found sufficient to occupy and interest both herself and Eleanor in the arrangement of her rooms; and when they parted it was with the agreement that, if the earl had no other plan for the ensuing day, they were to walk together into the village. "And if he wishes me to ride with him, instead," said Blanche; "I must ask him to let me come to you for an hour in the evening."

Eleanor willingly agreed, delighted to find that as yet there was no cause for jealousy, since even the society of Lord Rutherford did not make Blanche forget her.

CHAPTER VII.

AND so passed the first day of Blanche's residence at Rutherford Castle; and so passed several days; varied, indeed, by drives, and rides, and books, and visits, both to rich and poor; but all, equally bright and unalloyed, for the petty disappointments and trifling vexations from which no care and no affection can guard us, were little felt by one who carried in her own breast a shield against them. Each morning, long before the Earl was awake, Blanche knelt in the solitude of her own chamber to pray for guidance during the day; and then, with her Bible in her hand, paced the broad terrace overhanging the river, that she might study the will of her Maker, amid the scenes which brought His power and goodness most clearly to her view. Each day she planned her occupations with a view to her own improvement, her father's happiness, and the comfort of those who were in a measure entrusted to her care; and not the most busy hour nor the most absorbing pursuit could lead her to forget that it was needful to withdraw some moments from this world to devote to the contemplation of another. Mrs. Howard had early implanted in her mind habits of order and punctuality; and, duly as the time came, which she had fixed upon as the most free from interruption, Blanche retired to her own chamber to consider what she had done since last engaged in the same duty; or, if prevented at the exact minute, the first leisure opportunity was eagerly seized upon, without any regard to the plausible excuses, which might easily have been made from

weariness or a pre-occupied mind. Blanche never forgot Mrs. Howard's words, "Not, I will if I can, but I must." And one especial reason she now had for allowing nothing to interfere with her religious duties, in the hope of being so soon admitted to the full communion of the Church, and the anxiety fitly to prepare herself.

On the second Sunday after Blanche appeared in the old village church of Rutherford, the accustomed invitation was given to all "such as should be religiously and devoutly disposed," and as Blanche listened to the words a feeling of loneliness stole over her. Eleanor was near, with the mother, who could share every thought and feeling; and the father, whose voice faltered, as his eye rested upon the countenance of the child he so dearly loved, and to whom for the first time the exhortation was addressed. And Blanche stood in that sacred building, with but one exception, the noblest and wealthiest of all; and with her was the proud earl whose sternest will would have yielded to her wishes, as the humblest of his servants would have submitted to his; but the one great blessing which she then desired, a parent's sympathy and advice on the subject most deeply concerning her happiness, was denied her.

Upon this topic alone no word had passed between them they met in the morning and the world was the theme of their conversation; they parted at night and no words of prayer were uttered to call for a blessing upon the midnight hour. Poetry, and painting, and music, and literature, and even the deeper subjects of science and philosophy, were all at times introduced, and Blanche with her natural refinement and superiority of mind was fascinated by the earl's eloquent language and exquisite taste. His words were as the words of enchantment; for, as he spoke of Italy and Greece, and the sunny islands of

the south, even Blanche forgot for the moment that earth was but the stepping stone to heaven; its beauty, but a type of that which shall be hereafter; its genius and its learning, but the faint and misused relics of that perfect creation which only when it issued taintless from the hands of its Creator, was pronounced to be "very good." But the earl ceased, and Blanche was left to her own meditations, and then as she retraced the conversation and sought for something which should be treasured in her memory, a vague sense of unsatisfactoriness filled her mind. A glittering pageant seemed to have passed before her; but it was gone. And of what avail was it to her to have vividly realised the solemn beauty of Genoa, and the dazzling lustre of Naples; to have wandered in fancy beneath the vast dome of St. Peter's; or stood amidst the giant ruins of the Coliseum; to have floated in the dark gondolas of Venice, or gazed upon the blue waters of the Mediterranean; or how could it content her to hear of Raphael, and Michael Angelo, and Guido ;-of Dante and Ariosto, and Tasso and Petrarch, and the names which associate Italy with all that is most precious in poetry and art, if all were but for the amusement of the hour, bearing no voice of warning from the past, no lesson of instruction for the future? But Blanche did not yet understand all she had to fear. She marvelled indeed at her father's apparent neglect of the subject most interesting to herself; she thought it strange that not even an allusion was made to it: but she was captivated by the brilliancy of his conversation, and accounted for his silence by remembering her own reluctance to converse upon serious subjects, except at peculiar times and under certain circumstances. She had been told that her own manner gave no true impression of her mind, and so she supposed it must be with him. A faint cloud

was stealing over the sunlight of her joy, but she

saw it not.

And the day drew near to which Blanche so earnestly looked forward with mingled hope and awe. It was the evening before, and having returned from a long ride with her father over one of the most beautiful portions of his property, she sat down on a bank which overlooked the windings of the river, and the opening into the country beyond.

There was nothing to disturb the repose of the scene, except the distant lowing of cattle in the pastures, and the dashing of a mountain torrent, which, escaping from a woody dell on the opposite side, fell sparkling and frothing over a steep broken cliff, and wound its way amidst stones and mosses till it was lost in the deep current of the larger stream.

Blanche rested her head against the trunk of a tree, and gave way to one of those delicious reveries of feeling rather than of thought; which, when the fancy is free, and the heart unburdened by care, are amongst the most perfect enjoyments of our early years.

The loveliness of the landscape was in accordance with the tone of mind which she had been endeavouring to attain during the day; and when, at length yielding to fatigue, she fell asleep, the images which haunted her dreams were pure and holy as her waking thoughts.

A few minutes afterwards there was the sound of an approaching footstep; and, advancing from the shade of the shrubbery, the earl stood by her side.

What could he have seen in a countenance so fair in its youthful purity, to make him start and sigh— and then gaze long and steadfastly with a frowning brow, and a mouth quivering with agitation? Was it that in those features he saw a resemblance which recalled the tale of his by-gone life; or did he read the visions which were passing before the eye of his