like most other people, and take their chance no harm in that." "Not a bit of harm," said the rich aunt; "they're good boys enough, and I daresay they'll get on. As for Gerald, if you have any influence with your brother, I think he's in a bad way. I think he has a bad attack of Romishness coming on. If you are not in that way yourself," said Miss Leonora, with a sharp glance, "I think you should go and see after Gerald. He is the sort of man who would do anything foolish, you know. He doesn't understand what prudence means. Remember, I believe he is a good Christian all the same. It's very incomprehensible; but the fact is, a man may be a very good Christian, and have the least quantity of sense that is compatible with existence. I've seen it over and over again. Gerald's notions are idiocy to me," said the sensible but candid woman, shrugging her shoulders; "but I can't deny that he's a good man, for all that." "He is the best man I ever knew," said young Wentworth, with enthusiasm. Quite so, Frank," echoed aunt Cecilia, with her sweet smile: it was almost the only conversational effort Miss Wentworth ever made. "But it is so sad to see how he's led away," said Miss Dora; "it is all owing to the bad advisers young men meet with at the universities; and how can it be otherwise as long as tutors and professors are chosen just for their learning, without any regard to their principles? What is Greek and Latin in comparison with a pious guide for the young? We would not have to feel frightened, as we do so often, about young men's principles," continued aunt Dora, fixing her eyes with warning significance on her nephew, and trying hard to open telegraphic communications with him, "if more attention was paid at the universities to give them sound guidance in their studies. So long as you are sound in your principles, there is no fear of you," said the timid diplomatist, trying to aid the warning look of her eyes by emphasis and inflection. Poor Miss Dora! it was her unlucky fate, by dint of her very exertions in smoothing matters, always to make things worse. "He would be a bold man who would call those principles unsound which have made my brother Gerald what he is," said, with an affectionate admiration that became him, the curate of St Roque's. "It's a slavish system, notwithstanding Gerald," said Miss Leonora, with some heat; "and a false system, and leads to Antichrist at the end, and nothing less. Eat your dinner, Frank-we are not going to argue just now. We expected to hear that another of the girls was engaged before we came away, but it has not occurred yet. I don't approve of young men dancing about a house for ever and ever, unless they mean something. Do you!" Mr Wentworth faltered at this question; it disturbed his composure more than anything that had preceded it. "I-really I don't know," he said, after a pause, with a sickly smile-of which all three of the aunts took private notes, forming their own conclusions. It was, as may well be supposed, a very severe ordeal which the poor young man had to go through. When he was permitted to say good-night, he went away with a sensation of fatigue more overpowering than if he had visited all the houses in Wharfside. When he passed the green door, over which the apple-tree rustled in the dark, it was with a pang in his heart. How was he to continue to live to come and go through that familiar road-to go through all the meetings and partings, when this last hopeless trial was over, and Lucy and he were swept apart as if by an earthquake? If his lips were sealed henceforward, and he never was at liberty to say what was in his heart, what would she think of him? He could not fly from his work because he lost Skelmersdale; and how was he to bear it? He went home with a dull bitterness in his mind, trying, when he thought of it, to quiet the aching pulses which throbbed all over him, with what ought to have been the hallowed associations of the last Lenten vigil. But it was difficult, throbbing as he was with wild life and trouble to the very finger-points, to get himself into the shadow of that rock-hewn grave, by which, according to his own theory, the Church should be watching on this Easter Eve. It was hard just then to be bound to that special remembrance. What he wanted at this moment was no memory of one hour, however memorable or glorious, not even though it contained the Redeemer's grave, but the sense of a living Friend standing by him in the great struggle, which is the essential and unfailing comfort of a Christian's life. Next morning he went to church with a half-conscious, youthful sense of martyrdom, of which in his heart he was half ashamed. St Roque's was very fair to see that Easter morning. Above the communiontable, with all its sacred vessels, the carved oaken cross of the reredos was wreathed tenderly with white fragrant festoons of spring lilies, sweet Narcissus of the poets; and Mr Wentworth's choristers made another white line, two deep, down each side of the chancel. young Anglican took in all the details of the scene on his way to the reading-desk as the white procession ranged itself in the oaken stalls. At that moment-the worst moment for such a thought-it sud The denly flashed over him that, after all, a wreath of spring flowers or a chorister's surplice was scarcely worth suffering martyrdom for. This horrible suggestion, true essence of an unheroic age, which will not suffer a man to be absolutely sure of anything, disturbed his prayer as he knelt down in silence to ask God's blessing. Easter, to be sure, was lovely enough of itself without the garland, and Mr Wentworth knew well enough that his white-robed singers were no immaculate angel-band. It was Satan himself, surely, and no inferior imp, who shot that sudden arrow into the young man's heart as he tried to say his private prayer; for the