Eleanor Devereux had been wooed and won with the parental sanction--had loved tenderly--had trusted nobly--would have wedded splendidly in the world's acceptation. But before the irrevocable knot was tied, the suspicions of her anxious father were awakened by certain unguarded expressions of his future son-in-law, which led to serious investigation on the part of Mr Devereux, and a reluctant, but unqualified avowal, of more than scepticism on the most sacred subject, from him to whom the truly Christian parent was about to commit the earthly welfare of his beloved child, and perhaps her eternal interests. Mr Devereux shrank not for a moment from the fulfilment of the duty imposed on him by this painful discovery. But when he imparted it to his darling, and required from her the sacrifice of those innocent hopes which had grown up under the fullest sanction of parental encouragement, the utmost exertions of manly fortitude, based on Christian principle, alone enabled him to persevere in his painful duty. There was no passionate remonstrance, no resisting wilfulness, no ebullition of violent feeling, on the part of the mild and right-minded Eleanor; but the quivering lip, the swimming upraised eye, the voice that faltered and failed in its endeavour to articulate her acquiescence to the required sacrifice--this voiceless eloquence went to the father's heart, and his tears mingled with hers as he clasped her to his breast, inwardly ejaculating, almost in the words of the prophet-king--"Would to God I could suffer alone for thee, my child! _my child!_" For a while the hopeful tenderness of woman's nature delayed Eleanor's final decision, speciously whispering to her heart the possible blessedness of converting darkness into light, by the influence of holy example, and love's unwearying persuasiveness. But the parental guardian was near, to suggest to her the dangerous fallacy of that fond illusion, and Eleanor's love, though true and tender as ever woman felt, was not the blinding, all-engrossing passion "which refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." She wept and spoke not, but retired to her chamber, and for that day was seen no more; but the next morning brought her to her parents' feet, with a colourless cheek indeed, but a look of such heavenly composure, as seemed reflected from the source of light to which she had resorted in her hour of mental darkness and distress; and though she hid her face on her mother's lap, and her soft voice trembled in uttering the decisive words, they were spoken--the renunciation was made--and the sacrifice complete. How dear it cost her, was known only to God and her own heart; for, having renounced (as it then seemed to her) every view of earthly happiness for herself, she devoted herself the more assiduously to promote that of her parents and her brother, and of every living creature within the sphere of her benign influence, till at last, and by insensible degrees, she