gal inheritance
all his unentailed property. Both were enclosed in a letter to Lady
Greville, written on his death-bed, which left it entirely at her own
disposal, _which_ to publish, _which_ to destroy.

It is not to be supposed that the selection cost her one moment's
hesitation. Having resigned into the hands of the lawful inheritor all
that the strictest probity could require, and much that his admiration
of her magnanimity would have prevailed on her to retain, she retired
peaceably to a mansion in the South bequeathed by Lord Greville to her
son, and occupied herself solely with his education. In the commencement
of the ensuring reign he obtained the royal sanction to use the name
and arms of Percy; and in his grateful affection and the virtuous
distinctions he early attained, his mother met with her reward.

Theresa, the helpless Theresa, the guardian-ship of whose person had
been bequeathed to Helen, as a mournful legacy, by Lord Greville, was
removed with her from her dreary imprisonment at the Cross, and to the
latest moment of her existence partook of her affectionate and watchful
attention.

It was a touching sight to behold these two unfortunate beings, linked
together by ties of so painful a nature, and dwelling together In
companionship. The one, richly gifted with youthful loveliness, clad in
a deep mourning habit, and bearing on her countenance an air of
fixed dejection. The other, though far her elder in years, still
beautiful,--with her long silver hair, blanched by sorrow, not by
time, hanging over her shoulders; and wearing, as if in mockery of her
unconscious widowhood, the gaudy and embroidered raiment to which a
glimmering remembrance of happier times appeared to attach her--that
vacant smile and wandering glance of insanity lending at times a
terrible brilliancy to her features. But for the most part her malady
assumed a cast of settled melancholy, and patient as

"The female dove ere yet her golden couplets are disclosed,
Her silence would sit drooping."

Her gentleness and submission would have endeared her to a guardian even
less tenderly interested in her fate than Helen Percy; towards
whom, from her first interview, she had evinced the most gratifying
partiality. "I know you," she said on beholding her. "You have the look
and voice of Percy; you are a ministering angel whom he has sent
to defend his poor Theresa from the King; now that she is sad and
friendless. You will never ab