contemplated your trying and painful position at Gray Forest. Indeed I
ought to be angry with you for having refused me this happiness so long;
but you have made amends at last; though, indeed, it was impossible to
have deferred it longer. You must not fancy, however, that I will consent
to lose you so soon as you seem to have intended. No, no; I have found it
too hard to catch you, to let you take wing so easily; besides, I have
others to consult as well as myself, and persons, too, who are just as
anxious as I am to make a prisoner of you here."

The good Mrs. Mervyn accompanied these words with looks so sly, and
emphasis so significant, that Rhoda was fain to look down, to hide her
blushes; and compassionating the confusion she herself had caused, the
kind old lady led her to the chamber which was henceforward, so long as
she consented to remain, to be her own apartment.

How that day was passed, and how fleetly its hours sped away, it is
needless to tell. Old Mervyn had his gentle as well as his grim aspect;
and no welcome was ever more cordial and tender than that with which he
greeted the unprotected child of his morose and repulsive neighbor. It
would be impossible to convey any idea of the countless assiduities and
the secret delight with which young Mervyn attended their rambles.

The party were assembled at supper. What a contrast did this cheerful,
happy--unutterably happy--gathering, present, in the mind of Rhoda, to
the dull, drear, fearful evenings which she had long been wont to pass at
Gray Forest.

As they sate together in cheerful and happy intercourse, a chaise drove
up to the hall-door, and the knocking had hardly ceased to reverberate,
when a well-known voice was heard in the hall.

Young Mervyn started to his feet, and merrily ejaculating, "Charles
Marston! this is delightful!" disappeared, and in an instant returned
with Charles himself.

We pass over all the embraces of brother and sister; the tears and smiles
of re-united affection. We omit the cordial shaking of hands; the kind
looks; the questions and answers; all these, and all the little
attentions of that good old-fashioned hospitality, which was never weary
of demonstrating the cordiality of its welcome, we abandon to the
imagination of the good-natured reader.

Charles Marston, with the advice of his friend, Mr. Mervyn, resolved to
lose no time in proceeding to Chester, whither it was ascertained his
father had gone, with the decl