Perhaps there never were any people, altogether, quite
so happy as the party now assembled at Rose Hill. There
never was such glorious weather, such capital eatables,
such delicious butter, and honey, and marmalade, and preserves,
and cherry-wine, and ice-cream, and home-made
bread, and fruit-pie, and, in short, all sorts of the very nicest
things imaginable. White and Glendenning were fairly fascinated;
and even Fanny, although she had some reason
not to be as gay as she had been in other years, even she
could not resist the effect of the bright scenes, hilarious
and inspiriting incidents, and very agreeable people around
her. As for little Seth, he had got to be quite a different
person; as his true character developed itself, he was found,
besides being not at all wanting in intelligence, so warm-hearted,
grateful, and amiable, that he became a favourite.
His stiff awkwardness gave place to more freedom of manner,
and the changes going on in his heart began to show
themselves on his countenance.

But if Seth appeared to have undergone a favourable
alteration, in Glendenning there was perceptible a much
greater one. He soon captivated his hospitable entertainers,
and their obvious partiality for and complete forgiveness
of him had a serious effect upon him. Frank and he were
really become attached friends. Their prompt and daring
courage and impetuosity of disposition were not unlike, only

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Frank's had been better regulated by education. Both were
possessed of many of the faults as well as the virtues of
youth—hot-headed, thoughtless, passionate, and inexperienced,
but generous, affectionate, noble, and impressionable.
They soon learned to love each other sincerely. Glendenning,
sensible of his culpable folly and heartily ashamed of
his past life, evinced in various ways his sincere repentance
and desire to reform; and it was not in the power of
the amiable family to see any one so truly inspired with
good resolutions, without conceiving for him both sympathy
and friendship.

There are periods when all that the earth affords of happiness
seems gathered around us, and all its evils and cares
disappear, just as some rare days break without a chill, a
cloud, or a breath of wind. The brightness and repose of
outward nature descend into our hearts. Our capacity for
happiness is full. Not only do the trees, sky, rivers, and
fields wear an unwonted charm, but the people around us
appear invested only with grace and love, and arouse in us
all our better feelings, as if they were so many radiant angels.
Who has not come suddenly upon some such a happy
valley in life's pilgrimage, where he would fain have lingered
forever, but that the dusky phantoms of fate beckoned
him onward, and the resistless and invisible current of circumstances,
flowing with its turbid tide on and on, bears
him away to other scenes, leaving only an enchanting recollection
of these little holydays of the heart? And who
has not felt, at such moments, the mysterious nearness—
the viewless and noiseless presence of supernatural things?
who has not observed that these intervals of peace and joy
(not the legitimate inheritance of the fallen race which is
doomed to eat of the ground in sorrow all the days of its
life) come often just before some terrible crisis?

The week at Rose Hill was one of those periods of unusual
enjoyment, and the only drawback upon all the fun at
present was the necessity which called Mr. Lennox back
to town early Monday morning, with the promise, however,
to call and see them again Friday or Saturday. Music,
drives, sketching and riding, gay and instructive conversation,
poetry and literature, and, on all sides, the unreserved
confidences of the heart. Glendenning wondered he had
ever sought happiness in such different circles.

They had arrived at Rose Hill on Tuesday, and it was

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arranged that they should remain at least one week. The
first afternoon and evening were devoted to an examination
of the house and grounds. There were an excellent farm,
a delightful garden; conservatories, promenades, etc., etc.,
etc.; a drive along a road following the river, and presenting
a series of views remarkable for beauty: and then the
family assembled in the drawing-rooms, which opened upon
a balcony extending entirely around the house, and which
was situated in so commanding a site, that the gorgeous
and picturesque Highland river-scenery was spread out beneath
and above like a superb panorama. Here the teatable
gathered together not only the members of the party,
but half a dozen distinguished strangers, either visiters at
West Point, distant a short sail on the opposite side, or
from some of the neighbouring seats. The expensive and
elegant style in which Mr. Lennox lived, the luxurious furniture
and very well-kept grounds; the opulence which
made itself seen in all the details of the domestic arrangement—
opulence, showing itself, however, rather in matters
of comfort and genuine hospitality than display—surprised
the two young officers, who had both been impressed with
the idea that English comfort was not to be found in quite
such perfection out of the sea-girt isle.

Little Seth saw in all this only a dream of perfect enchantment.
He roamed about the grounds with his mouth
open, peered into the garden, sat, half stupified with delight,
looking at the magnificent landscape which lay beneath and
above him, mingling silently with the persons who made
up the evening party, bearing their jokes with immovable
good-humour, hearing them talk, wondering at the easy flow
of their words, and the bold and sportive way in which they
spoke to each other, and in which they did the most serious
as the most trifling things, and, in short, enjoying a great
many new thoughts and feelings. Mary was his ever-faithful
friend. She explained everything to him which he did
not understand, told him where to go, and what to do and
say, laughed him out of his bad grammar and country
phrases, arranged his cravat and collar in a way so becoming
that he was quite surprised himself at his genteel appearance,
and was not likely to forget her manner of tying
the knot in front. When she ordered him up to let her examine
him sometimes—when she fixed her eyes on him
with a scrutinizing look, gave him various instructions, put

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aside the hair from his forehead with her own soft, white
hand, and arranged it around his temples, he said nothing,
but he thought and felt a great deal. He felt as if he had
entered into a new world, and as if a new soul had entered
into his body.

