Sacrament was there. When Jesus has approached me, especially when borne in the hands of that innocent man who was suffering for my crime, more than once I have been driven to perfect frenzy, and felt as if I must die upon the spot. 0 my God! what have I done to Thee? Why have I hardened myself against Thee?"

Father Ambrose now gently took the unhappy man's hand, pressed it, striving hard to repress the tears that he felt ready to overflow. Then, without saying a word, he took from his own person a small crucifix, laid it on a table, and placed a chair by its side. Croft arose, knelt, forgot the friend in the Father, and through the Father poured forth his burdened soul to the eternal Father in heaven.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCLUSION.

WHEN Mrs. Ogleby returned to Burleigh, her reception was not exactly what she had been hitherto accustomed to. It so happened that Sir Reginald Somerset was in the habit of keeping a diary, in which he briefly but magniloquently noted down the events of each day as it passed. The baronet had at times perused with profound interest the illustrations of the family economy and private life of great people of former times, which the labours of antiquaries have occasionally given to the world, drawn from their household-books and divers similar private memoranda. And it was partly in the hope that some such happy lot might one day befall his own journals, that he diligently set down all the small events of Burleigh Manor, and the incidents that befell himself. Any thing that happens to a Somerset, he was wont to say to his wife, must be worth recording; and on this principle he sedulously acted.

Now when Mr. Sharp, the solicitor before mentioned, learned from Sir Reginald that he had never received the letter he had written, warning him of the insecurity of the proposed investment of Miss Somerset's fortune, it was but natural that he should institute rigid inquiries in order to account for so disagreeable an occurrence. The result of his investigations was, that he was morally convinced that the letter had been posted, and had not been lost in the post. And he entreated Sir Reginald to institute similar inquiries among his own household. In doing this, Sir Reginald of course had immediate recourse to his diary, to ascertain whether any thing

remarkable had happened on the day that the letter ought to have reached him. Assisted by the suggestions of his daughter, and by an entry in the said journal, he soon remembered that he had been summoned from the room when the letters were received by his gamekeeper, and that Mrs. Ogleby had had the first inspection of the letters. Upon the establishment of this point, it suddenly struck him that he had undoubtedly seen letters addressed to Mrs. Ogleby in a handwriting very like that of Mr. Sharp; and after some difficulty he was persuaded by his daughter to write to Mr. Sharp a letter in which it should be incidentally mentioned that a lady of the name of Ogleby was staying at Burleigh. A reply was received by return of post, conveying, in the plainest terms, the opinion of Mr. Sharp, that the said Mrs. Ogleby was a very suspicious personage, and not what she professed herself to be. This letter came the very day that the events related in the last chapter took place; and while Mrs. Ogleby was engaged at Croft's, Miss Somerset and her father were engaged in coming to some decision as to what was to be done.

When, accordingly, Mrs. Ogleby reached Burleigh, she received a request from Mary that she would oblige her with a few minutes' conversation in private. Shaken as her nerves were by the scene she had just witnessed, she was unable to control the feelings of alarm with which she heard this message, and she proceeded to meet Miss Somerset with no slight trepidation. She sat down, and endeavoured to open the interview in a lively strain, but signally failed.

"You are acquainted with Mr. Sharp of, I believe," said Mary, paying no heed to Mrs. Ogleby's remarks, and fixing her eyes upon her with a most unpleasant steadiness.

Mrs. Ogleby was convinced that her hour was come; but she had no idea of yielding without a struggle.

"I am," she said; "he is a man whom my family have occasionally employed. I believe he is a good sort of man at bottom, but rather credulous; and my father was obliged to cease employing him; and I know he did not soon forget it, and bears us malice in consequence."

"Indeed!" remarked Miss Somerset. "You will excuse the minuteness of my questions, Mrs. Ogleby, for an event has occurred which makes them necessary for your sake as well as ours. Have you ever received any letters from this Mr. Sharp during your visit here ?"

"Yes, one or two on little matters of business."

"Did you happen to notice whether any letters came for my father, addressed in Mr. Sharp's handwriting, on the day when you looked over the letters by yourself?"

And Mary's gaze became so very fixed and disagreeable, that Mrs. Ogleby could scarcely restrain her inclination to rush from the room. She hesitated, said she thought not, and then that she thought there were; and finally broke out into a feigned passion of virtuous indignation, and declaring that she would not be insulted by such questions, left Miss Somerset to her meditations.

The same day, when dinner-time came, Mrs. Ogleby was not to be found. All that could be learnt respecting her was, that she had gone out walking, and no one had seen her return. The following morning brought an extremely cool and impertinent note from her to Sir Reginald, desiring him to send her luggage-which was discovered all packed in her bedroom-to an address which she gave; and stating that Miss Somerset's insulting language had been such that she could endure it no longer. What finally became of Mrs. Ogleby the Somerset family never knew. But they had the satisfaction of knowing that she contrived to spread reports concerning them of the most annoying description; and, in particular, that it was generally supposed that the loss of Miss Somerset's large fortune had been caused by the gambling propensities of her father, and that she herself was dying for love of Lord Pangbourne, whom she had attempted to inveigle into a marriage under the pretence that she was still a wealthy heiress.

