unusual in the earnestly expressed wish to see her. Her uncle had always been so reluctant to urge his claims on her time or attention, so fearful of abridging even her slightest pleasure, that it was no ordinary motive that induced him to urge her visit.
"Alas!" exclaimed she, "what a mistake is our endeavour after happiness! I have all that haunted my childish dreams in our lonely woods; I have wealth, rank, beauty, and wretchedness! I pine for love, and none love me, save one kind old man, and he is far away, suffering solitude I might share, and sickness I could soothe!"
The time had passed quicker than she had thought; and a message from Lord Marchmont, conveying the important intelligence that he was gone to dress, and particularly requesting that her ladyship would be punctual, was the first thing that roused her. She started from her seat.
"Perhaps," thought she, "if I shew Marchmont a readiness to oblige him to-day, and make myself very agreeable, to-morrow I
