boots it? Life at best is a brief season: the longest life, a mere dream in the night."

Mr. Beresford shuddered." My good, my pious, my blessed child!" he said, "how can you talk thus calmly, when the bare thought drives me mad?"

"Anon it will be otherwise," said Elizabeth. "I will pray for you, my dear father-pray for a more resigned will, for a calmer stronger mind. God is all-sufficient! He knows the weakness of our frail nature-He will amend us, and fashion us, even to his unerring dispensations."

One little week, and Mr. Beresford, clinging to the faintest shadow of hope, removed his declining daughter from her native town; and for the more ready access to the faculty, established himself in a house of his own, then unoccupied, in the Waterloo-road. One little week, and the genuine piety and uncomplaining patience of Elizabeth, had wrought upon his vacillating mind, even to the mourning

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and scourging of his own backslidings. But, alas! it was easier to talk than to act; it was easier to plan for future reparation, than to acknowledge his malversations, and stand humbled in the sight of the being he had most injured. Time and circumstances had shed haze on the fate of his long-neglected nephew: he had never heard of captain Leslie and his young eléve, because he had never sought to hear of them; how then could he renew intercourse with one, who might no longer be an inhabitant of earth.

"Where can I seek him ?-where find him?" he would ask, in reply to the urgent solicitations of Elizabeth. " Child, child," yielding to his native petulance, "he may be in Africa, or Asia, or America, or heaven."

"Or he may be even now, here, in London," said Elizabeth, firmly; and she smiled as she looked up in the face of her father. "No aim can be gained without exertion, my dear father; no purpose accomplished

complished without effort. If I could only once see my cousin-if I could know you and my cousin united-oh, my dear father, it would be the sweetest balm this earth could yield."

The very next day Mr. Beresford set himself the task of seeking out captain Leslie, in order to gain tidings of his nephew: but so many years had transpired, so many events had marked the flight of all-consuming time, that the effort was of none effect. He returned to his home fatigued and dispirited. For many successive days the like exertion met with the like disappointment; no tidings could be learned of captain Leslie. There was a captain Beresford in the regiment of dragoons, who had served on the Peninsula, and fought at Waterloo; but like thousands who had served and fought in the self-same battles, he was now on halfpay, and his abiding-place unknown. Beresford was no uncommon name. There might be many Beresfords; and Jonathan Beresford

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Beresford, to use a sportsman-like phrase, found himself as much at fault as ever.

With fevered anxiety the poor Elizabeth hung upon the hope; and when the hope seemed altogether lost, her heart grew sick within her." Is there no expedient?" she asked; "no possible means by which to accomplish this necessary. end? Ah, my dear father-” and she wiped the tears from her pale cheeks"how little do we know ourselves. I can preach on patience; but it seems, I cannot practise what I preach."

Mr. Beresford sat with the Times newspaper in his hand, his eyes seemingly rivetted on the page, his thoughts far wandering. Suddenly, like a ray from heaven-for it savoured of more than possible success-the project of inserting an advertisement in the paper struck him. He looked up, and a smile relaxed his features." In this land of liberty and freethinking," he said, "these columns find entry into every house. I will write an advertisement

advertisement for the Times newspaper: perchance, in meeting the eye of Sydney Beresford, or of the brave captain Leslie, it may be the medium to unite us to a relative from whom we have lived so long estranged."

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May God's grace light upon the effort!" aspirated Elizabeth-And the very next day the advertisement was inserted.