E ENGLISHWOMENS DOMESTIC

THE FAMILY SECRET.

DAGAZINE.

CHAPTER III.

LOVE STRATEGIES-AND WORSE.

WHILE the young people were engaged in the passionate prattle of love, and making more ado about their private affections than a whole House of Commons about the welfare of an empire on which the sun never sets-while Miss Dacre bathed her alabaster mind in the fountains of sweet verse, with no ear, apparently, for the foolish discourse of her neighbours-Lady Grovelly still remained seated at the window. All that while she remained there; and for every shade drawn by the evening over her face, another was added by her own reflections. It is not for me to say how she got her information-where the little bird (if any) was bred, or to what species it belonged, which whispered her, as well as dear Adelaide, that her son had an appointment this evening with Leeson's daughter. Ask Jones how it is that his wife always knows, when he comes down dressed, with a ticket for a Masonic dinner in his hand, that he is not going to that dinner?-by what instinct she repairs, at the first glance at his well-dressed head, to the drawer where her opera-glass is kept, to find it not? It is a mighty mystery, and, in practical experience, has floored the astutest intellects of every age.

For there was really not much discovered as to Herbert's relations with his little neighbour; no mere philosopher and observer of human nature could have detected anything in their conversation and manner, when they met at Brierly House or elsewhere, to indicate the existence of more than a protecting kindness on one side, and flattered friendship on the other. Not that either party took pains to conceal the sentiment under any veil thicker than the veil of decorum; but whatever trepidation Charlotte happened to betray was no more than might have been expected in a young lady to whom her superiors behaved with such kind condescension, while, if Herbert appeared sometimes to treat her with high deferential courtesy, any gentleman would have done as much to set a lady at her ease, Na 2, VOL. I.

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