236 A FRAGMENT. 



means : whatever reasonable pleasure may demand you have the 

 power of indulging in: you have committed no crime which 

 should render you a prey to remorse." 

 Derwent's countenance grew pale. 



" How did you obtain the information ? " 



" From the master of his yacht, he has been ordered to have her 

 ready to sail at eight in the morninp^, they are to return hither 

 immediately after the ceremony. He says the marriage was fixed 

 for to-day, but some circumstance has occurred to postpone it till 

 Monday next.'' 



** It is a strange notion, that he should wish to have it performed 

 in such a lonely spot — when there is a church here in the very 

 midst of the village, and not a hundred yards Irom his own 

 dwelling." 



" Every thing he does is most singular, and many of his actions 

 are totally contradictory ; he avoids us all, yet 1 am sure we all 

 love him; the children are fond of him, he will caress them and 

 smile upon them. He is about to build another school house, 

 larger than the one he has erected for the boys, in which the girls 

 are to learn reading and needlework, yet he has never once visited 

 the place since it was opened. Yesterday he presented to the 

 church a new bible and communion service, although he has never 

 been inside its walls during the six months he has lived here." 



" I really think he is insane — yet Matilda adores him, and will 

 not listen to the slightest animadversion on any thing he says or 

 does; he, too, seems devotedly attached to her." 



** Dear girl, I hope he will be a good husband to her ; she is so 

 young to enter into the world. In her orphan state few would 

 have had the nobleness of mind which Mr. Derwent has shown 

 in treating her with such respectful affection : many, in his rank 

 of life, would have used their property and influence to obtain an 

 unhallowed possession of so innocent a treasure; such a lovely 

 and gentle being might have been plucked up as a flower for its 

 fragrance, but flung away like a worthless weed. How I wish 

 that the good old parson were alive, it would be a gladness 

 to his grey hairs to see his daughter with so fair a worldly 

 prospect ; and his quiet manner and persuasive influence might 

 have made the Squire a more sociable neighbour among us, and 

 perhaps a better husband for the sweet girl." 



" If he is mad, Edward, it is a good sort of madness ; but who 

 knows? When he has a family he may be very different." 



A groan, and a suppressed imprecation, interrupted the conver- 

 sation of the speakers ; and, on passing round a pile of rocks which 

 rose from the sands on which they were walking, Derwent was 

 seen prostrate on the earth, almost in a state of exhaustion, whilst 

 a masculine female figure bent over him grasping his throat with 

 an energy which appeared like convulsion. 



I 



