fortune, and, let me add, some dexterity in the driver, we reached and passed the crisis, namely, the turn upon the hill. The danger was then over, for the animals began to flag, and were stopped before they attained the summit. The affair, from first to last, could have occupied scarcely three minutes; but they were the most interesting minutes in my life. Immediately the horses were secured, in the impulse of the moment, I turned to Alice and clasped her hand, she murmured my name, accompanied by an endearing epithet, and fainted with inexpressible delight I caught her in my arms, and lifted her out of the carriage. Unfortunately, there were no means at hand of restoring her to animation, and the servant could not quit the horses; so that I was obliged to wait until Nature recovered her; a period which I expected with no great impatience, as the reader will believe, considering the beloved and beautiful form which I sustained. Had she not become insensible at that moment, it would have been all over with me; pride, Axford, the presence of the groom, everything were forgotten, except overpowering love, and my heart was upon my lips; but now I had a moment's time for recollection, and, instead of the language of passion, I uttered an involuntary thanksgiving to the Supreme Being that this lovely creature, whom 1 bore in my arms, was not a mangled corpse. Besides, it occurred to me on consideration, that the tender expression which had escaped her, might have been a mere ebullition of feeling at her deliverance from imminent danger, and certainly not an evidence upon which it would be safe to proceed. How lucky, thought I, that she fainted just in time to save me from making a fool of myself! However, I could not help congratulating myself upon it as a most fortunate accident.

After a few minutes Alice revived, and with her characteristic strength of mind, quickly recollected her scattered faculties. Still she was pale from the fright, and leaned upon me for support. I despatched the servant with the phaeton to my cottage, desiring him to return with post horses. Meantime, Alice supported by me walked toward a cottage about a quarter of a mile on, where we proposed to wait the return of the phaeton. I was of course abundant and sincere in my expressions of remorse and regret at having imperilled her precious safety, and put her in terror, reminding her at the same time that I had frequently driven her out with the same horses, when they were perfectly manageable.

"Oh pray send them away," said she; "promise me that you will never use them again."

"Do not suppose," answered I, "that I require any persuasion to dismiss them from my stable; their fate has been already determined. I never could endure the sight of them after having endangered your precious life."

Alice gave a gentle sigh, but said nothing, and we walked on for some time in silence. I never felt so much in love, and required all my resolution to withhold me from betraying my secret on the spot. And another incident occurred shortly after, which caused me most devoutly to congratulate myself that my fortitude had been proof against this temptation. I cannot even now reflect upon the circumstance which I am about to narrate, without a pang which reminds me of the torture I then suffered.

On the morning after the accident, I rode to the Priory to inquire for Alice. It was generally my custom when I called there, to enter by a gate which led through a shrubbery to the house, a nearer way than going round by the lodge. Having dismounted and left my horse with the groom, I passed through the gate aforesaid. As I let myself in, I observed two figures walking among the trees, about a couple of hundred yards forward. Their backs were toward me, and they seemed to be in earnest conversation. I immedi ately recognized them as Miss Paulet and Captain Axford. I hesitated to proceed, and involuntarily withdrew aside behind a bush, which would conceal my own person from their observation should they turn back. Presently they stopped, and my eyes were blasted by the sight of Alice weeping, and Axford using passionate gesticulations, the purport of which it was impossible to misunderstand But more irrefragable proof was afforded me, if this were not sufficient. The gentleman dropped upon his knees, and seized her hand, which she made but a faint effort to withdraw-nay, I saw her press it at the same time that she sobbed violently. This was enough. I moved softly from my hiding-place, re-opened the gate, and passing through, closed it carefully so as to make no noise. My servant was taking the horses round to the stable, and was not fifty yards off, for the scene which I have described I witnessed for scarcely half a minute; I beckoned to him to return, and remounting, rode homeward. A deadly languor overspread my whole frame, insomuch that I could scarcely hold the reins or sit in the saddle. Indig nation, despair, and disgust alternately raged within me. A

