The last adieus were hastily exchanged, and Anna
Miller was handed into her father's gig by Charles
Weston in profound silence. Miss Emmerson, the
maiden aunt of Julia, withdrew from the door,
where she had been conversing with Mr. Miller, and
the travellers departed. Julia followed the vehicle
with her eyes until it was hid by the trees and
shrubbery that covered the lawn, and then withdrew
to her room to give vent to a sorrow that had
sensibly touched her affectionate heart, and in no
trifling degree haunted her lively imagination.

As Miss Emmerson by no means held the good
qualities of the guest, who had just left them, in so
high an estimation as did her niece, she proceeded
quietly and with great composure in the exercise of
her daily duties; not in the least suspecting the
real distress that, from a variety of causes, this
sudden separation had caused to her ward.

The only sister of this good lady had died in giving
birth to a female infant, and the fever of 1805 had,
within a very few years of the death of the mother,
deprived the youthful orphan of her remaining
parent. Her father was a merchant, just
commencing the foundations of what would, in
time, have been a large estate; and as both Miss
Emmerson and her sister were possessed of genteel
independencies, and the aunt had long declared her
intention of remaining single, the fortune of Julia, if