THE TWIN SISTERS. 405 



tier they formed a magnificent architecture glowing with the most 

 brilliant colours, like a vast temple built of the most costly jewels. 

 The twilight was already deepening in the valley, but the tree tops 

 on the surrounding summits were still waving in the horizontal 

 beams of the departing luminary. The twin sisters were sitting in 

 the open air before the door of their cottage, in company with their 

 grandmother, now very infirm, enjoying the splendid prospect, and 

 inhaling the odorous breathings of several large sycamores and beech- 

 trees, and gladdened by the hum of the crowds of insects that were 

 sporting in the evening breeze. They had sat for some time silent, 

 and had occasionally heard the sound of footsteps, as if pacing to 

 and fro, along the narrow beaten track which led to their cottage. 

 This had excited no surprise, as the valley was the favourite haunt of 

 more than one visitor, who sought it for its complete quietude and 

 its entire seclusion. Suddenly, however, the steps advanced, and a 

 man was seen approaching, whose exterior was exceedingly unpre- 

 possessing. He walked up the path, opened the little gate hastily 

 which separated them from the road, and stood before the astonished 

 and alarmed group. He was clothed in tattered habiliments, and 

 supposing him to be a beggar, though he made no gesture indicative 

 of such a calling, Jane offered to him a few pence, which she had 

 hurriedly taken from her pocket : the sinister expression of the man's 

 face deepened into a scowl, and, thrusting away her proffered dona- 

 tion, he exclaimed, "Wretched girl! is it thus you receive your 

 father ?" A cry of fear and surprise broke from her as she gazed 

 upon him, and the grandmother came forward as fast as her feeble- 

 ness would permit, saying 



" It is his voice ! my son, my son ! but," pausing as she came near 

 him, " strangely, fearfully altered." 



" I am indeed their father !" said the man ; but made no effort to 

 support his tottering mother, who, overcome by her emotions and 

 alarms, was nearly falling. Both girls hastened to her assistance ; 

 both were weeping ; yet the stern and unkind tone and bearing of 

 the man who stood before them, calling himself their father, pre- 

 vented their throwing themselves at his feet. Sneering bitterly, he 

 walked forward and entered the house, closing the door forcibly 

 behind him. 



James Asper was indeed returned, but he was returned a gloomy 

 and desperate man. What his pursuits had been, and how he had 

 lived during the last seven years, is not known ; but they had 

 hardened his heart, and dried up all the springs of his affections. 

 Had he come as a father, his two angel daughters would have loved, 

 nay, worshipped him. Strange that he could look upon their sur- 

 prising loveliness, and his heart remain unmoved strange that he 

 could see his aged and weeping mother, and his stubborn coldness 

 not relent! The terrified and confounded group remained for a con- 

 siderable time in the fast-glooming night, not daring to enter their 

 home, so terrible had been the shock his appearance had given them. 

 To their repeated questions their grandmother only answered by 

 mournfully shaking her head, and weeping : at length she spoke in a 

 low troubled voice : 



" Alas! my dear children, that it should be so; but I grieve to 



