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Such (in the words of him who had of late become his favourite author) he felt assured was the case. Oriana was nineteen; her sister had scarcely attained her seventeenth year. Enriched with sense beyond their years, their confiding parent had ever made them the companions of his sorrows. They in return revered his virtues, and loved him with the truest filial piety. The misfortunes he had met with gave him an additional claim to their tenderness; and with the most lively sincerity they hastened to relieve him from a world which had robbed their invaluable parent of his peace; with sanguine earnestness expressing themselves convinced he would regain both health and happiness when established in the shade of some tranquil solitude. These amiable girls had never yet experienced a total seclusion, and were consequently unprepared for the isolation which awaited them; and as in the hour of youth every change presents a pleasing variety, so in the anticipation of the future it never occurred to them how great was the sacrifice they were on the point of making, and how difficult it is to reconcile a passive existence with the lively feelings of their age; for then it is that the allurements of life enchant the imagi-