"I do know, my dear, that love and pride are the passions which mislead women most. Pride misled me, love misled you, almost to the point of criminality. It is only right, perhaps, that we should atone through the same passions; at any rate, it is better to suffer them wounded, than to wound other people with them."

"I haven't your philosophy," returned Miss Dacre, again smiling the smile of a nun already steeped in resignation. "I am a rebellious spirit naturally, you know, and I am not sure that I shall not relapse to-morrow. To-dayto-day I see only too plainly my own folly and Herbert's danger; but"—giving my lady her hand-" you had better insure my good behaviour for the future, by enlisting me against myself while I am in the humour."

This neat little speech ended the conversation so far. The ladies were too much occupied, each with her own reflections, to exchange many words in the brief interval before they were summoned to dinner.

As they ascended to Sir Thomas's apartments together, it occurred to my lady (Adelaide was surprised and vexed that it had not struck her before) that so remarkable a change of temper as her niece exhibited must be due to an extraordinary cause; and that cause was-her visit to Mr. John's room! What had she seen there? The question was very disturbing; and Lady Grovelly lost no time in putting it to Miss Dacre. She answered by a start forward, running up two or three stairs ahead of madam, as if the question stung and embarrassed her.

"Wait, Adelaide !" my lady exclaimed in alarm; and as they had now arrived at a landing-place, she drew her into the embrasure of a window there. "Will you not answer me? How did you find him? How did he look? What did he say?"

"Don't ask me now, pray!"

"He raved!”

"No, no, no, I assure you!" said Miss Dacre, with trepid vehemence.

"Not so bad as that? How then? Adelaide, pity my suspense, and tell me what passed!"

"I beseeched him to come away"—the young lady faltered, passing her disengaged hand over her eyes.

"And he said?"

"He knew not what he said!"

My lady repeated the words like a tongueless echo-" He knew not what he said!"-then waiting for Adelaide to speak again.

“And—and—and" (at each word the fair bosom heaving higher)—" he and John were leaping about the room like frogs !"

This little bit of information sank so deep in my lady's mind, that for full five minutes it was lost, leaving only a surge of emotion where it had gone downalmost with a sound like the noise of the rush of waters. In these five minutes her niece had kindly taken charge of her, leading her to Sir Thomas's apartments, where self-possession was indispensable.

I need not weary you with detail about the dinner. Sir Thomas received his wife and niece in a style equally composed of formality and family affection. If they were unusually silent he did not observe it, and, besides, he had all the more liberty to explain the process and treatment of tic, to the earlier symptoms of

which disorder he at present considered himself a victim. The seriousness of the ladies he set down for sympathy; which only encouraged him to talk the more of himself, and to think the less of other Grovellys, or any malaise to which they might possibly be subject.

However at length-over a trifle-it did occur to Sir Thomas that his son was absent.

"Herbert not returned from town, I suppose," he remarked. "Very gratifying-surprising too, I may say-those accounts we have of him from the lawyers. Such tact! such energy! He must have an excellent constitution !"

"If that were all !" my lady sighed.

"A good deal of mere apprehension goes to the rest," replied Sir Thomas, who, however much he enjoyed his own maladies, could not endure them in other people; "and as it is a very painful subject, and one we had agreed never to touch upon, why we will say no more about it till we cease to hear of his genius for business."

The ladies looked more serious than ever at this-Adelaide most, perhaps. Sir Thomas, thinking their minds had reverted to his tic, as a natural contrast to Herbert's robust health, was about to reopen the subject when my lady interrupted him.

"Herbert has returned!"

"And the Bill?" Sir Thomas asked, with more animation than he usually exhibited.

"It has passed!"

"Then why is he not here that I may thank him! Passed, has it? Admirable! We will drink the good, clever fellow's health at any rate. He is fatigued, I suppose, and resting after his labours. Andrews! fill my lady's glass. You ought to be proud of your son, Margaret. And your glass, Adelaide; for, you know, [this sotto voce] you will be a thousand a-year richer when gout finally throws me off my legs and you are Mrs. Herbert Grovelly !"

This was rather trying. Lady Grovelly touched the wine with her lips almost solemnly; while Adelaide, whom Sir Thomas had more particularly addressed, sipped as they sip at funeral baked meats, and could hardly restrain the billowy action of her fine bosom.

