guardian would take to eradicate from the too pliant mind of her young pupil, not only all the precepts she had so carefully instilled, but even all remembrance of the instructress; her spirits drooped under the painful anticipation: and her increased paleness, and declining appetite, betrayed the approach of disease, to which, notwithstanding, she was yet unwilling to yield. It was not, however, to be warded off, and, before the day appointed for Selina's departure, Mrs. Galton was confined to her bed in an alarming fever: for several days she continued in imminent danger, but at length the complaint took a favourable turn, and she was yet spared to the prayers of her anxious attendants. It was by no means an unfortunate circumstance for Selina, that Mrs. Galton's illness occurred, to divert her thoughts from the melancholy subject on which alone she had hitherto permitted them to dwell. By feeling she had yet much to lose, she imperceptibly became reconciled to the loss she had already sustained. And when Mrs. Galton was able to sit up in her dressing room, she, in some degree, resumed her natural character, once more contributing to the comfort of those she loved. In this delightful task Mordaunt participated: when Mrs. Galton was able, he would sit for hours reading out to her and Selina, while the grateful smile that lightened the expressive countenance of the latter sufficiently rewarded his toil. Sometimes, when Mrs. Galton reclined on the couch, he would draw his chair closer to Selina's work-table, and continue their conversation in that low tone, which belongs only to confidence or feeling, which, therefore he doubly prized; but, though he thus momentarily drank deeper of the draughts of love, no word escaped his lips to betray the secret struggles of his soul. It is true, that profiting by the name of brother, which their long intimacy, in some degree, entitled him to use, he hesitated not to pay her every attention the most assiduous lover could devise. But yet he scrupulously respected the engagement her father had made, and studiously endeavoured to conceal, even from its object, the passion that prayed upon his soul. Nor was Selina insensible to his kindness; on the contrary, she felt it with her characteristic gratitude, and expressed her feelings with her usual ingenuousness; and such were the charms of Mordaunt's society, notwithstanding the sincerity and depth of her affliction for her father's death, the hours thus passed in the reciprocal interchange of kindness from those most loved were amongst the happiest of her life: and when, at length, Dr. Norton pronounced his patient sufficiently recovered to travel, the regrets at leaving the Hall were, probably, not a little increased on the minds both of Selina and Augustus, by the idea that such hours might possibly never again recur.