on his own estate, disliking large cities, Edinburgh almost as much as London, and never going to either when he could possibly avoid doing so, it was his own wish, and that of Lady Maitland, whose health was delicate, to procure the services of some accomplished, well-educated, and well-principled woman to take the entire charge of them. Sir Kenneth accepted an invitation to dine at Mr. Hurst's, and was much pleased with Ruth's appearance and manners. He waited upon Mrs. Somerive, who not only stated her recommendation verbally, but gave it in writing; and it was not till after this statement had been transmitted to Lady Maitland, and her perfect approval of it received, with an urgent entreaty to have the matter settled immediately, that the subject was named to Ruth. She had known so few people in her life and had lived so exclusively with them that she could not contemplate a residence among strangers and at so great a distance without fear, and considering it as a sort of banishment; but when Sir Kenneth, anxious to prevent her being deceived, and consequently dissatisfied, explained to her, with the elaborate earnestness of conscientious rectitude, how constantly they resided in the country, how quiet and uniform a life they led, and how entirely Flora and Diana would be confided to her charge, her reluctance vanished, and before Sir Kenneth quitted London it was settled that, having completed her twelvemonths engagement in Lincoln's Inn Field's and given a few weeks to Mrs. Somerive and other friends, that she should proceed to Scotland and enter upon her new duties.

Ruth felt as if she was about to quit the "house of bondage" for the land of liberty, a hard taskmistress for a haven of rest; and so great was her exultation, that her grateful and affectionate nature soon checked her transports, as unbecoming and unworthy, though they had been entirely confined to her own bosom. She was ashamed of being so delighted at the idea of leaving people who, if they did not stop to enquire what was her way of being happy, were always desirous of rendering her so in theirs. No reasoning or feeling could make her life with them agreeable, but it became advantageous as a mental discipline. She still felt the want of leisure for reflection, but she acquired habits of observation, by means of which she laid up in her memory a mass of materials for future meditation.

She was, now that she knew to a certainty the precise period at which she should cease to suffer from it, sometimes inclined to admire and sometimes to be amused at the restless activity of Mrs. Hurst. That lady, with her husband and the two principal clerks, always breakfasted at nine o'clock, but she was regularly down stairs at eight. Between that hour and twelve she arranged every article, even to the most ininute, of her domestic economy, and made her own marketing. Mrs. Hurst kept no superfluous servants, but she took care that every thing was properly done, without exacting more labour than was justly due from each, and of this she was an excellent judge, with strong and healthy people. She could not be so safely depended upon for persons of a delicate constitution, and for regulating the labours and pursuits of the mind she was totally

unfit.

She was strictly economical, but her economy had no taint of mean

ness; while she forbade all waste she allowed no want, and her table was liberally, handsomely, and even tastefully furnished; yet she kept no housekeeper, and only what is called a "good plain

cook."

Mrs. Hurst was the centre of her own circle, the governing principle of her own system, and her influencing power was sufficiently manifested, though in softened characters, in her daughters-Penny and Priscy had been Hatty and Shatty, and would be Dolly and Dosy, while all six were, in proper gradations, approximating to their mamma.

It was at the close of the Christmas vacation that Ruth had entered upon her engagement with the Hursts, and it was at the beginning of March in the following year that she took possession of her place in the heavy coach for the purpose of proceeding to " Caledonia bleak and wild!"

Larch Hills, the seat of Sir Kenneth Maitland, was situated in one of the most southern counties of Scotland, and there still existed in the country and inhabitants many signs of barbarism and want of cultivation, sufficient to show that border civilization proceeded but slowly.

The Larch Hills' carriage met her at the post-town, and, for the convenience of her luggage, empty. She had a solitary drive of about eleven miles, principally through muirland; and when she entered the leafless avenue and stopped before the entrance of the large stone mansion, on a dreary cheerless afternoon in March, about five o'clock, she felt a sense of desolation such as she had never experienced before. It was little to be wondered at. Ruth Watson was still a cockney; she had been to school at Wandsworth, where there are many rural walks, especially Dunsford Lane, leading from Wandsworth Common to the delightful village of Merton (rendered so interesting by having been the residence of the immortal Nelson), by the skirts of Wimbleton Park, the beautiful seat of Earl Spencer, where at certain seasons of the year one can hardly walk ten yards without starting a pheasant to surprise you in its turn with the noise and bustle of its apparently laborious and undesired rise, or look towards an open space without seeing half a dozen hares gamboling. She had resided eighteen months in a small town in Essex, where she saw only the said small town and turnpike roads leading to and from it, as she walked in procession with the children of the school, when they took their dull, formal, periodical, promenades. Brompton, with its neighbourhood, dressed like gardens and pleasure-grounds, and the Isle of Thanet, one cultivated corn country, were equally ill adapted to prepare her for what she now saw, and poor Ruth descended the steps of the carriage very much with the feelings of one who had come to the end of the world.

