tinued the hostess, as the
boy ran back for the nosegay; "so charitable, so kind, so meek to all.
Adversity, they say, softens some characters; but she must always have
been good. And so religious, Sir, though so young! Well, God bless her!
and that every one must say. My boy John, Sir, he is not eleven yet,
come next August--a 'cute boy, calls her the good lady: we now always
call her so here. Come, John, that's right. You stay to dine here, Sir?
Shall I put down a chicken?"

At the farther extremity of the town stood Miss Lester's dwelling. It
was the house in which her father had spent his last days; and there she
had continued to reside, when left by his death to a small competence,
which Walter, then abroad, had persuaded her, (for her pride was of the
right kind,) to suffer him, though but slightly, to increase. It was a
detached and small building, standing a little from the road; and Walter
paused for some moments at the garden-gate, and gazed round him before
he followed his young guide, who, tripping lightly up the gravel-walk to
the door, rang the bell, and inquired if Miss Lester was within?

Walter was left for some moments alone in a little parlour:--he required
those moments to recover himself from the past that rushed sweepingly
over him. And was it--yes, it was Ellinor that now stood before him!
Changed she was, indeed; the slight girl had budded into woman; changed
she was, indeed; the bound had for ever left that step, once so elastic
with hope; the vivacity of the quick, dark eye was soft and quiet; the
rich colour had given place to a hue fainter, though not less lovely.
But to repeat in verse what is poorly bodied forth in prose--

"And years had past, and thus they met again;
The wind had swept along the flower since then,
O'er her fair cheek a paler lustre spread,
As if the white rose triumphed o'er the red.
No more she walk'd exulting on the air;
Light though her step, there was a languour there;
No more--her spirit bursting from its bound,--
She stood, like Hebe, scattering smiles around."

"Ellinor!" said Walter mournfully, "thank God! we meet at last."

"That voice--that face--my cousin--my dear, dear Walter!"

All reserve--all consciousness fled in the delight of that moment; and
Ellinor leant her head upon his shoulder, and scarcely felt the kiss
that he pressed upon her lips.

"And so long absent!" said Ellinor, reproachfully.