nnocence and beauty. Her personal endowments were so
remarkable, that they soon became the subject of conversation, alike in
the halls of the wealthy and in the humble abodes of the poor. The
village-gossips were not backward in mating the young heiress of sorrow
with the richest and noblest in the land. Elinor was not unconscious of
her personal attractions, but a natural delicacy of mind made her shrink
from general admiration. Her mother's scanty income did not enable them
to hire servants; and the work of the house devolved upon Elinor, who
was too dutiful a child to suffer her ailing mother to assist her in
these domestic labors. The lighter employments of sewing and knitting,
her mother shared; and they were glad to increase their slender means by
taking in plain work; which so completely occupied the young girl's
time, that she was rarely seen abroad, excepting on Sundays, when she
accompanied her mother to the parish church; and then, the loveliness
which attracted such attention was always partially concealed by a large
veil. Mark Hurdlestone's valet happened to meet the young lady returning
home through the park without this envious appendage, and was so struck
with her beauty, that he gave his young master an eloquent description
of the angel he had seen.

"Believe me, sir, she is a mate for the King. If I were but a gentleman
of fortune like you, I should feel proud to lay it at her feet."

Mark heard him with indifference. He had never felt the least tender
emotion towards woman, whom he regarded as an inferior being, only
formed to administer to the wants, and contribute to the pleasures, of
man.

"Miss Wildegrave," he said, "might be a fine girl. But he could see no
beauty in a woman whose father had died upon the scaffold, and who had
no fortune. She and her mother were outcasts, who could no longer be
received into genteel society."

The valet, with more taste than his master, shrugged up his shoulders,
and answered with a significant smile: "Ah, sir! if we could but
exchange situations."

A few days after this conversation, Mark Hurdlestone met Elinor
Wildegrave by accident, and became deeply enamoured with the lovely
orphan.

In spite of his blunt speech and misanthropic manners, the young heir of
Oak Hall, at that period, was not wholly destitute of the art of
pleasing. He was sensible and well-read. His figure was commanding, and
his carriage good. His stern features were set off by the ruddy