RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



61 



Whatever miglit be the truth, Lambert understood human na- 

 ture too well to imagine he should gain anything by enquiries. 

 If his daughter Edith had concern it, secret shame and regret 

 would be her punishment ; and his forbearance, added to the ten- 

 derness he meant to show her, might give a sacred claim on her 

 filial duty. He had too little confidence in his wife's strength of 

 intellect, to trust her with a secret which could only involve her in 

 fears on his account, and anguish on her child's ; and, especially, 

 he feared to sully the mind and disturb the peace of his favourite 

 daughter by a suspicion of her sister's guilt. Margaret, or as he 

 was more accustomed to call her, his Pearl, was, indeed, a creature 

 of such delicacy, as seemed fit only to repose like a jewel among 

 down. The appellation she bore was suited to her exterior no 

 less than to her character, for her complexion had that pearly 

 paleness and transparency so admired in Guido's beauties, and so 

 expressively adapted to the soft tint of her eyes, and the lucid se- 

 renity of her temper. She was only in her fifteenth year, httle 

 more than half the age of her sister, whose shrewdness and adven- 

 turous disposition rendered the tenderness of this gentle child 

 more balmy to the father. He had secluded her from the com- 

 mon society of a pratthng village, partly from jealous fear of 

 losing the last comfort of his age, and partly from a more gener- 

 ous dread of seeing the exquisite innocence of her youth degraded. 

 Perhaps this seclusion now began to grow painful, or it had dis- 

 posed her mind to seek society among the wild creations of an- 

 cient romance ; for, though the simplicity and openness of her con- 

 versation were undiminished, it became more inquisitive, and tinc- 

 tured sometimes with superstition. Lambert had begun to con- 

 gratulate himself on the caution he had observed respecting the 

 adventure of St. Mark's eve, and the entire oblivion in which it 

 appeared to rest, when old Ozias came to claim an audience. The 

 anniversary of that eve had arrived again, and he had seen his 

 own spectre sitting in the church-porch, with his lean dog, his 

 grey coat, and his staff ! Lambert heard the story with derision, 

 and almost execrations. 



Sir," the sexton added, " if I am not to be believed when I 

 see my own ghost, you will believe, mayhap, when you see the 

 letters it has carved on your family tomb-stone." 



The father grew pale, though he disdained to admit of the pro- 

 bability of letters carved on stone by_^a chisel of air ; but he visit- 



