had this morning."--"Did you notice how solemnly he gave out the text?"--"I like to hear the words of Scripture uttered solemnly and seriously."--"But did not you very much admire that beautiful simile of the gilded bark and the rippling wavelets, there is something so very pretty in the word wavelets?"--"Yes, it is a very pretty word, but I do not think it is in Johnson."--"I should like to read that sermon, it was so accurately composed; I am sure it would read well." Such talk as this, but extended to a length which it would be tedious to narrate, established for the young ladies in their own thoughts and in the thoughts of their neighbours that they were very religious. So pleased and well satisfied were they with that kind of discourse, that they were not unfrequently led to think very lightly of the religion of such as could not or would not join them in the discussion. Old Mr. Martindale would sometimes in his peculiar way laugh at the zeal of the young ladies in discussing these matters, and they had long ago very deliberately set him down as a man of no religion. With all this, however, they were very good and amiable young women. They were benevolent,--they were affectionate--they were diligent--they were cheerful--they were decidedly decorous in their conduct and manners; and their whole character was truly respectable. They were rather confined in their notions, but that was the accident of education; and Mr. Martindale thought that they would be better companions for his grand-daughter than many others with whom an acquaintance might have been formed, and who were more extensively acquainted with that sort of stuff which people call the world. CHAPTER V. "A heated fancy or imagination May be mistaken for an inspiration." BYROM.