Delaval is or was your name.-Better than yourself I know you."

If

Matilda was perfectly bewildered at this incoherent, yet convincing manner, in which he proved he was not a perfect stranger to herself and family; and she could only reply, by inquiring when he had seen her before. ""Tis long," answered he, "that I have in vain prayed for the blessing this hour has brought. At length my prayers are heard. you are still as pure and free from worldly pride as when you first received the name by which I but now ventured to address you-if you are in mind as in person, as perfect a prototype of her in whose arms I last beheld you then will the tale I have to tell enhance your happiness, whilst it mitigates my misery. But if, as much I fear

At this moment, the monk was interrupted by the distant chaunt of a priestly procession, which was approach

ing the spot where they were standing. He seemed to dread being seen engaged in a conference which was probably contrary to the rules of his order, and ad-. vancing for one moment close to Matilda, he muttered, "I dare no longer stay; but by your love of justice I conjure you, meet me here to-morrow at dusk. What your present lot is, I know not. If there is one who as a right claims your confidence, suspend it but a few short hours, till my singular tale is told. Till to-morrow's dusk be silent, and be secret. Chasten your heart from love of pomp and pride; for I can give, and I can take away can enrich your heart, and beggar your hand."

One lingering look he cast upon his astonished companion, as, drawing his cowl closer round his head, he was lost to her amongst the crowd which accompanied the coming procession.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WHILST Matilda slowly left the church, and indeed, during the whole of her drive homewards, she in vain endeavoured to form some probable conjecture, as to the character of the strange being with whom she seemed so unaccountably connected, or as to the nature of the communication he had promised. Sometimes she half persuaded herself that it was a maniac, who, availing himself of some accidental acquaintance with the name of herself and family, owed the rest to his own disordered imagination. But, on the other hand, the singular reserve which it has been remarked always appeared on the part

of her uncle, as to any inquiry respecting the incidents of her early life, had always struck even her unsuspicious mind as extraordinary, and had served to keep alive a conviction, that there was some family secret which had been concealed from her. She therefore determined to comply with the request of the mysterious monk for another interview; and she was still revolving in her mind the best means of effecting it at the hour he had mentioned, and without suspicion; when, upon her return home, her thoughts were diverted into another channel by the communication, on the part of Mam'selle Felicie, of another equally unexpected event.

"Oh, Miladi! of all the world, who think you shall be arrived?"--" Who, Felicie; Madame Hilas, with my gown? Have I kept her waiting?"

66

Oh, no, Miladi!-of all the world,

the guard of the chase, at Delaval."

The Bah! - the what's-you-call gamekeeper, Monsieur Boulby."

Strange as it may seem, Felicie's intelligence was literally true. Old Dick Boulby, seeing, in despair, that from the progress rapidly making in the new railroad, the utter destruction of Delaval Park was inevitable, unless prevented by higher authority than any he had it in his power to exert, and his own snug lodge, in which he had been born, falling one of the first sacrifices to the new improvement, had formed the resolution of finding out his master and mistress, wherever they might be; though he had never in his life been further from Delaval Park than to the neighbouring quarter-sessions, to assist at the pro