40G THE TWIN SISTERS. 



say, it is your father. Often have I prayed to Him who has so 

 bountifully blessed us, that I might once more see rny son before 

 I died. Sinful creature that I was, to wish for any thing beyond 

 what I possessed. And now he has come, and I feel it to be the 

 greatest misfortune which could have happened to us. I know that 

 he is my son, but he is a fearful man." 



Rising slowly from her chair, she entered the cottage, followed by 

 the timid and weeping girls. She spoke to him again, and spoke to 

 him in a kind voice ; but his answers were brief and harsh. Asking 

 for food, he ate voraciously. When the light of the candle fell upon 

 his face, its expressions told of bad passions, and its furrows of care 

 and mental struggles. It was gaunt, and grizzled with hair; and as 

 he looked upon his daughters, they shrunk beneath his gaze, and 

 quailed before him. To their infinite relief, he shortly demanded a 

 bed, to which he retired, and left them to ruminate on his abrupt and 

 unnatural manners. 



The twin sisters could scarcely be said ever to have felt the love of 

 a father. In their infancy he had rarely shown them marks of 

 kindness: ever proud and selfish, he had not mingled in their sports, 

 or spent his time in those endearments, the memory of which binds 

 itself round the heart of childhood. He had disappeared at an age 

 too early for an attachment to be formed upon other grounds, and 

 their subsequent trials and sufferings had effaced all traces of him 

 from their minds. Still the very name of father would have acted as 

 a talisman to unlock all the hidden fountains of their filial love and 

 reverence, had he approached in any shape but in that of a stern 

 and fierce man, who gave no sign that they were to him more dear 

 than if they had been utter strangers, but rather treated them 

 with harshness, bordering upon an appearance of disgust and hatred. 



CHAPTER III. 



"Oh, cast thou not 



Affection from thee ! in this bitter world 

 Hold to thy heart that only treasure fast 

 Watch guard it suffer not a breath to dim 

 The bright gem's purity." 



On the morning of the following day the twin sisters arose, 

 with a settled determination to make every effort to soften the 

 rugged temper of their father, which they had reasoned themselves 

 into the belief must have arisen from his misfortunes : this determi- 

 nation had restored their confidence, and they prepared breakfast, 

 and waited almost impatiently for his appearance, in order that they 

 might enter on their new duties. If the night had produced this 

 consoling change in their minds, it had entirely failed in changing to 

 a correspondent extent the bearing of James Asper. That he awoke 

 .somewhat soothed after a sound sleep, cannot be denied; but the 

 gloom speedily thickened around his depraved heart, and, spite of the 

 smiles and even the name of father, which greeted him, he retained 

 the same stern and abstracted manner. The chill of disappointment, 

 when they saw how vain were all their endeavours, fell witheringly 



