404 THE TWIN SISTERS. 



She now watched over them with the zealous fondness of a parent 

 from whom fate has wrenched much that was dearest, and exercised 

 all her ingenuity with unwearied energy to fit them for emerging 

 from their present dependent position to a more honourable and re- 

 putable rank in society. The gentle creatures, now thirteen years 

 old, had learnt to appreciate her intentions, and seconded them 

 with all the earnestness of spirits deeply sensible of their de- 

 gradation, and filled with the most anxious wish to escape from it. 



They were after a time eminently successful. Their needle, and 

 a rare tact possessed by Jane for colouring outline-drawings and 

 maps, enabled them to earn a sufficiency for all their humble wants 

 and expectations. When little more than fifteen, the twin sisters 

 removed to a small cottage, carrying with them their grandmother, 

 for whom both girls felt the warmest and most devoted attach- 

 ment. 



CHAPTER II. 



" Like as the gentle heart itself betrays 

 By doing gentle deeds with frank delight 

 Even so the baser mind itself displays 

 By cancred malice and revengeful spite." 



SPENSER'S FAERY QUEEN. 



A sister's love, when exercised upon a sister, is the purest passion of 

 the human heart. The intercourse between them is the nearest ap- 

 proach to sanctity which humanity can attain. How lamentable 

 then is it, that the petty jealousies of the domestic circle so rarely 

 permit its display ! how deplorable that an erroneous system of edu- 

 cation too generally breaks up and disorganizes the best sympathies 

 of the female heart ! 



Anne and Jane Asper presented one of the most exquisite pictures 

 of sister's love. The chords of their feelings were in such strict and 

 perpetual unison, that no jar was ever felt. No cloud for a moment 

 dimmed the purity, the radiance of their holy affection. Their 

 sympathies, their passions, their wishes, were so intermingled, so 

 intimately mixed up, that separately neither of them thought or 

 acted. The same extraordinary likeness still remained, though now 

 in their early womanhood, for they were seventeen years old. Two 

 years had been passed in the cottage, and their life had been during 

 that time one of unmingled happiness. An incident now occurred, 

 destined to blight, and for a time totally destroy, the calm felicity 

 which had so long overshadowed them of a nature so unexpected, 

 that for a while it appeared but as a dream, till its painful reality was 

 impressed in undying characters on their memories. 



A glorious day in the middle of June had been succeeded by an 

 equally glorious evening. The large ash-trees crowning the summit 

 of the gorge in which the cottage stood were brought out in strong- 

 relief against a sky of surpassing beauty. The sun was just dis- 

 appearing below the horizon, and the light clouds hovering in the 

 heavens were richly tinged with every hue, from golden yellow to 

 the deepest crimson, gradually changing their tints, as tier above 



