ng in reality the centripetal, and those impulses we
vainly fancy to be our own instincts being the impressions of external
forces do you comprehend me?"

"Not perfectly; in part, perhaps," said she, diffidently.

"Even that is something," replied he, with a bland smile. "One whose
future fortunes will place her in a station to exert influence is an
enviable convert to have brought to truth."

"I!" said she, blushing with shame and surprise together; "surely you
mistake, sir. I am neither born to rank, nor like to attain it."

"Both one and the other, young lady," said he, solemnly; "high as
your position will one day be, it will not be above the claims of your
descent. It is not on fallible evidence that I read the future."

"And can you really predict my fortune in life?" asked she, eagerly.

"More certainly than you would credit it, when told," said he,
deliberately.

"How I should like to hear it; how I should like to know" She stopped,
and a deep blush covered her face.

"And why should you not know that your dreams will be realized?" said
he, hastily, as if speaking from some irresistible impulse. "What more
natural than to desire a glance, fleeting though it be, into that
black vista where the bright lightning of prophecy throws its momentary
splendor?"

"And how know you that I have had dreams?" said she, innocently.

"I know of them but by their accomplishment. I see you not in the
present or the past, but in the future. There your image is revealed to
me, and surrounded by a splendor I cannot describe. It is gorgeous and
barbaric in magnificence; there is something feudal in the state by
which you are encompassed that almost speaks of another age."

"This is mere dreamland, indeed," said she, laughing.

"Nay, not so; nor is it all bright and glorious, as you think. There are
shadows of many a dark tint moving along the sunlit surface."

"But how know you all this?" asked she, half incredulously.

"As you slept last evening in a mesmeric slumber on that sofa; but I
will hear no further questioning. Look to our patient here, and if
that letter agitate her over-much, let me be sent for." And, with these
words, delivered oracularly, the doctor left the room, while Kate seated
herself beside the sofa where Lady Hester slept.

It was late in the night when Lady Hester awoke, and soon remembering
that a letter had arrived, broke the seal and read it. If the proposal
of Sir Stafford was in every way u