relapse is worse than the original disorder; had been deceived, then, in the only person I really admired, loved, and respected, and in the bitterness of my heart, I execrated all man and womankind, and felt my cheek burn like that of a disgraced person for very shame and remorse at having even been so weak as to put confidence in any human being, and at having become with all my boasted penetration, the victim of a vile coquette. All those little attentions, and kindnesses, and amiabilities of manner, which had won my heart, were studiously assumed for that cold-blooded purpose. What I had taken for unsophisticated and beautiful nature, was then only that highest kind of art which conceals itself. She sought to gratify her vanity by the conquest of a person, who was considered unassailable, and she triumphed in the conviction of success. Gracious heaven! how was I humiliated! how could I ever again show my face? Doubtless she and her pretended artless sister-in-law had laid the scheme, and laughed at me when they were together! doubtless it was written to that devil Mrs. Trefusis, who told it as an excellent joke! Any person not so infatuated as myself, must have seen that she was a cold calculating woman, incapable of love; or if so, her affections as well as her interest were fixed upon that contemptible fellow, Axford, before she saw my face. Every part of her conduct manifested it, but I was brutally blind and wrong-headed.

My pride, my love, and my happiness, were equally lacerated by the horrid disclosure. Reject the dictates of the former, continue to believe her all that I had supposed her to be, except in the state of her affections, was my condition better? No, for the loss of her would leave a chasm in my life, and darken all the future. Her love was the rock upon which I had anchored my happiness, and it was a rock of sand.

I have set down these emotions not in the order in which they occurred, for they occupied my mind in a chaos; but they serve to give some idea, although an imperfect one, of my state of feeling. I really cannot, upon the whole, determine whether pride or love was uppermost. Sometimes I considered it my own mistake, and again I criminated Miss Paulet. I deemed it better, however, to act upon the safe side, and in my intercourse with her henceforth to discontinue everything which could by possibility be interpreted into a tender demonstration; and my amour propre was consoled by the hope that it was not even yet too late to draw off with an

undamaged reputation. Of course I should not make the slightest allusion to what I had witnessed, but adopt a system of conduct which, without evincing any violent change, should have for its object to do away any impression that my former bearing might have indicated; in fact, to let her see that, though I thought her a very charming person, I had no idea of anything serious.

61

CHAPTER XVII.

My pride, though sufficiently powerful to form and enforce these resolutions, could not stifle the gentler passion which, notwithstanding all my reasoning against it, continued, to my grief and shame, as ardent as ever; for whether Miss Paulet had deceived me, or I had deceived myself, it was the same in effect, since it was impossible to deny the fatal truth that her affections were fixed upon another.

The next day, however, believing that I should be sufficiently master of myself to encounter her, without betraying emotion, I called at the Priory. Alice was in the room when I entered; she seemed in low spirits, and received me with her usual kindness, but as I thought, not without embarrassment; well, indeed, might she be embarrassed, contrasting the scene of yesterday with the encouragement which she had afforded me for the last three or four months. Yet she never looked so interesting as when somewhat pensive. There was a struggle at the moment which should take possession of my heart-love, or resentment.

"I hope you have quite recovered from the effects of your fright yest day I mean the day before," I added hastily, correcting the involuntary error, though I felt my lip quiver as I did so.

"Oh, thank you, yes, I am not the worse for it," answered she, with confusion, at the same time her cheek crimsoning. "It was a most providential escape," observed Lady Jane, "what a kind-hearted creature George Axford is! he seemed quite struck with consternation when he heard of the danger to which Alice had been exposed."

"I know not how I should have dared to meet Captain Axford," said I, "had I been in any manner the cause, however innocent, of anything happening to Miss Paulet." I watched her countenance as I made this remark, but it was motionless, and her eyes were fixed upon her work.

"Oh, don't talk of such a thing," cried Lady Jane; "I don't know how you would have faced any of us, and I think