of her reluctant hostess. Insensibly his anxious solicitude for her comforts assumed a more tender and decided character; the incipient spark of youthful passion that had long lain dormant in his bosom was once more kindled, and finally fanned into active existence by the more intimate knowledge, which personal intercourse afforded him, of the amiable qualities and intellectual endowments of her whose external charms had first captivated his youthful fancy. As for Helen, she was in a state of dreaming bliss, from which she dreaded every moment to be rudely awakened by a summons from her father. The coldness and hauteur of Lady Alice she regarded not; or if she did, she felt that its endurance was but a trifling counterbalance for the delight of being near him she loved, and of finding herself the object of his attentions, the cynosure of his ardent gaze.

Lady Alice was his mother, and she felt that from his mother she could have endured anything, and for her, she could have stooped to perform the most menial offices, without an idea of thereby incurring degradation. She studied her looks, she watched to anticipate her slightest wishes, and paid her the respectful homage of a dutiful and affectionate child.

Edward Dagworth possessed a mind to appreciate and understand the motives of Helen Milbourne for conduct so gratifying to himself; and too manly, too devoted in his love to trifle with the feelings of a heart like hers, he took an early opportunity of declaring himself to her; and Helen, the happy Helen, shamed not to acknowledge in return that he was, and ever had been, the object of her tenderest affections. The only obstacle to this unusual smooth course of true love was the apprehension that its consummation in the holy bands of wedlock would be opposed by their respective parents; and Helen assured him that the consent of his would and must be an indispensable preliminary to their union.

Edward Dagworth was an only and fondly-beloved child, and flattered himself with the hope that his hitherto unbounded influence with his mother might overcome her reluctance to his connecting himself with the daughter of one so distasteful to their principles as the Parliamentary Commissioner Milbourne. He erred in this supposition: Lady Alice’s suppressed indignation at his undisguised attentions to her fair guest found bitter vent when he ventured to hint at the nature of his feelings towards her; and, after a torrent of angry and scornful invectives, she told him that when he had procured the consent of the old Roundhead usurer Milbourne, and the blessing of his own loyal and nobly-descended father, to such a union, then she would permit him to name the subject again to her.

“Agreed, madam,” replied her son; and in the self-same hour, after exchanging a tender farewell with Helen, he commenced his journey to the headquarters of the royal army at Reading, where his father was; having previously despatched a letter by a trusty messenger to Ralph Milbourne, informing him of the safety of his daughter, and the state of their mutual sentiments.

The anxiety of Ralph Milbourne had reached its climax respecting the fate of his only, his beloved child, before this communication reached him; and had he learned that Helen was the wedded wife of the most impoverished gentleman in the royal army, his paternal feelings would have taught him to consider it a blessed alternative to the horrible fate of having become the victim of ruffians so abhorrent to both parties as the leaders of the clubmen.

All angry and bitter enmities towards the Dagworths appeared converted into sentiments of grateful acknowledgment and respect, when, two days after the receipt of Colonel Dagworth’s letter, he presented himself at their Castle gate, to tender in person his consent to the marriage of his heiress with her preserver; which, advantageous as it now was in every worldly sense, he concluded was no less desired by the parents of the lover than by himself. As for the state of his daughter’s feelings on the subject, a look, a single glance at her animated countenance and rapture-beaming eyes as she sprang to his arms, when he entered the drawing-room of Lady Alice Dagworth, was sufficient to convince him that his consent alone was required to make her the happiest of women. Her late peril had roused all the love of a fond parent in his heart, and, folding her lovely glowing form to his bosom, he whispered, “Fear nothing; you shall be the wife of your brave preserver, Helen.”