“I have some news for my little girl, which I trust will prove as agreeable as I have every reason to hope they may.  Mrs. Douglas will gladly consent to receive my Lilla as an inmate of her happy family.”

The flush of animation, the sparkling lustre of her eye faded on the instant, and she turned away.

“Why, our kind friend, Mrs. Hamilton, bade me hope this would be pleasing intelligence; has she deceived me, love?” continued her father, drawing her with such unwonted tenderness to him, that, after a glance of bewilderment, she flung her arms round his neck, and for the first time in her life wept passionately on her father’s shoulder.

“Can it be pleasure to hear I am to go from you and mamma?” she exclaimed, clinging to him with all the passionate warmth of her nature, and forgetting all her terror in that one moment of uncontrolled feeling.  Her simple words confirmed at once all that Mrs. Hamilton had said in her favour, and the now gratified father seated her, as he would a little child, on his knee, and with affectionate caresses gradually soothed her to composure.  Long did they converse together, and from that moment Lilla’s happiness commenced.  She could not at once lose her dread of her father’s sternness, but the slightest hint from him was enough; and frequently, as Grahame felt her affectionate manner, would he wonder he had been blind to her character so long.  The idea of school lost its repugnance.  Her father’s kindness enabled her to keep her determination, to prove, by the indulgence of the highest spirits, that going to school, instead of being a punishment, as her aunt Augusta intended it to be, was a privilege and a pleasure.  That she was accused of want of feeling she little heeded, now that her father invited and encouraged her affection.  Lady Helen wondered at her change of manner, but indolence and the prejudice constantly instilled by Annie and Miss Malison, prevented all indulgence of more kindly feelings.  As things remained in this state for some weeks in Mr. Grahame’s establishment, we will now return to Mr. Hamilton’s family.

It was about this time, some three or four weeks before the end of the Oxford term, that letters arrived from Percy and Herbert, containing matters of interesting information, and others which caused some anxiety in the breast of Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton.  On the first subject both the brothers wrote, so deeply interested had they become in it.  Among the servitors or free scholars of their college was a young man, whom they had frequently noticed the last year, but never recollected having seen before.  He shrunk, as it appeared in sensitiveness from every eye, kept aloof from all companions, as if he felt himself above those who held the same rank in the University.  Herbert’s gentle and quickly sympathising heart had ever felt pained, when he first went to college, to see the broad distinction made between the servitors and other collegians.  He felt it pain to see