gave herself to him, have married'á man of more decision, he might have moulded her to that standard of human worth which touches so nearly one perfection, for, she had a feeling heart, and a dispo sition, naturally inclined to love all who evinced affection and kindness towards her, and those who sought her protection.,,,Neglect she could not brook; she expected, her husband always to be the lover, and every married woman will know she was assuredly disappointed. She looked on admiration as her due, and she obtained it easily for meither anxiety, of mind, nor increasing years, seemed to have in anywise diminished her resplendent beauty, which was superior to that of her cousin, lady Laura, but in the eyes of many not so soft and pleasing vo vin v daigned a bus

Colonel Ardenbrooke, for very soon after his marriage he obtained rapid promotion, was far from being a worthless character; but like too many fashionists,

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he appeared not to have the veneration for the duty matrimony imposés' on a husband which he ought. He had always admired his wife more than he really loved her; and though the birth of a son in the first year of their mar riage seemed to tie him more to home, the repinings of his wife at her requisite confinement, which kept her from sharing in the festivities of a crowded capital, gave him that distaste to her character; that though the affection that had been renewed and increased with paternity was not extinct, it was greatly alienated.

Carleton and his yet more youthful partner were tolerably happy; but they had no children, and this vexed the husband. Emily and Laura, still." like two cherries on one stalk, were, though divided by their married life, yet in unison:" not a thought that entered their minds-not a single event of their lives, did they think of concealing from each

other. The husband of lady Emily was proved by her to be faithless, and wounded pride made her hasten to deposit her griefs in the bosom of friendship; while lady Laura told her cousin all the frequent mortifications she endured so unjustly from her husband, because a wise Providence had thought fit to deny to her the pleasures of maternity.

Conscience perhaps might smite the: colonel, when he became angry at the frequency of his lady's correspondence with her earliest friend; he knew they had no concealments from each other, and he thought proper to forbid his wife from writing to her cousin, and from receiving any more letters from her: they thought themselves, however, fully justified in continuing their usual correspondence by stealth, and servants were well bribed to have the letters that passed between their ladies directed, under cover, to themselves. It is certain, however, that when the colonel forbade this intercourse

intercourse by letter, for the friends were then at a great distance from each other, that he shed tears in private like an infant; for he was a model of friendship himself. We do not exactly speak of Carleton, for he had been the mere acquaintance of an hour, till their expedition to Scotland with the two heiresses cemented their friendship; but to a lieutenant of the name of Dorrington,, who had little but his sword for his portion, were all the tender sentiments of pure, constant, and manly friendship, given by colonel Ardenbrooke, and the then captain and his lieutenant were regarded as the Orestes and Pylades of their day.

Very soon after lady Laura's husband. obtained his majority, he was sent with a division of the regiment to which he belonged, to combat against the oncewonderful subjugator of Europe, whose glory faded like that of a dazzling meteor, leaving no trace behind. On the memorable

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memorable plain of Waterloo, amongst the victims of that sanguinary and dearly-purchased victory, fell major Carle ton, leaving his still young and still fondly-loved Laura a widow! His last utterance was breathing her name as he sunk to the abodes of death, in the arms of Dorrington, who in that fatally in teresting moment, by a chance shot was desperately wounded, and lived but' a few days afterto Es

All animosity towards lady Laura was now at an end, and the heart of colonel Ardenbrooke, always alive to tender im pulses, however momentary they might sometimes.be, prompted him to hasten immediately to pour the balm of conso lation into the bosom of her, the tenderly-remembered,. once-blooming girl, who had accompanied him, with his friend Carleton and his Emily, on their matrimonial expedition. His own heart, deeply lacerated by the loss he had sus tained in his friend Dorrington, left it

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