She took up your hearth-rug. Her dose of camphor-julap went round, and Goldsmith had too many beauties for the baronet to be long silent. The morning thus glided away, and we dined where we were. Malcolm, with undissembled joy, found us comfortable, and the evening was given to the chess-board. I slept, Lucy, for I had passed the day in blunting the barbed arrow, which, if I am not much mistaken, still wounds Sir Murdock.--Tuesday was fair; I wanted a ride; the curricle and my knight were in readiness; and we returned home the better for our long airing. This morning it was Mrs. Allen's turn to wish for a ride, and the good Sir Murdock with alacrity indulged her wish. Malcolm and myself, immediately after their departure, took the road to the Abbey. To say the truth, I felt a little fine-ladyish, and walked not with my usual alertness. My good natured escort, perceived it. "I am astonished," observed he, slackening his pace, and offering me his arm, "to see your spirits and perseverance! You are now so fatigued, that any other but yourself would fancy this walk improper for you."--"The sun cheers me," replied I, "and idleness will yield to this bracing air."--"Your motives," answered he, "will always give animation and vigour to your mind; for it seems to me, that it is the business of your life to communicate joy or consolation to all around you! Tell me," continued he, "that your recompence is adequate to your labours. In the absence of your accustomed amusements, remote from friends endeared to you by time and experience, and qualified for that preference you must feel for them, I see you cheerful, and apparently contented, in a situation marked for the residence of care; but my admiration of your magnanimity, Miss Cowley, has not, nor cannot lessen my regrets at seeing you sacrificed to these duties by an usurped authority over your freedom. Tarefield cannot be otherwise than a place of banishment to you."--"Spare your compassion, my good friend," answered I, "till you have my warrant for indulging it. I should be ungrateful, as well as childish, were I discontented in your mother's society. I am sensible of the constant attention paid to my comforts by every individual in your family; and I do most sincerely assure you, that I am as happy at Tarefield, as I should be any where, under the peculiar circumstances in which I am at present."--"We might be more worthy of you," replied he with seriousness, "were we not slaves ourselves; but, notwithstanding your generous assertion, I have myself witnessed your surprise and vexation at my mother's submissions to Miss Flint, and at the subordinate station she fills in her own house, for such is at present Tarefield-hall. It cannot but appear extraordinary to you, to see two women so diametrically opposite in character and temper as my mother and this woman, so connected, that neither the capricious exactions on the one part, nor the decided love of praise and independence on the other, can weaken