"'Ha! ha! ha!' quoth the sheriff, 'who could have expected this from you, Mr Macquil? You are positively become as arch as a romping, roguish young boarding-school girl of fifteen. Mr Elphinstone, give me leave to say that I never was more delighted--never more happy.' Briefly returning the compliments of the worthy sheriff, William fixed his eyes upon his cousin with a look in which there was reproach but no malignity. "'Cousin,' said he--'one with me in lineage, in kindred, and in blood--I have been indebted to you for a long and involuntary excursion abroad, which has been attended with most woful results. Sir, while I abhor, I forgive--I pity; in proof of which, I give you timeous warning that there is intelligence from the other side of the Atlantic, which concerns you more nearly than any farther interest which you can possibly have in my inheritance.' With that, the bad man grew deadly pale--he trembled from head to foot--he looked fearfully at the sheriff--and he hurried out, followed by me. After a long pause, during which he seemed to be thinking profoundly, the sheriff said--'There is really a strange meaning in your words, Mr Elphinstone!'-- "'Which,' replied William, 'I will fully explain in a few days.' "Whenever the facts of the case came to be known, the officers of justice were sent in full cry after the criminal; but, with the aid of the generous kinsman whom he had so foully wronged, he effected his escape, and was never heard of more. "In a short time Elphinstone House again became the residence of its rightful proprietor; and, within less than a fortnight from the date of his return, William and Mary were united in the holy bands of wedlock, to be separated no more. I was the best-man; and a happier pair never was seen. They were happy in themselves and in their family." "Yes," said Wonderlove, "from that family the dule passed away." "And you observe," replied the other with a smile, "that the head of that house really did marry a maiden of low degree!" "Well, now, is not that a strange--a strange--a very strange!"-- "It is a strange coincidence," said Plainworth, "but nothing more. What more natural than that such a woman should engage the affections of such a man? and as for the subsequent prosperity of their numerous and bonny family, it is an old saying and a true--'That being good, naturally leads to the obtaining of good.'" TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS.