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There remains little more to be said. Nancy had but one friend to depend on that friend was undeviatingly true to her; for months he respected her griefs, and yielded all his wishes to her feelings. She had lost her lover, but she valued her friend; and in due time, she saw fit to reward his constancy: she married Basil Roberts with a full understanding that she would never forget Charles Langhorne.

CHAPTER VII.

A DECLARATION OF LOVE,

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Didst thou not share; hadst thou not eighteen pence?

Bardolph.

We left our travellers retiring with their kind hostess of Indian Spring Valley. At an early hour on the following morning they were again seated in their coach, determined, notwithstanding their disasters, to make another attempt to journey eastward.

Mr. Scott was at his horse's side; the mule had been sent away in disgrace, and the real Dunmore restored to his owner. He was mounted and ready to sally forth, when Basil Roberts looking round, and ascertaining that he was not within the hearing of his better half, laid his hand on the bridle, saying

Thou art

"Hist! a word in thy ear, friend Scott. adventuring on as perilous an action as ever was undertaken by countryman of thine, since the days of Wallace. Hadst thou been from the other little spot, over the way, thou mightst have some prospect of achieving it with credit, if not profit; but, I doubt me, thou wilt bring back nothing to the parsonage-house, but a heart hacked like a handsaw. Don't be impatient let me caution thee above all things, not to let thy memory, or rather want of memory, play thee one of its usual jade's tricks. Remember thou hast nothing

to do but to suffer Dunmore to follow the coach, and keep thy eyes out of it. The sight of thy fellow-travellers, too much indulged in, will not be good for thy health, friend Scott."

Mr. Scott took Basil's advice in good part, the rather as it coincided with his own private reflections on the subject, and returned the honest Quaker's farewell with much cordiality.

"Well," said Basil, as he turned towards the house, " nimium ne crede colori shall be henceforth my motto. Never could I have thought those carotty locks covered as good a head-piece, and that parson's gray was wrapt round as honest a heart as is carried off by that shambling bit of horse-flesh, yclept Dunmore, a name illy chosen at this time, as I should opine."

Nothing could exceed the affectionate manner in which Nancy Roberts took leave of her guests. Drawing Eliza aside, she whispered her, "knock and it will be opened'' seek and you shall find.' Recollect that will and shall are royal words; and now, once more fare thee well."

"I fear we shall have a dreadfully hot day," said Mrs. Belcour, as she peevishly arranged herself in the carriage on its driving off.

""Tis very pleasant now at least," said Maria. "The morning air nimbly and freshly recommends itself unto our gentle senses. See, Eliza, our reverend escort looks as blythe and animated as if he were again disporting on the banks of the Tweed."

"Dear mamma," cried Eliza, "see how brilliantly those hill-tops are tinged with the rays of the rising sun! How softly those amber-coloured clouds float, and fade away before his beams! We fashionables,

Maria, seldom enjoy this cool, this fragrant, and this. silent hour."

"Go on-go on, Eliza," said Mrs. Belcour. ""To meditation due, and sacred song,' does it not run thus. Try your hand at a hymn to the rising sun; 'twill be quite romantic on leaving these wonderful scenes.'

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"I have no pretensions that way," said Eliza; "but it is at an hour and amid scenes like these, that I feel most grateful to our heavenly Father for having placed us in a world, of which even he himself was pleased to say, 'it is good.' Oh, yes, it is good! it is very good!" and her eyes swam in tears as her heart swelled with gratitude and devotion on taking a last look of Indian Spring Valley.

"What would I give," said Mrs. Belcour, "to know whether that grim guide of ours has any knowledge in the occult sciences! If he but prove an astrologer, he were invaluable to us."

"As how, mother ?" said Maria, wishing to draw her attention from Eliza's emotion. "For my part I will more readily rely on our guide's knowledge of the terrestrial than the heavenly bodies, until we have escaped from the tangled paths and perplexed mazes of this wood at least."

"Silly girl," returned Mrs. Belcour; "the getting out of this wood is a light matter. See you not that there is some malign star lord of the ascendant,' 'inimical to the interests of the ladies Belcour; and that all things portend an infortune in the house of pleasure? Now, if our own good star is likely to continue retrograde, had we not better give up the adventure?"

"Let us go back, dear mamma,” said both the young ladies, in a breath; "so many unpleasant circumstances have occurred".

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"Trifles, trifles, young ladies," said their mother. "You leave out, I doubt, in your calculation of our mishaps, the most important items, and those which have most overclouded our prospects. You forget the ranting Methodist and canting Quaker."

There are few things more painful, and, alas, more fatal to our newly awakened hopes and fears, especially by a young and tender heart, than to hear the persons by whom those hopes and fears have been excited, ridiculed and depreciated. Doubly painful, and dreadfully fatal, must that ridicule be when used by a beloved parent.

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Scarcely," continued Mrs. Belcour, "had we escaped the open attack of the thundering son of John Wesley, when we were subjected to the wily stratagems of the sly follower of old Penn. Then, as though we were to be assailed on all sides, we are thrown on the protection of a crack-brained parson.'

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"We have nothing to fear," said Maria, laughing, "from the honest Episcopalian. If he makes an assault, it will be with the butt-end of a sentence from Seneca or Epictetus; and as I doubt he will take care not to disrobe it of its Greek and Latin dress, he will prove no very formidable assailant."

"Maria," said Eliza, reproachfully, "I did not expect that from you."

"Not from you! Take notice, Maria," said Mrs. Belcour, colouring, "Miss Eliza only expects to hear such irreverence from her unconverted mother. "Tis inconceivable," she continued, "how much religion suffers from the rantings and ravings of these worthless pretenders. Well, I suppose some untoward accident will cast us to-night amidst an assembled synod

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