became needful to screw down the lid, then, indeed, she felt that she had parted with her kind old uncle for ever. No entreaties could prevail on her to leave the room; she sat with her head enveloped in her mantle, her presence only indicated by a quick convulsive sob, at any pause in that peculiar and jarring sound. She had, on the second day, recognised, and spoken with her usual kindness to, the old servants; indeed, it was something of a consolation to gather every possible detail respecting her uncle. The account was soothing, rather than otherwise; he appeared in his usual health and spirits till the attack, which carried him off in two days. He had suffered but little pain; and his last words were a blessing on his beloved child.
"If he had but been spared a few hours," was her constant exclamation: "his last look, his last word—I could lay down my life to have had them!"
Ah! the tender and solemn farewell beside the bed of death is, indeed, a consolation to the survivor! There is nothing so soothing as
