nd that
seemed reviving in the strange softness of this January day.

"What a morning for a ride! my own Ellen," said my aunt, as we
leant on the stone wall, which felt quite warm with the rays
of the wintry sun. "What do you say to ordering the horses,
taking a long gallop, and coming home with me with a bloom on
your dear cheeks, which look too often like that flower, and
too seldom like this one;" and she showed me, with a smile, a
white camellia, and a China rose, which she had just gathered
in the green-house.

"I will do as you wish, dear aunt--please myself, and have the
merit of obedience into the bargain; and I shall take these
flowers too, to put in my hair this evening. But where shall I
ride?"

"If you have no choice, my darling, I will give you an errand.
You know Bridman Manor?"

"O yes! the ruins of the old hall, which my maid used to call
the 'ghost-house,'--the old-fashioned gardens, with their
broken statues and evergreen alleys, that always put me in
mind of your favourite lines, by Mary Howitt--

'O, those old abbey gardens, with their devices rich;
Their fountains and green solemn walks, and saints in many
a niche.'

I shall like of all things to go there to-day; but what is
your errand?"

"Why, I do not know if I ever told you that your uncle had
been so kind as to give up to me that pretty cottage of his,
that stands on the east side of Bridman-terrace wall, for old
Mrs. Tracy, who was my nurse, and afterwards Henry's. You have
seen her, have you not, Ellen?"

"No," I answered; "but I have often heard you mention her."

"She was a person of some importance in our family at one
time. You know that my mother died in childbirth, and that
Henry's life as an infant was only saved by this woman's
unwearied devotion. She was passionately attached to Henry,
and her singular disposition and turn of mind gave her a hold
upon him which he did not entirely shake off even when he was
taken from under her care. I believe her temper was violent;
but as a child he never suffered from it, and quite idolised
her. She had a great deal of natural cleverness, and her
manners and language were always different from those of
persons in her rank of life. I shall be curious to hear what
you think of her."

"What made you think of establishing her at Bridman?"

"Her son and his wife, who had gone out to India three years
ago, and left their children in her care, had both died of a
fever at Madras.