they sat down to the hospitable board, evinced how well they were satisfied with the prospect of his affairs. They were, in consequence, in a state of more than usual obsequiousness and garrulity through the dinner; but how difficult is it for vulgar and grovelling spirits to conceal the cause of their self-gratulation! they are betrayed even by the effort, amiable enough in itself, of overstrained anxiety to please!

The next to them in self-complacency (yet how different the cause from whence that complacency sprung!) was Lady Emily. Her morning had been spent in visits to the poor around the General's estate, to all of whom she was a friend; to many a mother and benefactress. Rose Delvin, who was at once her almoner and companion in these progresses of charity, had carried with her various comforts for the sick and infirm; clothes and food for the more indigent; and, above all, she herself dispensed those gentle words of kindly interest, which cheer the sick and the suffering, and are in every one's power to bestow in a degree,

although it is given to few to join the angel's manner with the angel's mind.

Miss Macalpine appeared in the circle the same as usual; her daily routine of reading and writing, intermingled with certain tunes on the violin, which she had been practising for thirty years; (her adoption of this instrument was occasioned by a compliment which had been paid to her when young:-she had been told, either in jest or earnest, that she resembled the angel which, in one of Rafaelle's famous pictures, is represented playing on a violin ;) and this singular amusement, with the never-failing resource of Madame de Sevigné, made her day glide by to her own satisfaction; nor were her days always confined to self-amusement; she frequently joined Lady Emily in her charitable rounds, and assisted, with her means, the schemes which the latter was constantly planning for the benefit of the distressed.

Lord Mowbray, Colonel Pennington, and Sir Richard Townley, all wore the smile of selfcomplacency; we will not say all from the same

source; and Lady Frances was still the only one who appeared dissatisfied. There had been no new visitors at the hall. Lord Mowbray did not pay her the homage she required, or show himself inclined to attend her in the promenades she had proposed to the conservatories or flower-gardens. In short

"Where none are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle."

And this alone was sufficient to stamp that sullen expression on her countenance which deforms Beauty's self; while the contrast of the joyous contentment which shone out on her sister Lady Emily's features, lent them that ineffable power to charm which diffused itself into the very hearts of all beholders.

The dinner past, the rubber played, the music performed-though (owing to Lady Frances, or to the instrument being out of tune,) not so brilliantly as was its wont; one by one, the company dropped off to their respective apartments, and Colonel Pennington found himself alone with Lord Mowbray. Lord

Mowbray commenced the conversation by asking who that odd old woman, Miss Macalpine,

was.

"Imagine to yourself, my dear PenningtonI met her to-day by accident in the garden, and she volunteered me her good advice, telling me that I ought to direct my energies and my capacities (I never knew I had any) to some useful end. Her singleness of mind, mingled as it is with much shrewd sense, and rendered more amusing by her national accent, makes her a very diverting person; but why she should take upon herself to lecture me, I

cannot divine !"

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Ay, poor soul!" replied the Colonel, shaking his head; "doubtless she feels an interest in you, though it must be of a painful kind. She was well acquainted with your kinsman, the late Lord, to her misfortune; and she still loves every thing and every person connected with him."

"How so? was there

any flirtation between

them in those days before the flood?"

"Flir

"Humph!" groaned the Colonel. tation is one word for certain conduct in a man, but you must pardon me if I call it by another. It is altogether a sad story, and I would rather forget it." So saying, he gulped down his glass of wine and water which stood on the supper tray.

"Come," cried Lord Mowbray, with more eagerness than he was wont to display, "let me know how they carried on these affairs thus long ago? Pretty much as they do now, I suppose? So my coz made a fool of Miss Marian Macalpine ?”

"He made a villain of himself!" replied the Colonel, in his loudest tone, and striking the table with his clenched fist. "Yes, I will tell you the story for it may make you sensible that the false acceptation of a word may lead to very fatal consequences; and that though honour has practically in the world a wide difference in its meaning, as applied to the conduct of men towards women, or in respect to each other,nevertheless that it does not