him, deeper then, but far more sorrowful than ever, he did not speak. It was as if some invisible agency over which he had no control made impossible all utterance of such feelings. And, poor Millie, she walked by his side with the secret of her earnest, simple love, rising every now and then to the very surface of her heart. Had Mr Strafford not been blinded by the storm-spray of irritated feeling, he might have discerned it on her flushing cheek,-had he not been deafened by the angry voice of his heart's tempestuous waters, it might have become perceptible to him in the quivering tremor of her voice.

Then down again fell that half-avowed and guileless feeling into the shadowy recesses of maidenly reShe would not behave herself unseemly, and a slight tone of wounded pride pervaded her words.

serve.

Just then the wind, which had been whispering lightly and caressingly to the flowery reeds at the river-side, all at once took up a tone of wail, whilst the flickering sunbeams altogether withdrew from the waters, as if their undulating surface were too troubled a resting-place for aught so bright, unconsciously typifying those two hearts whence in their disquietude gladness had departed.

CHAPTER XV.

BROADER SHADOWS.

WEEKS passed on, and autumn came sighing in; so gentle, however, was its approach, that it could only be recognised in the slight chills of evening, in the robin's fresher note, and the wood-owl's hoot at nightfall. The grass had that peculiar fragrance which seems given to it at that time of the year in compensation for the breath of the thousand flowers which have passed away.

There was a harmonious mingling of clear skies and fleecy clouds, of sunshine and rain, of beauty and decay, with which this season of the year is frequently ushered in.

And out of circumstances apparently trivial as the small cloud which covers but a man's hand, a mist had arisen, and heavy thought had communicated itself to more than one heart's atmosphere, and Millie and Mr Strafford stood up in the boding shadows.

He could no longer view her association with Lionel through the medium of that calm judgment for which, in other matters, he was still so remarkable. His thoughts, passing through the damp mists of perplexity, saw even the most harmless things in a magnified and distorted light; and, though in justice to Millie, it must be owned that she had withdrawn from all intimate converse with Lionel, she

had perhaps in this matter, by suddenly throwing off, in the first instance, that docility of spirit which had ever been her peculiar characteristic, tampered, as it were, with the feelings which Mr Strafford hardly acknowledged to himself, and laid bare the source of that dark stream of sorrow which yet, for some time, was to roll before them on the

way.

It was evening, and late in October, when the softened shadows of the trees seemed bathed in liquid moonlight,-when the tranquillity and repose resting on all around appeared but as mockery to the impetuosity of his uncontrolled but unacknowledged affection, that Mr Strafford walked home with Millie from Cedar Lodge.

Pride would not suffer him to tell her of his love; and excitement gave a vehemence to his manner, and a strength to his language, which prudence had power neither to discipline nor restrain.

He accused Millie of vanity, flirtation, and pitiable weakness, and in his unaccountable blindness, could not or would not see what was so clearly written on her transparent face,—her deep regard for him.

"How can you think I care for Lionel?" she said, making a timid effort at expostulation; and then, just in proportion to the strength of her love, her maiden shyness rose up to conceal any betrayal of it. This momentary hesitation only increased Mr Strafford's anger; he thought it argued a leaning towards Lionel, the bare idea of which was positive

torture, and he insisted that she should at once give up all intercourse with the young man. "I have a right to ask this of you," he said, and though his voice was tremulous, it seemed, as if under the influence of some incomprehensible power, to be divested of all tenderness, "and if you will not comply with my desire, this night terminates our association."

There was a dark, wild look in Mr Strafford's face, such as Millie had never till now seen, and it was reflected on her pale cheeks as she stood before him there, in the midst of her fear looking steadfastly into his countenance, as if she sought to discover in the darkness of his aspect, though at present veiled by anger, something of the old sympathy and kindness; but all was gloom, and seemed darkening even as she looked.

Millie was at all times a little inclined to waver, and now, being really frightened, and quite unable to comprehend the cold sternness occupying a heart hitherto so full of warm affection, she did not immediately make the required promise, but stood silently communing with this mystery, the very personification of those figures that one sometimes sees in a bewildered dream.

In Mr Strafford's excited state of mind this hesitation was confirmatory of his worst fears, and in the anger of his unguarded words he accused her of hollowness and false-heartedness, of coldness and caprice, with a vehemence which sent the blood back on her

heart, and made her limbs tremble, and her scarcely articulate voice quiver as she stood by his side under the arch of the old gateway.

As those hard words fell on her ear she became her own accuser, and gave the character of positive wrong to the pleasure she had felt in Lionel's society.

All this angry invective, instead of arousing in her heart any thing like resentment, seemed but to embue her love with deeper sorrow, and in no wise to impede its course.

There was the indistinct glimmer of a new conviction far down in her heart's darkness, or, perhaps, it was but a sunken thought brought again suddenly to the surface by Mr Strafford's tumultuous anger, and as the lightning gleam with its terror-gemmed but beautiful flash, irradiates the dark heaven, so over her widely diffused anguish passed a strange and tremulous joy, and in that stormy hour she became possessed of a knowledge which in calmer mood had been denied her, that she occupied the foremost place in Mr Stratford's affections.

Under what strange circumstances are these revelations sometimes made to the heart!

But this new stream of thought was pouring confusedly through her mind; and as on the billowy ocean it would be impossible to separate the waves from the dense rolling surge in which the storm has compressed them, so Millie could not for life itself have separated, as it were, language from emotion,