Even Sir Thomas Grovelly could not fail to perceive now that the ladies were really distressed, and distressed about Herbert. Had he been less often sick himself, he might have inferred that the young man had been taken ill, or that some accident had befallen him. As it was, no such idea entered Sir Thomas's mind. Particularly noticing Adelaide's discomfiture, and coupling it with his own last remark, he wondered whether the base intrigues of Lotty Leeson had been pushed any farther, and whether they were troubling his wife and niece.

"By the way," said he, "Leeson is to be thanked too, for this railway business. Do you have his daughter here often now, Margaret ?"

Miss Dacre took upon herself to reply.

"Yes, but we have not seen her now for a week!"

"A week! That is about the time Herbert was away, is it not ?"

"Yes!" said my lady.

"Humph!" ejaculated Sir Thomas, and began twirling the nut-crackers by one leg. "I used to think her a little girl of rather engaging manners!"

"And she is still,” my lady said; "artless, affectionate-really a good girl! Is she not, Adelaide ?"

Miss Dacre had offered herself for enlistment; here, you see, the shilling was tendered frankly enough.

"Very,” she murmured without looking up. "Very artless and affectionate! I do not wonder at any one's loving her."

Lady Grovelly thanked her niece in a glance. Sir Thomas was puzzled; but he caught something in Miss Dacre's tone which (apart from other considerations) led him to believe that she spoke insincerely, and under restraint.

"Her lovers are numerous, then, I suppose ?" he said carelessly.

"One I have heard of," rejoined my lady, growing bold. "Accepted, Margaret ?"

"Yes."

“I am delighted to hear it! Artless, affectionate, engaging girls are almost as dangerous as fevers when allowed to run about unmarried in country houses! And spite of his handsome cousin here-never mind me, Adelaide !—she might have bewitched Herbert!"

Here there was a pause. Miss Dacre, all confusion, rose from the table under pretence of taking some fruit to one of Sir Thomas's pet birds. Glad of her absence, Lady Grovelly said

"You had some apprehensions of that kind, had you not?"

"Some very decided apprehensions. These windows command a pretty extensive view; and I have seen a certain bay mare at Leeson's gate more often during his absence than when he is at home. I thought myself bound to warn him of this apparition. Leeson is a faithful fellow; and

"You have wounded him deeply, I am afraid."

"Indeed? Why do you think so?"

"He has written to Herbert

17

"So much the better. Leeson's warned, Herbert is warned, and Miss Leeson is engaged. There ends the story. If I have offended Leeson he shall have the amplest apology; and when his daughter is married I will give her a bracelet." "You must give her more than that, my dear."

"Anything you please."

"Your forgiveness, perhaps !"

"For what?" he exclaimed, aghast.

"If it be a sin to marry Herbert-for that!"

In a moment Sir Thomas appeared in danger of a malady he had not yet credited himself with-apoplexy; but being acquainted with its symptoms, and recognising them in certain sensations about the neck and throat, he moderated his passion; and tapping on the table slowly and regularly to moderate his speech also, he said

"Do you tell me my son has married Charlotte Leeson ?"

My lady bowed-she could not speak.

"Then tell him," continued Sir Thomas, trying hard to seem cold and sarcastic, "that if a few hundreds, to advance him in the cattle interest, be of any service to him, he is welcome to them; but that as long as this house is mine he shall never enter it again, and his progeny never! This is my man of business, with a vengeance!"

My lady began to weep, as her best resource at present. Adelaide advanced Pale but tearless she came forward, and, seizing Sir Thomas by the arm, she exclaimed

to the rescue.

"Dear Sir Thomas! my dear uncle! pray do not talk in that way! You do not know what misery hangs over us that must fall if you are not kind to my poor cousin! Listen. Charlotte, who was already Herbert's wife, arrived at Hamburg just after your letter. Her father, it seems-who knew nothing of the marriageimmediately insisted on her writing to Herbert, renouncing him. This letter he received only to-day; and now he has shut himself up with John-himself almost as mad-vowing he will remain there till Charlotte is brought back!"

"Very well, let him have his way. He has qualified himself for Grippermore's supervision," rejoined the proud parent-not without trepidation, for he was shocked at this last news too.

"And Lotty!" said Miss Dacre.

"Do you plead for her ?"

