serious in his immediate state, yet was his father's house a house of
wail and sorrow.

The next day the Sinclairs, having heard in reply to their inquiries
through the servant who had been sent home with his apparel, that he was
ill, the worthy clergyman lost no time in paying his parents a visit
on the occasion. In this he expressed his regret, and that also of his
whole family, that any circumstance relating to them should have been
the means, even accidentally, of affecting the young gentleman's health.
It was not, however, until he dwelt upon the occurrence in terms of
approbation, and placed the boy's conduct in a generous light, that he
was enabled to appreciate the depth and tenderness of their affection
for him. The mother's tears flowed in silence on hearing this fresh
proof of his amiable spirit, and the father, with a foreboding heart,
related to Mr. Sinclair the substance of that which we have detailed to
the reader.

Such was the incident which brought these two families acquainted, and
ultimately ripened their intimacy into friendship.

Much sympathy was felt for young Osborne by the other members of
Mr. Sinclair's household, especially as his modest and unobtrusive
deportment, joined to his extraordinary beauty, had made so singularly
favorable an impression upon them. Is or was the history of that
insidious malady, which had already been so fatal to his sister and
brother, calculated to lessen the interest which his first appearance
had excited. There was one young heart among them which sank, as if the
Weight of death had come over it, on hearing this melancholy account
of him whose image was now for ever the star of her fate, whether for
happiness or sorrow. From the moment their eyes had met in those few