Beneath those brows so sweetly blended, So soft, so delicately ended, THE RETURN. BY THE AUTHOR OF "" OBSTINACY." "Man, through all ages of revolving time, MONTGOMERY. AFTER eighteen years' residence beneath a tropical sky I returned to the British isles, an altered, if not an aged man. Time and experience had mellowed or obscured many of the bright visions of my youth. One feeling, however, still glowed with undiminished warmth in my bosom—the love of home, of the heath-covered hills, and romantic glens of my native Yarrow. True, the ancestral lands of my family had passed into the hands of strangers; and my only surviving brother, in the exercise of an honourable profession, was a resident in the northern metropolis. Nevertheless I longed to visit the haunts of my childhood, were it only as a stranger; and, hastily concluding some necessary arrangements in London, I threw myself into the mail, and soon approached the point of my destination. Quitting the coach on reaching Selkirk, I set out, after one night's rest, on my pilgrimage. It was a beautiful morning, towards the end of June; the waters of the Yarrow sparkled gaily in the bright summer sun, as they flowed gurgling along with a music of their own; the joyous matin song of the birds rose from every bush and tree; the laverock soared high in the air; the lambkins frisked round their dams on the sides of the steep hills; the herds lowed in the sequestered hopes or valleys at their base; and a light and joyous beauty pervaded all nature. Yet my heart was sad: I thought of the parents who were now no more; of the brothers, and a friend still dearer than a brother, who slept in the silent tomb. Many also of the associates of my schoolboy pastimes were scattered over distant lands, where, doubtless, not a few of them had found an early grave. The peerless maiden of my boyish fancy, my constant partner in the greensward dance, she who se presence brightened all my youthful joys, had, on attaining to maturity, bestowed her hand and heart on another; strangers occupied my natal dwelling, |