with an unusual expression of joy, had just disappeared. Shortly afterwards the beautiful face was seen no more at the window, and then a report circulated that Ellen Douglas had left Y—. Who places credit in half one hears ? -who was to know how much truth or falsehood there was in the various rumours. Some said Ellen had been turned out of the house in a condition to move the stoniest heart to pity, and that her seducer had abandoned her at a time when common humanity should have pleaded in her favour. It was even said that by the law of Scotland Close was legally married to his victim, but that he had taken steps to get rid of the witnesses who could have proved it. Be this as it may, Ellen Douglas had never appealed to the law, and people are prone to believe the worst. She was gone, and in a short time forgotten. If the report had ever reached those with whom it could have injured Mr. Close, his brazen effrontery had enabled him to fight through all suspicion, for it is astonishing how difficult it is to know

the exact truth of occurrences happening apparently within our sphere of observation. Then Mr. Close found the value of his reputation as a good religious young man. His admirers were indignant at the attempt to slander the character of so regular an attendant at kirk. "If it had been ony wild graceless ne'er-do-weel, we might hae believed it, but to couple Mr. Close's name with that of a shameless hizzie like yon Ellen Douglas." Thus by degrees, as the excitement blew over, and Mr. Close still continued to sit and sing hymns under Mr. Mucklewhackit, his fame as a good young man was established on a more sure basis than ever, and some pitied him as in some degree a martyr.

CHAPTER VI.

A YOUNG LADY CORRESPONDENT-REVELATIONS IN

BACHELORS' LETTERS.

ERNEST hardly knew whether to join Miss Fairweather and Miss Lawrence when he met them on the day following that on which his note had been sent. After the thing was done, he felt misgivings about the propriety of sending it. He feared that Miss Fairweather might, and yet he hardly thought she would, resent it as a liberty. What if it had fallen into the hands of the dragon who guarded the Hesperian fruit, - Mrs. Grainger, who, with the peculiar delicacy of her system for bringing up young ladies to be frank and honest, opened all Miss Fairweather's letters. But recollecting the adage-"Faint heart, &c.," and setting gossip at defiance, he joined the

young ladies in Grafton Street. His conversation was not indeed singularly brilliant, for his doubts as to the posture of affairs, and his anxiety to guess from Miss Fairweather's looks whether she had received his note, gave a good deal of constraint to his address. As for Miss Fairweather, it was impossible to guess by her manner or conversation whether she had seen the note, and Miss Flaccid's approach proved the signal for Ernest to bid adieu after having obtained Miss Fairweather's acceptance of Bryant's poems as a souvenir of their acquaintance. As soon as he went home he sent her the book, accompanied by a short note. That evening and all next day passed without bringing any reply, much to Ernest's astonishment and mortification.

As he was returning home about nine in the evening, he came suddenly upon Miss Fairweather and Miss Lawrence coming from the Flaccids', and naturally offered his escort to see them home. Ernest could not help noticing, not at all to the increase of his good

nature and powers of rendering himself agreeable, that there was a sort of constraint in Miss Fairweather's manner towards him, which appeared half frightened, and half distant. On their way they encountered no less a personage than Mrs. Grainger; and Miss Fairweather said, in a whisper quite audible to Ernest"Oh, she will think I met him by appointment at the Flaccids'."

Mrs. Grainger looked particularly grim at Ernest as she spoke to the young ladies, and then continued on her way in the opposite direction. No introduction took place as, under the circumstances should have been the case, and Ernest was not a little annoyed at the want of good manners. A pleasant reward this, he thought, as he walked beside Miss Fairweather without opening his lips, for, behaving with common politeness, a mere stranger could hardly have done less than I have done. Yet the young lady who but the other evening at my mother's house captivated me by the frankness of her manners, now freezes me with