Sir Kenneth was engaged with his factor, and Lady Maitland and her daughters, not expecting her to arrive so soon, had retired to their rooms to dress for dinner, there being company in the house. The housekeeper ran upstairs to attend Miss Watson, but she would have thought it derogating from her dignity to have advanced outside of the door. As soon as Ruth appeared in the entrance hall

she respectfully tendered her services, and ushered her to her apart. ments. With the opening of the first door Ruth's feelings changed; she was no longer strange and uncomfortable. A spacious bedchamber, handsomely and commodiously furnished, with a large fire burning in the ample grate, opened into a neat dressing closet, which the housekeeper informed her communicated with the school-room, and that again with the young ladies' sleeping-apartment. Before Ruth could have thought it possible, her trunks were brought in, freed from the soil of travel, uncorded, and the cords neatly coiled up and laid beside them; nor was it long before a gentle tap at the door and soft voice requesting admission, introduced Lady Maitland herself, in her dressing-gown, anxious to see that her new inmate had been provided with every necessary accommodation, and to explain that any little deficiency was to be imputed to the absence of Christy, the girl who attended the governess and young ladies, she having obtained permission to be present at the wedding of a friend. Having ascertained that there was a good fire, plenty of water, &c., Lady Maitland departed to complete her own toilette, and when Ruth had nearly finished hers other gentle taps were heard at the door, which was immediately opened, and, blushing and smiling, Lady Maitland's very pretty daughters asked if they could fasten Miss Watson's dress, as Christy was not at home, and show her the way to the drawing-room, as she did not know it herself. Ruth availed herself of their kind attentions, and had a short conversation with Lady Maitland before the gentlemen assembled for dinner. From Sir Kenneth she received the frank, cordial, hospitable, welcome of his country; and who that has experienced the genial hospitality of a Scottish gentleman's mansion in the country could wish for more or imagine more possible?

There were no lady-visitors at that time staying at Larch Hills, and those who were there were merely friends or relations passing a few days in their way to or from London. But when, in addition to Sir Kenneth and Lady Maitland, Ruth found herself seated at the dinner-table with a duke, a marquis, two earls and an admiral, she was very thankful that her residence at Mr. Hurst's had rendered her familiar with the routine of the table.

Ruth was modest, in her character even timid, but, as I have before observed, not destitute of self-possession. She was rather pretty than otherwise, with a neat figure and pleasing manners; and, notwithstanding the fatigue of her journey, gratified her hearers by some excellent music, played a capital Scotch reel for Sir Kenneth, his daughters, and the duke to dance to, and went to bed happier than she had ever done in her life, excepting during the happiest period. of her residence at Erlsburgh House.

It is not to be supposed that on this night sleep exercised its empire very early, or that Ruth desired that it should be so: novelty has always its excitement, and excitement is always agreeable to young and ardent minds. Her character, quiet and gentle as it was, had nothing of tameness, and its latent enthusiasm was not the less glowing because its heat never burst forth into any flaming exhibition."

She had much in the last few hours to look back upon with pleasure

not altogether unmixed with surprise. She wondered that she had never felt like a stranger, that she had been enabled, not only during the evening but even at dinner, to answer without embarrassment all the observations and questions of the company; but she soon recollected how easy this had been, and understood the benevolent politeness which had led the conversation upon subjects connected with her journey and other little matters easily discussed, as well as the value of that good breeding which secured to her, as a female, however humble in herself, at the table of Sir Kenneth Maitland the respect and attention of gentlemen of rank and high birth.

