am sure I shall, since Clara's fortune depends upon
it."

"Now, I think, on the other hand," said Meiklewham, "that if any thing
should chance wrang, (and Heaven kens that the best-laid schemes will
gang ajee,) it will be a great comfort to think that the ultimate losers
will only be the poor folk, that have the parish between them and
absolute starvation--if your sister spent her ain siller, it would be a
very different story."

"Hush, Mick--for God's sake, hush, mine honest friend," said Mowbray;
"it is quite true; thou art a rare counsellor in time of need, and hast
as happy a manner of reconciling a man's conscience with his
necessities, as might set up a score of casuists; but beware, my most
zealous counsellor and confessor, how you drive the nail too far--I
promise you some of the chaffing you are at just now rather abates my
pluck.--Well--give me your scroll--I will to Clara with it--though I
would rather meet the best shot in Britain, with ten paces of green sod
betwixt us." So saying, he left the apartment.

CHAPTER XI.

FRATERNAL LOVE.

Nearest of blood should still be next in love;
And when I see these happy children playing,
While William gathers flowers for Ellen's ringlets,
And Ellen dresses flies for William's angle,
I scarce can think, that in advancing life,
Coldness, unkindness, interest, or suspicion,
Will e'er divide that unity so sacred,
Which Nature bound at birth.

_Anonymous._

When Mowbray had left his dangerous adviser, in order to steer the
course which his agent had indicated, without offering to recommend it,
he went to the little parlour which his sister was wont to term her own,
and in which she spent great part of her time. It was fitted up with a
sort of fanciful neatness; and in its perfect arrangement and good
order, formed a strong contrast to the other apartments of the old and
neglected mansion-house. A number of little articles lay on the
work-table, indicating the elegant, and, at the same time, the unsettled
turn of the inhabitant's mind. There were unfinished drawings, blotted
music, needlework of various kinds, and many other little female tasks;
all undertaken with zeal, and so far prosecuted with art and elegance,
but all flung aside before any one of them was completed.

Clara herself sat upon a little low couch by the window, reading, or at
least turning over the leaves of a book, in which she seemed to read.
But inst