.

Separation.
In a cottage on the banks of one of the Cumberland Lakes, two ladies were seated at the breakfast-table.

The windows of the room opened on a garden which extended to the water's edge, and on a boat-house and wooden pier beyond.

On the pier a little girl was fishing, under the care of her maid.

After a prevalence of rainy weather, the sun was warm this morning for the time of year; and the broad sheet of water alternately darkened and brightened as the moving masses of cloud now gathered and now parted over the blue beauty of the sky.
The ladies had finished their breakfast; the elder of the two--that is to say, Mrs.Presty--took up her knitting and eyed her silent daughter with an expression of impatient surprise.
"Another bad night, Catherine ?" The personal attractions that distinguished Mrs.Linley were not derived from the short-lived beauty which depends on youth and health.