"For Herbert's sake! Ah, if you could see him as I have seen him, your own feelings, your own prejudices, your own judgment, would give way—indeed they would!" Miss Dacre covered her face with her hands, as if to banish the sad vision.

At this the conversation took five bars' rest, during which Sir Thomas Grovelly looked from one silent woman to the other as if they had been the origin of the evil.

"Well!" said he at last, "this is a charming situation for a gentleman who has nothing but an unflawed genealogy to boast of, and whose very life depends on quietude, on freedom from all agitation! Broken hearts, Adelaide? Let them wait till they are in danger of aneurism, as-I am! Broken hearts?—broken fortune! broken honour! prospects and position forfeited!-the best blood in the county fouled!-the-the-"

How far the ancient gentleman might have been carried by this new outbreak I do not know; for at that moment a tap was heard at the door; and before the servant who stood without could enter, the whole trio had resumed an appearance of complete tranquillity.

"Beg pardon, Sir Thomas," said the man, "but a messenger's brought a letter which he says is immejet !" and therewith he presented the letter, which came from the banking-house in the neighbouring town: from the principal of that establishment.

"MY DEAR SIR THOMAS,-From our correspondent at Hamburg we have this instant received a strange piece of intelligence, which, knowing your intimate business relations with the party chiefly concerned, I make no apology for transmitting to you. It is briefly this. When Leeson was attacked by fever after his accident, he removed (not to prejudice the hotel where he was then staying) to a private lodging-house. There he died on the 17th; his daughter having arrived the evening previous. On Tuesday our correspondent (who also acted as Leeson's agent) discovered the house shut up, and the people flown. Aware that Leeson must have had a considerable sum of money in his possession at the time of his death, our correspondent became alarmed, and made some inquiries

into the matter; the result of which is far from satisfactory. Not only is the money missing (thought to be on its way to Canada by this time), but Miss Leeson also. Our correspondent has learned that after taking passage in the packet, and actually starting, she returned in a small boat; and leaving her luggage at the hotel first at hand, went away, with nothing but the clothes she then wore. The waiters say she appeared strange in her manner. She has not since been seen. Coupled with the sudden flight of the lodging-house keepers, I can but think this affair very suspicious. As, however, I have the honour to be named the sole trustee for poor Leeson (unless he altered his will very lately), I shall of course use every exertion to discover his daughter's whereabouts; and to ascertain whether he died fairly; which at present we cannot absolutely take for granted.

"Your faithful servant,

"WM. HAMPTON.

"You may be interested to learn that your old steward died a richer man than was generally supposed, by three or four thousand pounds, probably. His daughter takes all; he had no other relations, as you have heard, perhaps.'”

The reading of this letter was followed by a long, dead silence.

To Lady Grovelly the news appeared simply fatal. She thought of what Herbert had said so bitterly-"Do you happen to know where my wife's body is to be found? Because that would be some comfort to me, and, on production, I promise never to breathe a word of the murder !" This cold comfort now appeared before my lady's imagination-cold enough, floating away, drowned.

Sir Thomas's feeble mind was almost equally shocked; for he had the same dread in a lesser degree, and he bethought him of his cruel letter. He, however, was not unaffected by the banker's postcript, which presented Lotty as a more eligible daughter-in-law if she still lived, and an absolute godsend of a daughter-inlaw if she had (unfortunately) come to an untimely end. For would not Leeson's property revert at once to her husband?

As for Adelaide, her feelings were too much mixed to allow of accurate description. She, too, was shocked at the intelligence, of course-it was so sudden : but she was consoled by the reflection that Providence, and not she, had come in here; and that she had been actually pleading Charlotte's cause when the news arrived. Beyond this, and lower down in her mind, there was a sense of natural justice, of dramatic unity, in such an ending to Lotty's audacious romance, which increased Miss Dacre's serenity the more she thought of it.

Sir Thomas first broke the spell in which all seemed bound. "This is very dreadful, Margaret !" he said.

"Terrible!"

"But oh! we need not anticipate the worst!" said Adelaide, who had already made up her mind to it.

"No, no!" Sir Thomas rejoined. "Heaven forbid! Hampton draws his inferences too readily. The poor girl will turn up again safe and well, I am persuaded!"

"Meanwhile?"

"Meanwhile I know what you would say, Margaret-pride must fall! If it be true that Herbert has actually married her, we have no choice now, in common decency or in common prudence, but to give way. We are bound to do our best