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CHAPTER IV.

THE STEPMOTHER.

THE marriage of Mr. Frank Hilton to Miss Adams was a source of much satisfaction to his elder 'brother and his wife: they had feared his being united to Miss Withers, the daughter of old Mr. Withers by his first wife. He had indeed been for some years engaged to her, but the engagement had been suddenly broken off, no one knew why. In so busy a country town as Arlingford such an event could not take place without giving rise to many reports. It was whispered in one quarter, that Mr. Frank Hilton had himself broken off the engagement, soon after Mr. Withers married the youngest Miss Clackshaw, fearing that the fortune of Emily Withers would be greatly diminished if her step-mother brought her father a young family. It was rumoured by others that the young lady was not serious enough for Mr. Frank Hilton, since he had taken such a religious turn, and allowed his

brother and his brother's wife to have such an extraordinary influence over him; for it was well known that at one time Mr. Frank had been any thing but religious. The real facts were very different. The extreme levity of Emily herself had been the cause of their engagement suddenly coming to an end. Frank discovered that she preferred another person to him, and this he discovered in a way that pained him to the heart. With true manly delicacy he determined to bear those imputations himself, which, if the real circumstances had been related, would have fallen upon Emily Withers. The person for whom she had forsaken this highprincipled young man, to whom she had been so long promised in marriage, was Randal Thorncliff, who had been for a short time in the shop of Mr. Grant, the principal chemist and druggist at Arlingford. Randal Thorncliff was very handsome, but the expression of his handsome countenance, though full of sense, was far from agreeable. His manners, always cold and overbearing, had become offensively so on his mother's coming into possession of a considerable sum of money. Mrs. Thorncliff was a widow, a weak vain woman, who had neglected herself and her son, and who passed her time in dressing and visiting. When she came into possession of her fortune, she left her lodgings, and took a very pretty cottage at a short distance from the town. At this cottage was vain and

Emily was a frequent guest; she

silly enough to suit the mother's taste, and her beauty made her very attractive to the son. Before Randal left Arlingford, to walk the hospitals in London, having determined by Mr. Grant's advice to become a surgeon and apothecary, Frank Hilton discovered that he had been supplanted in the affections of his affianced wife.

Poor Emily was much to be pitied. Since her father's second marriage her home had become sadly changed to her by the temper of her stepmother. Her father, who had been before foolishly indulgent, was become harsh and intemperate, always taking part with his wife against her; and Emily, like many weak persons, rather gloried in asserting her own independence, and showing a high spirit. She therefore scrupled not to dispute with her stepmother, and to reproach her father, often reminding them both of the perfections of her own departed mother. She frequently went with her beautiful eyes full of tears, to complain of her stepmother's treatment to her friends in the town. From Mrs. Hilton and from Miss Grant she received much good advice, and they were very careful not to mention what she told them. Mrs. Thorncliff and Mrs. Adams whispered about their indignation at Emily's ill-treatment, and repeated her account of various domestic broils which she had described to them: the Miss Clackshaws were not slow at collecting and carrying back to Mrs. Withers the reports

ey heard then fresh feuds arose, more bitter re

proaches were exchanged, and Emily began to absent herself for days from home with her chief confidant, Mrs. Thorncliff. All this time Emily had another confidant, the most dangerous she could have made. Letters were constantly passing between herself and Randal Thorncliff, and sometimes she received from him a packet of novels from a circulating library in London. She had told him that she had read all the books at the Arlingford library, and perhaps he judged that he could not take a more effectual way to accomplish his artful purposes, than by enervating her mind, and unsettling her principles, and he took good care to send books well suited to do so.

One day, after a very violent dispute, Emily did not make her appearance at dinner, and her family concluded that she was gone as usual to her friend Mrs. Thorncliff. A day or two after, Mr. Withers was taken very ill, so ill, that the servants, without saying any thing to their mistress, thought it right. to send to tell Miss Emily of her father's illness. They sent to Mrs. Thorncliff's cottage: Miss Emily had not been there. Mr. Withers got worse, and asked to see his daughter. Enquiries were then made on every side, but Emily was not to be found. It happened that in the last disgraceful altercation, Mr. Withers had been much more violent than his wife; his violence had been indeed so great, that the stepmother either was, or appeared to be, really anxious to make peace. Of this she reminded

her husband in the midst of his distress, when he had worked himself up into a fever. To the wife's astonishment, Mr. Withers, instead of reproaching himself any longer, when she reminded him that his own severity had been greater than hers, poured forth the whole torrent of his reproaches upon her, telling her that she, and she alone, had urged him on to ill-treat his dear child; that she had all along been the artful enemy of the poor girl; and so he was going on, when the Miss Clackshaws made their appearance. They came with important news, and begged Mr. Withers to dismiss all his fears as to the personal safety of his daughter. The young lady had been seen, and where did he think? -in London. Miss Smart, the milliner, had just returned from one of her journeys, and whom should she see walking in Oxford Street, but Miss Emily, dressed like the first lady in the land, and leaning upon the arm of Mr. Randal Thorncliff. Miss Smart had had half a mind to speak to them, but the young lady had blushed up to her eyes, and Mr. Randal had put on one of his frowns, and soon after he had handed her into a hackney coach, which drove off so fast, that Miss Smart thought it would be useless to attempt to find out where they resided. Mr. Withers was now furious against his daughter, and he had no doubt, he said, to what all her disobedience might be attributed; he now also understood why it was that the engagement with Frank Hilton had been broken off. He had