But Dame Dutton went about her household work thereafter with smiles and secret whispers--and Edith standing at the cottage door with a tremulous gladness about her heart, to look out upon the far stretching slopes of those blue hills of Cumberland, retreated to her own chamber, with a nervous haste, for which she could not very well account, when she saw her kinsman, Sir Philip Dacre, ascending the narrow pathway over the hills. And so it came to pass ere long, that a second Edith Dacre entered the old halls of Thornleigh to be lady and mistress there, where her mother’s clouded youth had past. A dim beginning--yonder sad time of the plague in London, was indeed the dawning of a pleasant day. And there followed sunny years--years of household quietness, of growing wisdom, and of such generous labor, full of all bounties and kindnesses, as doth become so well those gentlefolk of God’s appointing, whose errand is to bind together the different circles of His earth in the wide sympathies of one humanity. Never houseless man again sat vainly at the gate of Thornleigh, waiting the issue of his wearied wife’s petition, as he did once, whose manly head began to whiten within, under the snow of peaceful years. Never wayfarer sought shelter vainly--never poor turned without hope or help away. Gentle alms--deeds, and charities--gentler words of brotherhood and kindness--gentlest and highest, merciful teachings of the Gospel, fell pleasantly like summer dew about the old house of Thornleigh! With his full share of the troubles of the times, imprisoned and fined for the Gospel he would not cease to preach, the Puritan minister yet lived on until the dawn of brighter days; and ere he closed his eyes in the third William’s lawful reign, saw both the blessings promised to the good man by the old Hebrew King and Poet--his children’s children, and peace upon Israel. And brightening the dead array of olden titles in the ancestry of the house of Thornleigh stands pleasantly the gentle name of that Lady Edith whose time was the time of the plague; whose girlish valor does still communicate a generous youthful radiance to the old record, and whose fathers were of a stock of grave chivalry, nobler and of higher honor than those cavaliers of Worcester, and of Naseby, to whom alone we give the name. The haughty Lady Dacre, and all her pride and wealth, and greatness lie buried long ago in the grave of superficial things; but radiant in its purity of wisdom, godliness, and courage, the name of the youthful Puritan holds its place like a star, in the pedigree of those Dacres who dwell on the Border. THE END. FRESH BOOKS OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE PUBLISHED BY Harper & Brothers, Cliff Street, New York. Travels and Adventures in Mexico,