ite, the Major, was with us to-day, and drank your health."

"Dear fellow-tell him, I will certainly send him a card to my first rout. I hope Grosvenor will be obliged to go to the continent, as he seems to think ;-take notice though, he does not get me there!"

"And there, I conclude, he may be worried by a German boar!" said Lady Augusta, laughing with great enjouissance.

"De tout mon cœur !" said Lady Jane, with quiet indifference; "I would, with the greatest pleasure in life, honour his memory with a mass for the repose of his soul."

Grosvenor grasped the hand of Lord Montague within his own, in speechless agony.

"For my part," said Lady Augusta Kingston, "I could propose to you a most worthy successor of your delectable first caro sposa that is to be ?"

"You wicked devil!" exclaimed Lady Jane, laughing heartily: "but come-we must rejoin the béjaunes ;-better not to allow them to wonder. Adieu, dear easy honesty !-thou mask of sentiment, refinement, and elegance, once again I fit thee on me ;"-and the weird sisters vanished.

Grosvenor was unable, for many minutes, to articulate ;-he breathed with difficulty;-a cold dew hung on his temples;-his tongue cleaved to his parched mouth;-his limbs trembled. At length he said, faintly, and with great effort, "My dear lord, I shall return to London--it is impossible for me to join them

ågain. Excuse my departure to Mr. Wodehouse ;-say I am called on business-am indisposed-any thing. Come to me yourself as early as possible ;-and, grasping the hand of Lord Montague, Grosvenor was withdrawn.

Lord Montague pleaded illness, in excuse for the suddenness of his friend's departure. Lady Jane appeared alarmed, and expressed her fears to his lordship: the party appeared surprised, and, on their separating early, Lord Montague rejoined Grosvenor.

66 My dear lord," said the latter, on his entering, "once again I hail you as my indefatigable monitor,-my guardian angel. What do I not owe you? or how shall I convince you of my gratitude? Such an obligation cannot be repaid, my venerable uncle must thank you for me. I have been infatuated-blind, shamefully and wilfully blind, to the truth; the powerful enchantments that enthralled me are scarcely sufficient to plead my excuse. Once warned by you, I ought to have been convinced of my peril. Half roused as I was from my dangerous sleep, what but sorcery could have forced me to close my eyes again, after having seen the storm that threatened me!"

"By your release from the horrible thraldom that bound you, I am more than repaid. As the nephew of the Bishop of

I was first interested in you;-your youth and your inexperience next attracted me to you ;-and the fine qualities of your mind engaged my friendship. The dangers that environed you strengthened my attachment: for you can

scarcely imagine the pain I endured, when I saw you on the very verge of sacrificing your peace for ever to the deceptious Lady Jane Lorn. Circumstances alone could arouse you to conviction;-and when I was convinced that all assertion and argument would be useless, I could only seek for an infallible means of undeceiving you-evidence!"

On the succeeding morning Lady Jane Lorn despatched the following billet-doux to Gros

venor:

"Your Jane, my dearest Harry, can no longer endure the torture of suspense; I have passed a sleepless night, distracted by the bitterest agony on your account. I know well that the dauntless heroism of your character will induce you to think lightly of any indisposition; but, for my sake, my dearest Grosvenor, take care of yourself-summon to you the most skilful professional aid, if you are not yet recovered. You may forget, though I cannot, that the most sudden distempers are generally the most dangerous. Terrible conviction!

"My messenger awaits your reply. I beseech you to inform me very minutely how you are. Do not, I entreat you, do not delay a moment to send for the first medical advice. You will not-you cannot reject the fond prayer "JANE." Having despatched this billet, Lady Jane re

of

your

paired to London, to the house of Lady Agusta Kingston, to dismiss for ever the hopes of another admirer.

To give Lady Jane Lorn all the credit that she deserves, it must be remarked, that she awaited with that happy indifference which defies anxiety, the arrival of the once happy lover who, previously to her acquaintance with Grosvenor, had been her declared favourite.

"Here comes your Mercury!" exclaimed Lady Augusta, who had been impatiently awaiting at the window the re-appearance of her cousin's messenger.

But Lady Jane received the information with her usual happy nonchalance, and did not make a pause of half a moment's length in the bravura song she was teaching her voice to compass.

The servant entered, and handed the letter to Lady Jane on a salver.

Lady Augusta took it, and the servant having withdrawn, Lady Jane inquired, whether Grosvenor had written it himself; commencing, at the same instant, the last verse of the

song.

"O yes, 'tis his old scrawl, and filled, no doubt, with his usual frothy nonsense!" replied Lady Augusta, breaking the seal.

"Pray, my dear, do me the favour to deliver it in a most pathetic tone." Augusta read as follows:-

"I overheard your conversation with your cousin last night in the alcove. Adieu, Lady H. W. GROSVENOR."

Jane.

The cousins gazed for some minutes on each other with the most overwhelming astonishment. "The DEVIL!" faintly articulated Lady Jane, gazing vacantly on the letter that had caused such sensation.

"Then he heard what I told you about the Count's visit, and our appointment to meet at the opera !" said the Colonel's lady, in a very tragic tone of distress.

"And saw you give me the Captain's letter!" exclaimed Lady Jane, in agony. "It, is, all, over, with, HIM!" pausing very perceptibly as she uttered each decisive monosyllable. Where, in the name of G-d, could he be concealed! It was your confounded folly that chose the place!-I wished to have kept walking!--Stupid blockhead!"

"Will he tell the Colonel what he heard, think you ?" demanded the fashionable wife, in alarm. I have a great inclination to accept the Count's offer."

"What care I what you accept?" interrupted Lady Jane, her cheek and lips pale with impotent rage; you were an infernal fool to shout in the manner you did. Your noisy tongue is always

****

66 Mr. *******" said a servant opening the door," waits in the drawing room." We will be with him immediately," said Augusta, with great presence of mind;-then addressing Lady Jane, when the door closed on the servant," do not talk, my dear Jane, like a mad woman. What is to be done with the fellow?-Because you have lost seven "thousand a year, I cannot understand the ne