"Excuse me, Mr. Dalton, I must speak, for I have known your lovely daughter from her cradle; I have watched her from year to year from her childhood, and like most who have so watched her I have loved her. It is far from my heart, God knows, to justify her rash act; but indeed and indeed Mr. Dalton, you must yourself be aware that there are circumstances to plead in extenuation of her faults, and-"

What marvels the conjunction copulative was to bring to light were never known, for Mr. Scribewell suddenly raised his eyes to his client's face, and appalled at what he beheld there, shrunk back in silence,

White as ashes, livid with passion, Mr. Dalton advanced one step, laid his clenched fist on the table-but quietly, without the least sound-and spoke in a sort of hissing whisper between his closed teeth

The only point to be decided between

ns, sir," (a very haughty emphasis on us,) is this, whether it is convenient to you to fulfil my injunctions-to the letter-or whether you would prefer to consign my family deeds and papers to the hands of some other solicitor."

Seeing already that he had done more harm than good to poor Emily's cause, by his injudicious interference, and vexed at his own folly in attempting to reason with a madman in his fit, Mr. Scribewell hastened, in professional phrase, to assure his client of his readiness to obey his injunctions implicitly. This, however, was coupled with a silent but fervent mental vow, to assist poor Emily's interests on any occasion that offered, which would at once have robbed him of Mr. Dalton's patronage, could that gentleman have read his secret thoughts.

He could not however read them, and having in some degree calmed himself, by walking up and down the little officepresenting no inapt similitude of a chafed

tiger in his den-though it is really strange how walking up and down the room does calm a person, when irate or agitatedwe have often tried the recipe, and never found it fail-well-Mr. Dalton being very much calmer, but still continuing his march, as if the concatenation of his ideas depended on the regular beat of his footsteps, dictated to his lawyer a kind of preamble to his new will. And it was strange and yet not so-for the blindness of the human intellect, and the inconsistency of the human heart, have been the theme of the preacher for long, long ages -but it was curious how this self-deceived man could dilate with fluency and admirable discretion on the sin of disobedience, the enormity of filial ingratitude, and the indulgence of forbidden wishes, even while he was himself breaking every law of Christian charity, and every sentiment of paternal affection and tenderness, by his unrelenting rancour against his child. A child erring, indeed, and faulty, most se

riously so, but still his own and only one, youthful, tempted, and by no means sufficiently guarded by him in education, by precept, and far less by example, to withstand temptation, or resist the warmth of natural feelings, the prompting of excited passion.

Mr. Dalton expressed himself somewhat to this purport. That thinking the crime of filial ingratitude can scarcely be too deeply punished, since it implies a failure of the very highest of Christian duties, viz. filial love and reverence-that feeling implanted by the Almighty himself in the heart of every child-he has, not hastily, but in the pursuance of principles the result of a lifetime's deliberation, visited this crime, as exhibited by his daughter, Emily Dalton, now Meredith, by the greatest punishment save one, he can devise, viz. the forfeiture alike of his paternal affection, and of all those worldly goods, with which it had been his intention hitherto to endow her. His daughter

herself, he said, had been made fully aware, by him, of his feelings and principles on this matter, and of his determination thus to punish her, in case of her persistence in a connexion which he disapproved. He would hope this disinheritance and her own remorseful feelings might be her sole punishment, and that she might cscape other trials. Should it not prove so, however, should tangible poverty come upon her, he trusted to Mr. Brooke, whom he now constituted his heirwho was a man of religion and integrity, and moreover a father himself, not to suffer his child to want the necessaries of life.

Mr. Scribewell took notes of these points with a view to insert them in the schedule of the will.

"You fully understand my wishes, Mr. Scribewell?"

66

Fully, sir."

"And to-morrow,

at noon, you will

wait upon me, with the new will engrossed,