the other branches of her family was speedily projected and accomplished, and when the hero of this work made his appearance, which he did at: Castle Gwynne, whither the earl and countess had retired to spend the Christmas holidays, amongst their neighbours and tenants, she begged her husband to yield to her the management of their son's education.

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None ever possessed greater advantages, and few, perhaps, ever profited more by them, than young Lord Anthony: elegant in form and manners, accomplished in mind and person, the future Earl of Castle Gwynne, and the centre of the hopes and dignities of the Gwynne-Arthur name and property, was looked upon with a wishful eye by many a noble duke and marquis, or right honourable dowager, who would have desired no higher honor than to call him son-in-law. But his young lordship had not yet been violently affected by the tender passion; his heart was his own, and he determined that, when he did surrender it, it should be to the keeping of a less effeminate,

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and more strongly-gifted creature than the pourile, artificial things that were daily presented to his notice. He was on the point of commencing the grand tour, when his father, who was now advanced in years, was suddenly called from this sublunary world, to the extreme distress of his affectionate wife and son. This melancholy event necessarily detained him; and after the splendid but solemn rites were performed, he retired with his mother and afew friends to Castle Gwynne. The countess had ever possessed strong feelings, and the death of her husband threw her into such a state of mind as rendered change of air, and change of scene, necessary for the recovery of her health.

20On opening the late earl's will, this curious codicil was found; "that the present earl should not marry without his mother's consent, nor against her inclinations, until he had attained the age of twenty-five; that if he did so, the title would still be his, but the estates, (except such as were entailed, of which the greater part

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were not) on the death of the countess, would devolve to a distant branch of the family."

The earl scarcely gave this a moment's consi deration, grief for his father's death absorbed every other emotion, yet when he did think of it, he deemed it a strange whim, but it was of no consequence; he was now eighteen, it was not likely he should marry at least these ten years, or that he should fix his choice on a person so entirely disapproved by the countess, that she should withhold her consent; such were his sentiments at eighteen, when youth and freedom of inclination taught him to think so; the course of our narrative will develope whether a tour on the continent had any power to change them. But his mother had a deeper scheme in hand: she knew from experience that it was possible to love at a much earlier age than her son's; to love, too, without a hope" of it being successful; for, at the time when she gave her hand to the Earl of Castle Gwynne, her heart was in the possession of a younger and a dearer object, far more congenial to her feelings, but rather

below than above her own station in life, and with an effort of mental strength, which, in any other instance would have been admirable, but in this certainly unamiable, she severed the chain that bound her, and, at the shrine of ambition sacrificed all her hopes of exalted domestic bliss. When the earl, some years previous to his death, had proposed making a will, the countess's influence had brought him to this determination, hoping by it to preserve the young lord from forming a connection in any degree inferior to himself.

In the wife of her son, a woman of rank was Lady Gwynne-Arthur's object, no matter whether rich or not; if her blood' was noble the countess would look no further.

With thy brave bearing I should be in love,
But that thou art so fast mine enemy.

Shakespear.

WE will not fatigue our readers, with the description of a journey, the conclusion of which was to bring the young earl to his native home, but merely state, that in a reasonable space of time they arrived within sight of it.

His heart bounded rapturously in his bosom, as he looked from the chaise-window and beheld the high turrets of his own domain, which seemed to announce a welcome at his approach; every object which now met his eye appeared to have a charm for him, for in their.

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