BY

THE AUTHOR OF

"MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS,”

"THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES,"

&c. &c.

"Out of God's choicest treasury we bring down
New virtue to sustain all ill-new power
To braid life's thorns into a regal crown.
We pass'd into the outer world to prove
The strength miraculous of Sisters' Love."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,

13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1862.

The right of Translation is reserved.

THE LADIES OF LOVEL-LEIGH,

66 How

CHAPTER I.

many links of love there are,

Sweet beings of unequal mould,

And natures all dissimilar;

The vile dross clasps the precious gold,

The ever-beating waves embrace
The stolid rock's unmoving base :
And fresh-born ivy tendrils cling
To the grey ruin mouldering,
Around the darkest clouds will play
The summer lightning's brightest ray:
And on the peaks of mountain snow,

The warmest tints of sunset glow."-CALVERT.

A SHADOW had passed over our father's face as the shadows of evening fall silently into the coming night. He was disturbed