she began to pour out reproaches: "Oh, how | soon as possible; and he pointed out to her could you! Oh, I could not have believed it, that, in giving any further encouragement to Fraulein! and to carry it all on so secretly, the young man, she would be instigating him without a word to me!" to rebel against the known wishes and the. lawful authority of his father.

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"I cannot forget him, and I wish not to forget him; but what matters it? I am go

Forgive me this, dear Madame; I wished to tell you, who have been to me as a mother; but ever he said to me: Not now, not now; tell no one till I shall have told my father.'" | ing : no one need fear me longer." This was "And when in the world did he mean to tell his father?"

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Augustus does not like Lady Harriet Hardie: he amuses himself at her grimaces, and he does not admire the yellow color of her hair."

“Oh, don't talk to me about Lady Harriet and her hair! how can you sit there, answering me so coolly, when you have got me into such a sea of troubles? and you suited me so exactly, and the children were getting on so well; and now I shall have to take some horrid old fright, like my last one, of Mrs. Bryant's recommending."

her answer to Mr. Mowbray. To his wife she would sometimes say, "But tell me, dear Madame, what have I done that you shake your head at me? I sought him not; but when he came and said, 'I love you, be my wife,' where was my duty to say, No?"

This unconsciousness of evil-doing which Mrs. Mowbray repeated to Mrs. Bryant as an extenuating circumstance, was but as fuel to the fire of her anger. Great had been the commotion at Woodbridge Hall, and stormy the scene between Augustus and his parents, when the fact of his actual engagement had been unwillingly reported by Mrs. Mowbray. Mr. Bryant had positively assured his son that he would take away every shilling of his present allowance, if he went again near the Parsonage while Miss Berthal remained there; and that if he dared in any manner to continue the intercourse after she had left, he would leave all his money to a hospital.

Mrs. Bryant had at last, by harsh persistence, gained her point of an interview with Ottilia; and had left her clutching the cushions, and pressing her forehead on the arm of the sofa, in an agony of neuralgic headache. She had at first attacked her with bitter invective, but this the young girl met Now it was Ottilia's turn to look dis- with a composure and dignity which baffled mayed her deep-blue eyes widened, and her her, and forced her to change her tactics; lips trembled, and then she spoke slowly. and it was by working on her conscience "So I must leave you! you send me away rather than her fears, that she induced her from you ! and for what? because I have re-to make a promise-which, however, Mr. and ceived a true love from an honorable man!" | Mrs. Mowbray's kinder remonstrances had But this was inevitable; Mr. Mowbray already half won from her-that she would himself saw and acknowledged it, even while not speak again to Augustus before she left. he inwardly resented the arrogant dictation A promise once made Ottilia Berthal would and selfishness of Mrs. Bryant. He had one keep, if it were to ruin her whole life. Many long and explicit conversation with Ottilia, were the little notes which, during the folin which, without blaming her at all severely, lowing week, Augustus caused to reach her, he pointed out to her the danger, and even imploring her to see him, if but for one mothe questionable propriety, of an engagement ment. She always wrote back the same anwith so young a man as Augustus Bryant:swer. "I have promised not, and you must he endeavored to convince her of its utter obey your parents; but I will never forget hopelessness, and the expediency of rooting you." During this week she never stirred this "boy and girl love" from her mind as out; but on the last evening, when the loud

"I have caught you at last, oh, you cruel girl! how could you treat me so, all this week? You have driven me nearly crazy."

The first wild thrill of joy in Ottilia's breast was succeeded by a pang of conscience. “Oh, I have promised," she cried; " August, dear one, leave me. I have said I would speak to you no more. Oh, pray go from me!"

"I shall do no such thing; what business have you to make such a promise, I should like to know, or who has dared to ask it?”

"It was your mother. Oh, you must not disobey your parents, it would be sin; it was not sin till they spoke, but now you must think of me no more.

