They gaze with awe and wonder
            On your great names of pride,
         Unconscious that their own will shine
             In glory side by side!

Day dawned; and as the Spirits passed away,
Methought I saw in the dim morning grey,
The Past's bright diadem had paled before
The starry crown the glorious Present wore.

NORTH AND SOUTH.

BY THE AUTHOR OF MARY BARTON.

CHAPTER THE FORTIETH.

MARGARET had not expected much pleasure
to herself from Mr. Bell's visit—she had only
looked forward to it on her father's account,
but when her godfather came, she at once fell
into the most natural position of friendship
in the world. He said she had no merit in
being what she was, a girl so entirely after
his own heart; it was an hereditary power
which she had, to walk in and take possession
of his regard; while she, in reply, gave him
much credit for being so fresh and young
under his Fellow's cap and gown.

"Fresh and young in warmth and kindness,
I mean. I'm afraid I must own that
I think your opinions are the oldest and
mustiest I have met with this long time."

"Hear this daughter of yours, Hale!
Her residence in Milton has quite corrupted
her. She's a democrat, a red republican, a
member of the Peace Society, a socialist—"

"Papa, it's all because I'm standing up
for the progress of commerce. Mr. Bell would
have had it keep still at exchanging wild-
beast skins for acorns."

"No, no. I'd dig the ground and grow
potatoes. And I'd shave the wild beast skins
and make the wool into broadcloth. Don't
exaggerate, missy. But I am tired of this
bustle. Everybody rushing over everybody,
in their hurry to get rich."

"It is not every one who can sit comfortably
in a set of college rooms, and let his
riches grow without any exertion of his
own. No doubt there is many a man here
who would be thankful if his property would
increase as yours has done, without his
taking any trouble about it," said Mr. Hale.

"I don't believe they would. It's the
bustle and the struggle they like. As for
sitting still, and learning from the past, or
shaping out the future by faithful work done
in a prophetic spirit—Why! Pooh! I don't
believe there's a man in Milton who knows
how to sit still; and it is a great art."

"Milton people, I suspect, think Oxford
men don't know how to move. It would be
a very good thing if they mixed a little more."

"It might be good for the Miltoners.
Many things might be good for them which
would be very disagreeable for other
people."

"Are you not a Milton man yourself?"
asked Margaret. " I should have thought
you would have been proud of your town."

"I confess I don't see what there is to be
proud of. If you'll only come to Oxford,
Margaret, I will show you a place to
glory in."

"Well! " said Mr. Hale, Mr. Thornton
is coming to drink tea with us to-night, and
he is as proud of Milton as you of Oxford.
You two must try and make each other a
little more liberal-minded."

"I don't want to be more liberal-minded,
thank you," said Mr. Bell.

"Is Mr. Thornton coming to tea, papa?"
asked Margaret in a low voice.

"Either to tea or soon after. He could not
tell. He told us not to wait."

Mr. Thornton had determined that he would
make no inquiry of his mother as to how far
she had put her project into execution of
speaking to Margaret about the impropriety
of her conduct. He felt pretty sure that, if
this interview took place, his mother's
account of what passed at it would only annoy
and chagrin him, though he would all the
time be aware of the colouring which it
received by passing through her mind. He
shrank from hearing Margaret's very name
mentioned; he, while he blamed her—while
he was jealous of her—while he renounced
her—he loved her sorely, in spite of himself.
He dreamt of her; he dreamt she came dancing
towards him with outspread arms, and with
a lightness and gaiety which made him loathe
her, even while it allured him. But the
impression of this figure of Margaret—with all
Margaret's character taken out of it, as
completely as if some evil spirit had got possession
of her form—was so deeply stamped
upon his imagination, that when he wakened
he felt hardly able to separate the Una from
the Duessa; and the dislike he had to the
latter seemed to envelope and disfigure the
former. Yet he was too proud to acknowledge
his weakness by avoiding the sight of
her. He would neither seek an opportunity
of being in her company, nor avoid it. To
convince himself of his power of self-control,
he lingered over every piece of business this
afternoon; he forced every movement into
unnatural slowness and deliberation; and it
was consequently past eight o'clock before he
reached Mr. Hale's. Then there were business
arrangements to be transacted in the
study with Mr. Bell; and the latter kept on,
sitting over the fire, and talking wearily,
long after all business was transacted, and
when they might just as well have gone
upstairs. But Mr. Thornton would not say a
word about moving their quarters; he chafed
and chafed, and thought Mr. Bell a most
prosy companion; while Mr. Bell returned
the compliment in secret, by considering Mr.
Thornton about as brusque and curt a fellow
as he had ever met with, and terribly gone
off both in intelligence and manner. At last,
some slight noise in the room above suggested