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was still. The stream at their feet rolled on in its placid course; no sound disturbed the air, save the cawing of some neighbouring rooks, who, having been in search of their evening repast, were now seen in flights of eight or ten returning to their nests; every now and then there came a single straggler, until at last all the inhabitants of that little world seemed to be collected at their homes. Their melancholy noise by degrees was hushed, and silence reigned unbroken. "Do you ever remember a quieter or more lovely evening?" said the younger of the ladies. She that spoke was scarcely past the age of childhood—innocent and beautiful; and though the traces of recent sorrow rendered her cheek somewhat pale, yet the beam of her eye and the smile which dimpled round her mouth showed that for her there might be years of happiness yet in store. Not so her companion: in her countenance, so calm and so composed, might be read a grief of no transient nature. In the rayless eye you might discern that the heart was crushed, and that though spring and summer might return to bring gladness to the earth, yet it would bloom no more: life was become to it one cheerless waste. If there was a slight expression of despair in the face, it was blended with so much resignation as almost to render it holy.

"Calm as is all around us, dearest Fanny,"