They say misery is the closest of all ties; our common suffering in your behalf left but little to be explained between your father and myself."
"And dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten!"
"Not forgotten! no; regretted as woman was seldom mourned before. Your venerable father knew no difference between his children; but I—Alice, you will not be offended, when I say, that to me her worth was in a degree obscured—"
"Then you knew not the merit of my sister," said Alice, withdrawing her hand; "of you she ever speaks as of one who is her dearest friend!"
"I would gladly believe her such," returned Duncan, hastily; "I could wish her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I have the permission of your father to aspire to a still nearer and dearer tie."
The maiden trembled violently, and there was an instant, during which she bent her face aside, yielding to the emotions common to her sensitive sex; but they quickly passed away, leaving her completely mis-