dinner-bell at the hall had rung, and she | her, and in another instant an arm was knew that Augustus was safely engaged in- thrown tightly round her, and Augustus was doors, she hurriedly put on her bonnet, stooping at her side. slipped out of the house, and sped up the narrow path into the beech clump on the down. There it was that he had first called her" Ottilia," and asked her if she loved him. There had they often sat in a delicious silence themselves, while the merry voices of the children made the air busy round them; thence had they looked forth together on the fair scene of wood and meadow, and he had whispered to her of the time when all this would be hers. He had never allowed a breath of despondency or a hint at any great difficulties in the way of their love. "You know they have not a chick or a child but me, and there is nothing I have not been able to get out of them, when I wished it, ever since I was born. Oh, I am quite sure it will all "Think of you no more! I shall think of come as right as possible; perhaps a little you every moment of the day, and every hour grumble just at first, but I am used to that of my life, I can tell them that. I love you every time I have to ask for an extra five-a thousand times more, my darling, since pound note or so; I get it all the same, and they have set themselves against you in this so you shall see it will be now." shameful way. And what I have been wantYoung and trusting, ignorant alike of Eng-ing to get at you for all these days, is to ask lish habits and the character of those on whom you to go off with me." her fate depended, Ottilia had listened to these hopeful words from the beloved lips; had believed them, and had lived on from day to day in a dream of uninquiring, unfearing, passive happiness, leaving all that concerned her ultimate destiny in the hands of this boy, who was to her adoring eyes the ideal of all manly strength as well as grace.

"Go off! how?"

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Why-to run away with me, to be sure; to go somewhere where we can get married, and then snap our fingers at them all. I have got all the plan settled, dearest, about the money, and the carriage, and the place, and all; you just drop out and be on the Netton side of the bridge to-night, at nine o'clock, and I'll have a fly waiting, and you shall be my own wife before twenty-four hours are over."

And now she stood in the sun-dappled clump, recalling every tone of his voice, every look of his eye, every tender word which he had uttered in this very spot. She threw "Ah-no-no! What are you saying? herself on the ground, and kissed the moss on what am I doing here? Listen, my Auwhich they had sat; there were twigs lying gust! Mr. Mowbray has shown to me that about which she remembered to have seen you are still as a child; that is, you do dehim twist and break while they were talking; pend for all on your father, and you must she caught them up, and pressed them pas-submit to him and obey him; and I know sionately to her lips, and hid them in her breast.

well that a curse rather than a blessing does fall on those who have made undutiful marriages in rebellion to their parents. I will never, never be to you the cause of such a fate."

He would have tried further persuasion, but she rose from the ground and broke from his arms. "Lebe wohl, lebe wohl," she repeated, in piteous, love-freighted tones, as she turned away.

"And you are going, actually going to

But towards the end of her stay her eye grew brighter, her manner livelier, and the color in her cheek alternately cheered and alarmed her mother.

morrow," he cried, following her; "and looks, excited her good mother's uneasiness. you will leave me in this way? What an abominable shame of my mother, and of those cowardly Mowbrays, to turn you out after this fashion! You will write to me, darling, every day, and let me see that you don't forget me?"

"Need I tell that? But I may not write, and you must not write to me; unless, indeed, God should have pity on us, and turn to me your parents' hearts."

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They will come round, dearest, never fear," said Augustus, beginning to reconcile himself to the unavoidable present, and to take refuge in the future. "We shall have you back here in no time, and they will be asking your pardon for all their rudeness." "Mr. Mowbray says never.

The 28th drew on; it was a day which despite her resolutions to expect nothing, had been set apart in Ottilia's mind as the crisis of her fate, for on that day Augustus would be one-and-twenty. It was true that the birthday might make no real difference in his power of acting according to his wishes, but he bad spoken of it so confidently that, almost unconsciously, it had been fixed by the trusting girl as the goal of her hopes.

The morning brought no letter; but with a pervading expectation of she scarce knew what, with a flushed cheek, and hot hands, she went through the little businesses of the day, looked over the household linen with her mother, made the coffee, and cut the tartines ready for her brother's return from school; took the pipe to ker father in the

"Does he? what makes him so wise, I wonder? But never mind if they don't. I shan't be a child, as you call it, all my life; in two years I shall be twenty-one, my own master lawfully, according to the law of the land, and then I'll come and claim you, Ot-alcove, and read to him from the Hildesheim tilia; and if my father cuts me off with a shilling, as he says he will, why then we'll live on my pay. Good-by, my precious, my angel, my own! I'll never forget you. I have your father's address in Germany, you know, and I shall turn up there some day, you see if I don't; in two years' time, if not before."

These were his last words, uttered as she sped from him between the stems of the beech trees; she turned for an instant as she heard them, while a beam from the setting sun played around her, and a fairer light than that of the sun, a smile of love, and faith, and hope, illumined for an instant her tearful face.