Several days thus passed away delightfully. It seemed
that none of them had ever before been so happy. Every
morning saw our merry party early up and abroad upon
some expedition of pleasure: a visit to some picturesque
part of the shore in Harry's boat, or a drive and walk to the
summit of some neighbouring mountain which commanded
a celebrated view. From breakfast till dinner, riding, boating
shooting sometimes, driving, newspapers, reviews, and
calls every day. The whole party dined out or received at
home, or made pic-nic parties to interesting spots. In the
afternoons and evenings, when the sun, descending into a
sea of glory, increased in splendour as the fierceness of his
beams abated, and the cool, refreshing night air, full of perfumes,
braced the nerves and soothed the spirits, Glendenning
thought he had never seen a spot of the earth where
he should so like to spend his life, nor people with whom
his days would glide more pleasantly away. He had no
family or home. His father, his only living relative, had
discovered so little consideration for or interest in him that,
however a sense of duty might modify his sentiments, he
could not look forward to a return to the paternal roof as an
event either possible or desirable. Here, at once, all the
best qualities of his mind, all the noblest impulses of his
heart, were called into being; and, as he became more acquainted
with Mary, a dream of happiness rose up in his
imagination, which, however immature, gave a great weight
to the maternal counsels of Mrs. Lennox, and a new impulse
to his schemes of reformation and self-improvement. In
short, if Mary had given him the least encouragement, he
would have fallen in love in the same off-handed way in
which he did everything else. Whatever was the adventure
which presented itself to him—a noble or a foolish action,
a love-scrape or a duel—in he went headlong at ten
minutes' notice.

During these fine times Mrs. Lennox by no means neglected
her serious plan of turning Glendenning's attention to
the subject of religion. The hope of convincing a young
officer of such a disposition, and with whom her

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acquaintance had originated in such a singular manner, would have
been thought, by most persons, rather Quixotic. But her
genuine piety did not suffer itself to be discouraged by any
ordinary objection, and she was delighted to find her task
infinitely easier than she had dared to hope. Glendenning's
facile nature was now softened by happiness and the novelty
of pure and rational attachments. Mrs. Lennox's sweetness
of manner, which only reflected that of her countenance
and soul, had a pleasing effect upon him. He was, as we
have before observed, so completely ignorant of the nature
of our divine religion, and of the evidence by the aid of
which it has resisted the stormy shocks and wearing influences
of so many centuries, and she was so well acquainted
with the subject, and was able so clearly to explain that
which she so clearly understood, that she soon succeeded
in raising in him both astonishment and curiosity. She artfully
availed herself of many an interval to appeal frankly to
his good sense and calm reason, and she had the gratification
to see that he was sufficiently ingenuous to confess
when her facts were new to him and her arguments unanswerable.
He listened at first with respect, and afterward
with unfeigned attention and increasing interest, laid candidly
before her all his ignorance and all his objections, and
saw that the ground he stood on was taken by her earnest
and pious eloquence and superior knowledge, inch by inch,
from beneath his feet. He promised her, at last, that he
would make a full study of the subject the first duty of his
future life; that if doubts continued in his way, he would apply
to her before he yielded to them, and that he would correspond
with her after his departure, and let her know the
progress of his opinions. There was in this no affectation.
He had been very much impressed by new views of what,
he saw, he had never understood, or even taken the trouble
to examine. His nature was not wanting in the purity
requisite in a believer, but only in the stability, strength,
and seriousness. But what he would never have sought
himself, this best of friends presented to him with disinterested
anxiety for his welfare. She began to love him with
almost the force of a mother, and her gentle, affectionate,
and intelligent character had not failed to awaken in his
breast reciprocal sentiments.

After one of these long conversations, during a ramble
through a neighbouring wood, when she had separated him

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from the rest of the company to pursue, without interruption,
her plan of awakening his attention to the subject of religion,
the whole party returned to the house, where, after a slight
repast, Mrs. Lennox reminded them they might expect her
husband and Harry by the noon boat. It was therefore
proposed to go down to the landing at the proper hour, and
receive the new visiters with all the honours of war. Accordingly,
at about one o'clock, the whole party repaired to
the spot, laughing and talking as friends who have spent a
week in the country are very apt to talk, for nothing brings
mind and heart closer together than such an interval of uninterrupted
intimacy. A few moments after their arrival
they discovered a light cloud of ascending smoke and steam
peering over the summit of a green hill, then the plunging
strokes of the wheels and panting of the engine, and immediately
the large and stately vessel, more like a floating palace
than a boat, darted from behind a projecting angle of
black, broken rock, with the well-known barge cleaving the
foamy flood at its side, and containing the three figures of
Mr. Lennox, Harry, and Mr. Emmerson.

“Hallo! hurrah, boys! how are you? here we are!”
shouted Lennox, waving his hat. “Now then, my fine fellows,
out with ye. Hand up the valise. That's it; all
right! How d'ye do? How de do?”

And then the various embraces and shaking hands natural
to the occasion. As Lennox and Mrs. Elton did not find
it convenient to stop talking, the exclamations of the rest
were edged in as well as they could; and as nobody waited
for any answers, it was pretty much all the same in the end.
Emmerson's face was all smiles and blandness, though his
gratulations, like everything else he did, were performed in
a quiet way.

“But what's the matter with you, Harry?” said his mother;
“you don't look well.”

“Oh yes, perfectly. Never so well and so gay in my
life,” said Harry, rousing himself from a revery.

“Where's Fanny?” demanded Lennox.

“Here she is, at least here she was, or I thought she was
here.”

“Didn't she come down?” asked Mary.

“No, I don't think she did,” said Frank. “I observed she
was not with us.”

Up the steep, fragrant foot-path they wound, and met

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Fanny just coming down, looking quiet, but Mrs. Lennox
thought it was not altogether a natural tranquillity. She had
observed, when she spoke of the arrival of the party by the
boat, a certain change in her expression and manner, which
revived a thought not altogether a stranger to her mind.