OF AN AUTHOR. BY JANE HARVEY, AUTHOR OF ETHELIA, TYNEMOUTH CASTLE, "Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb "Has felt the influence of malignant star, "And wag'd with fortune an eternal war; "Check'd by the scoff of pride, by envy's frown, "In life's low vale remote has pined alone, "Then... IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. BEATTIE. GAINSBOROUGH: PRINTED BY AND FOR HENRY MOZLEY: AND SOLD BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME AND BROWN, LONDON. 249. S. 247, MEMOIRS OF AN AUTHOR. CHAPTER L THE clock in the village spire of Kirkford had tolled the hour of eight; the gloom of an evening in the close of November was deepened by a succession of heavy clouds, which were driven rapidly along the face of the sky; and the wildest blasts of approach ing winter howled around the walls of a lit tle cottage near the church, shook the fee ble casements, and threatened to sweep the thatch from its humble roof. The door was fréquently opened, and a look of anxious inquiry cast from it towards the road, by a female whose hair was blanched by the successive years of half a century, whose dimples were exchanged for the deeply traced lines of reflection and experience, and whose bloom had yielded to the sickening tint of ill health. Vain was her glance of solicitous inquietude; the object of her cares did not appear; and, for the seventh time, she was compelled to return disappointed and dejected into the house. Large rain-drops now began to beat against the windows, and the wind, as if reinforced by the fury of an auxiliary element, blew with additional and tremendous violence. "Gra"cious Heaven!" sighed Mrs. Camilla Stanhope for such was the name of the female just described—“ Gracious Heaven, what a "night is this!-oh, protect all who are ex posed to it, more especially my dear boy." Again she listened for approaching footsteps, cast another anxious look at the clock, stirred the good coal fire to a brighter blaze, removed the boiling tea-kettle to a greater distance from the heat which she thought was too rapidly diminishing its contents, and turned the garments and bed-linen which were airing to contribute to the comfort of her expected guest; not that any great necessity existed for performing those little offices the fire was clear and vivid-the kettle was amply filled-and the clothes were perfectly dry, but when the mind is harassed by anxiety and expectation-more especially by an anxiety and an expectation mingled with fear-we experience an unspeakable charm and solace in employment, and, however trifling our task, feel a conviction that before we have finished it our suspense will be at an end; alas! too frequently the employment and the hope terminate together; so did those of Mrs. Camilla in vain did she count the lingering minutes; in vain, in the pauses of the storm, did she listen to every distant footfall;no one approached the cottage, or approaching it, only passed by without entering. Thus heavily rolled on another half hour, when every gentler sound was lost in a torrent of rain, and a blast so loud and violent as to enforce the necessity of bolting the door to prevent its being burst open. "Too "surely Auberry will not come to-night!" |