Two years is but a little time when our lot in life is settled, when our prospects have become facts, and we have nothing more particularly to desire or expect on this side of our life. But it is an arena all too large for the battle-ground of hope and despondency, the action of suspense and yearning on a young and sensitive heart. Ottilia's constitution was naturally fragile, and ill calculated to bear any pressure, either from within or without; and when in the second July after her parting with Augustus, she appeared at home for her midsummer holiday, her thinness, and some vague alteration in her

Zeitung till he fell asleep. The night came, and brought no sign; but as she laid her head on the pillow, she remembered that the last thing likely was that she should hear anything on the day itself, that she ought to allow time for a letter, written upon the 28th, to reach her. That time, reckoned to its furthest margin, passed by, and so did her holiday. On leaving, she repeated so many times-" If a letter should come for me, dear mother, you will send it directly to me at Mr. Johnstone's," that her mother began to suspect some heart trouble connected with this expected letter, which caused her child's loss of bloom.

And four more years went by: making six in all since she had parted from Augustus under the beech trees. The vicissitudes of a governess's life had by this time brought her into the family of a Scotch laird who owned a fine place in Perthshire. Ottilia was now six-and-twenty; the positive beauty of her early youth had yielded to the united effects of suspense, final disappointment, and constant work; but her expressive eyes and sweet countenance still made her attractive. She was much valued by her employers; the only drawback to Mrs. Arbuthnot's perfect contentment being her delicate health and frequent cough, but this she always maintained

herself to be a chronic tendency of no serious | room full of company, to whose bosom she consequence. Her manner was soft and quiet, had been held when last they met and parted, and an even, gentle cheerfulness beamed over in the little beech clump of Woodbridge? all she said and did, the sure token of a welltrained spirit, at peace with itself and all the world. This was its usual characteristic; but in the evening on which my tale is resumed, her demeanor was strangely altered.

"Fraulein, have you a headache?" said one of her young pupils to her in the course of the walk; and on her answering hastily in the negative, she fell back and whispered to her sister, "What can be the matter with Fraulein? she has seemed so out of spirits today, and has spoken quite sharply now and then; and in the drawing lesson her hand shook so when she took my pencil that she was obliged to leave off."

"Oh, she is unwell, no doubt, though she will not own it; she never does allow that she is ill. She was not well last night, for after she had dressed, she changed her mind and would not go to the drawing room. We must make mamma look to her."

Or should they not meet at all? Would he
come and go, ignorant that one who, once at
least, had been so much beloved -
his own
Ottilia, as he had delighted to call her—was
under the same roof, breathing the same air,
and treading the same floor as himself? Per-
haps it would be better so; yet she felt this
would leave a bitter regret, a long and deeply
rankling pain. Revolving these things, she
paced up and down that part of the bank which
was clear from both bushes and rocks, when
a cry or shout which she had heard once or
twice without noticing it, made itself pres-
ent to her attention. It struck her that
there was something urgent in it, something
different from the shout of a shepherd or
keeper, and she moved along the river side in
its direction. The ground became soft and
spongy as she proceeded, so much so that her
foot sunk to the ankle. She suddenly re-
membered having heard that a piece of the
river bank was rendered dangerous from its
boggy nature, and that a post had been set
up to mark where this unsafe ground began.
Looking around, she saw, lying just behind
her, and partly hidden in the rushes, an old,
much decayed log. With a breath of thanks-
giving for her escape, she drew back, and
moved by a newly awakened idea, she ran up
the bank, which here receded a good deal,
leaving a considerable area between itself and
the stream, so as to skirt the bog, and yet
keep its surface in view. As she went the
cry was repeated, now close at hand; and on

On returning from the walk, Ottilia told her pupils to go in, saying that, as the air was still so pleasant, she would remain out a little while longer. As soon as she was alone, she hurried with a step that kept pace with the feverish disquiet of her mind, through the most secluded paths of the grounds, and then down the steep wooded bank of the river, till.she came to the water's edge. It seemed as if she wished for the rush and whirl of the turbid stream to sympathize with her excited feelings. Poor Ottilia! she had flattered herself that her old wound was healed forever; she thought she had bid good-passing a bend of the river, she saw before by to earthly love, and its feverish pain, but a name which she had heard, and a voice which had met her ear the evening before, seemed to have undone the work of years, and to have carried her back into the midst of that region of struggle and yearning which appeared to have been left so far behind. Augustus Bryant had come a guest to the house in which she lived: as yet they had not encountered each other, but he had passed the open door of the room in which she was, and though she had been prepared, by hearing his name mentioned as one of the party just arrived for the autumn shooting, the effect upon her of this glimpse and of this voice had been overwhelming. How should she be able to meet him, as a stranger, and in a THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

