age suffered her to follow her girlish fancy, and to become the wife of a man whose merits they had never known, and had much reason to doubt. As a father, Etterick was tenderly afflicted by the death of his daughter, and in such melancholy circumstances. Nevertheless, when the first shock being over, allowed time and opportunity for reflexion, he could not help acknowledging to himself, and to his friends, the clergyman and physician, that he had very strong grounds of consolation. At first he had been hurried and surprized to consent to the marriage of his child, rather than persuaded and induced, and during many years had regarded the connection with abhorrence. The family of Etterick had been always distinguished for honour and reputation, and its present representative had a very high idea of its dignity. Kind and affectionate he had loved his grandchild, but could not help repining, that the child of such a miscreant eventually was to be proprietor of Etterick. His nephew, Hamilton, he loved and admired to adoration; and now would sometimes dwell on the elevation of the house of Etterick, when William should be its head: and the fourth day after Mrs. O’Rourke’s decease, when the clergyman was administering the soothing comforts of religion, the laird heard him with the most profound gravity, and after some cessation, asked if there was not a talk about a vacancy in the county: “Willie, now that he is heir of Etterick, I think might stand a good chance; and if he were in parliament, would be an extraordinary honour to our family.” The clergyman saw that the laird, though he sorrowed, did not sorrow like those without hope. At the desire of the old gentleman, he wrote to Hamilton an account of these events, and urged him to lose no time in repairing to Scotland. The laird was willing and ready to resign to him three-fourths of the estate and personal property. The former, by the rise of rents, was now upwards of six thousand a-year; the latter, by the œconomy of Etterick, added to the fortune of the Sourkrouts, was at least forty thousand pounds. This was the substance of the letter that was sent to our hero.