemed the token of delicate health, but for the dewy
and exceeding redness of her lips, and the freshness of teeth whiter
than pearls. Her eyes of a deep blue, wore a thoughtful and serene
expression, and her forehead, higher and broader than it usually is
in women, gave promise of a certain nobleness of intellect, and added
dignity, but a feminine dignity, to the more tender characteristics of
her beauty. And indeed, the peculiar tone of Madeline's mind fulfilled
the indication of her features, and was eminently thoughtful and
high-wrought. She had early testified a remarkable love for study,
and not only a desire for knowledge, but a veneration for those who
possessed it. The remote corner of the county in which they lived, and
the rarely broken seclusion which Lester habitually preserved from the
intercourse of their few and scattered neighbours, had naturally cast
each member of the little circle upon his or her own resources. An
accident, some five years ago, had confined Madeline for several weeks
or rather months to the house; and as the old hall possessed a very
respectable share of books, she had then matured and confirmed that
love to reading and reflection, which she had at a yet earlier period
prematurely evinced. The woman's tendency to romance naturally tinctured
her meditations, and thus, while they dignified, they also softened
her mind. Her sister Ellinor, younger by two years, was of a character
equally gentle, but less elevated. She looked up to her sister as a
superior being. She felt pride without a shadow of envy, at her superior
and surpassing beauty; and was unconsciously guided in her pursuits and
predilections, by a mind she cheerfully acknowledged to be loftier
than her own. And yet Ellinor had also her pretensions to personal
loveliness, and pretensions perhaps that would be less reluctantly
acknowledged by her