, the unwavering charity of
her father, and in those softened moments she felt assured he would not
have condemned him without good cause. Why, oh, why had she thus
committed herself? where was she to turn for succour? where look for aid
to guard her from the fate she had woven for herself? Where, in her
childish faults, had her mother taught her to seek for assistance and
forgiveness? Dare she address her Maker, the God whom, in those months
of infatuated blindness, she had deserted; Him, whom her deception
towards her parents had offended, for she had trampled on His holy laws,
she had honoured them not?

The hour of seven chimed; three hours more, and her fate was irrevocably
sealed--the God of her youth profaned; for could she ever address Him
again when the wife of Alphingham? from whose lips no word of religion
ever came, whose most simple action had lately evinced contempt for its
forms and restrictions. The beloved guardians of her infant years, the
tender friends of her youth insulted, lowered by her conduct in the
estimation of the world, liable to reproach; their very devotion for so
many years to their children condemned, ridiculed. An inseparable bar
placed between her and the hand-in-hand companions of her youth; never
again should she kneel with them around their parents, and with them
share the fond impressive blessing. Oakwood and its attendant innocence
and joys, had they passed away for ever? She thought on the anguish that
had been her mother's, when in her childhood she had sinned, and what
was she now about to inflict? She saw her bowed down in the depth of
misery; she heard her agonized prayer for mercy on her child.

"Saviour of my mother, for her sake, have mercy on her unworthy child!
oh, save me from myself, restore me to my mother!" and sinking on her
knees, the wretched girl buried her face in her hands, and minutes,
which to her appeared like hours, rolled on in that wild burst of
repentant and remorseful agony.

CHAPTER VII.

"Dearest mother, this is indeed like some of Oakwood's happy hours,"
exclaimed Emmeline, that same evening, as with childish glee she had
placed herself at her mother's feet, and raised her laughing eyes to her
face, with an expression of fond confiding love.

She and Ellen were sitting alone with Mrs. Hamilton, Miss Harcourt being
engaged at a friend's, and Mr. Hamilton having been summoned after
dinner to a private interview with his solicitor on the My