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her the figure of a man, from a little above the waist, rising awfully distinct against the pale yellow of the evening sky, out of the green-tufted expanse below her. She flew on through the straggling bushes, judging almost by instinct of the place where she might turn down again to the river side. The man was within a few yards of the edge of the bog, with his face turned in that direction; he had evidently observed his danger after going a little distance, and had vainly endeavored to return. Occasionally he made a forward struggling movement, when the whole face of what seemed solid sward,,quivered, rose, and sank like a pond in a breeze; and the figure looked a little less high than before.

"Do not move! Oh, keep stiH!" cried | tual clasp of their hands. She tried to supOttilia, as she saw this; and sinking down port herself by clutching with her other hand panting on a tongue of firm turf, from which at the stem of the tree. an old willow stem leaned over the bog, she stretched her hand, as far as she could reach, towards the sinking man; he caught it in his with the gripe of utmost need. At the same moment their eyes met, and Ottilia uttered a low cry; for the face before her was that of Augustus.

For the first moment or two he only looked at her with the grave, earnest look of a man in great peril; then there came a flush over his face ;

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"Ottilia!" he said, in a low, husky voice; yes, I have deserved this, and I see now it is a judgment."

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Oh, thank God I was at hand to hear you! "she cried, disregarding all but his danger. "Now, with the help of my hand -now you can get out, can you not? Allgnädiger Gott erbarme uns!" she continued, as, at the strong movement which he made towards her, he sank several inches, almost drawing her at the same time from her footing.

"It is of no use," he said; every moment only hastens the end. Oh, what a horrible death for a man to die!"

"You are not going to die, August; 1 will hold you up. As long as you are still, I can keep you from sinking, and we must call for help. Is there no one near?”

"No; they are a mile off by this time; they took the other branch of the river, and, like a fool, I chose to come up here alone."

"But shout, shout! they may be ing, or some one else may be near."

"Is there nothing more than this that I can do?" she said. "O August! can you think of no way?" "There is none," he replied; come. Leave go of my hand, Ottilia, and let me be put out of my misery at once."

"it must

"Oh, talk not so! Pray, pray, August, that God may save you, if he will, and if not, take you to himself— that he may take us both! And lifting up her eyes from the face of Augustus to the darkening sky above them, she wrestled aloud in prayer, less now for the earthly life of her beloved than for the pardon and acceptance of the deathless soul.

"God reward you!" he said, faintly, when she paused. "I have been a villain to you; there is many a sin that lies heavily enough upon me now, but this is the worst to think of."

"Think not of that, nor of me-think but of your Redeemer, and lay tight, tight hold of his cross!

There was silence for many minutes. Then there came a rustling in the trees on the bank: hope sprang up in both their hearts. Alas! it was but the flap of some large bird's wing, quarrelling with its fellows for a roosting-place.

Suddenly a more rapid fall of Augustus' body almost separated their hands; one arm, his head and shoulders were now alone visible. Ottilia rose on her knees, and lifted her arm as high as her reaching posture would return-allow; and with every fibre of her body knit in this hand to hand struggle with the grave, she strove to hold back from it its prey, while her very soul seemed to pour itself out in successive shrieks, which made the still air shiver and ring in tortured vibrations along the rocky bank.

He shouted; many a time did he shout; and many a time did Ottilia take up that cry, in tones made sharper and clearer by anguish. Both voices died away alike in the lonely distance; nothing was heard but the sullen mutter of the water, and the sound of the wind in the trees high above.

After awhile, even when motionless himself, the figure of Augustus no longer remained stationary; slowly, almost imperceptibly, yet always was it sinking. Ottilia's arm was strained till the tendons seemed to crack, and the cold drops stood on her face; sometimes it became numb, and a horror came upon her lest she should faint, or at least lose the power of maintaining the mu

An

And hark-there is something besides their echoes the sound of a man's halloo. other! nearer! and now the noise of feet running on the high road above; and now the crashing of branches, and a round, glimmering light coming down the bank.

"Where are you!" cried voices.

"Here!" shouted Augustus, restored to the vigor of life and hope in an instant; here, to the right; but be quick, or it's of no use!"