CHAPTER XX.

At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.

GOLDSMITH.

"No muffins-and cold rolls for breakfast!—that is a sure indication of its being Sunday," cried Eleanor, next morning, with a forced attempt at vivacity. "I am always more hungry to-day than any other day in the week, one has so little to do. If any body proposes going to church this bleak snowy morning, I must order the carriage at twelve, and our pew may be recommended as the best of all places for cultivating coughs, colds, rheumatisms, influenzas, and all the ills flesh is heir to. -Lady Susan! No, by the way, this is your letterwriting day. I always know when to expect a line, if you are in my debt. Lady Montague! with that cold, it is out of the question. Young ladies! Charlotte Clifford! your weekly headache has come on. Well then, the noes have it, and we may read prayers in the library, with Miss Marabout for chaplain."

Miss Fitz-Patrick cautiously shunned looking towards her cousin, who felt conscious of the intended omission. Her colour rose, but she carefully avoided appearing to

notice the oversight, and continued calmly conversing with Mr Grant, who had previously addressed her.

"Stop, Miss Fitz-Patrick, we have not been polled yet," said he, turning hastily round; "here is one vote, I am certain, on the opposite side."

"Oh, no," whispered Matilda, anxiously, for she already anticipated the pleasure of stealing off and proceeding alone to Gaelfield; "I have a conveyance of my own which takes me always to church and back again. It is the safest and most wholesome diligence in the world, which Eleanor knows I constantly use from preference, in all weathers, and on all occasions."

"You don't mean to walk!-it would be impossible to get through the snow without stilts to-day."

"And yet many who are much more delicate than I am will make the effort. You have no idea, Mr Grant, what frail old creatures will come tottering to church this morning-what numbers will rise from beds of sickness to go there, and what hundreds have learned from Dr Murray to forget present inconvenience, while seeking to avoid future misery. If I had not a paramount interest of my own in frequenting church, I would even go to-day for the pleasure of sympathizing with others in the joy it gives many to attend. Poor old Janet said yesterday that it was the only remaining happiness which she could feel it possible to enjoy in this world; and for my own part, I hope and believe it will survive all others."

"This is the first time, Miss Howard, that I ever thought you had a tolerable opinion of me," replied Mr Grant, in a voice between jest and earnest; "you only speak seriously to those who are in some degree to be trusted, and in whom you take an interest. I must have

always appeared a mere Tom Fool in your eyes, for I deserved nothing better, and yet when we are together, I have occasionally felt- -; but it is no matter now," added he, in a tone of agitation, and, turning suddenly round, he looked at Sir Alfred for a moment in silence. "No, I would make no change, if it had even been possible. I do not wish it. With all my faults, let me never be selfish."

"Grant, my good fellow, what were you soliloquizing there for with such a tragical look?" said Sir Alfred, taking his arm as they left the breakfast-room; "I hope it was the rehearsal of such an oration for the hustings as shall resound throughout the universe next Tuesday?”

"I was thinking, Douglas, of a different election, in which your success is still more to be envied; but on both you shall have my warmest and most hearty congratulations."

"Do not feel too sure of my requiring them on either occasion," said Sir Alfred, with emotion. You are aware, Grant, that I have no concealments from a friend like yourself, and that I am still bound to remain in uncertainty with respect to Miss Howard's sentiments."

"Can you seriously mean to express any doubt of success?" asked Mr Grant, in a tone of incredulity. "It is not like you, Douglas, to affect such a thing."

"If my acceptance were an affair that rested merely on the ordinary calculations of prudence and eligibility, I might be as confident as you expect; but where principle and inclination are alone likely to be consulted, you might feel, Grant, if you were as deeply attached as I am, what suspense and diffidence mean."

Say what you will, I only wish my prospects were as happy and as securely founded as yours, Douglas;

but it is enough to have a friend whose prosperity is as dear to me as my own. Many an hour of good counsel you have wasted on me, but the day has come when I begin to perceive its full value, and to think that my time, talents, and opportunities, such as they are, might be put out to better interest than they have ever brought me yet."

Sir Alfred clasped his friend's hand in his own with emotion, while he looked earnestly and seriously in his countenance. "Grant! there was but one thing wanting to the perfect unity of our friendship. I always believed that this hour would arrive. Let us talk together alone, for I have much to say. Perhaps you will walk with me to church?"

If it rained icebergs I will."

Matilda paused before entering the church, to admire, as she had often done before, a degree of neatness unusual in country churchyards, which often gave her pleasure as she passed. Miss Murray had once described the disorder in which she originally found it, with long rank grass, and nettles waving in neglected luxuriance over the departed fathers of the congregation; a few wretched unwholesome sheep pasturing amidst the graves, while the broken and dilapidated wall admitted children and dogs from the village to play their noisy gambols amidst broken and ruinous tomb-stones, which it was a favourite amusement with the boys to deface. Dr Murray often saw occasion to lament such irreverence for the dead in other places, but it was one of his earliest acts at Gaelfield to assert that respect which is due from human beings towards each other, even in their last stage of humiliation and decay. He considered that the universal feeling, even among savage nations, of

veneration for their deceased friends and parents, was one of the few natural impulses which is really respectable, and ought to be encouraged. He could admire no enlightened wisdom that raised men above those little sympathies and tendernesses of nature, and without long delay he abolished the use of churchyard mutton in his parish-repaired the wall, mowed down the grass, reerected many prostrate tomb-stones, and restored to the whole scene that air of silent and solemn dignity suited to the awful habitation of the dead.

Matilda was seated in church for some time before the service began, and watched with agreeable interest the gathering of a very numerous congregation, whose countenances wore an expression of salutary seriousness which harmonized with the reflections of her own mind, and made her conscious that the pleasure of sympathy is indeed a welcome auxiliary to that of devotion, while our prayers are mingled with those of others in the public worship of God. Her heart expanded with joy and peace when she considered herself placed there to enjoy the rich moral and intellectual feast, to which all who are willing may consider themselves invited guests; and Matilda could not but think what infinite wisdom there is in the appointment of a stated period, when the busiest, the most ignorant, the most careless, and the most diffident may, in a moment, without effort, without difficulty, without being ashamed, or even conspicuous, enjoy the advice and the entire concentrated knowledge and experience of such a man as Dr Murray, whose whole existence was devoted to seeking out those truths which could be told them in an hour; and Matilda reflected with what despair men might have often dropt down on the threshold of religion, if their own unas