curate of St Roque's was not only a fervent Anglican, but also a young Englishman sans reproche, with all the sensitive, almost fantastic, delicacy of honour which belongs to that development of humanity; and not for a dozen worlds would he have sacrificed a lily or a surplice on this particular Easter, when all his worldly hopes hung in the balance. But to think at this crowning moment that a villanous doubt of the benefit of these surplices and lilies should seize his troubled heart! for just then the strains of the organ died away in lengthened whispers, and Miss Leonora Wentworth, severe and awful, swept up through the middle aisle. It was under these terrible circumstances that the Perpetual Curate, with his heart throbbing and his head aching, began to intone the morning service on that Easter Sunday, ever after a day so memorable in the records of St Roque's. 3 F VOL. XCIII.-NO. DLXXII. INDEX TO VOL. XCIII. Adams, Mr, the American minister, Admiralty, Sir James Graham's admin- Adoption, recognition of, by the French Advocates' fees, the Roman law re- Black Bird, an American Indian, burial Blockade, declaration of the Treaty of BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES, 731. Boat, the, from Uhland, 590. BOOTH'S EPIGRAMS, ANCIENT AND MO- Agricultural Society of Poland, the, its Borges, the Italian brigand, extracts objects, &c., 723, 724. Albany, the Duke of, his arrival in Alma, the battle of the, 379. America, the ancient traces of man in, American Indians, gradual absorption Armaments, the proposed reduction of Art, on certain principles of, in works Austria, recent reforms in, 260 et seq.- BABYLON, ROUGH NOTES OF A RIDE TO, BACON, SPEDDING'S LIFE OF, reviewed, Bacon, Lady, mother of Lord Bacon, 482 et seq. passim. Baghdad, sketches in, 667- a ride to and death, 347, 348. 316. Bianchi's defence of Cavour, remarks Biers-Nimrood, a visit to the, 681. from the journal of, 581. Bourbons, the, characteristics of their Bournazel, the Lord of, French ambas- Brigandage in Italy, causes, &c. of, Bright, Mr, party headed by, 249. 506. BUDGET, THE, 645. Burial of the dead, early customs con- Cambridge, defeat of the Ministerial Camorra, the, in Southern Italy, 584. Canoe, first form of the, &c., 532 et seq. Caracalla's Baths, the ruins of, 464. Cascine, the, at Florence, 327. CAXTONIANA, Part XII. No. xix. Motive Power, 30- Part XIII. Mo- Censorship of the press, the, in Flo- Central America, the ancient cities of, Cessio Bonorum, the law of, 319. CHINA, PROGRESS IN, 44-Part II. THE Chinese, disposition of the masses of, Christian Union of Hong-Kong, the, Clan fights, prevalence of, in China, Clay, Mr, the despatches, &c. of, 642. 66 Cobden, Mr, arguments of, for abolish- A Cotton famine, the, 245-its moral as- Coup d'Etat, Kinglake's History of the, Court of Session, the, its adoption from Court party, the, in Florence, 327. Denmark, Earl Russell's despatch to, Dighton Rock, the inscription on the, Douglas, Sir Charles, 561. DOUGLAS, GENERAL SIR HOWARD, THE Dunshunner, Crinoliniana by, 762. et seq. 783 ENGLISH VILLAGE, AN, IN FRENCH, 301. Essex, the relation between, and Flint implements of the valley of the FLORENCE, THE PERIPATETIC POLITI- Foreign Inspectorate of Customs, ori- 323. France, present attitude of, toward FRANK IN SCOTLAND, THE, 330. French occupation of Rome, alleged Froissart, account of the first French Fruits, varieties of, in China, 514. LAS, review of, 561. Funeral solemnities, early forms of, &c., Galicia, the policy of Austria in, 718. Geomancy, prevalence of, in China, 510. Germany, present position of, 258 et seq. GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA, 690. Gladstone, Mr, his financial administra- Gold, effects of the increased supply of, Goldsmith's Daughter, the, from Uh- Graham, Dr, one of Sir James Graham's GRAHAM, SIR JAMES, 436. Greek Revolution, the, and prospects Han-kow, the destruction of, by the Hat mountain, the, in China, 504. Heuskin, Mr, the murder of, in Japan, Hienfung, Emperor of China, character, 541. Hillah, sketches at, 679. Holmes, Mr, account of the Taepings Holy Places, history of the dispute re- Hull, return of Sir James Graham for, Hungary, present attitude of, towards Hung-jin, one of the leaders of the Hung-siu-tsien, one of the leaders of the Taepings, 135– his career, 139. Imagination, on certain principles of Income-tax, the proposed modifications INEXHAUSTIBLE CAPITAL, THE, 457. Ionian Islands, the, proposed cession of, Ireland, characteristics of political feel- ITALIAN BRIGANDAGE, 576. ITALY, ANCIENT, THE LANDSCAPE OF, ITALY OF CAVOUR, A GLANCE AT THE, Italy, present position of, 263-causes, Japanese jugglers, feats of, 413. John of Vienne, expedition of, into Kiaking, state of China under, 46. King's College, Aberdeen, modelled on La Bastie, the Chevalier, career and La Beata, review of, 84. LACORDAIRE, HENRI, 169. Ladrones, the inhabitants of, ignorant Lamarmora, General, his report on bri- Lammennais, the Abbé de, notices of, Landlady's Daughter, the, from Uhland, 589. Langiewicz, the Polish Dictator, his L'Avenir, the French journal called, LA VIE DE VILLAGE EN ANGLETERRE, Lay, Mr, head of the Foreign Inspec- Lee, General, sketch of, 18 et seq. Macaulay's Essay on Bacon, notice of, M'Clellan, General, sketch of, 18, 28. M'Culloch, Mr, on the true principles Madeleine of France, the marriage of Maguire, Mr, his account of Rome, &c., Malmesbury, Lord, his despatches on Man, the question regarding the anti- Manchester, the distress in, 245. Marchese's Storico del Convento di San Marietta, review of, 91. Market of Rome, the, 468. Mary of Guise, the marriage of James Maryland, the Confederate expedition Mentschikoff, Prince, the mission of, Mexico, the French intervention in, 265. Mieroslawski, party headed by, &c., in Ministry, present position of the, 250 Misanthropy, modern phase of, 477. |