esteem; and she was very sure that her aunt would not lose such an opportunity of robbing her of his good opinion. She did not mistake. Mrs. Wilson closed the door after Jane; and seating herself, all unused as she was to the melting mood, gave way to a passion of tears and sobs, which were, as we think, a sincere tribute to the loss she had experienced.
"For heaven's sake, tell me what is the matter!" and Erskine to young Wilson; for his impatience for an explanation became irrepressible, not on account of the old woman's emotion, for she might have wept till she was like Niobe, all tears, without provoking an inquiry, but Jane's distress had excited his anxiety.
"The Lord knows," replied David; "there is always a storm in this house;" and he flung out of the room without vouchsafing a more explicit answer.
Erskine turned to Mrs. Wilson: "Can you tell me, madam, what has disturbed Miss Elton?"
Mrs. Wilson was provoked that he did not ask what had disturbed her, and she determined he should not remain another moment without the communication, which she had been turning over in her mind to get it in the most efficient form.
"Oh! Mr. Erskine," she said, with a whine that has been used by all hypocrites from Oliver Cromwell's time down; "oh! my trial is more than I can endure. I could bear, they should devour me and lay waste my dwelling place; I could be supported under that; but it is a grief too heavy for