Great was the amazement produced at Burleigh and in the neighbourhood when Croft's story was at length made known. Dozens of wiseacres immediately protested that they had suspected as much all along; and of those who had been the foremost in maintaining the guilt of Father Basil, more than one was for instigating immediate legal proceedings against Croft for the death of Bertini. They might possibly have carried their threats into execution, but for the fact that in a short time Croft was understood to have left England. Father Ambrose was of opinion that his probable destination would be some religious house observing a rule of the severest kind. He was clearly a man of extraordinary strength of character; and it was not likely that he would ever have found life in the world at all tolerable. The mortifications he had practised in his vain hope of gaining peace of conscience were terrible. The recent marked advance of disease in his constitution had, to a great extent, resulted from his practice of wearing a sharp iron belt round his waist, which had caused a continual irritation, fostered by the misery of his mind, and would ultimately have brought on consumption. The agonies he had endured from this cause

had been frightful; and Father Ambrose recollected how, on one occasion, when he had attempted to hold him up when falling, the touch of his arm had manifestly caused a paroxysm of pain absolutely unbearable. For such a character as this, the austerities of a severe religious rule, when undergone as a matter of obedience, and with a conscience reconciled to God, were almost a necessity; and no one at St. Oswald's was surprised when it was known that Croft was hidden from the world and would never more appear in it.

In making the arrangements which had been required with Sir Reginald, consequent on his giving up his agency, Croft had become acquainted with the loss of Miss Somerset's fortune; and fancying that possibly he might have prevented it, had his mind not been preoccupied with his own wretchedness, he made up his mind to convey to her his own claims on the Burleigh property for money lent to her father. But when he came to talk it over with Father Ambrose, as a friend of the Somersets, he found him convinced that the baronet's pride would never tolerate such an arrangement, at least during Croft's lifetime.

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"Well, what shall I do with it?" inquired Croft. shall certainly dispose of the bulk of what I have, which is much less than is supposed, before I go; and I wish to give it to somebody who wants it."

"Give it to our ex-novice, young Longford," said the Father. "You know he has no vocation, and has just gone back to his mother; and he's a fine young fellow, who will make a good man of the world, though he would never have made a religious like his brother. I can't say more, without a breach of confidence; but if you really want my advice, this is what I would suggest."

Croft was not without certain shrewd suspicions as to the reasons which induced Father Ambrose to make this proposition to him; for he had observed more of what went on at Burleigh than people gave him credit for; and, after a little more discussion, he agreed to the proposal.

A year passed away, and the stately rooms of Burleigh Manor were enlivened with the preparations for a wedding. From the day when Sir Reginald learnt that his own eagerness to increase his daughter's fortune had caused the loss of it all, he had been slowly acquiring a habit of allowing her to be happy in her own way, and was fast coming to believe it within the limits of possibility that the head of the Somerset family could make a mistake.

When the younger Longford left St. Oswald's, he began gradually to resume his old custom of visiting at Burleigh;

and though nothing whatever was said on the subject, it was clear to every one that the baronet suspected an attachment between that young gentleman and his daughter Mary. He had ascertained by sundry crafty, and as he fancied unobserved inquiries, that Longford's worldly possessions would ultimately-especially now that his elder brother had left the world-be respectable; and the fact that he was become the possessor of claims to a certain portion of Burleigh, gave him an importance in the eyes of the baronet of no mean weight. The end of it all was, that before the year was over he yielded his consent to the marriage in terms which might have suited the matrimonial negotiations of an emperor.

The elder Longford had been professed long before the marriage of his brother came about. The course of his novitiate was uniform from the beginning to the end. As it drew towards its close, for a short time every difficulty he had felt seemed to rise up again before him more alarmingly than ever. The more frightening, however, they seemed to the imagination, the more intense became that indescribable longing to consecrate himself to the religious life, of which he had all along been conscious. Before the day for taking the vows every doubt and fear had vanished; and on the morning of his profession his mother herself was finally and fully reconciled to what he was doing, by the sight of the serene joy and silent happiness which his countenance and voice displayed.

"After all," she exclaimed, when the ceremonial was over, "I suppose it really is the better part that he has chosen."

On the day of her younger son's wedding she shed no tears, and was right well pleased and happy; but her memory recurred to the day when she had seen her elder boy kneeling before the Father Superior, and heard the irrevocable vows proceed from his lips; and she decided that throughout her life it would supply the sweeter memories to her mother's heart.

Reviews.

MEDIEVAL HYMNS.

Hymni Latini Medii Ævi; e codd. Mss. edidit et annotationibus illustravit F. Jos. Mone, Archivii Carlsruhensis præfectus. 3 tom. Friburgii Brisgoviæ, sumpt. Herder. IN these degenerate days we appropriate the name of "siren" to any young lady of captivating voice and bewitching coun