ved for the obituary record, which, as usual, contained the apotheosis of some, it may be, very worthy, but certainly very insignificant individual, as in the present instance.

gone

"Died, at the house of his father, No. 2, East Cotton Row, where he had for the recovery of his health, on the 13th ult. aged 45, Nathaniel Lamb, Esq. hosier and glover, after a long and lingering illness, which he bore with the most heroic patience, and Christian resignation. To the purest benevolence, the most enlightened piety, and the most devoted patriotism, Mr Lamb, junior, united the firmest principles, the most perfect integrity, and the most affable address

Here uncle Adam broke out with-" Affable address! the affability o' a hosier! I never could bear that word aw my days, and far less noodinna read ony mair, Ma'am-Affable! affable! I wonder wha wad tak affability aff the hands o" a glover !—but it's just o' a piece wi' awthing else in this world now. Half-pay lieutenants maun hae leddies and heirs-and bodies o' schule-maisters and ministers maun sit for their pickters, and hae their faces printed as though they war kings and

conquerors. The newspapers are filled wi' the lives o' folk that naebody ever heard o' till they war dead. I dinna ken what things are to come to !"

"Indeed, sir, that's my wonder, for I really think the world has been turned fairly topsy-turvy since our days; but I assure you it would be well if people were satisfied with putting their deaths in the papers. What do you think, sir, of having to pay, as I had the t'other day, thirteen-pence halfpenny for a notification of the death of a woman that wasn't a drop's blood to me-just thirteen-pence halfpenny out of my hand, and that for a person that, to tell the truth, I thought had been dead twenty years ago."

This was another nut for uncle Adam, who had long brooded over the mortification of having had to pay a penny for a similar compliment, and even thought how he should obtain redress, or at least revenge. Miss Pratt went on

"As Anthony Whyte (my nephew, Mr Whyte of Whyte-Hall) says, 'I've given orders to take in no letters from the post-office now with black

seals-they're either disagreeable or expensive, and sometimes both.""

"It's a very sensible regulation,” said uncle Adam, warmly.

"And as for burial letters-what do you think, sir, of Anthony Whyte being asked to three burials in one week-and two of them ple he never had broke bread with ?”

peo

"I think a man had better be a saullie* at once," said Mr Black, vehemently.

But here the colloquy of these two congenial souls was interrupted by the entrance of Lady Rossville.

"That's an ooncommon sensible woman," said uncle Adam, as his friend and ally pattered away to the other end of the room for a fire-screen for the Countess.

"I really am agreeably surprised with your uncle," whispered Miss Pratt, as she drew Lady Rossville a little aside; "a fine shrewd old man -I assure you, he knows odds from ends; it's not everybody that will do with him-he puts you to your trumps in a hurry.”

* A hired mourner.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

LORD BACON.

GERTRUDE watched with some solicitude the meeting between her mother and Mr Lyndsay, as she entered the drawing-room before dinner, leaning on her arm in all the parade of convalescence. When he came up to offer his congratulations, her cheek was slightly suffused, and for a moment her eye fell beneath the mild, yet searching expression of his. But quickly regaining her self-possession, she replied to his salutation in that distant ceremonious manner, which plainly indicated the sort of footing they were henceforth to be upon. Mr Lyndsay had too much tact not to feel what was implied, and the inference he drew was, that he must now cease to

expect any explanation from her as to the past. The Earl's death had deprived him of the only hold he had over her, for there was no one now who had a right to interpose their authority. Averse as he was to interference in general, yet upon this occasion, he considered himself called upon to act a decided part, and he resolved to take the first opportunity of coming to an understanding with Mrs St Clair, on the subject of the mysterious interviews.

Lady Rossville felt that some apology was due to her cousin, for the introduction of so uncouth a companion as uncle Adam; and she hastened to explain to him the cause of his becoming her guest, and to request that he might not consider him as any tax upon his politeness, or think it incumbent upon him to entertain a person who, she assured him, despised entertainment in every shape.

But Lyndsay was not one of those fastidious beings, who can only tolerate the chosen few, whose endowments place them, at least, on a level with themselves.-Although the gulf was wide which separated Mr Ramsay and him in mind and manners, yet he did not disdain all fellowship