Ruth had lived more than four years with people of intelligence and knowledge of the world, and many of her pupils at Erlsburgh House were the daughters of noblemen; but it was the first time in the domestic circle that she had come into actual contact with nobility, and without any vulgar admiration of rank, or still more vulgar affectation of despising it, she had imagined it to be something more awful than she found it. From the contemplation of herself her thoughts passed to the individuals of the party. The gentle softness of Lady Maitland had a winning charm which went to the heart of Ruth; the unchecked but not boisterous hilarity of Flora and Diana, the high spirits of Sir Kenneth and the duke, the chess-board of the two earls, and the political discussion of the admiral and marquis, all interested her in some degree, and she closed her eyes at last with confused images of the whole floating in her imagination.

Her happiness continued, and before she had resided at Larch Hills a fortnight she wrote to Mrs. Somerive for her instrument and the rest of poor Miss Crofts' valuable and useful legacy, which, with many articles of her own acquisition, had remained at Erlsburgh House, owing to her scanty accommodations at Lincoln's Inn Fields.

It was here that, after a domestication of two months, Ruth first saw her future husband, the Rev. David M'Neil, as the tutor of Mr. John Maitland (the only surviving son of Sir Kenneth), and already nominated to the church of Kirk fillan, whenever the present aged incumbent should be gathered to his fathers.

Sir Kenneth and Lady Maitland had been the parents of another and an elder son, to whom Mr. M'Neil had many years conscientiously performed the duties of a tutor; but painful in the extreme was the return he met with; a love of low company and vulgar dissipation led to habits of early depravity, in the wretched gratifications of which health and respectability were equally sacrificed, and a brief and degraded existence was suddenly and distressingly terminated while travelling on the continent with Mr. M'Neil.

There were not wanting people who thought to flatter and console the afflicted parents by imputing the vices and their consequences to neglect or incapacity on the part of the tutor; but Sir Kenneth and Lady Maitland knew better, and they effectually silenced the calumniators by the course they pursued. The body of Edward Maitland was brought home and interred in the family vault, his brother John took his place as the pupil of Mr. M'Neil, to whom the reversion of the church of Kirkfillan was secured.

The improvement in Ruth's mode of life was soon abundantly

visible in her improved bloom, light elastic step, and almost sportive gaiety. Larch Hills taught her a lesson of which the bare possibility had never entered her imagination-that she could like any place better than Erlsburgh House. So however it was. With only two pupils, and those intelligent girls of thirteen and fourteen, the progress of instruction assumed a more intellectual, interesting, and endearing form than classes in a school admit of, and which she had never felt to be the case with Harriot and Charlotte Hurst.

Warm advocates for air and exercise, Sir Kenneth and Lady Maitland objected to any lessons before breakfast, and as the first bell, warning the family of the approach of that meal, did not ring until half past nine, there was sufficient time, even early as was the season when Ruth arrived at Larch Hills, for long and delightful walks. Then three little sure-footed ponies were kept for their use, and, with the example of the Misses Maitland and the instruction of the old coachman, Ruth so far improved upon her feats of donkey equestrianism at Ramsgate as heartily to enjoy not only a canter but a gallop.

Flora and Diana had been so accustomed to accompany their brother and his tutor on their rambles, and to take an interest in their pursuits, that they had insensibly acquired, not merely a taste for botany, but a considerable degree of knowledge on the subject; nor was it long before they had rendered Ruth mistress of all they knew themselves, and imparted to her the same desire to know more; so that she likewise learned to look forward to the time when the breaking up of the winter classes should set the young student and his tutor free from their attendance upon college, and Edinburgh be exchanged for Larch Hills.

The time at length arrived, and Lady Maitland was so kindly attentive to their gratification as to request Mr. M'Neil to allow her daughters and Miss Watson to be sharers in his instructions, when not inconvenient to himself or likely to interfere with the improvement of her son.

Mr. M'Neil readily consented, and many a morning and evening ramble was devoted to botany and mineralogy.

Mr. M'Neil was a good deal older than Ruth, for he was five-andthirty when she first became acquainted with him; and, confined as she had in a great measure been to the society of her own sex, a less highly gifted person might perhaps have gained her esteem and admiration, but upon him she soon looked as the first of human beings. He inherited from nature a refined taste and a strong understanding-qualities not always united. His education had been of a very superior order; and, though the church was his own choice, having determined to see something of the world before he undertook the charge of a parish, he had spent several years on the continent as a travelling tutor, and had had under his care some young men of the first families in Scotland. His own family was good, and, having never known any but good society, he had the manners as well as the mind of a gentleman.

Such a man could scarcely reside in the same house with a young woman so amiable and agreeable as Ruth Watson without feeling