Her decline was from that time rapid, but it was endured with a fortitude which had distinguished her in every situation of life.

Still young, and with much to render existence pleasant and desirable, she met its close with cheerful resignation, surrounded by the weeping objects of her love.

On Lucie's affectionate heart her untimely death left a deep and lasting impression.

She felt desolate indeed, thus deprived of the only relative, with whom she could claim connexion and sympathy.
The parental tie so lately discovered, and which had opened to Lucie a new spring of tenderness, became a source of painful anxiety.

Father Gilbert,--so we shall still call him,--had yielded for a brief season to the indulgence of those natural feelings, which were awakened by the recognition of his daughter.