besides being the only child of a wealthy and aged baronet, he was a great favourite of-if all turned out propitiously-his intended father-in-law.

Mabel Delville was two and twenty, and as symetrically formed as the most scrutinizing eye of the sculptor could desire; for her years she was unusually thoughtful, and had stored her enquiring mind with solid information. Her beautiful face was the theme of universal admiration even amongst her own sex; and her dark violet-blue eyes, though they fell so softly upon all they beamed, created an impression not easily erased, to which she added the charm of a sweetly musical voice.

That Mabel loved Gerald Perton can only be explained by reverting to the theory of the eminent Von Kopperblakken; but certain it is, that more perfect contrasts in character never met. Gerald Perton was all ardour and enthusiasm, Mabel mild and calmly hopeful; he bold to a degree of fearless daring, Mabel timid and retiring; he enjoyed every manly sport with the avidity of youth, Mabel sought for pleasure in her books, her garden, in attendance upon her invalid mother, and in innumerable secret

acts of charity; he was bitter and satirical, Mabel

most remarkable, and therefore the most unaccountable, was, that Gerald Perton had no fixed principles, whilst the loftiest characteristic of Mabel Delville's mind was her fervent devotional feeling in all that was good and excellent.

Mabel's reverie was abruptly broken up by Minna, who rushed into the room, followed by Star, and calling for coffee at the pitch of her little voice.

"Minna! Minna! why do you bring Star up here? You know I never allow him to be in the drawing room."

"Oh, Mabby! pray let him come for this evening, and he will be so good; wont you, Star?" and the dog wagged his tail as if to say yes, and sat down as if the point was settled.

Mabel was too happy in her own mind to curb the pleasures of anybody, and sent Minna to tell her father coffee was ready. What a wonderful effect an offer makes upon some young ladies. Mabel, usually thoughtful for her father's comfort, was doubly so that evening; the cushion of his chair

was arranged, a little table placed for his coffee, the evening paper well aired placed beside his little lamp, and the silk handkerchief he always threw over his head during his forty winks (which being interpreted meant forty minutes,) scented with eau de cologne, and even a little stool placed ready for his feet; and Mabel gave him a tender embrace when he entered the room.

"Where's that scape grace, Gerald Perton? he promised to be here with Captain Salisbury, so that we might have a rubber."

"He has been here, Sir; but he was obliged to leave, for they have a dinner party at Perton Hall." "Ah! that's Miss Geraldine Fortescue's doing; she just leads Gerald about like a young poodle." "Oh no, Papa; I assure you Geraldine's heart is quite another way."

If one

"Who on earth mentioned hearts? not I. speaks now a-days about a man, up comes his heart like a message from the electric telegraph !"

"Mr. Perton will be here to-morrow morning, Papa," said Mabel, to turn the painful subject.

"Will be here? He must be here, or I'm not

your father; and if he disobey my summons I shall be astonished, and so will he."

"Oh! you have invited him over to-morrow morning, have you, Papa?"

"Yes, my dear; just to ask him to explain his conduct upon one point with which I have only recently become acquainted."

Mabel was too confused to say another wordshe was bewildered; she poured the coffee into the cream, and the cream into the sugar basin; and would have handed the butter to her father had he not called her to a sense of her duty, by asking if she had heard that Evans and the cook were going to be married.

"No, Papa; I do not hear all the news."

"Good thing, too. I only asked because here's an advertisement for them; they ought to see it immediately the fools."

"This!" Mabel blushed deeply as she read"To persons about to marry."

CHAPTER IV.

"CAUTION TO POACHERS."-Bucks Herald.

THE party alluded to by Mabel, requiring Gerald's presence, must have been invited in the imagination of the latter, as Admiral and Lady Perton, with Geraldine and Samson Merridew, alone occupied the dinner-table.

Geraldine Fortescue, an adopted orphan, the child of one of the Admiral's olden friends and brother officers, was a plump little specimen of human good nature; plain to a merit, with a healthy hearty laugh, to hear which was worth a thousand a-year; always cheerful and hopeful, she saw only the sunny side of every thing and every body, and with intense affection for Lady Perton and her excellent husband, she thought that almost all the