Lady Lodore returned her daughter's caresses--and her tears flowed fast for very joy, and then she turned to Mrs. Fitzhenry, who followed Ethel, but who had been outspeeded by her in her eagerness. The old lady's face was beaming with happiness. "Ah, Bessy, you have betrayed me--traitress! I did not expect this--I do not deserve such excessive happiness." "You deserve all, and much more than we can any of us bestow," cried Ethel, "except that your dear generous heart will repay you beyond any reward we can give, and you will be blest in the happiness we owe to you alone. Edward is gone far away into Wales in quest of you." "An Angelica run after by the Paladins," said Lady Lodore, smiling through her tears. "Paladins, worthy the name!" replied Ethel. "Horatio is even now on the salt seas for your sake--he is returning discomfited and hopeless from his journey of discovery to the Pyrenees--his zeal almost deserved the reward which I have found, yet who but she, for whom you sacrificed so much, ought to be the first to thank you? And while we all try to show you an inexpressible gratitude, ought not I to be the first to see, first to kiss, first--always the first--to love you?" CONCLUSION None, I trust, Repines at these delights, they are free and harmless: After distress at sea, the dangers o'er, Safety and welcomes better taste ashore. FORD. Thus the tale of "Lodore" is ended. The person who bore that title by right of descent, has long slept in peace in the church of his native village. Neither his own passions, nor those of others, can renew the pulsations of his heart. "The silver cord is loosed, and the pitcher broken at the fountain." His life had not been fruitless. The sedulous care and admirable education he had bestowed on Ethel, would, had he lived, have compensated to him for his many sufferings, and been a source of pure and unfading joy to the end. He was not destined in this world to reap the harvest of his virtues, though his errors had been punished severely. Still his memory is the presiding genius of his daughter's life, and the name of Lodore contains for her a spell that dignifies existence in her own eyes, and incites her to render all her thoughts and actions such as her beloved father would have approved. It was fated that the evil which he did should die with him--but the good out-lived him long, and was a blessing to those whom he loved far better than himself.