gainst him. His own experience
taught him, that sage lessons may be gathered from the failures and
checks of youthful ambition, and in the changed features of Mark's
character he augured most favourably for the future. But of all those on
whom happier prospects shone, none revelled in the enjoyment so much as
Herbert. The fascinations of that new world, of which he had only caught
a glimpse, hung over him like a dream. Life opened for him at a moment
when he himself had won distinction, while a new passion stirred his
heart, and stimulated hope to the utmost. Kate, his companion throughout
every day, was not slow to perceive the lurking secret of his thoughts,
and soon led him to confide them to her. Herbert had never heard of
Frederick Travers's attachment to his cousin, still less, suspected he
had made a proposal of marriage to her. The studied avoidance of their
names among his own family was a mystery he could not solve, and he
referred to Kate for the explanation.

"How strange, Kate," said he, one day, as they wandered along the glen
somewhat further than usual, "how singular is this silence respecting
the Travers's! I can make nothing of it. If I speak of them, no one
speaks again--if I allude to them, the conversation suddenly stops. Tell
me, if you know it, the secret of all this."

Kate blushed deeply, and muttered something about old and
half-remembered grudges, but he interrupted her quickly, saying--

"This can scarcely be the reason;--at least their feelings show nothing
of the kind towards us. Sybella talks of you as a sister nearest to her
heart. Sir Marmaduke never spoke of you, but with the warmest terms
of affection, and if the gay Guardsman did not express himself on the
subject, perhaps it was because he felt the more deeply."

Kate's cheek grew deeper scarlet, and her breathing more hurried, but
she made no reply.

"_My_ explanation," continued Herbert, more occupied with his own
thoughts than attentive to his companion, "is this;--and, to be sure, it
is a very sorry explanation which elucidates nothing;--that Hemsworth
is somehow at the bottom of it all. Sybella told me what persuasions he
employed to prevent her father returning to Glenflesk; and when
every thing like argument failed, that he actually, under pretence of
enlarging the house, rendered the existing part uninhabitable."

"But what object could he have in this?" said Kate, who felt that
Herbert was merely nourishing the old pre