d if the benevolence of their kind hearts had required
fresh incentives, the unfeigned grief of Ellen, as the tale of the old
man was related to her, would have given it.

"Oh, that I had it in my power to offer a sufficient sum to tempt the
sordid and selfish being in whose possession Llangwillan now is," she
was heard one day to exclaim, when she imagined herself alone, "that I
might but restore it to Mr. Myrvin; that I might feel that good old man
was passing his latter years in the spot and amongst all those he so
much loved; that Arthur could break the chain that now so bitterly and
painfully distresses him. Dear, dear Mr. Myrvin, oh, how little did I
imagine, when my thoughts have wandered to you and Arthur, who was such
a dear consoling friend in my childish sorrow, that misery such as this
had been your portion; and I can do nothing, nothing to prove how often
I have thought of and loved you both--and my dear mother's grave, in the
midst of strangers," and she wept bitterly, little imagining her
soliloquy had been overheard by her aunt and uncle, who were almost
surprised at her vivid remembrance of those whom for the last seven
years she had scarcely seen, and of whom she so seldom heard; but it
heightened their desire to be of service to him who had once been so
kind a friend to their family.

The contents of Percy's letter, to the rather alarming and mysterious
nature of which we have already alluded, will be found in the next
chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

"Malison, dear Malison, congratulate me; the game is in my own hands!"
exclaimed Miss Grahame one morning as she entered the private room of
her confidant, about a week after the receipt of the letters we have
mentioned, with every feature expressing triumphant yet malignant glee.

"That has been the case some weeks, has it not?" replied Miss Malison.

"Yes; but not so completely as at present. Caroline has just left me;
she was afraid of imparting in writing the important intelligence she
had to give me, important indeed, for it saves me a world of trouble:
though did I allow myself to think on her present situation of
suffering, I believe that I should repent her perfect and innocent
confidence in me. Her defence of my character, whenever it is attacked,
almost touches my heart; but her mother, her intrusive mother, that
would-be paragon of her sex, rises before me and continually urges me
on; she shall learn, to her cost, that her carefully-traine