lso might have Herbert, as they neared the
gates of his home, had there not been one recollection to dim his
happiness. She who had shared in all his pleasures, who had shed a charm
over that spot, a charm which he had never felt so keenly as when he
looked for it, and found it not; the favourite playfellow of his
infancy, the companion of his youth, his plighted bride, she was in far
distant lands, and vainly on his first return home did Herbert struggle
to remove the weight of loneliness resting on his heart; he never
permitted it to be apparent, for to his family he was the same devoted
son and affectionate brother he had ever been, but painfully he felt it.
Mr. Myrvin and his son were now both inmates of Mr. Hamilton's family.
The illegality of the proceedings against the former, in expelling him
from his ministry of Llangwillan, had now been clearly proved, for the
earnestness of Mr. Hamilton permitted no delay; and tears of pious
gratitude chased down the cheeks of the injured man, as he recognised in
the person of his benefactor the brother of the suffering woman whom he
had sheltered, and whose bed of death he had deprived of its sting. The
persuasions of Mr. Hamilton succeeded in conquering his objections to
the plan, and he consented to make Oakwood his home for a short time,
ere he once more settled in his long-loved rectory.

With Arthur, Ellen speedily resumed her place; the remembrance of that
neglected little girl had never left Mr. Myrvin's mind, and when,
radiant in animation and returning health and happiness, she hastily,
almost impetuously, advanced to meet him, he pressed her to his bosom
with the affection of a father; and even as a daughter Ellen devoted
herself to him during his residence at Oakwood. He had been the first in
England to treat her with kindness; he had soothed her childish sorrow,
and cheered her painful duties; he had been the first since her father's
death to evince interest for her, and though so many years had passed,
that the little girl was fast verging into womanhood, yet such things
were not forgotten, and Ellen endeavoured to prove the gratitude which
time had not effaced.

Ellen was happy, her health almost entirely restored; but it was
scarcely possible for any observant person to live with her for any
time, without noticing the expression of pensive melancholy, of subdued
spirit, unnatural in one still so very young, that, unless animated by
any casual circumstances, e