wam instead
of a West End palace; parched maize rather than the banquet; the
backwoods instead of the luxurious park; the Red Indian rather than the
club and the theatre; to be a despised minister rather than a magnate of
this great city; nay, or to take his place among the influential men of
the land. What has this worn, weary old civilization to offer like the
joy of sitting beneath one of the glorious aspiring pines of America,
gazing out on the blue waters of her limpid inland seas, in her fresh
pure air, with the simple children of the forest round him, their
princely forms in attitudes of attention, their dark soft liquid eyes
fixed upon him, as he tells them "Your Great Spirit, Him whom ye
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you," and then, some glorious old
chief bows his stately head, and throws aside his marks of superstition.
"I believe," he says, and the hearts of all bend with him; and Owen leads
them to the lake, and baptizes them, and it is another St. Sacrament!
Oh! that is what it is to have nobleness enough truly to overcome the
world, truly to turn one's back upon pleasures and honours--what are they
to such as this?'

So mused Honora Charlecote, and then ran indoors, with bounding step, to
her Schiller, and her hero-worship of Max Piccolomini, to write notes for
her mother, and practise for her father the song that was to refresh him
for the evening.

Nothing remarkable! No; there was nothing remarkable in Honor, she was
neither more nor less than an average woman of the higher type.
Refinement and gentleness, a strong appreciation of excellence, and a
love of duty, had all been brought out by an admirable education, and by
a home devoted to unselfish exertion, varied by intellectual pleasures.
Other influences--decidedly traceable in her musings--had shaped her
principles and enthusiasms on those of an ardent Oxonian of the early
years of William IV.; and so bred up, so led by circumstances, Honora,
with her abilities, high cultivation, and tolerable sense, was a fair
specimen of what any young lady might be, appearing perhaps somewhat in
advance of her contemporaries, but rather from her training than from
intrinsic force of character. The qualities of womanhood well developed,
were so entirely the staple of her composition, that there is little to
describe in her. Was not she one made to learn; to lean; to admire; to
support; to enhance every joy; to soften every sorrow of the object of
h