nse,--no, no; still, look after her;
the breath of passion must be stirring in her, and at her years
most maids are tinder to love's dropping sparks. Remember, there
never yet was a nun but once had tender thoughts. Love comes unto
all that live, and with not less certainty than death's advances
--nay, even the cold, bony frame of death itself, at last comes
wooing, and elopes with life. Now, home and cheer your charge."
And he playfully pushed her from the room, then, throwing himself
into his chair, resumed the interrupted study of his briefs.

CHAPTER II.

"A seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone."

_All's Well That Ends Well._

The advocate was by birth an Englishman, and a cadet of an ancient
family, who, after having spent a dissolute youth and early manhood,
had come to Canada. Here he became acquainted with an old, half-pay
Highland officer of Wolfe's Army, who for his signal services
rendered during the operations of the British force before Quebec,
had been rewarded with a grant of land in that vicinity. Like others
of his countrymen, the Highlander had settled in the Province, and
married into a French Canadian family. But, soon, after their
union, his wife died in giving birth to a daughter, which he reared
to womanhood with all the strength of an undivided affection. The
Englishman's frank bearing and singular mental powers won the
admiration of the old soldier, and, at the same time, dazzled and
captivated his comely and unsophisticated daughter, to whom the
stranger was soon understood to stand in the light of a lover. But
Macdonald--for such was the name of the warm-hearted clansman--was
not destined to see his dearest wishes realized in the union of
the two. A sudden sickness laid low his hardy frame, and, dying,
he called the pair to his bedside, and joined their hands in
anticipation of the rite of wedlock. The father dead, the lover
betook himself to the study of the law, and with an extraordinary
aptitude and diligence, not only mastered the details of legal
practice, but comprehended, beyond others, the great principles
both of English and of French jurisprudence as practised in Lower
Canada. Ambitious of excellence, he resolved to complete his studies
of the latter in France itself. Of means he had little, but she,
confiding in his honor, consented that the estate left to her by
her father should be sold, to furnish him with the necessary funds
for his maintenance in Pari