"I bid thee hail, not as in former days,

Not as my chosen only, but my bride,

My very bride, coming to make my house

A glorious temple." A. H. HALLAM.

"Timber End,

Littleworthy,

September 10th.

"Dear Miss Williams,--I must begin by entreating your forgiveness for

addressing you in a manner for which perhaps you may be unprepared; but

I trust you have always been aware, that any objections that I may have

offered to my brother Colin's attachment to yourself have never been

personal, or owing to anything but an unfortunate complication of

circumstances. These difficulties are, as no doubt he will explain to

you, in great measure removed by the present condition of my family,

which will enable me to make such settlements as I could wish in the

ease of one so nearly connected with me; so that I am enabled to entreat

of you at length to reward the persevering constancy so well deserved.

I have a further, and a personal cause for wishing that the event

should not be deferred, as regard for my feelings might have led you to

propose. You are aware of the present state of my health, and that

it has become expedient to make immediate arrangements for the future

guardianship of my little boy. His uncles are of course his natural

guardians, and I have unbounded confidence in both; but Alexander

Keith's profession renders it probable that he may not always be at

hand, and I am therefore desirous of being able to nominate yourself,

together with my brother, among the personal guardians. Indeed, I

understand from Alexander Keith, that such was the express wish of his

sister. I mention this as an additional motive to induce you to consent.

For my own part, even without so stringent a cause, all that I have

ever seen or known of yourself would inspire me with the desire that you

should take a mother's place towards my son. But you must be aware that

such an appointment could only be made when you are already one of the

family, and this it is that leads me to entreat you to overlook any

appearance of precipitancy on my brother's part, and return a favourable

reply to the request, which with my complete sanction, he is about to

address to you.

"Yes, Ermine Williams, forgive all that is past, and feel for an old,

it may be, a dying man, and for a motherless infant. There is much to

forget, but I trust to your overcoming any scruples, and giving me all

the comfort in your power, in thinking of the poor child who has come

into the world under such melancholy circumstances.

"Yours most truly, "Keith of Gowanbrae"

"Poor Keith, he has given me his letter open, his real anxiety has been

too much at last for his dignity; and now, my Ermine, what do you say to

his entreaty? The state of the case is this. How soon this abscess may

be ready for the operation is still uncertain, the surgeons think it

will be in about three weeks, and in this interval he wishes to complete

all his arrangements. In plain English, his strongest desire is to

secure the poor little boy from falling into Menteith's hands. Now, mine

is a precarious life, and Alick and Rachel may of course be at the ends

of the earth, so the point is that you shall be 'one of the family,'

before the will is signed. Alick's leave has been extended to the 1st of

October, no more is possible, and he undertakes to nurse poor Keith

for a fortnight from to-morrow, if you will consent to fulfil this same

request within that time. After the 1st, I should have to leave you, but

as soon as Keith is well enough to bear the journey, he wishes to return

to Edinburgh, where he would be kindly attended to by Alick and Rachel

all the winter. There, Ermine, your victory is come, your consent has

been entreated at last by my brother, not for my sake, but as a personal

favour to himself, because there is no woman in the world of whom he

thinks so highly. For myself I say little. I grieve that you should be

thus hurried and fluttered, and if Ailie thinks it would harm you, she

must telegraph back to me not to come down, and I will try to teach

myself patience by preaching it to Keith, but otherwise you will see me

by four o'clock to-morrow. Every time I hear Rachel's name, I think it

ought to have been yours, and surely in this fourteenth year, lesser

objections may give way. But persuasions are out of the question, you

must be entirely led by your own feeling. If I could have seen you in

July, this should not have come so suddenly at last. "Yours, more than

ever, decide as you may, "Colin A Keith.




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