And then it was, when I thought myself so happy, that John found me most dejectedest! My work used to lie for hours on my lap, till the squire would come and tell me and it was a great condescension on his part - how much he loved me! But mistrust came; and I would tell him it was unkind to joke a poor girl; and, at length, I had to tell him, that I should in time become a mother! I had boldly, too boldly, perhaps, taken his white hand in mine; but he wrung it off, and his words cut like a sword, as he said, peevishly, 'What gossip's nonsense is this? Think better before you speak.' He saw he had turned my blood, I believe, for he then said, more kindly, Remember, this is not the first of April, Betsey."

It was a trivial circumstance that betrayed to Madam Waldegrave the misfortune that had befallen her neat little servant girl. The housekeeper had taken it for sulks; but she

VOL. III.

F

positively affirmed, that although Betty Bracken would eat no dinner with them, she was known to cut bacon privately off the rack in the kitchen, and fry it secretly for her own eating!

Set a thief to catch a thief-Madam Waldegrave had had her longings in her day; and she would have been glad to have recounted to the housekeeper, how she had, during one of her times, doted on the smell of yellow soap! how she could have eaten it! But

-

though it tried her sadly to refrain from saying all this, she did refrain; and found she could manage very well without poor Betty.

And then the time came for Betty to go; and John wondered so much what it was all about? At last, one evening, he spoke by snatches, for it seemed to pain him to breathe, and he said, "Betty, if I thought you were not a virtuous girl, my heart would be broken!" "And his heart did break!" she said,

with a high, wild, sudden sort of shriek.

"He

just lived to stand Godfather to my boy, and I named him John, and he crept away in a hole, and died; and I was too ill and weak to see after him and follow him."

Then, it seems, she had to go through the bonds of enduring affection; and Mr. Waldegrave visited her constantly for a time; but she always saw, in the midst of his fondness, that it grated against his pride. And that, with her poor brother's death, gave her a stone hanging about her heart, that made her lonesome company for him. And then she fancied in her absence he did not think of her enough; and then she had saved up her money, and got herself taken by a Limner, who made her look quite natural! and when she gave it him, he said, “You are too pretty ever to be treated ill, Betsey! And

าร

she saw him take a gold chain, and tie it round his neck. And she then went on mid

dling happy. When one day Madam Waldegrave came to her lodgings, and said she must have the baby! and at the mention of it, even at this length of time, her feelings became unmanageable: and Rosalind could only glean from wild snatches, that Mr. Waldegrave had demurred a little on the score of his love, but that his pride had got the better of his conscience" They were all unfeel

ing - all unfeeling!" she said, through her clenched teeth" they threatened me with my debts and I, a poor fool, was frightened at the thought of going to prison, and said,

Take the boy-take him to his grave!' but

I held him fast so fast! and they could

not take him.”

heart-rending tears! She had awoke one morning, and found her baby missing; the place where he had lain, close to her side, was yet warm; and she supposed a lodger in

the same house had been bribed to take it from her. So far Mr. Waldegrave had confessed; but more than that she had never learnt.

and

But their happiness was gone together, they soon parted. He could not stand the poor girl's bitter tears, and bitter recrimination. The bloom, too, was all wasted from her cheek; and big tears hovered there instead. Her soft slumbers went with the hope of the young mother; and dreams of ghastliness and gloom would come and she would lie and shriek all night -"my babe, It

my babe, you shall not have my baby!

:

was too much too painful for even Mr. Waldegrave to witness and leaving her in the hands the merciless hands of his mother, he hastily left England for the Continent.

Then the poor wretch had set off one night, and left her home the seat of all