o buy, or at
least, examine, she conducted him through the house, pointing out its
advantages, and lamenting its dilapidated state. Our traveller scarcely
heard her,--but when he came to one room which he would not enter till
the last, (it was the little parlour in which the once happy family
had been wont to sit,) he sank down in the chair that had been Lester's
honoured seat, and covering his face with his hands, did not move
or look up for several moments. The old woman gazed at him with
surprise.--"Perhaps, Sir, you knew the family, they were greatly
beloved."

The traveller did not answer; but when he rose, he muttered to
himself,--"No, the experiment is made in vain! Never, never could I
live here again--it must be so--my forefathers' house must pass into a
stranger's hands." With this reflection he hurried from the house, and
re-entering the garden, turned through a little gate that swung
half open on its shattered hinges, and led into the green and quiet
sanctuaries of the dead. The same touching character of deep and
undisturbed repose that hallows the country church-yard,--and that more
than most--yet brooded there as when, years ago, it woke his young mind
to reflection then unmingled with regret.

He passed over the rude mounds of earth that covered the deceased poor,
and paused at a tomb of higher, though but of simple pretensions; it was
not yet discoloured by the dews and seasons, and the short inscription
traced upon it was strikingly legible, in comparison with those around.

Rowland Lester,
Obiit 1760, aet. 64.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

By that tomb the traveller remained in undisturbed contemplation for
some time, and when he turned, all the swarthy colour had died from his
cheek, his eyes were dim, and the wonted pride of a young man's step and
a soldier's bearing, was gone from his mien.

As he looked up, his eye caught afar, embedded among the soft verdure
of the spring, one lone and grey house, from whose chimney there rose
no smoke--sad, inhospitable, dismantled as that beside which he now
stood;--as if the curse which had fallen on the inmates of either
mansion, still clung to either roof. One hasty glance only, the
traveller gave to the solitary and distant abode,--and then started and
quickened his pace.

On re-entering the stables, the traveller found the Corporal examining
his horse from head to foot with great care and