"Disinterested affection! a heart like yours, Miss, were indeed a
treasure to be won. What a happy man would your husband be!"

"Husband! Oh, Dr Plausible don't mention it: I feel convinced,--
positively convinced, that my constitution is not strong enough to bear
matrimony."

The doctor's answer was too prolix for insertion; it was a curious
compound dissertation upon love and physic, united. There was devoted
attention, extreme gentle treatment, study of pathology, advantage of
medical attendance always at hand, careful nursing, extreme solicitude,
fragility of constitution restored, propriety of enlarging the circle of
her innocent affections, ending at last in devoted love, and a
proposal--to share her carriage and establishment.

Miss Tavistock assumed another faint--the shock was so great; but the
doctor knelt by her, and kissed her hand, with well-affected rapture.
At last, she murmured out a low assent, and fell back, as if exhausted
with the effort. The doctor removed his lips from her hand to her
mouth, to seal the contract; and, as she yielded to his wishes, almost
regretted that he had not adhered to his previous less assuming
gallantry.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER NINETEEN.

'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark,
Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home;
'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
Our coming--and look brighter when we come.
BYRON.

Edward Forster returned home with his little _protegee_, his mind
relieved from the weight which had oppressed it: he knew that the word
of his brother was his bond, and that under a rough exterior he
concealed a generous and sympathising heart. It was in the early part
of the autumn that he again took possession of the cottage; and as he
once more seated himself in his old arm-chair, he mentally exclaimed,
"Here then am I again at anchor for a short time, until summoned to
another world." His prophecy was correct; during the severe winter that
followed, his wound opened again, and his constitution, worn out, gave
way to repeated suffering. He had not been confined to his bed more
than a fortnight when he felt that his end was approaching. He had long
been prepared: nothing remained to be done but to write a letter to his
brother, which he confided to Robinson, the fisherman, with directions
that it should be put into the post-office immediately after his death;
and a strict charge to watch over the little girl, until she s