LEILA AT HOME. _By the Same Author._ LEILA; OR, THE ISLAND. By ANN FRASER TYTLER. LEILA IN ENGLAND. A continuation of _Leila; or, The Island_. LEILA AT HOME. A continuation of _Leila in England_. _Also, lately Published._ ARBELL. A tale for young people. By JANE WINNARD HOOPER. THE CANADIAN CRUSOES. By CATHARINE PARR TRAILL. Edited by AGNES STRICKLAND. [Illustration: LEILA AT HOME Page 38.] LEILA AT HOME. [Illustration] New York:--C. S. Francis & Co. LEILA AT HOME. A CONTINUATION OF Leila in England. BY ANN FRASER TYTLER, AUTHOR OF “MARY AND FLORENCE; OR, GRAVE AND GAY,” ETC. _WITH ENGRAVINGS BY J. W. ORR, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS._ [Illustration: colophon] New York: S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY. BOSTON:--CROSBY, NICHOLS & CO. M.DCCC.LIII. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, BY C. S. FRANCIS & CO., In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. It was the intention of the writer of the following pages to have bid a last farewell to Leila, but some of her young readers have said “No;” and she feels too grateful for the kindness they have shown her, not to make the attempt to meet their wishes. Circumstances have so long prevented her fulfilling this intention, that it may be necessary to remind them that they took leave of Leila when she had just set off for Woodlands, (near Richmond,) a property Mr. Howard had purchased near the residence of her uncle, Mr. Stanley; that Leila was in all the joy of her cousin, Selina Stanley, having recovered her speech; that Selina’s sister, Matilda, was continuing to make many good resolutions, and too often to break them again; and that their brother, little Alfred, was little Alfred still, and not over wise. LEILA AT HOME. CHAPTER I. The wooded banks of Richmond were in all the soft green of early spring, when they were first seen by Leila. A few months had passed; the trees were now half stripped of their leaves, and the autumn tints were fast fading into sombre gray as she a second time caught sight of its wooded heights; but how different were now her feelings, how much more beautiful did the whole scene appear to her with Selina by her side! Selina was spring, summer, sunshine, and all to Leila, and she had not a sigh to give to the falling leaves or the moaning wind.